I have gotten into raising meat rabbits. Right now I have meat mutts (I think I was told they are new zealand, rex, Californian, maybe). So, it's a great start in the world of meat rabbits. The thing is, I want the breeds of rabbits I keep in the barn to be able to produce rabbits I can have available for 4h and ffa, so meaning they need to be pure bred. My dream is to get silver foxes, but none are around me and it's very rare a transport comes through my area. Other option are standard rexes, but same issue. I have someone local getting rid of pure new zealands, 2 bucks and 2 does, 2 are white, one looks like a broken red, and the other is a steel tipped black. My knowledge on new Zealands are close to nothing, other then they are good for meat. I'm going to dig out my standard of perfection, but right now I'm not sure where I stuck it. So, now the questions.
What colors are showable or preferred? And are they worth raising for meat and options for the kids in the community? Should I just wait till I find something I really want to work with?
Based on my experiences breeding/showing/selling meat rabbits to 4Hers for years, I'll offer some responses to your questions...
If you have your heart set on another breed, you can always grab these, learn about the breed and possibly sell some bunnies and make connections with the 4Hers and FFAers in your area, then sell (or eat) them all when/if your dream rabbits become available.
Well-bred New Zealands can be great for meat, but like all other breeds, their quality depends on whether their breeder was selecting for meat characteristics. So there's that. All rabbits are meat, and crossbreeds can be great, but well-bred NZs can knock your socks off in terms of feed conversion, growth rates and muscle tone. I would suggest trying to find someone who knows meat breed conformation to take a look at them. You can also inquire of the seller if he/she has shown the rabbits and how they did.
As far as selling to 4H and FFA members, everywhere I've been there has been a high demand for quality Californians and New Zealands for meat pens. There are many good meat breeds, but those two are generally the most competitive and sought-after. Silver Fox is kind of a "breed of the moment," and their quality is increasing as more breeders work on them, but in my experience they don't tend to be especially competitive in meat classes. Other breeds
can be competititve - our Satins won 1st, 2nd and 3rd place meat pens, 1st place single fryer and 1st place baker in both Open and 4H last year against Californians, Rex and Silver fox - but the gold standard generally tends to be cals and NZs.
If 4H/FFAers are looking for rabbits for breed competition rather than meat shows, of course, any breed will do, and if Silver Fox is desireable in your community you might find a market for them among the kids. But I think you could do well if the NZs under consideration are capable of producing show quality bunnies.
New Zealands are accepted for show in white, black, red, blue, and broken in those three colors. The steel would make me wonder a bit about the rabbits you're considering. It's true that when you cross a New Zealand white with another color, all kinds of varieties can pop out, but steel can be a real bugaboo, resulting in many non-showable kits in your litters.
If you buy the 4 rabbits described, hopefully the whites are a male and a female. You'd want to breed them together, and breed the steel to a white, keeping only the whites that result. Then if you breed white x white, you'll get all white kits, which tends to be the most common/preferred meat pen variety: since uniformity is so important in a meat pen, not worrying about color is nice. You'd need to keep pedigrees and make sure that buyers know that there is steel in the mix.
Regarding the broken red, I would definitely
not breed it to the steel: you'll get a bunch of agoutis and steels, none of which will be showable. And unless the whites have red in their background, if you breed white x broken red, you'll probably get chestnuts/broken chestnuts. Those also are unshowable. To get back to the red, you'd need to keep a chestnut to breed back to the red, and hope to get a few reds out of that. It might take a while to get a good, consistent shade of red, since good red color involves "rufus factors" that add up over generations.
Long story short, for best color you want to breed white x white and red x red.
When you find your SOP, as well as looking at the NZ standard, check out the meat class judging rubrics on pages 38-40.
