Rabbit Farm Business Plan: Meat Rabbits, a First Year

Meat rabbits grow fast and breed fast: a doe can raise several litters a year, and a fryer is ready at about ten to twelve weeks. Feed is most of a fryer's cost. Rabbit isn't covered by USDA's mandatory meat and poultry inspection; it falls under FDA and state rules, and processors can offer voluntary inspection, which restaurants often ask for. The plan turns on feed, the rabbits' housing, and finding cooks who want rabbit on the menu. In the example, a Tennessee rabbitry starts with $14,200, ends its first year about $6,500 ahead before the owner's pay, and makes about $1,000 a month at full speed. Below is each part of the plan, the first year month by month, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the farm in a paragraph: the does, the barn, who buys, the goals.
• Cost each fryer: feed, processing supplies, packaging, the card fee.
• Plan sales by product: direct fryers, restaurants, breeding stock, pet food.
• Check your state's rules for processing and selling rabbit.
• Fryers are ready at ten to twelve weeks: the first sales come fast.
• Feed is the biggest cost: watch its price.
• TaroStack keeps the freezer counted by cut and lot, and each order's lots on record. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Cumberland Hollow Rabbitry, a made-up meat rabbit farm in Crossville, Tennessee, writes:

Cumberland Hollow Rabbitry keeps 40 breeding does near Crossville, selling whole fryers to families at a market and by order, to three restaurants in Knoxville, breeding stock to new raisers, and organs and bones to raw pet food customers. In its first full year it aims to sell about $3,400 a month.

Part 2: what a fryer costs

Restaurant fryers carry a little more for the processor's voluntary inspection fee. Pet food from the farm's organs and bones is sold as pet food under the state's feed rules, in pet food license.

Part 3: the rabbitry, processing and the rules

The does are bred in rotation so fryers come every week. Fryers for the market are processed on the farm under the state's rules for rabbit; the restaurants' fryers go to a small processor with voluntary inspection, because the chefs' buyers ask for it. Freezer stock is labeled with the farm's name, weight and lot, in meat labeling requirements.

Part 4: what each product earns

At full speed the business sells $3,400 a month and keeps $1,790, 52.6%; direct fryers bring $780 of it.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $740 every month: feed for the breeding herd ($300), hay ($80), utilities ($80), market fees ($80), housing upkeep ($60), insurance ($60), and other costs ($80). Sales start at 5% of full speed:

The year's sales are $29,204, and the business ends it $6,487 ahead, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $1,410 of sales a month, in the fourth month. The lowest cash point, −$1,719 in month 3, is covered by the $3,000 of working cash with about $1,300 to spare. The first two months are nearly empty while the first litters grow; by month four, fryers come every week.

Part 6: the startup budget

The $11,200 before working cash is earned back in about 11 months at full speed. Other small livestock are in quail farm business plan and chicken business plan.

Get the template

Download the rabbit farm business plan workbook. Four sheets: your products, each with its price, variable cost and units a month at full speed; the first year, month by month, with sales ramping up, profit, cash, the first profitable month, the lowest cash point and whether the working cash covers it; your fixed costs; and the startup budget. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

The plan uses one litter size and one feed price. Litters vary, summer heat slows the does, and by the end of the month the freezer count and the restaurants' orders don't match.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps the freezer counted by cut and lot, and each order's lots on record.

Each processing a lot. Each trip to the processor comes back as lots of fryers with their dates, received into the freezer by item and weight.

Orders by customer. Shares, market orders and restaurant orders are sales orders, with a picking list and the lots each one took.

Counts in the freezer. The freezer can be counted on a phone with no signal, and what runs short before the next processing date shows in days of cover.

Lots, sales orders and counts are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

How much does it cost to start a rabbit farm?

The example budgets $14,200, including $3,000 of working cash; the cages and feeders is the biggest item.

Is a rabbit farm profitable?

It can be: the example makes about $1,000 a month at full speed before the owner's pay, and ends its first year ahead.

How much does it cost to raise a meat rabbit?

In the example, about $6 of feed and hay for a fryer, and about $11 with processing supplies, the bag and the card fee.

Does rabbit meat need USDA inspection?

Rabbit isn't covered by USDA's mandatory inspection; it falls under FDA and state rules, and processors can offer voluntary inspection, which restaurants often want.