Raising rabbits can be a low cost but profitable business
RABBITS are cute and fluffy and often thought of as pets. In other countries, they are also considered a cheap and nutritious source of meat, one that can net a fine profit for the farmer that raises them.
Willie Menor of Tierra del Menor farm didn’t start out wanting to raise rabbits for profit. He bought his first few bunnies in 2016 because his kids thought the cotton tails would be a cute addition to their small leisure farm. “We started with 10 heads. Do you know what happened? They all died because we don’t know how to raise it,” Menor says. “After that, I said to myself that we should study first.” The internet was a great help in teaching Menor how to raise rabbits. He also attended local seminars to familiarize himself with caring for rabbits in the Philippine setting. Once he was ready, he bought 12 rabbits and had modules, or hutches built for them, with one module housing 24 heads.
MULTIPLYING MONEY LIKE… RABBITS
The rabbits multiplied at an average of nine kits (short for kitten, which is what a baby rabbit is called) a litter. After a year, he had 150 breeders. He decided to turn it into a business. He had been introduced to rabbit meat and knew its potential in the Philippine market. Right now, his farm has 400 breeders and a total population of 1500 heads, and according to Menor, this isn’t enough to meet the local demand.
Menor explains the farm’s breeding and production cycle: 100
breeders are crossed (mated) a month, with each doe (female rabbit) producing an average of six kits a litter. This equals a monthly production of 600 heads, half to be sold as breeders and half to be processed as meat.
Tierra del Menor sells two-month-old breeders for R350 a head. The farm is able to sell an average of R75- 100 head a week.
They are also able to process about 50 of four month old to full-grown rabbits a week or 200 head a month, with the meat sold at R450 a kilo.
“We cater to four categories,” Menor says. “Breeders, pet shops, laboratories and schools, and the last is meat.” He adds that he doesn’t do very much business with pet shops because the profit margin is so low. Schools and laboratories, on the other hand, order a minimum of 50 head at a time, but they
sometimes have to meet specific requirements, such as having the same fur color, for example.
RAISING RABBITS FOR FUN AND PROFIT
The demand for rabbits was so high that Menor decided to hold monthly rabbit raising seminars, charging R1000 per participant. He sells bucks (male rabbits), breeders, hutches, and other things needed to start a small (4-5 breeders), medium (20-50 breeders), or large-scale (50 breeders and above) rabbit farm. Packages start at R12,540 for six rabbits, six cages, a water feeder, a clay pot, and a water tank.
Menor computes that for every litter of six kits, with each kit sold at R250 at two months minus expenses, a rabbit farmer can stand to earn between R791.62 to R1000, depending on whether the rabbits get 100% pellets or a mix of pellets and available forage (grass and other edible plants). “Commercial pellets have a high protein content, which makes them grow faster. Grass has fiber, which is good for circulation, and that also helps them grow.”
He adds that does can have up to five healthy parities (pregnancies) a year. “Just imagine, in one year, with five parities, you have R5000,” Menor says. “You can make up to R20,000 a year if you have four does. If you had 10 does, that’s R39,000 a year. If you had 25 does, you’d have R98,958.