Worst Year on Record

[Pinnacle Ridge Maples]

If things dont change in the near future, looks like things will be over before we hardly got started. Im Kinda wishing i didnt even tap and just saved the trees for next year! Should run decent tommorow and then holding my breath and praying hard. Looks like the pumps will be running around the clock for the next few days. Any body have any thoughts or comments on this abnormal season?

[Rossell's Sugar Camp]

I am down here in pennsylvania. My trees just started budding. You have some time up in wisconsin. Only 2 weeks earlier than usual here. Looks like a little below average year. I got 68 gallons from somewhere between 250 and 300 trees. on a 20" vacuum. Good luck to yinz up there

[jmayerl]

[QUOTE=Rossell's Sugar Camp;184180]I am down here in pennsylvania. My trees just started budding. You have some time up in wisconsin. Only 2 weeks earlier than usual here.

I'm guessing our time will run out tues or weds. 10 forecast is for highs in the 60's and lows in the 40's. No snow cover so that's gonna be it. Far northern Wisconsin may be spared the heat. This is my 4th year but this maybe the straw that breaks this sugarmakers back. We are at about 15% of our break even point so if this is it, I will probably be selling most my equipment.

[Balsam Hills]

Hang in there my friend. Some years will be a bust-such is farming. Give yourself the off-season to re-evaluate before making your decision.

[markcasper]

We had something similar just back in 2010. From my records, here is the following from my journal:

The first 6 days of March 2010 were in the 40's, with lows of 5-10 above, no frost at all in the woods, but deepest snow in the woods in several years.

March 6th continued highs in the 40's, with above freezing temps at night, misty, foggy, rainy, lows in mid 30's to 40 between 3-6-10 to 3-13-10. Cleared out Saturday night, 3-13-2010 and turned very warm with a high of 66 on 3-14-10.

From Sunday 3-14-10 to Thursday 3-18-10 highs were in the 60's every day with full sunshine through the period. Lows during this time were in the 40's, with the exception of the morning of wed. 3-17 where it dropped to 30. Decision made to tap the bags on 3-18 with colder weather in the forecast for the following week.

Cold front dropped through the morning of the 19th, Friday, colder all day with lows in the teens the morning of Sat. the 20th. TREES RAN HARD. Sunday morning, 3-21-10, low of 19, high in the 50's, Monday, 3-22-10, low of 21, high of 50, TREES POURED 3200 gallons sap hauled in on Monday.

From there until the earliest close on record, 4-1-2010, my journal went blank due to no extra time at all. Had so much sap. The year ended up not bad, cooking only 2 weeks and 2 days.

Too early to give up yet.

[jfroe939]

Really Mayerl? You're going to sell most of your stuff because of one bad year? No one complains about the good years. This is agriculture at its grandest. Maybe now it's easier to understand what it was like for a dairy farmer to stick their life savings into their operation in the late 70's only to see costs double or triple into the 90's and 00's while the milk price didn't move in conjunction. When the trees don't piss for one year it makes ya feel your oats for sure. This stuff is bell curve material. Consider this an outlying year that isn't fun. Like the stock market, the panicking guys pay.

[southfork]

Agriculture, including maple syrup making should generally be assessed on at least a ten year average. The average of the past 10 years will yield a reasonable expectation for the year to come. As some mentioned, there are highs and lows. Simply too many variables when it comes to agriculture. As they say in ranching, maybe next year will be better........and occasionally it is.

[amherstmaple]

This is my worst year in 5yrs. Made 20gal last year on around 75taps. Put in 90taps this yr and will probably end up w/ 5-6gal(finishing 2nd batch 2nite). On the bright side of things, the wood pile has hardly taken a hit. If we are in fact done for the year, I will miss watching the tourney unfold on tv in the sap shack. Mabye our bad luck in the weather will change to good in the outcome of our brackets!! Show me the $!!

[justahobby]

Pulled the taps yesterday (3/11/2012) 20 miles north of Milwaukee. Didn't end up too bad by me.. certainly not as bad as some people were worried about. The whole season was about 2 weeks earlier than in the past.

