Hi, folks. I’m sorry it’s taken me a long time to get this post together, but you know how it goes, life gets in the way of our best-laid plans sometimes. One detail is that we’ve killed the internet to our house (too much time spent watching bad internet TV and browsing), so I don’t get to use the forums much anymore. I snoop on them on my phone, but it’s a real pain to try to post from the phone.
Anyway, to the important stuff. From mid-February through April, I conducted a little experiment in feeding barley fodder to some of my growouts and one of my brood-does. I was able to pick up non-GMO barley fodder from a nice lady here in Reno for $2/7 pound biscuit, which I considered affordable for the purposes of a trial. No need for me to buy/make equipment and no time investment on my part for the fodder sprouting process. It did mean that I needed a way to store the fodder, as she was only able to supply fresh fodder weekly. I found out that stuffing them into a dorm-sized fridge worked ok, perhaps not ideal because the biscuits looked a little tired by day 4 or 5, but ok.
All of the rabbits involved were American Blue or Blue/White production stock. My lines aren’t quite up to commercial levels, but I do get bunnies to 5 pounds by weeks 9-11, and lots of them. First, to summarize the brood-doe trial. Bonnie transitioned willingly to the fodder, but I ended up switching her back to her normal diet of pellets and alfalfa after about 10 days on fodder, alfalfa, black oil sunflower seeds, and salt block. She seemed ravenous all the time, and nothing I was feeding her seemed to satisfy her. I had intended to have her kindle and raise a litter on fodder, but I lost my nerve and gave up. She has since kindled a new litter of 9 (first 10 days of gestation were fodder-fed) and all are doing great.
For the grow-outs, there were two litters of the same age, one of which was split to fodder and pasture groups, and the other to fodder, pellets (I feed a 17% protein pellet), and pasture. I of course couldn’t track individual feed consumption with them in group cages, but I did track the weight of fodder and pellets offered per day. Hay was not tracked, nor was the black oil sunflower fed to the fodder rabbits. Only the fodder rabbits got salt supplements. I did not track any of the feeds offered to the pastured rabbits (in general, they get about ½ the pellets of caged rabbits), only their weights. Weights were recorded every few weeks.
Lots of caveats to this experiment… I started out with nicely balanced groups, of 4 to 5 rabbits in each category. However, I quickly started losing rabbits, not to death but to sales! For reasons I still can’t figure out, I had unprecedented interest in my Craigslist ads this time around, and I ended up selling 13 out of the original 22 rabbits from these two litters. And of course, the biggest, nicest rabbits left first so I can’t guarantee that the growth patterns would be the same if all of the rabbits made it all of the way through. But by butchering day I did have at least a few in each group left, so hopefully they are representative of their siblings.
First, some observations. All of the rabbits had been given fodder while still with their mothers, and seem to transition without problems to a fodder or pellets or pasture diet. However, I quickly learned that the amount of fodder recommended for rabbits (and most animals) did not satisfy them. I had read that 4-6% of bodyweight should be more than enough. I soon was at least doubling that, and still the bunnies would be begging for more by afternoon (I feed only in the mornings usually). The fodder rabbits were also going through their hay much more quickly, and soon I was filling their hay racks twice a day instead of only once. In general, the fodder rabbits always seemed hungry. A good side effect, however, was how little water they needed. During freezing time in Reno I was filling water bowls twice a day and even then worrying about dehydration; I soon stopped worrying about that with the fodder rabbits. Finally, handling the fodder took a good deal of time. I would pull it from the fridge, cut out pieces and weigh them, clean up the spilled bits of fodder so mice didn’t take over the garage where the fridge is, and then finally deliver them. I settled on metal bread loaf pans as handy fodder feeding vessels. It was a lot more handling time than what is needed to scoop pellets from my conveniently placed bin in the rabbitry.
Ok, blah blah blah, so what did I find out as far as meat rabbit performance? Well, best I could tell, growth rates were pretty much the same between all groups. As you can see in the graph below, the slope of the weight gain trajectories didn’t seem to differ between any of them (weight trajectories that end early are rabbits that were sold part of the way through the experiment). Dress-out when butchered wasn’t different, and I couldn’t see any difference in carcasses between any of the caged rabbits. As usual, the pastured rabbits were noticeably leaner than anyone in cages. Taste differences are still to be determined, but I do not expect to be able to tell them apart after cooking.
