Maple tree farming

[markmaple]

Hi,

I am planning to have maple tree farming or have land with lots of maple tree.

1) What is best way to get in this business?
2) Should i make maple syrup on my own (with my own brand) or just tap and sale the sap?
3) I think, easiest way would be that i lease my tree to syrup business, but how to find one who would do tapping, get sap, and take that sap (just pay us xyz amount for leasing our trees)?

Please, kindly advice. Thanks :)

[wiam]

Most areas there are large sugarmakers looking for sap or leased trees. Do a search on here for lease or leasing.

[Sugarmaker]

Hi,

I am planning to have maple tree farming or have land with lots of maple tree.

1) What is best way to get in this business?
2) Should i make maple syrup on my own (with my own brand) or just tap and sale the sap?
3) I think, easiest way would be that i lease my tree to syrup business, but how to find one who would do tapping, get sap, and take that sap (just pay us xyz amount for leasing our trees)?

Please, kindly advice. Thanks :)

Mark,
As a estimate I would say you might get 40 to 60 cents per tap if you leased them, and if they were good trees. Lots of variables here. Do you have a business plan?
Regards,
Chris

[red maples]

Not really sure what you mean by maple tree farming or having lots of land with maple trees? dO you own the land now? or are you looking to buy land? Where in NJ are you are you located? first of all there are really not alot of bigger producers in NJ. A few people are getting into it down there now. (I am from down there originally) Check on the NJ thread here and see what you can find PM acouple of them to see exactly where they are located. as a producer you don;t want to have to drive to far for sap the closer the better. once you start to get into more than a 15-20 minutes drive one way it becomes very time consuming. 30-40 minutes driving time plus the time for pumping the tanks and unloading the sap into the tanks at the sugarhouse let alone processing and boiling.

Also how many trees do you have to offer are they all sugars or reds or silvers or a mix? It can also be a big investment up front depending how many trees you plan on tapping and how elaborate of a system you wanna set up.

If you are leasing the trees then whom ever you lease to would do all the work unless you wanted to help out.

buckets
Tubing
Vacuum tubing
sap collection tanks
Holding tanks
Evaporator
Reverse Osmosis
filtering
bottling

as well as yearly tubing maintanence
containers
filters
where are you gonna sell it? farmers markets co-ops?

So there is alot to think about if you wanna do this.

You can tap a few cook down some sap for a few hrs to see if you like it or not. then go from there!!!

[wiam]

Mark,
As a estimate I would say you might get 40 to 60 cents per tap if you leased them, and if they were good trees. Lots of variables here. Do you have a business plan?
Regards,
Chris
My inlaws lease taps to a neighbor. We use the formula that the state of VT uses which puts it about .75/tap. I know some that are paying $1.00.

[markmaple]

We like to thank you all Wiam, Sugarmaker, Red Maples, and many more people going to input the suggestion.

1) We are in NJ, but want to buy land in NY.
2) We are planning to buy land that has Maple trees or we will buy land in NY and put Maple trees there.
3) We are thinking to have minimum of 15 to 30 Acres and more land.
4) We rather have land with tree and Sugar company or Maple Syrup maker would do everything. Is that possible?

5) If anyone wants to do business in partnership, please feel free to make suggestion or make offer. If anyone wants to be partner such as we buy the land and partner does work since they would have more knowledge. Our partner don't have to invest for buying big land. (We can help too, so it is not going to be so all work is not going to be on you. don't worry)

Thanks