I was surprised when I got a notification, as I'd entirely forgot about this thread and actually haven't kept rabbits now for over a year.
But in fact, part of why we quit the project was because of related issues. After experiencing some disheartening health and welfare problems traced to having our herd in too small confinement, we became convinced that outdoor raising was the only ethically acceptible way to go. The trouble was, though undeniably happier outdoors, our stock often proved prone to some kind of liver parasite when grazing, which left us in a bit of a bind. So long story short we now have a pastured dual pirpose flock of Dominique chickens "instead"--which grow at a comparable rate, eat little commercial feed (compared to other breeds) because they graze and forage and eat farm surpluses a lot and have thrifty genetics generally, don't chew or dig out of their conveniently cheap, flimsy portable net fencing, and also give us top notch eggs yearound to boot. And in my entirely subjective opinion, taste better than rabbit.
Anyhow, though, a few of my thoughts on this:
I've seen the vid and as mentioned before, read thru some of her reports and notes. I totally admire this woman's intelligence and commitment to pioneering a more humane and sustainable system than the current "standard practice", if you will, of close confinement on wire flooring, and high input feeding.
I would just advise leeriness in making simplistic assumptions about something like this across the board "reducing workload and costs." mob grazing management (which it seems this essentially is) is usually actually quite labor intensive (to wit, she is moving her fencing and all those cart-nesting-houses every 30-36 hours, apparently, rain or shine)--DIFFERENT labor, of course, and plenty of people wouldn't trade it for anything, but labor/time nonetheless. Also, don't forget she had to apply for (multiple, I think?) grants to pay for everything (I guess all that hardware shown would cost a few thousand dollars just to build off her now already developed design).
And then there is the issue of breeding stock, and trying to develop a strain that is capable of thriving in that sort of environment, which modern meat rabbits are totally not adapted for (hence, I would imagine, her horrific rates of kit mortality, and perhaps the need to "artificially" limit the litters per year to a more "natural," or perhaps I should say, "more wild-type", rate of reproduction.
Big kudos though to her for taking cuniculture in a progressive direction, and for allowing others to learn from her efforts. This sort of pioneering on that kind of scale is not for the faint of heart, shall we say...
Don't take this the wrong way, but...
for now though, we on our farm will be sticking to raising OTHER animal species ALREADY WELL ADAPTED to the pastured life--that, for us, is proving the more pragmatic and direct route to the broader goal of humane and efficient food production...
:gnight: