Rabbit Farming Big Business In N.S.W.

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31730, 13 July 1968, Page 17

Rabbit Farming Big Business In N.S.W.

(Specially written for "The Press’* by DON GRADY) The Minister of Lands (Mr MacIntyre) says he does not know whether rabbit farming is economic. He also suggests that the South Island Pest Destruction Boards’ Association might do well to investigate rabbit farming to discover whether it can constitute a threat, or, if it can earn overseas funds. On the outskirts of metropolitan Sydney, I investigated the economic potential of commerical rabbit fanning. One rabbit farm I visited had such a prolific birth-rate that they had named the breeding sheds after big maternity hospitals. One was named “Crown Street” and another “Paddington Women's.” The parallel in the establishment of a commercial rabbit farm on the edge of Christchurch would be to name its breeding sheds “St Helens,” “Essex” or Bethany.” Each rabbit breeding shed I inspected was the birthplace of 24,000 rabbits a year. Their owner was a rabbit i farmer, Mr C. Macansh Bright, whose 12j-acre rabbitry at Castle Hill, Sydney, was one of 300 that had sprung up in New South Wales between 1958 and 1961. At that time, 95 per cent of Australia’s domestic rabbit farmers were in Moss Vale area. They were determined to put rabbits into the big business category. The Sydney demand for specially-bred broiler meat rabbits at 55c per lb retail was so great that breeders could not keep up with orders. The rabbits were not the humble, lean, bush variety that have ravaged Australian pastures, driving many pastoralists to ruin. They were pure white albinos, bred in captivity for the table. Known as New Zealand Whites, they are a cross between specially-developed meat-breeding rabbits—Flemish Giant and Belgian Hare. When eight weeks old, they were taken from their cages, killed, snap-frozen in vacuum packs and sold in Sydney chain stores. I was told that they had the highest protein value of any meat, including poultry, lean beef and veal. Because rabbit had the lowest calorie ration of them all, it was popular among figure-conscious women. Mr Bright’s rabbitry had about 4000 breeding does and 100 bucks. He gave them fibroma innoculations to make them immune to myxomatosis. As a Coonable (inland New South Wales) grazier, about eight years earlier, he had spent thousands of dollars trying to eradicate wild rabbits from his property with myxomatosis. When I met Mr Bright, he told me that when people asked trim how were his rabbits, he automatically stiffened. It was his old inbred anti-rabbit grazier instinct He said that he shortly

hoped to be producing 180,000 domestic rabbits a year for the table. The New Zealand White meat rabbits were believed to have been introduced into Australia by a World War II air ace, “Killer” Caldwell. In America, rabbit farms, in 1961, were producing 10,000,000 table rabbits each year at a retail price of 68c to 70c per lb. In England, the same year, they expected to produce 40,000,000 table rabbits. Ideal Size Everyone knows the common phrase “breeding like rabbits.” In the “Crown Street” shed of tha Sydney rabbitry, I observed cages inside a shed that houses 500 breeding does. The cages were all suspended from the roof on a mono-rail system. Because the cages could be pulled from one position to another on the mono-rails, only one passage-way was required for the shed. A tractor-powered steel scraper extending the full width of the shed pulled all droppings into a pit This by-product, rich in nitrogen, was packed into 101 b plastic bags and sold in Sydney as a fertiliser at 50c a bag. For the first six weeks of their lives the rabbit kittens (babies) were suckled by their mother.

This meant that when they were killed at eight weeks, they had been living on hard ration—vegetable protein pellets—for only a fortnight The pellets were fed automatically to the rabbits from hoppers fitted between each two cages. Whenever a rabbit was thirsty it simply pressed its mouth against a metal nipple attached to a water-pipe running behind the cages. Mr Bright said the domestic rabbit ideal size for marketing was eight weeks. At that time, they were also right for price and weight A Sydney housewife, he said, would pay about $l.lO for a 21b (dressed) rabbit for the table. But if the rabbit was any bigger or cost more, she thought twice. Mr Bright defied anyone to tell the difference between a cut of chicken and a cut of broiler rabbit. He said that only 8 per cent of dressed rabbit was bone, compared with 15 per cent in poultry. Anyone in N.S.W. wanting to enter the rabbit breeding business must first obtain a licence from the Department of Agriculture. And because farmers, in Australia, are still sensitive about rabbits, a recommendation is also needed from a Pasture Protection Board, before a licence is granted.