What about costs? Well, that’s a bit tricky again because all of the rabbits getting sold part of the way through. But when I break it down to average feed costs per rabbit per day, I don’t see a huge amount of difference between cash for fodder (blue line in the attached graph) and cash for pellets (green line). Most of the time it was slightly more expensive to feed fodder. Note that this does NOT incorporate costs of the sunflower seeds (only fed to fodder rabbits) or hay, or any of the labor. However, it might not be fair to compare the conventional 17% pellet diet to the fancy non-GMO fodder diet. If I substitute the price for Modesto Mills organic pellets (red line), I find that the fodder diet is always cheaper than that.
My final thoughts… I don’t think that fodder is worth dealing with in spring, summer, and fall, when I have unlimited pasture available. It might be worth trying again next winter, when I am again dealing with freezing drinking water (unless I finally get my act together and put in a fully frost-proof automatic water system) and perhaps slow growth in the grow-outs due to dehydration. It might be particularly valuable as a nutritious green feed at a time of year when green feed is not otherwise available. In the other seasons, I not only have pasture but also tons of willow, apple, rose, plantain, dock, dandelion, etc. to feed as a supplement/ration replacement. I did not see any of the purported health benefits among the fodder rabbits, but I also did not see any health problems. However, remember that I chickened out and put my breeding doe back on pellets because of signs that she was not happy on fodder. The labor involved in just feeding fodder was greater than pellets, and even more than pasturing. This would only get worse if I were growing the fodder myself. But presumably, growing the fodder myself would result in much lower costs per biscuit. It is possible that a blend of fodder different from straight barley would lead to better growth, and it’s also possible that feeding not the freshest fodder also impacted my results. I saw serious mold in the stored fodder only once during the trial, and I didn’t feed any of that biscuit. That fodder went to our chickens, who greatly appreciated any leftovers (but whose laying habits and general health did not seem to change when eating lots of fodder).
I hope this report is helpful to folks who might be considering raising meat rabbits on fodder. I would advise you to run your own trials with your own rabbits, especially if you can get fodder grown by someone else so that you do not have to invest in the equipment until you know it’s worth it to you. It’s quite possible that other rabbits, in other systems, might do better on fodder than mine did. Again, my fryers got by just fine, but they didn’t stand out as doing any better than the conventionally raised rabbits.
- Jessi
Anyway, to the important stuff. From mid-February through April, I conducted a little experiment in feeding barley fodder to some of my growouts and one of my brood-does. I was able to pick up non-GMO barley fodder from a nice lady here in Reno for $2/7 pound biscuit, which I considered affordable for the purposes of a trial. No need for me to buy/make equipment and no time investment on my part for the fodder sprouting process. It did mean that I needed a way to store the fodder, as she was only able to supply fresh fodder weekly. I found out that stuffing them into a dorm-sized fridge worked ok, perhaps not ideal because the biscuits looked a little tired by day 4 or 5, but ok.
All of the rabbits involved were American Blue or Blue/White production stock. My lines aren’t quite up to commercial levels, but I do get bunnies to 5 pounds by weeks 9-11, and lots of them. First, to summarize the brood-doe trial. Bonnie transitioned willingly to the fodder, but I ended up switching her back to her normal diet of pellets and alfalfa after about 10 days on fodder, alfalfa, black oil sunflower seeds, and salt block. She seemed ravenous all the time, and nothing I was feeding her seemed to satisfy her. I had intended to have her kindle and raise a litter on fodder, but I lost my nerve and gave up. She has since kindled a new litter of 9 (first 10 days of gestation were fodder-fed) and all are doing great.
For the grow-outs, there were two litters of the same age, one of which was split to fodder and pasture groups, and the other to fodder, pellets (I feed a 17% protein pellet), and pasture. I of course couldn’t track individual feed consumption with them in group cages, but I did track the weight of fodder and pellets offered per day. Hay was not tracked, nor was the black oil sunflower fed to the fodder rabbits. Only the fodder rabbits got salt supplements. I did not track any of the feeds offered to the pastured rabbits (in general, they get about ½ the pellets of caged rabbits), only their weights. Weights were recorded every few weeks.
