RABBIT FARMING

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21412, 2 March 1935, Page 8

RABBIT FARMING

MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS (By Rex.) The value of the rabbit farmer's work is entirely dependent on the income he can derive from the Angora wool he produces, consequently it is absolutely imperative for him to pay the most careful attention to the harvesting of this valuable commodity. The first essential to a complete rabbitry is a suitable shearing room or shed. Particularly should it be a room that can be kept clean and used for no other purpose. Many rabbit farmers seem to think that any old corner of the rabbitry will do and shearing is usually carried out in the food-store or around the hay rack. As a result of this the shorn wool gets badly mixed with hay and bran, and consequently it loses the bulk of its value. The writer has actually seen instances of the shearer working in the rabbitry, adjoining the owner who is at the time feeding his stock with some very loose hay, with the result that, with a fairly keen wind blowing, there was more hay in the wool box than wool itself. I would suggest, for shearing, a place that the wind cannot regrade the wool after it is graded by the shearer. In the shearing room should be a fair-sized table or bench for preference, not a grooming stool, with sufficient room to hold boxes at the back for the various grades of wool, and leave plenty of space in the front to shear the rabbit and grade the wool. Many farmers attempt to shear on a small grooming stool, but this is only asking for trouble for no matter how careful the shearer may be some of the wool must fall to the floor and consequently lose its high value. In any event the rabbit has only to kick once and all the beautiful shorn wool i s scattered to the four corners of the rabbitry Angora wool always looks better if \ ls <?°- , handl ed too much. According to official graders some of the wool sent to the central depot looks as if it had been through a washing machine and then spread out on the floor to ary. borne is even worse than that, for according to the graders it would give the impression that it had been used for a cushion a month or so before it was decided to sell it *v, A t l 'i ab^ t farmers should remember that the less handling the wool gets fl Jt I s . cll PPed the better, Imd further, it is not advsable to keep the wool too long after clipping thinking that perhaps the price will rise, for! very often if this is done the moths will get the wool.

Again, one should not be in too much hurry to shear the Angora The income depends on the success of the shearing, so to hurry over this work of the rabbitry is folly. Clipping and grading is quite an easy occupation, but at the same time it must be mastered the same as any other work. One of the greatest difficulties to contend with m the Angora world is that the people who have never taken the trouble to learn the art of shearing and grading or, in fact, have never seen a demonstration, try to shear their own rabbits, with the result that the £»t°J 7r . m , arkct . is a very bad ««« e V», Not k po the true position they are the first to complain of prices. iJrt «?£ clusio , n U j 3hould be emphasised that wool under one and a half i^Kl ?n I ? nßth is of no us e whatever whli ?* a - 1S V PP i ies t0 matted wool, which, if m the form of small, hard lumps is only fit for burning. Every rabbit farmer should therefore concentrate first on mastering the art of shearing and grading. ot The secretary of the New Zealand Angora Wool Producers' Federation, Inc., wishes to advise all suppliers and members that the new offices of are now at 183 Cashel street, Christchurch. Breeders are asked to forward their supplies of Angora wool to this new address.