The Weights & Measures Section will host multiple scale inspection events around the state during April for anyone who uses scale(s) at farmers’ markets or farm stands to sell produce or other commodities. The testing and licensing of these scales is required by law, if you need an application form to license the scale it can be found on our website, agriculture.vermont.gov.
Please plan to attend one of the inspection events listed below. Bring your legal for trade scale, and any accessories that you use with it for weighing items for sale. You can come anytime during the time listed below, and no advance appointment is necessary. The test should take 5 to 10 minutes per scale.
Look for the yellow “Scale Check Here” signs.
Questions? Please contact the Weights and Measures office at – 802-828-2426
New Logging and Forest Trucking Scholarship Opportunity!
New scholarship opportunity for Vermont residents and companies seeking career training for logging and forest trucking - Funds help cover living expenses to attend 20-week certificate program in Maine
By Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast
A new scholarship opportunity for Vermont residents and/or companies interested in training in the logging and forest trucking industry is now available thanks to funding from Vermont’s Working Lands Enterprise Initiative.
Administered by the Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast (PLC), the opportunity will allow up to three Vermont residents that apply and are accepted into the Mechanized Logging Operations and Forest Trucking Program (MLOFT) in Maine to then apply for and obtain a $10,000 scholarship to cover subsistence or employment expenses to attend the 20-week certificate program.
MLOFT is a unique and intensive hands-on training course that prepares students for careers in the logging industry. The experience students gain operating mechanized logging equipment and trucks is unmatched by any other program in the country. The program is based at Kennebec Valley Community College (KVCC) in Fairfield, Maine.
Originally open only to Maine students, MLOFT now accepts students from anywhere in the United States.
Apply to the BMP Program by May 1st!
By Emma Eason, VT Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets
The Best Management Practices (BMP) Program has provided free engineering services and financial assistance to Vermont farmers since 1996. The program has invested almost $20 million in water quality infrastructure improvements on Vermont farms since 2021.
Applications that are received by May 1st will receive an engineering consultation this spring, and will be considered for cost-share ranking for the 2027 construction season.
Eligible projects are assessed every June to determine which projects will receive cost-share for the following year’s construction season. We look forward to working with you!
Start by submitting a 10-minute application here: https://agriculture.vermont.gov/bmp.
Closing the Loop: A Farmer-Led Pilot to Recycle Agricultural Plastics
By Laura Hardie, Red Barn Writer
On Guy Crosby’s beef farm in Hartland, Vermont, farming runs in cycles. Nutrients move through soil, grass, and animals and return to the land.
Plastic disrupts that cycle.
Photo: Guy Crosby
Like many livestock producers, Crosby relies on bale wrap to preserve hay and adapt to unpredictable weather. Wrapped in airtight plastic, still-wet hay can ferment without days of drying. It’s a big advantage in Vermont’s rainier seasons. But once removed, the plastic has few responsible disposal options. Recycling systems are not yet developed, landfilling is costly, and farmers worry about microplastics and water quality.
“We had one guy in Lyndon that stored his plastic for four years in a corner of his barn,” Crosby said of a farmer who couldn’t bear to put plastic in a landfill. “He was very happy when we came along.”
In 2024, the Connecticut River Watershed Farmers Alliance (CRWFA) launched a farmer-led agricultural plastics recycling pilot, funded by a Working Lands Enterprise Initiative grant, to test whether bale wrap can be collected, stored, compacted, and transported for recycling. Bale wrap was selected specifically for its recyclability; it is typically cleaner and drier, and its physical properties make it of interest to recyclers.
To date, 25 farms are actively participating, with more than 40 expressing interest. Over 14 tons of bale wrap have been collected, with the project on track to reach about 20 tons. The pilot confirmed strong farmer demand for recycling and municipal interest in keeping plastic out of landfills—but also highlighted missing infrastructure.
As the pilot has progressed, several challenges have become clear. First, the plastic needs to be kept clean and dry. Second, municipal waste districts are not set up to handle the end-to-end process of collecting, baling, storing, and marketing agricultural plastics.
None of the transfer stations with balers, in Lyndonville and Brattleboro, Vermont, or Lebanon, New Hampshire, has space to hold loose or baled wrap until enough accumulates for shipment. Crosby has taken on much of the legwork, logging more than 3,000 miles to collect plastic, transport it for baling at the waste district sites, and then store the 16 bales they’ve made so far, weighing up to 2,000 pounds each, at his farm.
“We are doing one part,” said CRWFA Executive Director Michael Snow. “We’d like municipal waste districts to be consistently committed to compacting the plastic for us in different parts of our watershed.”
Inconsistency and a scarcity of markets have also challenged the pilot program. When the project began, EFS-Plastics of Pennsylvania was set to process and market the bale wrap. Midway through the pilot, they withdrew due to marketing challenges. CRWFA has since contacted another company that may recycle the material, though costs are pending, and submitted a letter of support to a Massachusetts facility that might open later in 2026. In the meantime, they are continuing to make bales, as recyclers require an 18- to 20-ton trailer load.
One thing is clear: As landfills reach capacity, disposal costs rise, and the environmental impacts of plastic become better known, farmers remain adamant about keeping it out of the waste stream despite the logistical challenges.
“Once plastic leaves the farm, it’s not gone,” Crosby said. “It can get back to our farmland eventually…whether it affects the deer and the cattle grazing or the water supply. It matters to figure out how to contain it.”
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