- Joined
- Oct 18, 2021
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What I can tell you personally is that I have had Tamuk, New Zealand and Rex in my barn and the Rex and New Zealand will show signs of heat stress about 8-10 degrees sooner than the Tamuk. I'm talking typical Tamuk vs typical NZ. I deal with very high heat here in west Texas. so far, 3 our of 4 years, my Tamuk bucks have kept their fertility through the summer. They did not last summer, we had 3 continuous weeks of above 110 temps. But I was still able to breed successfully in September. I do not breed intensively all the time as all of my rabbits are in cages and I have no tractors. However, I have occasionally bred back a doe within the first 4 weeks and they have done fine. I believe that 8 litters is possible for good Tamuk does carefully managed. My growth rates are 5 lbs at 8-10 weeks feeding a lot of forage in addition to hay and pellets. Pellets only would tend to lower that to the law end. I am not super intent on the fastest rates as I sell a lot of breeders and I purposely do not feed them as much so to avoid excess internal fat. Not that Tamuk are prone to that, it is simply a integral part of my personal business model. I never, for example, process a doe unless something is wrong with them because the demand is high here relative to the supply.I’ve been doing some research into a heat tolerant breed. It’s been quite hot here in western CO and it seems like Tamuks should be more apt to handle that. Our NZ doe is still panting even when I turn the swamp cooler on. So is the NZW a type of Tamuk or is it something else? I’m definitely interested in the 8 liters per year. I’ve only been doing 6 and we could definitely use the extra meat. Has anyone had success with their Tamuk does doing 8 liters a year? Do tamuks seem to have better growth rates than CAs and NZs?
Thanks for the info!