A lot of folks breeding meat buns also sell the fur afterwards. Frequently, angoras are bred into the meat rabbits to increase the wool density and create better fur. It takes two recessive long wool genes from the angoras for the long wool to actually show up.
That means on a first gen cross, the meat rabbit x angora cross won't show the long wool. Their offspring will each have a gene for long wool, though. As far as I know or can tell, there's loads of modifiers on the long wool gene which have to do with coat structure. A full angora coat will have various coat structures depending on the type of angora they are, those modifiers are usually lost when bred to a non-angora. At least, for the first few generations.
Which, from the ones I've seen, results in a long wooled rabbit that is likely to mat easily. Folks have brought me a couple of those long wooled meat rabbits since we breed angoras. All the ones I've met have had incomplete angora coats and required a lot more maintenance although they did have the long wool. But, I've only met a few of these crosses so perhaps your rabbits have better coats.
Woolly rabbit x woolly rabbit = 100% woolly rabbits.
Woolly rabbit x non-woolly rabbit = zero woolly rabbits
but all offspring are able to sire woolly offspring. These are the ones which create the 'surprises' when two of them are bred together.
Even breeding angora to angora can screw up the coat structure. This is Iris, a 'hybrid' English, Satin & German angora:
See how he has mats in his coat? As a hybrid angora, he needs much more grooming than the other angoras around here which are pure English angoras.
This is Daisy, she's a pure English angora and needs almost zero grooming between haircuts, although that's a criteria we've been selecting for the past few years:
But, the various types of bunnies got to this point by breeding, so keep breeding your long haired meat rabbits and maybe you'll get an easy to maintain triple purpose bunny! (Meat, hides & wool)
