Nichki Carangelo - Raising Pastured Rabbits for Meat: An All-Natural, Humane, and Profitable Approach to Production on a Small Scale

PRAISE FORRAISING PASTURED RABBITS FOR MEAT

Nichki Carangelos Raising Pastured Rabbits for Meat is like a long chat with a warm and generous friend whos sharing advice based on her own experience, hard won from both her successes and her mistakes (which you wont have to repeat). Her approach is pragmatic and flexible, never doctrinaire. Perhaps her best advice is to avoid rabbit monoculturing, which is only likely to succeed at an unattainably large scale, and instead to make your rabbit marketing venture an integral part of a diverse and adaptable small farm.

Harvey Ussery , author of The Small-Scale Poultry Flock

Raising Pastured Rabbits for Meat covers some of the ups and downs of a rabbit-raising start-up, as well as the emotions and real-life mistakes tied to starting a farm. Overall its a well thought out introduction to pasture-based rabbit production for beginners.

Daniel Salatin , Polyface Farm

Theyre cute, fluffy, and one of the worlds most sustainable sources of meat. Yes, rabbits can make an excellent food source and income stream for a diversified family farm or homestead. Farmer and author Nichki Carangelo clearly lays out the essentials you need to start, manage, and grow a meat rabbit business in a way that not only generates income but also treats the animals humanely. There isnt another book out there like this on the subject.

Rebecca Thistlethwaite , author of The New Livestock Farmer

As a rabbit farmer and chef who prizes rabbit as a heritage ingredient, Ive been encouraged to see more farmers, cooks, and consumers rediscovering the benefits of pastured rabbit in recent years. With this book Carangelo provides a growing community of small-scale producers with an essential road map for the journey of launching a small rabbitry into a successful business and long-lasting, nourishing resource.

Mike Costello , chef and farmer, Lost Creek Farm

RAISINGPASTURED RABBITSFOR MEAT

An All-Natural, Humane, and Profitable Approach to Production on a Small Scale

NICHKI CARANGELO

Chelsea Green Publishing

White River Junction, Vermont

London, UK

Copyright 2019 by Nichki Carangelo.

All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all photographs copyright 2019 by Christine Ashburn.

Unless otherwise noted, all illustrations copyright 2019 by Elara Tanguy.

No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Editor: Makenna Goodman

Project Manager: Sarah Kovach

Copy Editor: Laura Jorstad

Proofreader: Nancy A. Crompton

Indexer: Shana Milkie

Designer: Melissa Jacobson

Page Composition: Abrah Griggs

Printed in the United States of America.

First printing November 2019.

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Our Commitment to Green Publishing

Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise in the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because it was printed on paper from responsibly managed forests and we hope youll agree that its worth it. Raising Pastured Rabbits for Meat was printed on paper supplied by Versa Press that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Carangelo, Nichki, author.

Title: Raising pastured rabbits for meat : an all-natural, humane, and profitable approach to production on a small scale / Nichki Carangelo.

Description: White River Junction, Vermont : Chelsea Green Publishing, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019030635 (print) | LCCN 2019030636 (ebook) |

ISBN 9781603588324 (paperback) | ISBN 9781603588331 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Rabbits. | Pasture animals. | Rabbit meat.

Classification: LCC SF453 .C37 2019 (print) | LCC SF453 (ebook) | DDC 636.932/2--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019030635

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019030636

Chelsea Green Publishing

85 North Main Street, Suite 120

White River Junction, VT 05001

(802) 295-6300

www.chelseagreen.com

CONTENTS

I owe a lot of my farming career to Polyface Farms Joel Salatin, the author of Pastured Poultry Profits , or maybe to a woman named Amy who gifted me her worn-out copy of his book. This was eight years ago, when I was on the first leg of what proved to be my very short training period in commercial farming. With less than one years experience behind meand virtually none with raising chickensmy then partner (now husband) Laszlo and I went for it and ordered 100 chicks to raise on our friend Kingsleys nearby rocky pastures.

We had no money, no markets, and no land. To be honest, we didnt have any reason to think we would ever have the resources to own our own farm. What we had instead was energy and the indestructible drive to work that I find most beginning farmers have in common. We were loaned those rocky pastures for two whole years, which provided us a place to put that energy while we got our education and found our farming team. As time passed the rest of our vision became clearer, and we slowly ground away building our diversified dreamscape one season at a time.

Starting a small, low-risk enterprise kept us safe while still giving us skin in the game. It encouraged us to make moves toward our long-term goals: to name our business, to open a new bank account, and to comb through land access listings all over the Northeast. Most important, it gave us a reason not to quit when things got hard. Never underestimate the combined power of commitment and momentum; in my humble opinion, these are the two most important factors in any start-up farm.

Our baby broiler enterprise rewarded us emotionally andthanks to Mr. Salatins thoughtful animal husbandry guidelines and clear enterprise budgetsfinancially. The success of our first batch made us excited to get another, and the success of that one made us get more still. We now raise 3,000 pastured meat birds a yearall in addition to around 30 heritage hogs, 400 laying hens, and 500 rabbits. This is a life we couldnt have even imagined back when we ordered those first hundred fluffy yellow chicks.

Salatins Pastured Poultry Profits outlines a system that is realistic and functional. Most important, it makes sure to take good care of the animals and the farmers. It saved us countless years of trial and error, and it reliably produced the results it promised. A guide this good in farming is a treasure, and we were lucky to have it during those fragile early years when failure and frustration can be so prevalent. And while Salatins book has been our bible for raising chickens, we didnt have a good resource to turn to on raising rabbits. Through my own experimentation and research, I am writing the book I wish Id had when I started off.

Having officially landed on our farm six years agoland we hope to be farming for the rest of our livesweve been working out the kinks and fine-tuning our operation. Were not complete beginners, but were early enough in our careers that the freshness of being a beginner is still there. And while weve made a ton of mistakes, thankfully we have also made many improvements, and have since developed a rabbit production system that is at once humane, profitable (for farming, anyway), and replicable. While this guide does not claim to offer information as in depth as Salatin has done for poultry, I write it with the hope that it will save you time, money, andmost importantthat precious, precious energy that drives us farmers forward.