How many acres of what in zone 8 to feed 100 rabbits?

[GBov]

So, lets play pretend - or we can call it research for next years move :mrgreen: - and say we just got a farm in zone 8 and want to switch all 100 New Zealand rabbits (bucks, does, juniors, fryers, kits and caboodles) to a totally forage diet.

What should be planted to provide year round food? What is easiest and fastest to grow? What is really easy to collect?

 

[Schipperkesue]

No answer...just very envious of your zone 8, being mid winter here in a zone 2. :angry:

 

[Ramjet]

No answer...just very envious of your zone 8, being mid winter here in a zone 2. :angry:

Don't worry , the shoe will be on the other foot in a couple months when we are fighting heat down here .... I'm in zone 9.

Best guess (no idea on the acreage required) but maybe a mix of bermuda (or coastal) , oats & alfalfa ??

Not sure how well oats would do in our summer climates but you could probably grow it in the cooler months

bermuda/coastal & alfalfa are easy to collect pending you have a bailer ... not sure about the oats.

Most pelleted feeds are high in alfalfa , oats and a bunch of fillers ....

 

[ckcs]

2-4 tons of hay per acre is a yield I've read. Guessing grains would be similar.
.5 ounce per lb each day
100 rabbit lets so 1000 lbs total
31.25 lbs per day
5.7 tons per year

so 1.5 to 3 acres of land.

This is just rough guess based on what I've found online.

 

[Homer]

No answer...just very envious of your zone 8, being mid winter here in a zone 2. :angry:

Don't worry , the shoe will be on the other foot in a couple months when we are fighting heat down here .... I'm in zone 9.....

I'm with Schipperkesue and remember Ramjet, "you don't have to shovel heat". (-9 this morning here)

 

[AmysMacdog]

For a 100 rabbits? Wow that would be alotta Dandelions! :shock: And parsley. :shock: :shock:

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Don't forget to add in brambles (blackberries, raspberries), rosebushes, trees like Mulberry, willow, and apple. Also corn plants are good feed, as are sunflowers.

You'll want herbs too. Plus vegis that store well for winter, such as pumpkin, winter squash, mangle beets, cabbage (introduce slowly so they can develop the gut flora to handle it), sweet potatoes, and potatoes. Rabbits love baked potatoes.

 

[Schipperkesue]

So let me get this straight. You are going from a zone 9 to a zone 8? This is sooo out of my realm of comprehension.

Here in Alberta we grow and harvest hay in the summer. Most summers we get two cuts. The hay starts to grow April/Mayish and the last cut is usually off by the end of August, beginning September. Last summer was exceptional. Many farmers got three cuts off their fields. On poor years you are lucky to get one cut because of too much rain or not enough. Our hay is usually made of one or two of the following: brome, timothy and alfalfa.

Can you grow hay year round in a zone 9?!!!

 

[Ramjet]

Can you grow hay year round in a zone 9?!!!

Its possible depending upon rainfall but ... doubtful. Summertime in this heat , everything dries up and dies or stops producing. Even my hydroponic tomatoes quit producing .... plants continued to grow but fruit wont set. 70+ consecutive days of 90+ heat from June thru August .... ugh. I'm not looking forward to it.

Probable to grow spring , fall & winter as we get few lasting freezes..

 

[Schipperkesue]

Ramjet, I guess we all have our weather 'crosses to bear'. I have been in Houston in July and experienced heat like I have never felt before...also, a hurricane! But I will tell you, right now a little 90 degrees wouldn't hurt. Last night it went down to -30C.

 

[michaels4gardens]

I would recomend you get a copy of "raising poultry and rabbits on scraps" by Claude Goodchild, Alan Thompson, Penguin books 1941-- and ,add to the instructions given in there, sweet potato, tops and root, J. Artichoke, seminole pumpkin squash, and "Bac Ha" [no itch] Taro leaf. I raised my own feed in zone 8b [Florida, and Califirnia, ] with no problem, it was mostly collard, Kale varieties [including toscano dino kale], Chicorys,kolhrabi, carrots,[new Kuroda] Sugar beet, and mangle, [roots, stored in a pit or raised clamp, and grass hay [what ever grows well in your area]. I grew all year , and just covered the kale , with a floating frost cover, when it was going to be real cold, but Toscano kale, survived 12 deg with very little damage. I fed 15 Does, and litters, with a 50x100 garden plot [5 foot wide beds, 2 foot isles, intensive gardening] , sweet potato on the outside rows, I had plenty for the rabbits and fed a lot of it to the cow and chickens.

 

[GBov]

See, that's why I love you guys!

 

[Ramjet]

Ramjet, I guess we all have our weather 'crosses to bear'. I have been in Houston in July and experienced heat like I have never felt before...also, a hurricane! But I will tell you, right now a little 90 degrees wouldn't hurt. Last night it went down to -30C.

minus 30C ? I cant even imagine that ... its 30F here and many places are closed because of it.

 

[michaels4gardens]

In zone 8 [if you have lots of space], you might look into growing Perennial Peanut hay, [it is about equal in feed value to alfalfa ,that won't do well in zone 8 either.] if you have a good way to dry it, and store it, it makes great hay for rabbits and about everything else. I lived just Southeast of Gainsville [Orange Springs,- "out in the swamp"]-
-- The picture by my ID is of a harvest of "Seminole Pumpkin" in Orange Springs before I left FL. <br /><br /> __________ Fri Feb 07, 2014 7:41 am __________ <br /><br /> I also learned that squash will not grow well if interplanted with J. Artichoke, --but if your soil is "rich" in nitrogen, , -the "seminole Pumpkin " will do OK if planted with your corn for better use of space. [I wish I had found a companion planting book with this info before a wasted a crop of squash- but-- I guess the book writers can't be expected to know everything]---
-----Make sure that if you plant the "Seminole Pumpkin" you plant it outside of the regular garden area, it is a weed, [tropical squash] and survives in tropical climates by rooting where-ever a joint touches the ground, - with this masive root system it can grow so fast it will out-run the bugs that kill all "normal" squash varieties,[when not sprayed with poison] --as the bugs kill the vines it leaves behind a crop of squash, and the vines just keep spreading till frost. The Seminloe Pumpkin has the eating quality of a butternut, [with a larger seed to flesh ratio], and can keep up to a year sitting on my desk in the house.
--when you harvest the squash look at the stem , where you cut it off, [leaving a couple of inches of stem on the squash]-- if there is a bug hole in the stem, pile those separatly, -- they don't keep as long, -so use those first.