Raising rabbits for meat is a different type of farming venture.
Two thousand rabbits a year are bred in Knockanure in County Kerry on the farm of Betty Budd.
Miss Budd's farm produces more than two thousand rabbits a year for the table.
On average, she keeps around 500 live rabbits. The rabbits are fed with high protein pellets at a cost of around £37 a tonne.
At two other rabbit farms in Connemara and Donegal, the main breeds are New Zealand Whites and Californians. Both these breeds grow fast and big and take eight to ten weeks to get ready for market. It is estimated that each doe will produce three litters a year having about 80 young. Around half of the young rabbits produced in Ireland die. Changing temperatures cause the high mortality rate.
According to the British Rabbit Council, a doe with three yearly litters will create a profit of five pounds.
A breeder with 200 does, for example, could make a thousand pounds.
The economic conditions for selling rabbits in Ireland are uncertain but people involved in rabbit farming believe that a good income can be made from broilers at about three and six pence a pound.
This would make the price of a dressed rabbit ten shillings.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 4 September 1963.
