Performance, production and economic aspects of village rabbit farming in the district of Magelang
 

B Brahmantiyo and Y C Raharjo

Research Institute for Animal Production, PO BOX 221, Bogor, Indonesia 16002

Email : brahmantiyo@cbn.net.id, yonoraharjo@yahoo.co.id

Abstract

 A study was conducted at rabbit farmer member of Magelang Rabbit Farmer Groups (Perhimpunan Peternak Kelinci Magelang/PPKM), at district of Magelang on March to December 2006.  Evaluation were done on performance, production and economic aspect of village rabbit farming.  40 head of Crossed English Spot (CES), 40 head of Crossed Flemish Giant (CFG), 25 head of Crossed New Zealand White (CNZ), and 40 head of Rex (RR) were used for performance of rabbit body size and shape.  Body sizes and shape were measured. The evaluation on rabbit production were contributed  from 30 farmer with 524 head of rabbit.  There were 83 head of CES, 271 head of CFG, 73 head of CNZ and 97 head of RR rabbits.  The rabbit were grouping into three ages, young (30-60 days old), teenage (100-150 days old) and adults (more than 150 days old).  Reproduction characteristics were age at first mating, gestation, litter size at birth, weaning weight and mating interval.  Cost and income of raising rabbit were done to evaluate economic value of rabbit production. The conclusion was that English Spot , Flemish Giant, New Zealand White  and RR rabbits were very popular that farmer choose for their rabbit production.  There were showed crossing between ES, FG and NZ on body size and body weight.  Raising rabbit can be profitable if farmers raise more than 23 does.

 Keywords: Rabbit, English Spot , Flemish Giant, New Zealand White, growth, reproduction 

Introduction

 Rabbit became important small livestock and meat source in agricultural country like Indonesia because they had high productivity on reproduction, meat, fur and organic fertilizer.  Indonesia poultry farmer already change their business to rabbit production since Avian Influenza outbreak.  Rabbit production growth rapidly on village area like the district of Magelang. 

 Rabbit had adaptability to local condition as feed, temperature, humidity and farmer management and rabbit were low on investment of operational cost.  Since 2004, Rabbit population and rabbit farmer at the district of Magelang increased rapidly from  5.855 head to 22.399 head on 2005 with 1.841 farmers.

 Evaluation on performance, production and economic aspects of village rabbit farming were important as baseline data to improve they production and productivity.

Methods

Unless otherwise stated specifically, all breeds of rabbit used subjected to the research were crossed-offspring of those having phenotypic properties as breed–mentioned. Research were conducted at rabbit farmer member of Magelang Rabbit Farmer Groups (Perhimpunan Peternak Kelinci Magelang/PPKM), at district of Magelang on March to December 2006.  Evaluation were done on performance, production and economic aspect of village rabbit farming.  40 head of Crossed English Spot (CES), 40 head of Crossed Flemish Giant (CFG), 25 head of Crossed New Zealand White (CNZ), and 40 head of Rex (RR) were used for performance of rabbit body size and shape.  Body size and shape were measured on head (width and length), ear (width and lengh), chest (girth, width and depth), length of humerus.

 Evaluation on rabbit production were contributed  from 30 farmer with 524 head of rabbit.  There were 83 head of CES, 271 head of CFG, 73 head of CNZ and 97 head of RR rabbits.  The rabbit were grouping into three ages, young (30-60 days old), teenage (100-150 days old) and adults (more than 150 days old).  Reproduction characteristics were age at first mating, gestation, litter size at birth, weaning weight and mating interval.  Cost and income of raising rabbit were done to evaluate economic value of rabbit production.

 Data obtained were analyzed by using GLM (General Linear Models) with SAS package program version 6.12 (SAS 1985). Differences between groups were analyzed by Duncan Multiple Range Test (Steel and Torrie 1991).

Results and Discussion

General condition in the district of Magelang, there were 21 kecamatan with 372 village with average temperature 22-26⁰C on highland area and can reach 32⁰C on lowland area.  Humidity and avarege of rain were 70-92% and 159.5-281.5 mm/year (Pemda dan BPS Kabupaten Magelang 2004). Farmer raised rabbit since 1982, where goverment conducted rabbit program to improve protein consumption.  Rabbit can develop by their ability to adapt with environment, hence the condition of district of Magelang were not suitable for raising rabbit, Cheeke et al. (1987) explain that ideal condition for rabbit production were had temperature about 16-20⁰C with humidity about 50%.  Optimum condition for rabbit raising were on temperature 18^oC and relative humidity 70%.

Rabbit population in Magelang district were 5.855 heads on 2004 and raised became 22.399 heads that were raised by 1.841 farmers on 2005  (Widodo 2005).  Rabbit that farmer raised were Flemish Giant, English Spot, New Zealand White and Rex (Figure 2).  Flemish Giant, English Spot and New Zealand White were raised for meat production and Rex were raised for pet/fancy.

Body size of rabbit at the district of Magelang

Characteristics of body size of English Spot (ES), Flemish Giant (FG), New Zealand White (NZ) and Rex (RR) rabbits were shown on Table 1.  Lot’s of body size of ES, FG and NZ Rabbits were same.  Crossing between three breeds were appeared because the farmer have no knowledge and ability on mating technique of rabbit or they tried to develop new breed that had adaptability on local condition. Crossing in rabbit were done to improve hybrid vigour, heterosis effect and complimentary of breed (Falconer and MacKay 1996).  Most farmer cross their rabbit to increase production and hybrid vigour (Lukefahr and Cheeke 1990).

