MATHEMATICAL MODELS OF FEED CONSUMPTION AND LIVE WEIGHT GAIN OF YOUNG RABBITS GROWТ IN A TECHNOLOGICAL MODULE
By 2020, the volume of the rabbit meat market in the Russian Federation has grown to 20 thousand tons. In the total production structure, the population households with a large share of manual labour occupy above 88%. The unsatisfied demand for rabbit meat in Russia exceeds 300 thousand tons per year that is equal to about 2 to 2.5 kg per a country’s resident. The current level of rabbit meat consumption in this country is 0,009 kg per person per year, whereas in the European countries it reaches 2 kg per person per year. Development of technological modules for rabbit housing and growing is currently a promising direction due to the lack of technical, technological and planning solutions for the small-scale production of rabbit meat. The mathematical models obtained allow determining the amount of feed and the live weight gain of young animals depending on their housing period in a technological module with the controlled microclimate. Accurate estimation of these indicators is very important for the farm to earn the final profit from the sale of the end products since the feed purchases account for above 70% of the total production costs. The created mathematical models allow giving early warning of deviations in feed consumption and the live weight gain of young animals at any point in the rabbit breeding cycle and taking timely measures to rectify the identified non-compliance. This would help to prevent overspending of production resources and to increase the profitability of the rabbit breeding farm.