Rabbit breeding as a business. Where to begin? How to succeed?
Igor Nikolaev
Reading time: 7 minutes
A A
Rabbit breeding as a business is both simple and complex at the same time. Its profitability depends on the volume of the sales market in your region. There is no rush demand for rabbit meat in our country, since the population is not sufficiently aware of the valuable qualities of this meat.
The success of this enterprise will depend on how carefully and competently approach the search for buyers. According to statistics, the payback period for such a business is from two to four years.
The prospect of rabbit breeding as a business
Abroad, rabbit meat is a very popular product, due to its nutritional value. For example, in America, large-scale scientific work is underway to breed new rabbit breeds and increase the nutritional value of this type of meat. In the era of the Soviet Union, especially in the 70s of the last century, there were large fur farms that specialized exclusively in breeding rabbits. New breeds were imported, active breeding work was carried out. However, in the 90s of the twentieth century, all the efforts of domestic rabbit breeders were brought to naught.
At the moment, rabbit meat is poorly represented in the meat balance of our country, because of this, the demand for it has fallen.
However, given the dietary properties of rabbit meat, this situation tends to improve. At present, the shortage of domestic rabbit meat is compensated by foreign supplies, which means that in the conditions of the course towards import substitution, there is still a prospect.
If you do rabbit breeding wisely, then its profitability can be very worthy. The main thing is to take into account the main risks, which include:
- low level of labor productivity;
- sharp temperature fluctuations in the Russian climate;
- the risk of mass mortality of animals from infectious diseases.
In favor of the prospects of rabbit breeding as a business, the fact that within one year one individual is able to reproduce a mass that is 50 tons greater than its own weight speaks.
Advantages and disadvantages of rabbit breeding as a private business
In this business, as in any other, there are both certain advantages and disadvantages.
Experts' benefits include:
- relatively fast payback period;
- good profitability of rabbit breeding;
- useful properties of the resulting products;
- mating can be carried out all year round;
- the versatility of this business.
The disadvantages include the following points:
№ Useful information 1 the cleanliness of rabbits requires constant and regular cleaning of their places of detention, otherwise the risk of animal disease increases 2 these animals get used to the owners quickly, but not to strangers; they are very shy, afraid not only of strangers, but also of unfamiliar smells and sharp sounds, and this negatively affects their physiological state; known cases of death of rabbits from fright 3 caring for rabbits requires constant attention; for example, many novice farmers complain that a rabbit eats her rabbits, but in fact it turns out that immediately after giving birth, they forgot to pour water into her drinker Legal registration of business on rabbits
It should be noted right away that this business does not require significant initial investments. For example, a farm for 1000 heads can be organized on a standard summer cottage of six acres. Additional savings will be provided by hand-made cages, feeders and drinkers. But before you start work, you need to choose the legal form of your future enterprise.
Usually, a novice rabbit breeder chooses between the form of “personal subsidiary plot” (abbreviated as LPH) and “individual entrepreneur” (abbreviated as IP).
You need to choose based on who and how you plan to sell future products. If your potential customers are limited to relatives and acquaintances, as well as buyers of agricultural markets, then the form of private household plots will be the best choice, since it is not taxed. However, if later you decide to expand your business and, as a result, enter new markets, then you will need the legal status of an individual entrepreneur. This is a more expensive form in terms of organization, taxation and reporting, which requires obtaining appropriate permits to engage in private business in your chosen field. The supervisory authorities that monitor the work of private household plots are the city or village administrations, and the individual entrepreneur already controls such a state body as the Rosselkhoznadzor.
Rabbit breeding for beginners. Where to begin?
The answer to this question is quite simple - you should start with obtaining the necessary knowledge.
Before you start breeding these animals, you should learn more about their lifestyle, diet, the conditions they need, how they breed, what they get sick, and so on and so on ... These, albeit purely theoretical, the foundations of rabbit breeding are very strong. will help you in further practical work.
And remember - breeding and keeping rabbits, like any other pets, is not entertainment, but everyday painstaking work.
At the beginning of your farming journey, you should be patient. Beginners tend to make mistakes, but in rabbit breeding, as in any other business, experience comes as a result of real work.
You can start breeding rabbits at any time of the year, as these eared fidgets are ready to mate all year round.