52 taps tapped 2/18/2012
610 gallons - 11.73 gallons / tap
.25 gallons syrup / tap

13.12 gallons total syrup. Sugar came out at 1.85% (46:1) on all sugar maple save 6 taps on a large red maple.

Sounds like some people only 15 miles away only had 1/2 of what I did.

In 2008, I had .34 gallons / tap. (only been doing this for 5 years or so)

Have plans for next year .. of course.

[highlandcattle]

Ron tapped end of January. Then we ran the pump off and on. No real snow until a couple of weeks ago. Today high 60's. As he's really getting going, the shaft broke in the pump. As he is one clever guy, backup emergency plan, shop vac! What a disappointing year, We dumped all of our money into this and yuck for 2 years. Just got to hang in there. Good news is his holding tank and bulk tank all overflowing.

[grahamcreek62]

Hi, Here in Eleva, Wi. we are having a short season also. We put in our 50 taps and then waited for 3 or 4 days for our first flow. On Thur, Fri, and Sat we brought in 40 gallons each day. Today there was nothing. Mabe 2 quarts of real brownish sap. The buds are getting large and I think we are finished. Will put things away and wait for next year. I'm disappointed, but will be anxious for next season...Glo

[jfroe939]

If you're in the top third of the state AND have hard maples, I would wait to pull taps. This weather looks pretty awful going forward according to the 10-day. There's a fairly good chance the sap will metabolize/ be buddy. The hope would be that the end of March cools for a few runs and you could sell the syrup as grade B to a commercial outfit and get something out of it. Other than that it looks grim. I wouldn't even care if it was just a smidge too warm to freeze at night but stayed in the high 50's, but when they're calling for high 60's+... a week or more of that will make it tough going forward. Between the Packers and this stuff, it's been a disappointing few months. Did any state have a year near normal this year? I guess we can use this year to gauge next winter... if we see another weird, warm El Nino winter again, we could just about guess our 2013 will suck.

[PerryW]

If you're in the top third of the state AND have hard maples, I would wait to pull taps.

same goes for NH. I'm about 2/3 of the way up that state.

And hope the weathermen are wrong. (Just took off my first 17 gallons yesterday.)

[Rhino]

Talked to a buddy of mine from Thorp Wis. around 9 oclock last night. As he was walking across his lawn he told me he should be thinking about going fishing because the nightcrawlers were out in full force there!!!! On March 12th!! At first i didn't believe him but as he went into his house i could hear his wife scream and yell get those things outta here. He thinks the peepers (frogs) won't be far behind. Strange weather.

[Pete S]

Got "Ma" boiling what sap we have today. She just called, went into the woods and just like late yesterday, the trees stopped runnin'. She actually said the taps were dry.

The only upside is that we dodged the ant infestation this year.

Oh well, buckets to wash this weekend, but it will be nice and warm!

[jputney]

205 taps got 7 quarts of syrup. Looks like it's done. Unless this forecast changes!

[Pete S]

In the words of Christ on the cross; "It is finished".

We are dun!

[gbwez]

Its over in Oshkosh too. I tapped early and got 104 galls of sap from 17 taps this year, this made 3.25 galls of syrup.

[jmayerl]

Well, I thought I might just kick this dead horse a little. Yeah yeah I know that 90% of syrup weather depends on what happens during the season but I will already make my prediction for sappin 2013. We will have a short 2 week season again in February and that will be it.

It hasn't rained since may and almost every day for the last three weeks has been in the 90's. Anyone else care to give their .02.

[Pete S]

My $.02? I HATE this weather! We haven't seen rain since Shep was a pup. If it ain't dead, it's dyin'. Our 5 year old fruit trees have crunchy leaves. Trying to water but there's nothing like rain from God.

[delivron]

The Worst Year Ever. I don't think that is quite the truth. But first let me say the following two statements. "Liars Figure and Figures Lie" and "Is the Glass Half Full or is it Half Empty".
On a per tap basis I will agree this past season was one of the poorest. But if you look at the total us production against historical numbers there are signs of a healthy agricultural crop.
While I have not personally verified the numbers my self Steve Childs said this morning that 2012 was the 4th largest total crop in the the US ever. So all the numbers must be put in the proper perspective.

While it is every producers dream to get a high yield per tap for the most part we are a healthy agricultural crop.

