By Scott Waterman, VT Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets
This fall, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets introduced the public to its new tire-slicer, the mission of which is to reduce the number of waste tires on our landscape and eliminate the mosquito breeding environment they sustain while providing the resulting sidewalls to Vermont farms.
The diesel-powered machine, which can be towed behind a pickup truck, is much like a giant can-opener that slices the sidewalls off a tire, creating two sidewalls and a tread. It is operated by trained employees of the Agency and has been featured at two different events recently: the annual Wheels for Warmth event and a special flood tire cleanup effort promoted by Governor Phil Scott. Many of the tires collected were used to create feed silage weights for farms.
As part of introducing the slicer to the public this year, the Agency is developing a program to create access to the slicer for the state’s farms who wish to reduce their intact tire use. The Agency is working on how to bring the slicer to farms that are interested in reducing mosquito-breeding habitat while creating more manageable and user-friendly bunk weights. Water inside uncut tires can breed mosquitoes continuously during the warm summer months. The mosquitoes that breed in tires can carry West Nile virus and other human and veterinary diseases, as well as being a terrible nuisance. Sidewalls are also easier for farmers to move and store, reducing labor cost and time for the important farm task of protecting feed.
So far this year the Agency has created about 2,000 sidewalls from the two events. These have been provided to many Vermont farms.
Interested in this program? Please contact Patti Casey by email at patti.casey@vermont.gov or by phone 802-522-6858.
You can also visit https://agriculture.vermont.gov/public-health-agricultural-resource-management-division/plant-health-and-pest-management-4 for more information on the Agency’s tire-slicer program.
Steve Dwinell and Patti Casey work the tire slicer at the flood clean up event in mid October.