Iowa Farm Bureau County presidents got a taste of alternative agriculture ventures on a 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 in 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...