Are you interested in raising a highly sustainable (and very tasty!) protein on your farm, homestead, or backyard? Meat rabbits require less land, less water, and less energy to grow than most other livestock. 

They convert food and water into edible meat 1.4 times more efficiently than pigs and 4 times more efficiently than sheep and cattle....making them both highly efficient and sustainable, and did we mention...delicious?

Please join Rural Vermont and the Merck Forest & Farmland team on Sunday, September 13th, from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm for a rabbit butchery workshop. This workshop will be guided and led by Merck’s Farm Manager, Hadley Stock. Hadley raises Silver Fox and Rex meat rabbits on her family farm, Pink Boot Farm.

This workshop will cover: 

• basic rabbitry setup

• how to assess an animal for optimal harvest

• tools required to butcher at home

• humane dispatch via cervical dislocation, carcass evaluation

• how to break down a carcass into prime cuts, packaging meat, and proper meat handling skills

• guidance on tanning hides

Real-time hands-on Q&A throughout the entire class. Rural Vermont will also present updates on federal and state on-farm slaughter regulations, as well as updates from the 2026 legislative session. There will be plenty of room for questions and discussion throughout the event.

Registration: $50/participant

Special Notes: Please bring a water bottle & snacks (if needed). Please wear rugged footwear and weather-appropriate clothing. Please leave your dogs at home.

A Note About Workshop Pricing & Registration:

Rural Vermont works alongside farm hosts, instructors, and other non-profits to bring a variety of workshops and peer-to-peer learning opportunities to our members and communities throughout Vermont.  Our ticket prices are built on the needs of the community, the farm hosts and instructors, and the workshop's structure. We work hard to provide accessible, high-quality programming, pay fair compensation to our farm hosts and instructors, and cover the cost of managing and producing our workshops. As such, our ticket prices vary by workshop, and we strive to keep them within a fair range. Thank you for participating and learning alongside us!