Price for RO processing of sap

[Russ]

Does anyone have market prices for running other folk's sap through their RO? I would think there are neighboring bushes that have perhaps grouped together to buy an RO, or a larger operator who may process others' sap for a fee per gallon or some other kind of pricing model. Just wondering so I can factor a real life figure into a business case. There are other ways to come up with a figure... based on fuel/time savings, prorated allocation of the payback period, etc; just looking to see if there is a baseline market value out there as a sanity check. Thanks in advance...

[brookledge]

I have thought about the same thing how ever there are a lot of factors to consider.
Most will size the RO so they boil as they run the RO. So the RO is running their own sap while they have the time available and other time is spent doing other things like checking vac. lines or other work.
Then there is the other persons sap. Most operate clean operations but do you want problems with bad sap.
Again because of the first issue most set ups are plumbed to work for their own tanks etc. and would require re working things to do others sap.
And lastly it is like many other things like letting someone use your truck etc. You need to charge enough to actually cover the amount of the operating cost.And I don't know how much that is worth. Take for instance a car rental knows how many miles they need to rent the vehicle before it is seen it's useful life, and just how many hours of use can you get out of an RO I'm not sure
It would be interesting to see if anyone has done it.
Keith

[Bucket Head]

I know it has been done before, but I do not know the numbers behind it. I think a few guys on here had their sap processed by others before they got an RO, or when their machine had a breakdown.

Taking a guess at the sizing of a machine for customer ROing, you would have to find out how many taps your going to have and what they will have, and then pretend that thats the number of taps your operation has. How much time do you have to process "your" sap?You would get a larger machine to handle that much sap in a reasonable amount of time. It would'nt work out if your "smaller" machine had to run three times longer to process everyones sap. Well, at least I'm not thinking so.

Steve

[maplwrks]

There was a sugarmaker here in town, that leased out his sugarbush this year. He had a lease rate per tap, and RO'd the sap to 8% for the year for $.50 per tap. The guys that leased his woods were trucking the sap 30 miles, so trucking 8% concentrate made a lot of sense.

[brookledge]

Mike
Areyou sure of that? Usually the going rate is to pay a land owner .50/ tap just to go on someone elses land and set up a tubing system. What did the guy who leased it have to do? Anyways that is a hell of a deal. How many taps are involved? One pick up load of sap would be worth $1,000-$1,200 of syrup.
Keith

[maplwrks]

The RO price was on top of the agreed lease price per tap. I know they paid $2300 just to have the sap RO'd.

[brookledge]

Ok that sounds better. I was thinking it would be worth traveling a hundred miles.
Keith

[michiganfarmer2]

I paid a guy to RO some sap for me this year. He took 1000 gallons of sap. I didnt check the sugar content. He brought me back 400 gallons of 4% and charged me $100. He did that twice.

I also bought a 400 gallon load of his 4%. I paid a dollar per gallon to buy the concentrate