Iowa Farm Bureau county presidents got a taste of alternative agriculture ventures on tour of Vermont agricultural operations.

Inside the dense forests of central Vermont, where sugar maple trees blanket the mountainous terrain, sits a nearly century-old sugar shack producing some of the world’s finest maple syrup the old-fashioned way, enhanced by modern ingenuity and technology.

“My grandparents moved here in the late 1930s … They were dairy farmers and sugar makers,” said Marilyn...