UVM PMRC Research Survey

[DrTimPerkins]

Friends,

We are conducting a survey to gather baseline information and to help us document interest in our conducting research on the effectiveness of various tubing cleaning methods on net profit of maple operations through increases in sap yields and improvement of syrup quality.

The survey consists of twelve questions and should require less than 5 minutes of your time to complete. You do NOT need to register in any way to complete the survey, and participation in completely voluntary and confidential. We do not need any information about your name, telephone, or email, and will not contact you for follow-up information about this survey (unless you request we do so in the comments).

The information gained will help us to design our (prospective) research project and to justify the project to the granting agency.

To participate in this survey, go to the following link:

http://www.kwiksurveys.com?s=NHEOHL_7cd57373

Please complete the survey by July 8th.

Forward this message to as many maple producers as you can. Getting a large sample size would be quite helpful.

[jasonl6]

Done. Thanks for your work Dr. Tim

[mapleack]

Done. Thanks!

[Haynes Forest Products]

Filled out the survey Question is why were there black helicopters flying over my house when I logged into the site;)

[KenWP]

That or it's those jagged leaved plants in the back yard.

[Bruce L]

Done,I think,kept coming back with error ,only numbers allowed for number of major changes,which I changed to numbers.
Thanks,Bruce

[vtmapleman]

Dr. P. - Survey completed - to you and your staff at PRC thanks and keep up the good work. :)

[DrTimPerkins]

Thank you to all those who have participated in the survey so far. If you have not already done so, you can still complete the survey at:

http://www.kwiksurveys.com?s=NHEOHL_7cd57373

The deadline is July 8th.

The survey is completely anonymous. No user identifiable information (name, email, phone #, location) is collected.

We appreciate all the help. Hopefully this information will lead to a successful grant proposal and some much needed research on tubing cleaning.

[Brent]

Just added my 2 cents worth .... on July 8 ... did we have till midnight :lol:

[DrTimPerkins]

Just added my 2 cents worth .... on July 8 ... did we have till midnight :lol:

Yes. Thank you to all those who completed the survey. I will disclose some of the results of the survey in a future posting on MapleTrader. We anticipate using the information to submit a grant proposal.

[DrTimPerkins]

Hi Folks,

Just wanted to thank all those participants again who completed our tubing cleaning surveys. We greatly appreciate the help.

Results from those were recently published in the Maple Digest and can be found at http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc Look on the right hand side. It is the "Tubing Cleaning...." link under the "Recent Publications" section.

Finally, using this and other information, we have submitted one proposal focusing on tubing cleaning to the North American Maple Syrup Council and will soon be submitting another grant proposal, with Steve Childs of the Cornell Maple Program as a co-investigator, to USDA SARE. Hopefully, if these are funded, in a few years we'll have some useful information for you comparing the effectiveness and net profits associated with different replacement (spouts, drops, CVs) or cleaning strategies. Stay tuned.

Again, our thanks.

[noreast maple]

Dr. tim , Have you ever heard of anyone using white vinager? I used it this last season and my lines are super clean. I tried it because it leaves no residue that varmits are attracted to Ithink. Ihad a couple of bears sit under my mainlines and so far no bite marks. I know it cleans coffee makers so igave it a try , not sure what sap yield will be ,but i also cant compare to last year being it was horribal year. Just wondering if you knew anything about it? Noreast Maple. Thanks.

[DrTimPerkins]

Have you ever heard of anyone using white vinager?

Yes. It should be equivalent to pan cleaner (phosphoric acid).

[noreast maple]

Is that good or bad ?

[spud]

Hi Folks,

Just wanted to thank all those participants again who completed our tubing cleaning surveys. We greatly appreciate the help.

Results from those were recently published in the Maple Digest and can be found at http://www.uvm.edu/~pmrc Look on the right hand side. It is the "Tubing Cleaning...." link under the "Recent Publications" section.

Finally, using this and other information, we have submitted one proposal focusing on tubing cleaning to the North American Maple Syrup Council and will soon be submitting another grant proposal, with Steve Childs of the Cornell Maple Program as a co-investigator, to USDA SARE. Hopefully, if these are funded, in a few years we'll have some useful information for you comparing the effectiveness and net profits associated with different replacement (spouts, drops, CVs) or cleaning strategies. Stay tuned.

Again, our thanks.

Dr Tim

I enjoyed reading the results of your survey( twice )yet still I am not sure if I understand. I would think there would be too many differences in set-ups to come up with a GPT amount. One person might strive for 3 taps per lateral line when another might have ten taps. One person might run 15 inches of vacuum when another might run 28 inches. One persons tubing might be 8 years old when another's might be 2 years old. One persons drops might be changed every three years when another's might be 8-10 years old. Theres also i difference in spouts where some spouts (cvs) are shown to have better results. There's location of woods that has to be considered also. Did everyone tap on the same day? ( if not then some may have lost a run or two while others made 3-5 gpt more by tapping early. I know the survey was about cleaning of tubing but the only reason we would clean is if we were going to get more sap and of better quality. If I read the survey right there really is not a big enough difference for one to waste their time cleaning tubing. Am I reading it right? Thank you for all your work Dr. Tim. I always enjoy reading everything PMRC puts out.

Spud

[DrTimPerkins]

I would think there would be too many differences in set-ups to come up with a GPT amount.

Yes, there is quite a lot of variation, which undoubtedly contributes to the inability to detect differences. However, it is interesting that they were all fairly close. These types of studies are interesting, but the definitive answer usually comes from a planned experiment where we can control the majority of the variables. That is the next step, and the objective behind the grant proposals we've submitted....but this survey helps us get there in several ways.


I know the survey was about cleaning of tubing but the only reason we would clean is if we were going to get more sap and of better quality. If I read the survey right there really is not a big enough difference for one to waste their time cleaning tubing. Am I reading it right?

Yes, you're reading it right. So far, studies seem to show that tubing cleaning, regardless of the method used, does not appear to be a terribly effective strategy in terms of increasing sap yield.

[spud]

Thanks Dr. Tim for all you do. Without maple research were would we be today?

Spud