Hot News

4.01.2007

By Tamara Scully
AFP Correspondent

Hampton Township — Rabbits are a mainstay of 4-H programs, and are a primary feature at county agricultural fairs each summer. Cute and cuddly, they are prized Easter presents, sold as pets.
But they are also an increasingly popular menu item, especially in various ethnic communities. With nominal land requirements, raising meat rabbits can be a wise investment for those who are land-poor, yet wish to begin a small farming operation.
Liz Jackson, raised in New York City, knew from a young age that the call of the wild — or at least of the open countryside and forested lands of northern New Jersey — could not be denied.
Jackson, who has a graduate degree from The New Jersey School of Conservation, is employed by the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife and is an avid hunter and trapper. She also is experienced in archery and orienteering, and is a Class V graduate of the Agricultural Leadership Development Program.
“I knew I wanted to get started in some sort of ag,” Jackson said. “Small-scale homestead activity” is how she described her vision.
Jackson decided that rabbit production was the best way to embark on this journey, as it required little investment in acreage and few inputs.
Jackson’s first season of farming was 2003, when she started with five breeding females and one buck.
Feeling that this would give her a manageable first year, she planned to supply a virtually untapped market for ethnic populations residing in the area. Having found a small parcel of land to launch her farming dream, Jackson was open for business.
While Jackson knows now that she should have had a formal business plan, she embarked upon her first season after doing a quick assessment of the market and speaking extensively to a South Jersey farmer raising meat rabbits.
With no budget for advertising or marketing, Jackson made makeshift signs to place at the end of her driveway and began raising her rabbits.
“I figured word of mouth would suffice to move the rabbits,” Jackson said of her initial marketing plan.
Surprisingly, she did manage to attract enough customers this way.
However, her rabbits were not cooperating with the ebb and flow of the market.
“I was always either behind or ahead of the curve,” she explained. That first season, she ended up selling her rabbits small, at two to three pounds, rather than the standard four- to five-pound weight.
While this did work for her and her customers, Jackson learned to get her rabbits on a schedule that would better meet increases in customer demand.
She also learned that the New Zealand Whites tend to be “incredibly prolific” and she reduced the number of her breeding females when using this popular meat rabbit breed.
The butchered weight of rabbit meat typically represents about a 40-percent loss from the actual weight of the live animal, Jackson said.
Some people request that the head be included, while others — including Jackson — do not use the head portion.
Pricing her meat at $3 to $4 a pound, Jackson’s price cheaper than what is sold in New York City markets.
There, Jackson said, rabbit meat is priced about $6 a pound.
Jackson herself was not too familiar with rabbit meat when she embarked on her farming career.
She now eats rabbit regularly, describing it as “way better than chicken.”
A “taste and texture difference from the domestic to the wild rabbit” exists, Jackson said, as domestic rabbits eat differently, with a 16-percent protein mix that does enhance the flavor and feel of the meat.
Her best advice: “never name your food,” and remember that there is a difference between pets and domestic livestock.
Jackson’s rabbits are raised in a small shed and pen area.
The shed is heated in the winter, after she learned through trial and error that although the animals were well adapted to the cold, their water was not.
The freezing water became a hassle, and heating the shed a necessity. She also said she hopes to install a feeder system. The rabbits are housed in individual cages, with special nesting boxes for breeding females.
Jackson has included goats on her farm, but is able to only have a female breeder and a male for meat each season, due to acreage restrictions.
She would liked to have become involved with the New Jersey Department of Agriculture’s meat goat program, but needed to acquire more land first.
Her customers are interested in purchasing more goat meat, and she feels that this is another viable, untapped market niche for farmers with limited land access.
“I need more land,” Jackson said.
Her main obstacle to participating in some great opportunities in New Jersey agriculture is the lack of affordable farmland.
Reasonably priced land, on which to raise both her rabbits and meat goats, is the next hurdle Jackson will try to clear.
She is considering other areas of the state, where land may be more affordable than it is in the northern New Jersey area.
Her ideal would be to purchase 10 to 12 acres of land, using about seven acres for her livestock, and leaving the rest as open, forested wildlife habitat.
Another obstacle Jackson anticipates as eventually being problematic is New Jersey’s meat processing laws.
A real need for slaughter facilities that can serve the small family farmer, exists in New Jersey, as most USDA plants only want to deal with large orders, or restrict small farm users to certain non-peak periods, Jackson said.
Many USDA-certified plants are not convenient to northern New Jersey farmers, and the time and effort to transport the meat makes it less profitable unless the farmer passes the expense on to the consumer.
Jackson would like to see a certified, roving slaughter house that can travel to various small farms or central locations throughout the region.
With grants available for innovative services such as these, Jackson foresees a cooperative of farmers investing in such a facility, enabling more farmers to raise livestock for direct-to-consumer sales.
Jackson’s Patchouli Farms, which she named for her favorite scent, now has a regular customer base, and she has been able to capitalize on a growing ethnic market where rabbit meat is a mainstay.
As she looks to expanding her farm business, Jackson will be prepared with a marketing plan, experience, skill and an established, satisfied customer base to help her farm grow.
Patchouli Farms can be reached at: patchoulifarm@yahoo.com.