66 AGRICULTURE HANDBOOK NO. 3 09, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



insects that might cause damage. 

 When a bale has been made up, 

 cover with burlap, sew with strong 

 cord or binder twine, and mark. 

 Always protect skins when ship- 



ping them. Ship smaller quanti- 

 ties in gunny or feed sacks. Do 

 not use wooden boxes for shipping 

 rabbitskins; the weight adds ma- 

 terially to shipping charges. 



ECONOMICS OF RABBIT PRODUCTION 



The commercial rabbitry is one 

 that is operated for the "profit- 

 able"' production of rabbit meat. A 

 great deal of progress has been 

 made in the development of the 

 rabbit industry. It is a stable 

 enterprise for an individual em- 

 ploying sound management princi- 

 ples, but numbers alone do not spell 

 success. The rabbitry, as any busi- 

 ness, cannot ajfford additional units 

 of production unless those added 

 provide returns equal to, or greater 

 than, their costs. The determina- 

 tion of the point at which margin- 

 al costs of production equal mar- 

 ginal returns necessitates the pres- 

 ence of two factors important for 

 the success of a commercial rab- 

 bitry: Concise, accurate and cur- 

 rent records, and close attention to 

 care and feeding of the rabbits. 



Records 



Records need not be extremely 

 detailed, unless the personal de- 

 sires and time of the operator allow 

 for minute recordkeeping. What- 

 ever records are kept should per- 

 mit the operator to calculate costs 

 of production and evaluate the 

 progress made over comparable 

 periods of time. 



Information basically desirable 

 is (1) the number of does bred, 

 (2) the number of conceptions, (3) 

 the number of does kindling, (4) 

 the number of does raising a lit- 

 ter, (5) total young left with doe, 

 and (6) total number of young 

 weaned or raised per breeding. 

 These facts will provide the neces- 

 sary permanent production factors. 

 Information can be obtained from 



the hutch record cards (fig. 21) 

 and accumulated daily on a 

 monthly summary form. The 

 monthly figures can then be ac- 

 cumulated on an annual summary 

 form, and an annual summary of 

 the rabbitry can be ascertained by 

 posting the accumulated invest- 

 ment, income, and expense figures 

 on a summary chart. 



Labor 



Close attention to the rabbits is 

 essential to success. Although it is 

 not practical to provide care 24 

 hours a day, too little labor is dis- 

 astrous. Somewhere between no 

 care and constant care is an opti- 

 mum amount of labor for a rab- 

 bitry of a given size. 



Rabbitry management studies 

 conducted in San Bernardino 

 County, Calif., in 1962 and 1963 

 revealed a range of 2.3 to 27.7 

 hours of labor per doe per year, 

 with an average of 6.4 hours per 

 doe. Rabbitry sizes, based on the 

 average number of working does, 

 ranged from a low of 31.4 to a high 

 of 792.9, with an average of 247.5. 

 For all practical purposes, the la- 

 bor source reported by participat- 

 ing rabbitries was a husband-and- 

 wife team. Using the averages of 

 the management studies conducted, 

 an average daily requirement of 

 6.4 hours per doe per year for a 

 247.5-doe rabbitry gives a total an- 

 nual labor need of 1,584 hours. 

 This gives conjecture to the possi- 

 bility of operating a rabbitry on 

 a 5 -day week. A weekly work 

 schedule of 40 hours totals 2,080 

 hours per year. Dividing 2,080 



