Rabbit farming on pasture and under "Organic regulation" in France: systems operation, performances and regulation

Abstract

French rabbit farming is mainly realized on an off-ground system (about 700 farmers). Organic rabbit farming (ORF) is marginal in France (about fifty farmers) and does not produce enough to meet consumer demand. We synthesize here the knowledge on the functioning and performance of rabbit farming systems, both AB and grazing. The rabbit being a herbivorous animal, ORF favors grazing, and if well managed it can pay a half time minimum-wage salary with 40 breeding rabbits on 4 ha (pastures and complementary crops). For the project holders, in addition to access to land, the management of prophylaxis and feeding are two strong constraints of ORF systems. The new European regulation, applicable since January 2022, recommends the maximum use of pasture but, in a contradictory way, allows a flock of 40 reproducing does on only 200 m² of pasture and does not require to rotate the paddocks between 2 batches of animals, thus increasing the risk for parasitism. Recent studies have quantified grass intake (30 to 80 g DM/day/rabbit) and growth of rabbits on pasture (15 to 25 g/day). The production cycle of an AB rabbit farm is extensive with an average of 2.7 deliveries per doe per year (vs 6.7 for intensive conventional systems). An application (GAELA) was recently developed to assist in breeding daily management, and to build a performance reference system to support the development of rabbit farming on pastures or organic farming.