Humungous Maple syrup operation in New Brunswick

[Revi]

Check out this vid of a huge maple operation in Canada. It has 150.000 taps and is the biggest I've ever seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BD3QiedrRA&feature=related

[MapleChaser]

That is amazing!!!! Very good post. Thanks
MC

[fishman]

I agree, simply amazing.

[danno]

Very impressive - did you see the syrup draw on that one evaporator in the last minute of the vid. Wow!!!

[can'twaitforabigrun]

Here is another video from the same operation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRCWvgwchmY
Also here is a bottling line that I assume is in Quebec: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYndDxQXj6o&feature=fvsr
Here is Lapierre Maple Farm, owned by Donald Lapierre of Waterloo-Lapierre -Small, they use this bush t otest out new equipment before it is offered to the general marketplace. They operate a total of nine oil fired evaporators when the sap is flowing well. http://www.domorewithmaple.com/aboutlapierre.html
Lastly is Citadelle Co-op in Quebec. I believe that they are the largest wholesaler of syrup in the world, and are continuously acquiring smaller bottling companies throughout Quebec. Here is a video of their warehouse, check out from the 0:25 onward, it makes Bascoms look small; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-IA9s5FsZQ&feature=BFa&list=UUofTosI-g9pwcma2nPWWDFQ&lf=plcp

[CBOYER]

The bottling line is La ferme Martinette, located in a small town name Barnston, near Ayers cliff in Québec, wheres KenWp lives...

[Revi]

I like to see vids and tour the big operations, but we still like ours the best.

[can'twaitforabigrun]

To correct my previous post Lapierre actually runs fours evaporators and from the photos it appears that they are wood fired Hurricane force fives. Here is the link to the photos on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.124022447674754.25129.100002009991885&type=3

[KenWP]

Barnston has like 5 houses and 3 of them are churches and a school. The bottling place is actually in the MD of Barnston not the town it's self. I can't imagine enough sap to keep a 20 foot pan full and draw off at the same time let alone 5 of them.They have ROs listed for sale used around here that do several 1000 gallons a hour even.

[orser506]

Government funded , enough said

[Newfvt]

These videos are fun and great to watch, but I think there is a hidden message we need to be mindful of.

One of the replies contains this quote "are continuously acquiring smaller". Translation? The big guys gobble up the little guys.

When I was a kid, Vermont had over 11,000 family dairy farms with perhaps 50-100 cows each. 2 years ago we went below 1,000. Last week another family dairy farm went out of business.

Today it is far cheaper to produce milk on mega-farms with 10,000 to 50,000 cows (40,000 to 200,000 taps) than it is to "mess" with a slew of little places run by Ma and Pa who can not compete economically.

Will the day come when the small family maple producer with 200 to 1200 taps can no longer compete against MegaMaple? As goes dairy, so goes Maple?

Steve

[CBOYER]

Government funded , enough said

??? Lapierre and la ferme Martinette are private company...

[Revi]

Here's a video of our much smaller operation. It's a nice 14 minute movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISbkO-NKA9o