RR were had smaller body size than ES, FG and NZ rabbits.  RR were had specific fenotipic performance as medium body weight and beautiful fur like velvet (Lukefahr dan Robinson 1988).  Farmer were raised RR because RR had price higher than ES, FG and NZ. Hence, farmer were mated RR rabbit only with RR rabbit.

Rabbit production

 Production performance of rabbit were depend on local condition as feed source, temperature, humidity, cages and farmer management.  Rabbit reproduction were explain on Table 2.  Farmer were mated their rabbit for the first time for male and female on 6.95 ± 0.61 months and 7.80 ± 0.89 months for FG, 6.80 ± 0.70  months and 7.85 ± 0.93 months for NZ, 6.90 ± 0.79 months and 7.70 ± 0.80 months for ES and  7.00 ± 0.73 months and 7.80 ± 0.83 months for RR respectively. Male rabbit were mated ealier than female, Lebas et al. (1986) said that maturity on rabbit were influenced on breed and body weight. Small breed were reached their maturity on 4-5 months of age, and large breed were 5-6 months of age.  ES were matured at 5-6 months of age (Petplanet.co.uk. 2004) and NZ were ready for first mating on 18-19 weeks of age for male (Sartika dan Diwyanto 1986).

Gestation length of rabbit were influenced by litter size and litter weight, longer time on gestation were made lowest on litter size with high litter weight and gestation period of rabbit were about 28-32 days (Cheeke et al. 1987).  Average of gestation length of FG, NZ, RR and ES were 30.30 ± 1.22 days, 29.55 ± 0.95  days, 29.05 ± 0.89  days and 29.25 ± 0.89  days, respectively.

Litter size at birth of FG, NZ, ES and RR were 7.10 ± 0.97 kits, 7.05 ± 0.95 kits, 7.00 ± 0.86 kits and 6.95 ± 0.61 kits.  Lebas et al. (1986) had reported that litter size of rabbit were about 1-13 kits. Litter size at birth were influence by genetic, breeding season, age of doe, parity and breed.

Rabbit weaning age were at 28 days (Cheeke et al. 1987) because of rabbit milk were essensial feed for rabbit kits until 3 weeks of age and influenced for their growth (Lukefarh et al. 1981). Farmer were weaned their rabbit for about 50-60 days.  Average of weaning age were 58.50 ± 4.89 days for FG, 59.00 ± 3.08 days for NZ, 58.00 ± 5.23 days for RR and 58.00 ± 4.10 days for ES rabbits. Sastrodihardjo (1985) reported that farmer always wean their rabbit on 46-60 days, and for average 40-50 days (Szendro et al. 1996).

Weaning weight of ES rabbit were 0.92 ± 030 kg, FG rabbit were 0.90 ± 0.17 kg, NZ rabbit were 0.80 ± 0.07 kg, and RR rabbit were 0.71 ± 0.05 kg. Muryanto et al. (2005) reproted that average body weight of FG rabbit were 840.1 ± 229.6 g. Weining weight were influenced by genetic, feed, management and type of rabbit (Suc et al. 1996).

Farmer were grouping rabbit by their age into young (30-60 days old), teenage (100-150 days old) and adults (more than 150 days old).  Wiradarya et al. (2005), explained that rabbit were reached five phase in their growth, first is growth to wean phase (0-40 days of age), second is wean phase (40-100 days of age), third is teenage phase (100-140 days of age), fourth is younger phase (140-200 days of age) and fifth is adult (more than 200 days of age).  In these research, there were only three ages groups because limited record (Table 3). 

ES male were reached higher body weight at young ages than other breeds (average 1.05 + 0.45 kg), and RR were smaller than other with average body weight of male and female were 0.66 + 0.13 kg and 0.57 + 0.16 kg, respectively. ES male and RR male were had smaller body weight on teenage than other breeds, there were 2.20 + 0.25 kg of ES male and 2.22 + 0.21 kg of RR male.  RR had smaller body weight at adult for male and female, there were 3.00 + 0.28 kg of male and 2.89 + 0.44 kg of female.

Body weight of ES, FG and NZ rabbits on adult age were same and explained that there were crossed between three breeds (Brahmantiyo et al. 2006).  RR rabbit were relatively pure breed because RR rabbit had specific characteristics as body size and fur made farmer easier to recognize there breed.  RR rabbit had higher price that other breed make farmer controlling on their mating.

Economic value

Farmer income of raising rabbit were sold weaning rabbit, meat and compost as organic fertilizer.  Building material, cages, rabbit doe and buck, medicine, labour and depreciation were expenses in raising rabbit.  Table 4 showed farmers income on raising rabbit at Magelang.

Farmer were raised about 13-23 does only had lost because their income and expenses were balanced for the first year of rabbit production, hence the farmer did not had any income from their business.  Raising rabbit were feasible by raised more than 30 does.  Farmer can reach income of raising rabbit at least Rp. 267.100 for the first year and become Rp. 7.447.500 at the second year.

Farmer expenses more money for the first year because their business were need cost for building facilities, also farmer did not had enough knowledge on raising rabbit made high mortality of kits.  At second year, farmer had experience from their rabbit production, hence they can reach profitability on their rabbit production.

Conclusion

 ES, FG, NZ and RR rabbits were very popular that farmer choose for their rabbit production.  There were showed crossing between ES, FG and NZ on body size and body weight.  Raising rabbit can profitable if farmer raised more than 23 does.

Reference

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