Leasing Taps

[SenecalsSugarHouse]

Hey Guys. We are currently working on about 800 taps. We have upgraded our evaporator and are looking to setup some more bushes. Having never paid to use someone elses trees I am wondering what everyone pays per tap if you lease a bush. Obviously we want to keep costs down but also be fair to landowners. Let me know so we can get some ideas to toss around as we plan.
Thanks, Dave

[MapleChaser]

As I sit here waiting on my sap and reading maple trader I will share my current arrangment. Iam currently leasing the woods we are in at $ 1.00 per tap. Plus Iam setting the infastructure up and bareing all the costs. Hope this helps. With the sugar industry getting more demand it is harder to find the land. Enjoy it has been a great season.

[500592]

Some people may take syrup in trade

[batsofbedlam]

I have a 10 year lease on 47 acres with 900-1000 taps. I have agreed to pay the landowner .50 per tap plus electricity for running my vacuum system.

[michiganfarmer2]

I too am looking for a woods to lease. Im willing to pay $1 per tap per year if I can get a 10 year lease, and if they let me leave the tubing in all year round

[vtmapleman]

In your leases you may want to include such items as a small building to hold your equipment (tanks, pumps, etc.), insurance. Also, I don't know about other states but in Vt if you put up pipelines, etc. you have now changed the use of the woods to commerical and that now triggers a higher tax rate for taxes - just another way for this State/Towns to collect more dollars from the unsupected.:o

[jmayerl]

In Wisconsin it LOWERS your taxxes to agricultural(as long as you tap 20/acre). I have found that this and a little syrup is all it takes to tap someones woods. On a forty that tax savings could be a few thousand dollars a year.

[Randy Brutkoski]

Actually it lowers taxes. The 85 acre lot with a house that i tap before i hung the line was $4850 a year in taxes. He now pays $1950 because it is in AG. use. And on top of that I give him $3000 a year to lease it. You might want to check that out.

[Snow Hill Farm]

I started a 10 year lease this year and have tubing up that I installed years ago when we had a handshake agreement. Since I've gotten more serious about sugaring I figured I better do something because 33% of my taps are on the adjoining property. I told the landowner the going rate was anywhere from 0.50-1.00 and he chose 0.75. A good example of a lease can be found here http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmaple/sugarbushlease.pdf but I made many edits and ours is much simpler. Well worth it, paid $272.50 this year and made 140 gallons off those taps!

[vtmapleman]

Sounds like land owner put his/her property into land use which will lower your taxes; however for those folks who do not want the state looking over your shoulder and telling you what you can or cannot do your taxes will go up. If you are not in land use the land will be appriased at a higher rate that as a business which is the business/non-resident rate.

[maple flats]

In NYS it lowers the taxes. Must be 10 acre minimum, must have written lease. The tax savings brings the taxes to about 30-35% of what they were.
I paid $.75 this year and am in the process of getting a lease on another piece, about 25-30 acres with good maple stand through-out. Later years are tied to the Social Security changes in monthly checks. I use that figure for inflation adjustment. I pay in syrup for as much as the landowner wants at my gal rate but let them choose the size or sizes of jugs, the rest is paid by check. Syrup is paid during the season, the check is paid before July 1 for the preceeding season. My contracts run July 1- June 30.

[220 maple]

I have a 5 year lease, I suspect I have the only lease of it kind in the world of Maple, it is based off of the wholesale price of syrup. And I make the syrup on shares. Out of every 6 gallons made I get 5 they get 1. Off of their property 2010 I made them 43 gallons which was sold wholesale, I paid them over 1300 hundred dollars, ended up being 1.50 a tap. This season last not as good, ended up paying 1.01 per tap. Trees did not produces as good as last year and I added taps also. Last week I paid them over 1000 dollars. They seem to be thrilled with the money. Have a written lease and be willing to share any info on the amount of water and syrup produce from their property, that my advice to anyone leasing like mine.

Mark 220 Maple

[maple2]

we have one bush we pay by the gallon.after adding vacume,this year, the landowner was thrilled with his check

[Justin Turco]

Actually it lowers taxes. The 85 acre lot with a house that i tap before i hung the line was $4850 a year in taxes. He now pays $1950 because it is in AG. use. And on top of that I give him $3000 a year to lease it. You might want to check that out.

I will have to look into this also.!

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Justin,

Did you end up having to sell everything or were you able to keep everything??

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

I am from a place where sugaring let alone renting taps is not commonly practiced. i am one of the few in the county. People would most likely look at me like i was crazy. :( How should Someone like myself go about leasing taps.

[halfast tapper]

The way the state of vermont does their lease on state land is as follows,
They take the price of wholesale fancy and wholesale commercial per pound, add the two together, divide by two, then subtract 75 percent , that is the price per tap for that year. example 2.85 for fancy and 1.30 for comm. is
4.15 once added together now divide 4.15 by 2 equals 2.075 now subtract 75% . comes out to .51875 or rounded up .52 per tap.