RABBIT FAMING

 

Rabbit farming is one of the sustainable agriculture enterprises and one of growing industry. It is so due to its minimal initial investment, low-maintenance, high-yield animals that can provide meat, fur, and even fertilizer. They are also incredibly efficient converters of food into energy, meaning they can be

raised on less feed than other livestock. Malawi, in particular rabbit farming is just an emerging venture with farmers practicing it with little to no knowledge.  Most of these farmers face a lot of challenges including lack of knowledge in rearing these rabbits. Some famers lack good infrastructures like housing and a lot of them fail to get markets for the rabbits. Though this industry is new in Malawi it has a promising future. This blog, therefore will explore how to start a rabbit farming venture, including everything from setting up a rabbitary to breeding and selling the rabbits.

There are three types of rabbit farms that a farmer can choose from, these include backyard small scale rabbit farm, small commercial farm and large commercial rabbit farm. These farms differ in terms of purpose, Housing and the number of rabbits to be reared. Firstly, is the backyard small scale rabbitary that has few females and one or two male rabbits that are kept in a house-built rabbitary mostly its deep littler house and are fed on greens, weeds and vegetables kitchen scraps and sometimes the rabbits are on a free-range system. It provides enough meat to supplement the family need. The small commercial rabbitary on the other hand may have the 10-50 breeding does (female rabbit) in a purpose-built rabbitary in this case a large hutches large deep litter house and cages. The aim of this type of rabbit production is to sell rabbit meat for profit. Rabbits are usually fed on concentrate as well as bulky leafy vegetables. Large commercial rabbitary is another type, in this system the rabbits are reared in large quantity for example thousands. It requires a lot of land for cages at the same time to keep the feeds. This system can be adopted by large and established farmers. The main purpose for this system is to provide meat, breeding stocks, fur, manure and rabbit urine in large quantity.

The other thing to consider in rabbit farming is the breed of the rabbit. There are so many breeds of rabbits for different purposes. In Malawi we have the following breeds that are common: local breeds, Angola, California white, New Zealand white, Dutch, cinnamon and chinchilla. These rabbits are kept for different purposes according to their characteristics and features. For example, California white, chinchilla, Dutch, New Zealand white and local breeds are kept for meat as they can produce a lot of young ones and they can glow fast. Angola on the other hand is kept for its fur.

Rabbits just like any other livestock requires good housing. A rabbit Hutch is one example of house for rabbit. A hutch is made up of wood and mesh wire or chicken wire, it is used to keep rabbit in large numbers for example one hutch can keep 10-60 rabbits according to how it was made. Another example of rabbit housing is by the use of cages. In this system the rabbits are kept in cages, one rabbit one cage and some cages are large so that they can have more than on rabbit in them. Cage system is good for commercial rabbit farm as it gets easy to track if the rabbit is pregnant or not, when to mate and everything. The other housing can be a deep litter. this is a form of house that is built with bricks and it has a floor or they are left to dig the ground. This system requires a lot of effort to prevent the ground to be wet.

When it comes to breeding it is good to understand the purpose of breeding the rabbit and what age to start breeding the rabbits. A female rabbit is ready for mating at 5 months of age while the male(buck) is ready to mate in about 6 to 7 months of age. Female(doe) rabbits are different from other female livestock in that they do not undergo heat period so they can be mated at any time of the month provided they are at a breeding age. It takes 28 to 31 days for a pregnant rabbit to give birth (gestation period). Normally a healthy rabbit will give birth to an average of 4 to 8 bunnies (young rabbits).

And now when it come to feeds and caring for the rabbits its simple. Rabbits eats almost all the glass that other livestock eats including vegetables and some wild plants for example black jack(chisoso), banana leaves and potato leaves just mentioning a few. Rabbits also like hay (dried grass), maize bran(madeya) and a lot of water. To take care of the rabbits just make sure the housing is dry and there is clean water for drinking if its deep litter or a hutch. cage system is easy to take care compared to deep litter houses. In rabbit farming hygiene is the most important things it helps prevent some diseases that come such as diarrhea and foot lot.

Lastly market for rabbits in Malawi is there the demand is high all that a farmer(s) need is to market their rabbits or rabbit products in style and creative. For example, rabbit farmers in Zimbabwe make rabbit sausages and samosa and some just sell them as whole. Some of the market strategy that Malawi can adopt include selling cooked, grilled or dressed rabbits. And there is also the demand for rabbit manure and urine that are used as fertilizer and pesticide respectfully.