Here are two sources to bases my assessment on. http://www.agdevjournal.com/attachments/article/241/JAFSCD_Growth_Potential_Maple_Syrup_March-2012.pdf

And the 2012 Maple Census Report from the USDA. http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/New.../0605mpl.pdf

For those of you you had a poor production year because of a low output per tap i feel your pain.

Andy deLivron

[maple flats]

I'm not ready to sign off on next season. While we are having very dry hot weather, maples are deep rooted and look at the sun they are getting. Sap quantities will be determined by rain/snow fall this fall/winter for the available moisture. IF WE HAVE good maple weather next season I believe the sugar will be higher than normal, and if this fall/ winter has average or better moisture hit the ground we could have a super season. However, I predict neither, too many variables. I'll just gear for super and take what God gives us.

[markcasper]

The springs following a drought year tend to be some of the best syrup years, at least this is what I have witnessed over the years. Seasons following high precipitation tend to almost always have some of the lowest sugar %'s, although this theory did not seem to ring true this last spring as last fall here was very dry.

As for you folks mentioning Gods name, I would tread lightly as that topic is known to not want to be brought up on this site! You just may get censored or even thrown off for your words.

[spud]

The amount of sap and sugar we get is all in God's hands. It's His world were just living in it.

Spud

[maple flats]

Since I am a moderator, I re-read the rules. While discussions about religion should not be on here, we are not prohibited from mentioning God. This is not an anti God site.

[Pete S]

Thank God! ;-)

[AdirondackSap]

Are you kidding me you would want someone banned from this site for believing in God. You sir are the small minded one. What if this guy has been a sugarer for his whole life and has more knowledge to pass around. Thats how we learn by how others do things and improve on them. Thats what this whole mapletrader website is about is too pass on knowledge to others and share what works and what doesnt. So just because this man believes in God doesnt make him a dumb sugarer that you couldnt learn from you dont have to agree with him i just dont like seeing bashing on your beliefs its America believe what you want.

[wiam]

I do not believe Mark was saying he wanted any one banned. Just bringing up past experience here. That is how I took what he posted.

[PATheron]

Im thinking this next year is going to be a humdinger. Its real hot with tons of sun. Good sugar maybe from that. Plus Joe Bascardi is saying next three winters real cold like the ones back in the 70's. Like everyone says have to see what spring brings but if your ready well in advance with your lines all top notch and your shed ready and you get tapped in well in advance youll make quite a bit no matter what I think. Good sugar would be a real bonus. I think a lot of what we get has to do with how ready we are and thats the part we have some control over. Still a tough racket though. Cant change mother nature. Theron

[spud]

Even though we are getting very hot temps I have areas in my woods where the springs are still very wet. I think there is a lot of moisture still in the ground so there is no need to worry. I do have 5 small maple along my driveway that are about 5 inches or so. I noticed one of them has smaller leaves and are curling. Would this be a lack of water in the ground around this tree? This one tree has no defects that I can see.

Spud

[Rhino]

Lots of drought stricken areas and i feel for those farmers in those regions. Up here in northern Wisconsin we have been blessed with timely rains while 60 miles south and further hardly a drop. After makeing that decision not to even tap this spring (hardest decision we had to make), our gardens are bursting at the seams, with the rains we have been getting and the tropical like humid 90 degree weather, lots of harvesting is takeing place which really helps with the lack of syrup income. I did plant alot more veggies to take up some of the slack. Just my carrots i went from 400 feet worth of rows to 800 feet of rows. My back feels the increase to. Our 4 different farmers markets are going very well. We did end up buying quarts and pints from a friend who bought a truck load of Maine syrup, and we are selling that along with our veggies just to keep our customer base, lots of explaining when they see a diff. label other then ours, lots of them know/heard about the poor season most states had. It is interesting how much syrup is moveing at $16.00/quart. Thats what we had to mark it up to, to make a little on it. Still cheaper then the stores though, i see quarts are around $19.00. I think the days of selling our quarts for $13.00 are going to be past memories, not that we will jump it up to $16 a quart but somewhere in between. Hope everyones summer is going well, I will be praying for rain for all you who are suffering.