It also does not hurt to get acquainted with the main characteristics of the most popular and productive rabbit breeds.
After you decide on the breed, equip places for keeping animals and purchase the necessary feed. It is better to settle rabbits in cages specially adapted for this, which can be placed outdoors. It is best to buy young rabbits from experienced rabbit breeders with a good reputation, who, in addition to selling you quality and healthy rabbits, can also help you with advice at the beginning.
A successful rabbit breeding business begins with the choice of breed, in which special attention should be paid to:
- quality characteristics of the resulting meat,
- growth rate (live weight gain);
- feed conversion indicator, the essence of which is as follows: how much feed an animal eats to gain one kilogram of weight.
Most often, they start with hybrid breeds, which are cheaper than purebred animals. Particular attention is paid to the breeding stock, the main characteristic of which is how many rabbits can give birth and feed one rabbit.
There are no rabbit breeding centers in Russia, so you should focus on foreign breeding farms, which, as a rule, have their own distributors in our country. In addition to the animals themselves, such enterprises usually offer high-quality equipment for this business, as well as provide training services for beginner rabbit breeders.
Equipment for rabbit breeding
Currently, there are the following systems for keeping rabbits:
- aviary;
- semi-aviary;
- cellular.
Feedback from practicing rabbit breeders suggests that the first two systems are quite rare, so you should focus on the cellular system of keeping these animals. It allows you to organize competent mating and proper feeding of rabbits, and also makes it possible to organize timely mating.
In addition, such a system allows you to keep rabbits outdoors all year round, which can significantly increase the body's resistance to various diseases and improve the breeding and productive qualities of rabbits. The disadvantages of the cellular content can be attributed, perhaps, only to the fact that under such conditions it is problematic to obtain offspring in the winter.
Single-tier cages should be placed on wooden poles. The height from the floor of the cage to the ground should be 80 centimeters. It is best to use double cages. Hay mangers made of metal nets usually act as partitions between cells. The floor and walls of the nesting compartment must be made of simple plank, and the stern - of metal mesh. The roofs of the cages must be made of well-bent boards. Which should provide a slope of 15 degrees. You also need to provide for 20-centimeter visors. From above the roof is covered with roofing material. When installing the floors, it is also necessary to provide for a slope of 5 degrees. This will provide a natural drainage of the urine of the animals. Young rabbits can be planted in one cage for three or four individuals. One paddock, which is a wooden frame covered with a metal mesh, should fit 10 young rabbits.
This system greatly facilitates the care of animals and makes it possible to mechanize the processes of watering and distributing feed, which makes it possible to double labor productivity. With such a content, the rabbit breeder is able to simultaneously serve up to 130 females and up to 1,200 rabbits that have not yet been separated.
The size of sheds can be up to 120 centimeters and up to 270 cells. The floor in the passages is usually concreted with a slope device on both sides. The width of the intercellular passage is 130 centimeters.
The length of the cages in the sheds is 140 centimeters, the depth is 70 centimeters, and the height: the back wall is 36 centimeters, the front wall is up to 55 centimeters. Cells are arranged in two rows in two tiers. The bottom row is for the animals of the main row, the top row is for the stocked young animals.
For fattening young animals for meat, bilateral sheds are used, with mechanized distribution of feed and water. Cleaning of faeces is also mechanized. Such sheds can accommodate up to 600 juveniles. The cage itself is a wooden frame covered with a metal mesh. For mechanical watering, automated float type drinkers are used.
On meat and skin farms, with a minimum number of breeding stock of 1200 individuals, two-tier one-sided sheds are used.How to start organizing your mini-farm?
Before starting the construction of a rabbitry, it is necessary to coordinate its location with the local administration, since there are norms for its remoteness from residential sectors. Violation of these norms entails administrative liability.
To get started, you can take a ready-made rabbit farm plan and adapt it to your needs. It is best to place the rabbitry on a hill so that when it rains or when the snow melts, water does not accumulate around it. The optimal solution is the concreting of the earth under these structures. This will prevent water stagnation.
Feed is stored in a separate room, which should not be forgotten either.
It is better to buy concentrated feed in bulk. This results in significant savings.
