Mixing your own feed and cutting costs is the way forward for small and medium-sized rabbit farms
Mixing your own feed and cutting costs is the way forward for small and medium-sized rabbit farms
Small and medium-sized rabbit farms refer to farms with fewer than 200 breeding rabbits kept and an annual output of fewer than 10,000 commercial rabbits.
This type of farm has shortcomings such as little capital and low comprehensive development capacity, so its profit margin is relatively small. Large rabbit farms all take the form of rabbit industry companies, and their business model is a one-stop chain, meaning that besides selling commercial meat rabbits, they also sell breeding rabbits, cages, feed, veterinary drugs and health products, and they even buy back and process the meat rabbits raised by other farmers, so their industry chain is long and their profit margin is large. The state also provides funding support and policy support to these rabbit industry companies, and it is very difficult for small and medium-sized rabbit operations to get such opportunities.
Cutting costs is the only way to increase profits, and feed cost is the largest cost in the breeding industry, accounting for more than 70%, so making full use of local resources, mixing your own feed and cutting costs is the way forward for small and medium-sized rabbit farms.
Rabbits are herbivorous animals, and their daily ration is based mainly on green and roughage, supplemented by concentrate. The intake of green and roughage can account for 10%—30% of their body weight and 70—80% of the whole daily ration, while supplementary concentrate feeding accounts for 3—5% of their body weight and 20—30% of the whole daily ration. Small and medium-sized rabbit farms should use scattered plots of land or rent some land to grow forage grass, such as Guimu No. 1 hybrid elephant grass, king grass, winter-planted ryegrass, etc., use some agricultural by-products such as peanut vines, peanut shells, sweet potato vines, etc., and can also cut some non-toxic wild grass as rabbit feed, thus greatly reducing feed costs. Although doing this work consumes a lot of labor, small and medium-sized rabbit farms are generally family-run and do not count labor costs. Of course, mixing your own feed requires certain knowledge, which can be obtained by buying some books or learning on forums. (When I have time, I will also post some experience with mixing your own feed on forums for fellow breeders to refer to.)
The current price of compound rabbit feed is around 2.8---3 yuan/kg. Calculated at a feed-to-meat ratio of 3:1, the feed cost of 1 jin of live rabbit is 4.5 yuan, which is not low compared with the feed costs of other livestock (poultry): pigs (self-breeding and self-raising) are 5 yuan, chickens (calculated at 120 days of raising) are around 5.3 yuan, and ducks (calculated at 42 days of raising) are only 2.8 yuan. Compared this way, rabbits are not much of a grain-saving animal either; the grain saved all goes to the feed manufacturers.
This type of farm has shortcomings such as little capital and low comprehensive development capacity, so its profit margin is relatively small. Large rabbit farms all take the form of rabbit industry companies, and their business model is a one-stop chain, meaning that besides selling commercial meat rabbits, they also sell breeding rabbits, cages, feed, veterinary drugs and health products, and they even buy back and process the meat rabbits raised by other farmers, so their industry chain is long and their profit margin is large. The state also provides funding support and policy support to these rabbit industry companies, and it is very difficult for small and medium-sized rabbit operations to get such opportunities.
Cutting costs is the only way to increase profits, and feed cost is the largest cost in the breeding industry, accounting for more than 70%, so making full use of local resources, mixing your own feed and cutting costs is the way forward for small and medium-sized rabbit farms.
Rabbits are herbivorous animals, and their daily ration is based mainly on green and roughage, supplemented by concentrate. The intake of green and roughage can account for 10%—30% of their body weight and 70—80% of the whole daily ration, while supplementary concentrate feeding accounts for 3—5% of their body weight and 20—30% of the whole daily ration. Small and medium-sized rabbit farms should use scattered plots of land or rent some land to grow forage grass, such as Guimu No. 1 hybrid elephant grass, king grass, winter-planted ryegrass, etc., use some agricultural by-products such as peanut vines, peanut shells, sweet potato vines, etc., and can also cut some non-toxic wild grass as rabbit feed, thus greatly reducing feed costs. Although doing this work consumes a lot of labor, small and medium-sized rabbit farms are generally family-run and do not count labor costs. Of course, mixing your own feed requires certain knowledge, which can be obtained by buying some books or learning on forums. (When I have time, I will also post some experience with mixing your own feed on forums for fellow breeders to refer to.)
The current price of compound rabbit feed is around 2.8---3 yuan/kg. Calculated at a feed-to-meat ratio of 3:1, the feed cost of 1 jin of live rabbit is 4.5 yuan, which is not low compared with the feed costs of other livestock (poultry): pigs (self-breeding and self-raising) are 5 yuan, chickens (calculated at 120 days of raising) are around 5.3 yuan, and ducks (calculated at 42 days of raising) are only 2.8 yuan. Compared this way, rabbits are not much of a grain-saving animal either; the grain saved all goes to the feed manufacturers.