Grasscutter vs Rabbit Farming – Which 1 is more Profitable?

Grasscutter vs Rabbit Farming – Which 1 is more Profitable?

I have had over 5years experience in rabbit farming in Nigeria, so I know to a great extend what works and what does it, I actually started rabbit farming base on my interest in rabbit keeping as pet but with time, I switched to the commercial aspect since I discover there is much market for it where I was living and people tend to love rabbit majorly as pet too. 

The few that might want to consider it as commercial venture don’t know how, also the market is not readily available compare to poultry or other livestock in a country like Nigeria specifically.

 Rabbit is a small body monogastric animal and it’s gestation period is 31days at maximum, “though most of my does always paturate on the 28day”. Rabbit is palatable and easy to breed with just little space you can house a lot of rabbit and breed as many as you desire to, now coming down to the market strength and weaknesses in Nigeria;

Rabbit is not in high demand compare to grasscutter and other animals, infact base on my experience, most buyers of rabbits includes;

 Students in institutions that needs it for experiments, 

Laboratory workers also who needs it for experiment, 

Patients in the hospitals that are on diets and are told to eat less cholesterol meats as rabbit meat contain a very low cholesterol fat and it is often referred to as “white meat”, 

Family and individuals that wants to keep rabbit for pet purpose,

There is almost no regular consumer’s demand for rabbit meat and we can say this is due to low sensitization of people towards the potential of rabbit as a white meat and part of their diet, but irrespective of the reasons outlined; rabbit meat is not yet commercial demanded in Nigeria but we hopefully assume the proper sensitization will be obvious in the future time.




Grasscutter on the other hand, is just like rabbit too just some complexity in the body system, versatile physiology and more matured and long life span.
Grasscutter is massively in high demand in Nigeria and this has given birth to more and more increasing grasscutter farmers in Nigeria today since it’s now one of the most lucrative business ventures available to farmers in the livestock farming industry.

Grasccutter is a little more complex than rabbit in it’s body composition and the gestation period of grasscutter lasts for 5months while that of rabbit is just 1month, so the differences in the gestation period tells us how complex they are, grasscutter are also bigger in terms of their body mass compare to rabbits, Nigerians prefer grasscutter to rabbit because naturally grasscutter is a bush meat, scientific unprecedented researches and discoveries are the reasons for domestication of animals like grasscutter in the home today, naturally grasscutter are not domesticated but now with science and technology more grasscutter can be easily produced and the female grasscutter can produce new offspring twice a year, Thanks to science and technology in the Agriculture and Biotechnology sector.

Since majority of Nigerians are acquainted with bush meat and it’s a delicacy in the land, grasscutter farming makes us to have more and more grasscutter at our disposal no need of men going to hunt in the bush before we can get this animals and also; domesticating them helps us to have them in abundance; continuous hunting of animals like grasscutter will only lead them into extinct and we would have to find a suitable alternative which may not be readily available.

Now going into the market strength in Nigeria, grasscutter are in huge demand in the market, and now you can use a very small space available to raise many grasscutter; the demand for grasscutter is so hjigh than commercial eateries and hotels are always in need; if you walk up to an hotel or a commercial eatery like shoprites, Mr Biggs, Royals are the likes “like I did” they will only ask you if you can be supplying them weekly which might not be so convenient if you just start your grasscutter farm but if you have raised up to 500 grasscutter with a total of 400 females to 100males ratio then production can be improved and then you can meet your demands. But based on my research I have discovered that in Nigeria, there is no amount of grasscutter that you have to sell, that can be sufficient to meet the current demand of grasscutter meat in Nigeria.

Click here to read about Grasscutter feeding and breeding.


Conclusion.

My conclusion is that grasscutter is more lucrative and profitable in Nigeria in terms of business and market; of course I know rabbit are a big business in the agricultural sectors in the developed countries and some part of Belgium, texas and especially California where they were able to raise their GDP in 2005 - 2011 based on exporting processed rabbit furs to other countries for making clothing, shutters, shoes and bags. 

We hope Nigeria will also work to improve rabbit production to the commercial level in the nearest future to come, but currently grasscutter is highly demanded everywhere; the bar, hotels, eateries, laboratories, institute of agriculture, ministry of agriculture, local and modern market and to even cap it all, you can now export grasscutter both in forms of processed meat and live outside Nigeria to other countries where they are in high demand and earn good profits and foreign exchange in return.

 I hope you have been able to distinguish the state of market for the both animals?

If you have any question, you can drop them below and I will surely provide an answer to them all.