In the feed storage itself, it is necessary to provide for the possibility of observing the temperature regime and a certain level of humidity in order to prevent the appearance of mold on the feed.
The place for the slaughter of animals must be equipped with a blood drawer and a stove for the destruction of slaughter waste in it. It is advisable to locate refrigerators for storing the received products not far from this place.
To store rabbit manure, a cesspool should be equipped with a depth of at least three meters.
The walls of this pit must be concreted, and to protect it from snow and rain, a canopy should be arranged over it.
To avoid gross mistakes when choosing a purchased animal, experienced rabbit breeders give the following advice:
Difficulties encountered in breeding and keeping rabbits
The main problems faced by beginner rabbit breeders are:
- nutrition problems. Rabbits are extremely sensitive to rotten and moldy feed, from which they often get sick. On the other hand, they choke on very dry food. You should also add the necessary vitamins. Properly selected and balanced diet is the key to health and productivity in rabbit breeding;
- vaccination. These animals need to be vaccinated periodically. If the conditions of keeping meet all the necessary requirements, then the animals should not get sick. But it's still better to be safe. The main vaccination is carried out against myxomatosis, pasteurellosis and VGBK;
- problems with cellular content. These animals are very fond of chewing on everything, so the material for the cages must be of high quality;
- temperature regime. The optimal temperature range is the interval from +2 to +30 degrees. For reproduction and fast fattening, the temperature should be from +13 +26 degrees Celsius.
Where to sell products?
Usually, the formation of a client base begins with a close circle of relatives and friends, and then word of mouth attracts their acquaintances, acquaintances of their acquaintances, and so on into the circle of your customers.
Don't skimp on advertising. Especially in promotional materials, pay attention to the beneficial properties of dietary rabbit meat. It is now fashionable. Don't overprice! In conditions of low purchasing power of the population, the price should be affordable, which will allow you to expand the circle of your customers.
To sell meat to acquaintances, veterinary documents are not required.
They willingly take rabbit meat in restaurants, but they definitely require a veterinary certificate for products (form No. 2).
Selling rabbit meat through stores with small volumes of products is unprofitable. Lots of expenses for annual permits and quality certificates. In addition, large retail chains usually give a very low purchase price.
In addition to meat, you can also sell rabbit skins. They are purchased by enterprises for the manufacture of fur products. In fairness, it is worth saying that the prices for them are not very attractive.
Rabbit droppings can also be sold as organic fertilizer.
The main source of income is the fertility of rabbits. With the proper level of maintenance, feeding and care, one female is able to bring offspring up to 10 times a year, which allows you to get up to 60 rabbits from one uterus.
For example, let's take a farm with 120 females. We get 7,200 cubs a year. This is an average of up to 14 tons 400 kilograms of rabbit meat.
With a selling price of 200 rubles per kilogram, the average annual revenue can be 2 million 880 thousand. Costs account for approximately half of all revenue, or 1,440,000 rubles. These funds go to:
- purchase of feed;
- fare;
- payment for electricity;
- wages of hired workers (if any);
- purchase and repair of cages;
- payment for veterinary services and vaccinations.
Some of the costly items can be removed if, for example, you do not hire outside staff and vaccinate rabbits yourself.
Based on the above figures, we find that profitability can reach up to 100 percent (but this is ideal).
Starting rabbit breeding from scratch, you need to draw up a competent business plan. Rabbit farming, like any other business, requires accounting for estimated costs and income.
This business plan, on the one hand, should include all initial material investments, one-time and regular expenses. On the other hand, the planned revenues from the main and secondary products are taken into account. In this second part, you should definitely take into account the specifics of your region, since prices in different regions of our country vary significantly.
Initial costs include:
- buying or renting a land plot for a rabbit farm (you can start from the land you already have);
- expenses for legal registration and execution of necessary documentation;
- expenses for landscaping;
- expenses for the purchase of materials for the construction of the rabbitry, feed storage and the purchase of cages;
- purchase of the necessary inventory and equipment;
- the cost of buying animals (you can start with 50 pieces).
Of course, starting your own rabbit farm does not require any crazy expenses. You can get by with small investments, gradually increasing the scale of your activities. Plan your work so that you allocate at least three to four hours a day for animal care. Over time, this can become the main source of income.
