How to approach the land owners

[PARKER MAPLE]

So Im driving down the road today looking at these awesome maples tha go way up this hill. Wondering how you guys approach a land owner to ask there permission to drill a bunch of holes in there trees and tangle there woods up with pipe line. lol:lol: just kidding but all this a side how do you position your self when you see a piece of property that you really want to tap. My approach has failed twice now this year:( and I think im stuck at where Im at for awhile. Seams like I have talked to everybody in my area who has a maple tree and nobody is all that interested.

Thanks for the advice
M R

[bees1st]

This is always a though one, and after getting turned down a few times I always lose my nerve. I run into this when looking for bee yards as well. After all your're asking someone for the use of their land.,for compensation of course. Peope form an impression of a stranger pretty quickly. I always go knocking with syrup or honey with me in the truck. And usally start off with the line, I'm _____ from over in _____ I have a little sugar house and wonder if you'd be willing to allow me to tap your trees in exchange for some syrup. I am also quick to add that I practice good" tree stewardship" and only tap healthy trees ,and do not over tap. Carrying a spile in your pocket to show the size of the hole you plan to drill in their tree helps,especially if you use health spouts.A lot of people are surprized it's such a small hole.
Another thing I had heard,take it as you will, always go out talking to people during a high pressure,people are in a better mood!

[red maples]

Yep what what was mentioned with Syrup in hand!!! give them a pint. Come up with an amount of syrup (usually about a quart per 25 taps is pretty good) or monitary value $1 pertap or what ever compensation you may have.

[maple flats]

I must be lucky, but I've never been turned down. I take a qt of syrup and knock on their door. Hand them the qt and ask if it is a good time to talk. Sometimes they let me in, others they have me come back. I am very low pressure as we talk. I explain what I want to do and how much and when I pay. My payments are always so much up front, then the rest is in syrup during the season until they have as much syrup as they want. The rest is paid by check no later that the end of May following the season. I also tell them about how to get an Ag Exemption on their property taxes and help get them started on that. I only know about NY and here you must as a producer do an average of $10,000 sales per year for each 2 yr period in all of your farming endeavors, not just this property and not just maple to qualify. If you, the producer suffer 2 seasons without averaging the $10,000 you lose Ag exemption as do any using your figures. This number must come from your tax return. Those who don't show farm income will not qualify. You must have a minimum 5 yr written lease to qualify and the taxing authority must have a copy. This savings to the landowner often is greater than the lease payment. Just for the record, the last few years I paid $.50/tap and this year I went to $.75/tap.

[PARKER MAPLE]

Thanks for all your input on this, I have never brought the money thing to the table unless they ask about it. Im in an area where alot of the land is not locally owned. They are second homes for vacations or weekends and its incredably tough to convience these type of home owners to let you use they land. They dont need money, and seem to not like to help out the locals. Maybe this is why there isnt that many other local people making syrup. My hopes and dreams are maybe like others out there. Would love to make maple a part of my living where I can make enough money to supplament my income in the springtime. Not make a killing but make enough.

Anyways thanks for your thoughts and anymore are great

MR

[adk1]

I ahve to pay my neighbor a visit this weekend if he is there. There are a bunch of maples that I would consider as our "line" trees. I just want to make sure that he doesnt have a problem with me tapping them. I dont expect that he will. IT is a weekend camp of his

[1badsapper]

I was wondering about asking to tap some trees on another property. I like the "Free Syrup" approach. I'll give that a try first.

[PARKER MAPLE]

Good luck ADK1 with your persuit of more maples, I am awaiting the anwsere from two more pieces of property I found last spring. I finally talked in person these people over the weekend and they seamed half way interested in the idea. Money factor never came up in the discusion, while we were walking over there property lines. I did offer free syrup to them both and there eyes lite up. So im keeping my fingures crossed. With these teo propertys I should have over 2000 taps. Probably will boil what I can handle for sap and sell the rest to a couple other small outfits not to far from me. Called fw webb today for 3/4in main line and they were at 153.00 for 1000ft so I will have my work cut out for me if they say go for it.

Maple rookie

[Mike in NY]

develop a reputation as someone folks want to do buisness with. I am lucky to have a large customer base and most of em know we make syrup. They tell a friend and he tells a friend... Had a guy stop as I was building sugar house and ask if we wanted to do his trees (400 easy taps and 600 more not so easy a mile away from our sugar house) Did not even own an evaporator at that point. every year we get a lot of visitors and some of them ask us to do their trees as well. Our 2x6 got maxxed out our 1st year when we started w/ 160 buckets. Need to upgrade to so we can handle the taps availible to us localy.
a sincere thank you and a handshake go a long way to make folks happy (along with some syrup/candy!)
headed into our 4th yr and learning more every yr!

[wcproctor]

Bring the KIDS with you. It works all the time, and tell them we do this all together it a good learning experience for the kids(with puppy eyes)