Curious. What are producers grossing avg with a 2x6

[Mitchhorne8]

I just dished out alot (for me) on a new 2x6. Just wondering what ppl are able to make back annually. I'm looking to tap about 400 trees. http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160916/d36cb405013058fefc757ca311b06a39.jpg

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[maple maniac65]

All depends on how you sell your syrup. Wholesale or retail. What size bottles. Let's say you make a 100 gallons per year and sell it in gallon jugs at 50 per gallon that's 5000. Or bottle it all in 50ml maple leafs as wedding favors at 3.25 apiece. That's 10,000 bottles or 32,500 for the same amount of syrup. You have to decide where your niche is going to be.

[Mitchhorne8]

All depends on how you sell your syrup. Wholesale or retail. What size bottles. Let's say you make a 100 gallons per year and sell it in gallon jugs at 50 per gallon that's 5000. Or bottle it all in 50ml maple leafs as wedding favors at 3.25 apiece. That's 10,000 bottles or 32,500 for the same amount of syrup. You have to decide where your niche is going to be.
Half of either of those scenarios would be great! Do you think I could get 100 gallons on 400 trees. I know depends on the season.

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[K.I. Joe]

I usually make nothing. Lol a good thing I like doing it.

[MISugarDaddy]

Mitchhorne8,
100 gallons is possible from 400 trees provided the year is decent and you have vacuum. We tapped just under 500 trees last year on gravity and stopped after 60 gallons. We could have done more, but there was going to be a week of above freezing temps, so we decided to clean things up and call it quits. (Turns out there was only one more run after we quit.) We could have gotten more from the sap we had, but I didn't feel like standing around and slowly boil off the concentrate in the evaporator.
Gary

[Mitchhorne8]

Thanks Gary. I was planning to get a vacuum if funds permit. I'm not really trying to make big $$ on this. But if I can pay back my investment over a few yrs great.

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[mudr]

I believe the number is a quart of syrup per tap per year, *on average*. That is for buckets. So yes, you could get 100 gal (+/- a few given the year) on those 400.

Vacuum will increase from there.

[maple flats]

Good tight vacuum in an average year should get at least .4 gal/tap and if high vacuum, good leak repair the average is .5 gal/tap. The qt/tap is for gravity in an average year. Back in 2008 I made .38 g/t on gravity. My best on 20" of vac. has only been .43 gpt.Higher vacuum and better leak fixing will get higher.
In the past, I worked full time and was only allowed to take afternoons off when needed during the season, next season I'm full time maple, having retired, I hope to see higher numbers.

[Mitchhorne8]

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161127/a80be61cb5dbca9f571d44fe1b5a93ba.jpg Pretty happy these days. Guys that put up the lines said my bush has 2.2 taps per 4 feet of line, the average is 1 tap per 4 feet.

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[maple maniac65]

That is one flat looking bush. Around here we need climbing gear to get to some of the taps or start from the top and tap on the way down if you can stop.

[motowbrowne]

Are you running tubing in a bush that flat without vacuum?

My experience with gravity tubing is that it's very easy for a clog to wreck your production. I'd STRONGLY recommend running a vacuum pump. Either a couple of Shurflo pumps or a sap sucker will pay for itself in the first year. Honestly, I'd rather set up 200 taps with vacuum than 400 without. Less work, same amount of syrup or maybe more.

Other thoughts: how much time do you want to spend cooking? A 2x6 will only make 2-3 quarts of syrup per hour maybe a gallon if you're running a blower. A hundred gallons is gonna take 100-200 hours to cook. If you put 400 taps on vacuum, you're gonna be buried in sap. If you have a market for the syrup, I don't think you need to worry about profitability, but unless you've got a lot of time on your hands, it's gonna be tough to make it all. Perhaps one of these DIY ROs people are building is a possibly.

Lastly, don't worry about your investment. I'm sure it'll be nice to put the money back in the bank, but honestly, the rig won't depreciate much. I don't know what you paid for it, but in ten years it'll be worth almost as much. Of course, you have to not burn it up or have it get stolen, but barring that, it's just a savings account that cooks syrup.