Integrating Pastured Poultry and Rabbits in a Rotational Grazing System to Improve Soil Health at Critter Creek Family Farm

Commodities

Practices

Small diversified livestock farms like ours often struggle to maintain pasture quality and soil fertility while keeping costs manageable. Some of our paddocks show bare spots, weeds, and uneven manure distribution. At the same time, we purchase most of the feed for our laying hens and meat rabbits, which increases costs and creates reliance on outside inputs instead of cycling nutrients efficiently on the farm.

Many farmers in the North Central region raise poultry or rabbits in small flocks or herds, but there are limited examples showing how to integrate these species into managed grazing systems on a small acreage. There is also limited data showing how much such systems can reduce purchased feed or improve soil health at this scale. Because this challenge is common and there is interest in practical regenerative practices, we believe our project can help provide information that is useful to other farmers.

Solution

Our solution is to integrate mobile pastured poultry and portable rabbit pens into a rotational grazing system that improves soil health while maintaining meat and egg production. We will set up a series of small paddocks on 3-4 acres of pasture and move two chicken tractors with 40-50 laying hens and three rabbit "tractors" with 5-15 meat rabbit grow-outs through these paddocks on a regular schedule (about every 1-3 days depending on forage and weather). This rotation is designed to distribute manure more evenly, stimulate plant regrowth, reduce bare areas, and allow us to track changes in soil health and feed use over time.

At the beginning of the project, we will build or improve our mobile infrastructure. The chicken tractors will provide secure housing with nest boxes and roosts, sized to give adequate space for 20-25 hens per tractor. The rabbit tractors will be lightweight and predator-safe, allowing rabbits to graze fresh forage while minimizing stress and protecting them from weather. Three lengths of electric poultry netting, powered by a solar energizer, will define paddock boundaries and provide predator protection. This setup will let us create multiple small paddocks and rest periods so forage can recover between grazings.

We will take baseline photos and simple soil health observations in each paddock and repeat those observations during the project and again at the end, alongside soil tests. We will track purchased feed for poultry and rabbits and record any fertilizer used on the project paddocks, aiming to reduce these inputs by improving on-farm nutrient cycling. We will also track egg counts and rabbit growth/harvest records to ensure that animal performance stays strong under the rotational system.

Animal welfare and predator protection are central to the design. All tractors will provide shade, dry resting areas, secure wire to protect from predators, and constant access to clean water and appropriate feed. Electric netting with a solar energizer will provide an added safety barrier, and animals will be checked daily.

Our goats and sheep already graze parts of the same pasture to help control brush and weeds. While this project focuses on poultry and rabbits for measurement, the rotation system we design can later be expanded to include small ruminants in a planned sequence, increasing nutrient cycling and soil health benefits across more of the farm.

Outreach will include at least one on-farm field day in the second growing season to show the system in action and share our records and results. We will also provide printed updates and a simple "Getting Started" guide for local farmers through our farmers market network and partner organizations.

Objectives

• Design and implement an integrated rotational grazing system using 2 chicken tractors and 3 rabbit tractors on 3-4 acres of pasture.
• Improve soil health and pasture quality in project paddocks, documented by photos, visual ground cover estimates, and soil tests.
• Track purchased feed and production (eggs and rabbit weight gain) to evaluate changes in feed efficiency under the rotational system.
• Maintain strong animal health and welfare using secure, low-cost mobile infrastructure and daily monitoring.
• Share results with other farmers through a field day, a farmers market educational booth, and a 1-page "Getting Started" guide so others can consider similar systems.