Western Australia's only commercial rabbit farmer says he has managed to stay in the industry by using rabbit poo as a by-product.

Baldivis Rabbits has been in business for 27 years, producing rabbits to sell for meat.

Once in competition with more than 100 other producers, the business is now one of only three in Australia and, for the better part of a decade, has been the sole commercial rabbit meat producer in Western Australia.

Other producers have left the industry, struggling to make a profit.

Baldivis Rabbit owners Gerrit and Francien van der Sluys said along with the niche market for meat, other things that led to the industry's demise were high input costs, intensive workload and the loss of market selling rabbit skins to Akubra.

But throughout it all, they have managed to survive.

Poo and worms a means of survival

Mr van der Sluys said that was thanks to worms and rabbit poo.

"What we do is the worms underneath the cages, they go into the [rabbit] manure," he said.

"Then the worm casting we sell off. We liquefy the worm casting and we sell it to the broad acre farmers."

He said they sold about 100,000 litres a year.

Gerrit and Francien van der Sluys say establishing the business has been hard going, but they will never leave it. ( ABC Rural: Tyne Logan )

Mr van der Sluys said the business would not have been able to survive in the rabbit meat industry if it was not using the poo as a by-product.

"Farming today, you have diversify yourselves. You cannot rely on one product," he said.

"Because if you rely on one product, like people did in the past by only relying on breeding stocks, then people start falling off the perch because they cannot make an income."

The benefits of rabbit manure are well documented and praised by gardening gurus for its high nitrogen and phosphorus content.

Mr van der Sluys said the business supplied rabbit meat to the majority of the Western Australia market, selling to restaurants and butchers.

But he said even with the market demanding 500-600 rabbits a week, and hardly any competition, they were still struggling to make money.

The van der Sluys sell about 100,000 litres of liquefied worm casting per year. ( ABC Rural: Tyne Logan )

"The cost for the vaccination is about $7.50 per shot and when you do that three times a year per doe, there's not much money left over," he said.

"The food costs, we pay roughly $700 a tonne and we pump through roughly 9.5 tonne every 10 days, and then you're looking at all the other costs: electricity, cooling, it all adds up.

"It pays the bills, but it's not making me rich."

A rabbit sells for about $25 in butcher shops.

Mr van der Sluys maintains a strict biosecurity protocol on his farm. ( ABC Rural: Tyne Logan )

Keeping calicivirus out

The risk of disease such as calicivirus has prompted the family to introduce drastic biosecurity measures.

No-one except for health inspectors and abattoir inspectors are allowed into the sheds

"We had a bad experience. That time the person brought rabbits in and then we got hit with the calici, because he did not vaccinate his rabbits," Mr va der Sluys said.

"We were lucky because we vaccinated our breeding stock, but we lost a lot of growers."

Mr van der Sluys said it had been hard going, but he was never going to leave.

"It's like a little baby. You've been growing it up for 27 years, he's turned out to be a big asshole, but you still love him," he said.

"And maybe after 28 years he wakes up and says 'Hey, I'll start changing, I'll be a better person'."