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Don(MI)
01-10-2016, 04:55 PM
Hey guys,

About 3 years ago the Lord blessed me with a 28 acre place here. I live here with the house up by the roadside.

But, in the back I have around 400+ taps that could be ready in 5-6 years or a little more. I have 2 ridges that are 15ft ish above the swamp areas. Most are soft maple. I figure the actual 'sugarbush' is around 12-14 acres in size.

Now, I have been making syrup the old fashioned with containers and buckets on a 250 tap operation for 20+ years. Love this thing we call syrup making. We happen to make syrup at my grandpas farm currently.

My question is, what would be a rough ballpark cost just for 5/16 tubing for this 400+ tap area? I would at first plan to run gravity so no vacuum pump needed.

Any thoughts on this? How long does tubing take to install and is it a pain in brushy areas?

Also, do you guys run a bigger mainline to tap into future trees that are too young when the line is installed? How do you add additional taps through the years?

Thanks!

tonka
01-10-2016, 05:21 PM
I am currently working on a 8 acre woods with roughly 250 taps and so far I have went through roughly 7 roles of 5/16 tubing and 2,000 feet of 3/4" mainline. $52.10x7=$364.70, 2,000'x.21cents=$420, taps 250x.18=$45, and figure $200-$300 for miscellaneous and I'm using a 315 gallon bulk tank that I bought for $400 so total I have about $1500 invested into the woods. So you could be looking at at least double that.