Are you saying the USDA told you they will only be able to work with you if you can tell them how many bushels of vegetables and fruits you produce each year? That you have to report your harvest to them in bushels, not in pounds? I can understand them wanting to know how much you produce, but I don't know why they would care what unit of measurement you use. You might want to contact your county extension agent to ask if that's really true.
If they do require you to report in bushels, but it's not easy for you to measure in bushels, there's an easy way around that if you have a scale. There are 53 pounds of regular size/beefsteak/slicing tomatoes in a bushel. So, weigh all your tomatoes as you pick them, keep track of all the totals in a notebook or a spreadsheet, add it all up at the end of the season, and divide the total number of pounds by 53 to get the number of bushels.
If you don't have a scale or don't want to weigh things, get some smaller, standard-size baskets or bags. Peck baskets/bags equal 1/4 bushel. Half-peck equal 1/8 bushel. You can keep your different varieties separate in these smaller containers. Add up the number of pecks and divide by four to get the number of bushels.
Probably there are harvest trays in standard sizes - 1/4 bushel or ten pounds or something like that. Then you could just count the number of harvest trays you fill and convert that to number of bushels. Or really you could use whatever harvest trays or bins you already have. Just weigh one empty, then weigh it full of tomatoes, to figure out how many pounds it holds. Keep track of how many trays you harvest, multiply by the number of pounds in a tray, then divide by 53 to get number of bushels.
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