Effects of feeding regime and fattening season on performance and production efficiency of small-scale rabbit farms

Five small scale family farms with rabbits of local breed were included in the study. Two groups of rabbits per farm were fattened during summer and winter seasons. One group was fed in usual way with feeds produced in farm consisted mainly of alfalfa dry or fresh depending on seson and family residues. The feeding of the other group was daily supplemented with 25 g concentrate feedstuffs(17% protein) bought in the market. Supplementation with concentrate feedstuffs showed to improve meat production from rabbits in both seasons. Live weight at the end of fattening was increased with 210 g and 360 g respectively during winter and summer season. The factors that affect the differences in live weight realized were feeding regime, sex of rabbit (P 0.001) and season of fattening (P 0.01). Approaching growth curves with theoretical one of Gomperz showed that concentrate adding in feed ration improved daily weight gain. It did not affect the dynamics of body weight change. It affects the gradient of quantity of daily gains of rabbits. Concentrate supplementation of daily feeding during fattening period increased up to 15 % the meat production as well as net income of the farm