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Rabbit Tractor for Grow Outs

Josh Hoffman

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Location: Louisville, MS. Flirting with 8B

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posted 8 months ago

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Do any of you tractor your grow outs?

Currently my go to rabbit reference is " Raising Pastured Rabbits For Meat" by Carangelo. She also advocates grow out tractors, in a different way and style than the video. I have kept everyone on wire so far. I will continue to keep the breeders on wire, being more convinced by the book verses the video on that issue.

I have a limited breeding season here because of the heat but I think 1/2 or at least 1/3 of my grow outs could be going on grass when it starts growing so I wanted to get any feedback/experience you have on rabbit grow out tractors, the good/bad/ugly.

"The genius of American farm experts is very well demonstrated here: they can take a solution and divide it neatly into two problems." -Wendell Berry

R Scott

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posted 8 months ago

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We tried it at our old place

Pros: saves a LOT on feed. The rabbits seem happier, although that might be seeing what I wanted to see.

Cons: escapees. We tried lots of styles of floors and didn’t like any of them. Our favorite was to use chain link fence laid flat a foot around the outside of the pen. It was problematic on rough ground or if you didn’t move it often enough.

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Josh Hoffman

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posted 8 months ago

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R Scott wrote:We tried it at our old place

Pros: saves a LOT on feed. The rabbits seem happier, although that might be seeing what I wanted to see.

Cons: escapees. We tried lots of styles of floors and didn’t like any of them. Our favorite was to use chain link fence laid flat a foot around the outside of the pen. It was problematic on rough ground or if you didn’t move it often enough.

In the video, she has about a 4" strip or wire around the perimeter on the inside. She says they always try to dig out at the perimeter.

In the book I referenced under the video, she uses 2x4 welded wire across the entire bottom of the tractors and says it does not affect the rabbits ability to get at the grass.

Did you ever try all the way across the bottom? I like the chain link idea and I bet it is somewhat "form fitting" for uneven ground.

"The genius of American farm experts is very well demonstrated here: they can take a solution and divide it neatly into two problems." -Wendell Berry

R Scott

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posted 8 months ago

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2x4 welded wire works ok for a backyard—smooth and well mowed. If you are closer to pasture or golf course roughs, the wire gets caught on sapling stumps and breaks or presses the grass flat so the rabbits can’t eat all of it. They mow patches to the ground and leave big clumps they couldn’t get started. The smaller rabbits can still dig out, and the larger ones try and leave a mess.

Context matters for how you build the tractor. But I think the most important thing is avoiding overcrowding and moving frequently enough to avoid digging.

Daniel Ellwanger

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posted 8 months ago

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I tractored rabbits a few years ago. Only my grow outs. I converted my old rabbit cages to Salatin-style rabbit tractors (wood slat floors). Although I initially liked it, here are my thoughts.

Pros:
Definite savings on feed.
Diverse forage (if you're not a monocrop grass lawn)

Cons:
My buns developed coccidiosis from the contact with the ground.
The slats only allowed access to about 50% of the grass at the base of the tractors.
When moving, a lot of the new grass was compacted by the slats (this happens with wire as well.
When I harvested the buns, I discovered one had a broken leg (obviously from moving the tractor, even though I didn't know that until I harvested them.

Possible improvements:
I recently heard on Jack Spirko's podcast, that a solution to crimping the grass is to have a completely open bottom to the tractor. Then lay out your welded wire or other wire fencing on the ground (lol Ike a roll of it. Place the tractor on the roll of fencing, and just slide the open bottom tractor along the rolled out fencing. This can prevent the crimping of grass while still providing the protection of escaping bunnies.

I still won't do this as I have the problems with coccidiosis, but this sounded like a good solution to a lot of the other issues I gmhad with it

Best of luck!

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Josh Hoffman

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Daniel Ellwanger wrote:
My buns developed coccidiosis from the contact with the ground.

Daniel, thank you for the information!

I had read in the book I referenced in the post that coccidiosis is not normally an issue if you butcher 14-16 weeks.

I am glad you mentioned it because your experience is telling me it is.

"The genius of American farm experts is very well demonstrated here: they can take a solution and divide it neatly into two problems." -Wendell Berry

Daniel Ellwanger

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I guess it is situational. For that person in their location that may have been true, but my experience was different.
It is something to try, and if it doesn't work for you, then you have to work through the issues. For me, because I have pure-bred Silver Fox rabbits, they may not have a genetic resistance to Cocci. One of the rabbits I have is from Joel Salatin's farm, where his son had spent years developing through genetic lines a resistant rabbit that can function on grass. Although the buns from that line had less susceptibility, they were mixed with my Silver Fox line, and every one that I grew out on grass in the tractor had some level of liver disease.

Good luck with your plans!

Josh Hoffman wrote:

Daniel Ellwanger wrote:
My buns developed coccidiosis from the contact with the ground.

Daniel, thank you for the information!

I had read in the book I referenced in the post that coccidiosis is not normally an issue if you butcher 14-16 weeks.

I am glad you mentioned it because your experience is telling me it is.

John C Daley

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From Wikipedia;
"Coccidiosis is a parasitic disease of the intestinal tract of animals caused by coccidian protozoa.
The disease spreads from one animal to another by contact with infected feces or ingestion of infected tissue."

If there was a large area in the tractor for a small number of bunnies, would that reduce the incidence
of infection?

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Carla Burke

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John C Daley wrote:If there was a large area in the tractor for a small number of bunnies, would that reduce the incidence of infection?

It will help. But, the very best way to limit the chances would be to move the tractor, every day, not passing over the same spot, for at least several weeks.

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