Lots of caveats to this experiment… I started out with nicely balanced groups, of 4 to 5 rabbits in each category. However, I quickly started losing rabbits, not to death but to sales! For reasons I still can’t figure out, I had unprecedented interest in my Craigslist ads this time around, and I ended up selling 13 out of the original 22 rabbits from these two litters. And of course, the biggest, nicest rabbits left first so I can’t guarantee that the growth patterns would be the same if all of the rabbits made it all of the way through. But by butchering day I did have at least a few in each group left, so hopefully they are representative of their siblings.
First, some observations. All of the rabbits had been given fodder while still with their mothers, and seem to transition without problems to a fodder or pellets or pasture diet. However, I quickly learned that the amount of fodder recommended for rabbits (and most animals) did not satisfy them. I had read that 4-6% of bodyweight should be more than enough. I soon was at least doubling that, and still the bunnies would be begging for more by afternoon (I feed only in the mornings usually). The fodder rabbits were also going through their hay much more quickly, and soon I was filling their hay racks twice a day instead of only once. In general, the fodder rabbits always seemed hungry. A good side effect, however, was how little water they needed. During freezing time in Reno I was filling water bowls twice a day and even then worrying about dehydration; I soon stopped worrying about that with the fodder rabbits. Finally, handling the fodder took a good deal of time. I would pull it from the fridge, cut out pieces and weigh them, clean up the spilled bits of fodder so mice didn’t take over the garage where the fridge is, and then finally deliver them. I settled on metal bread loaf pans as handy fodder feeding vessels. It was a lot more handling time than what is needed to scoop pellets from my conveniently placed bin in the rabbitry.
Ok, blah blah blah, so what did I find out as far as meat rabbit performance? Well, best I could tell, growth rates were pretty much the same between all groups. As you can see in the graph below, the slope of the weight gain trajectories didn’t seem to differ between any of them (weight trajectories that end early are rabbits that were sold part of the way through the experiment). Dress-out when butchered wasn’t different, and I couldn’t see any difference in carcasses between any of the caged rabbits. As usual, the pastured rabbits were noticeably leaner than anyone in cages. Taste differences are still to be determined, but I do not expect to be able to tell them apart after cooking.
What about costs? Well, that’s a bit tricky again because all of the rabbits getting sold part of the way through. But when I break it down to average feed costs per rabbit per day, I don’t see a huge amount of difference between cash for fodder (blue line in the attached graph) and cash for pellets (green line). Most of the time it was slightly more expensive to feed fodder. Note that this does NOT incorporate costs of the sunflower seeds (only fed to fodder rabbits) or hay, or any of the labor. However, it might not be fair to compare the conventional 17% pellet diet to the fancy non-GMO fodder diet. If I substitute the price for Modesto Mills organic pellets (red line), I find that the fodder diet is always cheaper than that.
My final thoughts… I don’t think that fodder is worth dealing with in spring, summer, and fall, when I have unlimited pasture available. It might be worth trying again next winter, when I am again dealing with freezing drinking water (unless I finally get my act together and put in a fully frost-proof automatic water system) and perhaps slow growth in the grow-outs due to dehydration. It might be particularly valuable as a nutritious green feed at a time of year when green feed is not otherwise available. In the other seasons, I not only have pasture but also tons of willow, apple, rose, plantain, dock, dandelion, etc. to feed as a supplement/ration replacement. I did not see any of the purported health benefits among the fodder rabbits, but I also did not see any health problems. However, remember that I chickened out and put my breeding doe back on pellets because of signs that she was not happy on fodder. The labor involved in just feeding fodder was greater than pellets, and even more than pasturing. This would only get worse if I were growing the fodder myself. But presumably, growing the fodder myself would result in much lower costs per biscuit. It is possible that a blend of fodder different from straight barley would lead to better growth, and it’s also possible that feeding not the freshest fodder also impacted my results. I saw serious mold in the stored fodder only once during the trial, and I didn’t feed any of that biscuit. That fodder went to our chickens, who greatly appreciated any leftovers (but whose laying habits and general health did not seem to change when eating lots of fodder).
I hope this report is helpful to folks who might be considering raising meat rabbits on fodder. I would advise you to run your own trials with your own rabbits, especially if you can get fodder grown by someone else so that you do not have to invest in the equipment until you know it’s worth it to you. It’s quite possible that other rabbits, in other systems, might do better on fodder than mine did. Again, my fryers got by just fine, but they didn’t stand out as doing any better than the conventionally raised rabbits.
- Jessi
