The Bloom Is On

[unc23win]

I know I heard about research with seed count before. A friend shared this article with me from todays New York Times so I am passing it on.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/06/science/the-bloom-is-on-for-maple-syrup.html?ref=science

[meadster02]

Sounds good to me I am hoping for a good year.

[Ed R]

Kind of a confusingly written article, like many written about maple production. I may be wrong but I don't think that its a lock that this year will be a high seed year, and it would not affect this years production. The only thing I know was last year was a low seed year so sugar conc. should be good.

[Super Sapper]

This will be interesting for me being fairly new. We had tons of seeds in 2013 and I averaged 3% sugar (1725 gal. of sap and 58 gal. of bottled syrup) and almost no seeds in 2014. If this means a higher sugar content for me things should be pretty good.

[BreezyHill]

While the article is interesting as was the others that have been written about the report since it came out. I think it should not be used as a discussion making tool as of yet. Note how the data is not reliably sourced.

It is like the planting intentions that come out in march and april for corn. It is a tool that large producers have learned to manipulate to change market price. If planting intentions are down then the price per bushel rises so producers lock in contracts at higher rates and then the demand numbers bring the price back down.

In maple this could be used to set a low bulk price for the season early on. Then when producers don't make the amount of syrup expected price will rise again.

The best thing this article does is get people thinking of pancakes and Maple Syrup. If it gets a percentage of readers to go out and buy then it has done a wonderful thing for our industry.

Last nights near zero temps did more for my production. 52 degrees a few days ago has brought the buds out on the lilac bushes. This usually happens near the middle of our sap season; but these cold temps should set them back in dormancy for a while.

Reallity is that Good Old Mother Nature will make us or brake us on production numbers; but Marketing is were we can help ourselves.

Beef producers are still riding the Beef Check of advertising dollars spent that started in the 1980's and is still going on today. Where's the Beef, Beef it's what's for Dinner, and others are still keeping usage numbers up even with our current economy.

Ben

[40to1]

I loved the NYT article and the whole idea of a "mast year" as it validates my procrastination in not doing anything on the RO department. :)