Our first fall litter had their 8 week weighing this week and were our best so far. Looking at my records I see that last year the fall litters also did well. (The slowest growers were the ones born mid-summer so this year we bred for litters March through May and then took a break and bred again for litters born at the end of August and start of September) Because we feed our meat mutts without using pellets, the feed changes considerably through the seasons. The main difference for fall is that they get root crops--turnips, potatoes, carrots, and parsnips. I tried growing sugar beets this year to feed late winter through spring but they didn't sprout. And the Jerusalem artichokes that we were trying to get rid of (unsuccessfully) before we got rabbits have dwindled since we cut the tops too persistently for green feed so I haven't had roots to feed.
So my question is what wild roots I could feed in the spring. I was thinking of daylily (hemerocallis) which grow wild along field and road edges and of cattail (typha) which are proliferating in ponds and ditches. I know both are supposed to be edible for people but haven't ever tried them. We have fed the young shoots and leaves of both to the rabbits--the cattails were preferred but perhaps that was because they only got quite small amounts of them. Does anyone here have experience with feeding the roots of either?
So my question is what wild roots I could feed in the spring. I was thinking of daylily (hemerocallis) which grow wild along field and road edges and of cattail (typha) which are proliferating in ponds and ditches. I know both are supposed to be edible for people but haven't ever tried them. We have fed the young shoots and leaves of both to the rabbits--the cattails were preferred but perhaps that was because they only got quite small amounts of them. Does anyone here have experience with feeding the roots of either?