Growing

[maplenutter butter]

So my wife and I are wanting to grow our Maple syrup business. The biggest hurdle we are running into is finding more trees to tap. We are already trying to plan things for 2018. We thought about having a small open house for all the neighbors that live within a 10mile radius of our operation. We just don't know what to put into the letter we would send to everyone. We would select a date an time and let all our guest know they would leave with a bottle of our syrup. We would show them our bush and how its set up and answer any questions that might have. I was wondering if we should put in the letter we are looking for taps to lease (I'm afraid they may feel pressured and not come) or kinda work it into a conversation as I'm showing the operation? Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated! or are we wasting our time. Has anyone done anything like this and if so what kinda luck did they have?

[barnbc76]

If i was apporoached by my neighbor who is a farmer and he asked me if he could use one of my fields to farm and offer me something i would certainly listen. Of course if it was a complete stranger i would listen but I would have to judge based on the first impression then ask other neighbors if they would trust the guy. My family own property next to a crazy guy, long story short we got permission to hunt the edge of his property, later he changes his mind then starts threating our family while he was on our property. This past hunting season i was down there at a local pizza shop and happen to start a conversation with a group of hunters. Turns out the guy was sueing our crazy neighbor for not paying up on his lease for haying his field, and he was also threatened with a gun... just know who to stay away from.

[johnpma]

I think in general people are pretty receptive to farming, and sugaring for the most part. I do know of a buddy whom has a bunch of sugar maples on his property in Belchertown MA. One day a guy stopped and knocked on his door and asked to tap them. My buddy said yes go right ahead. He made it look nice with modern buckets, and came every couple days to check them. At the season's end he came back to take the buckets and gave them a quart of syrup. My point is that if you make your presentation presentable with buckets I think it will go over much better than if you string tubing all over their property.

Good luck!!

[johnc]

if your looking let people know,we started with 340 some taps on one property met the neighbor told them of our operation so they jumped on board now were looking at 1300 taps. but what we did was dump the blue tubing & went with all grey tubing main line included, no buckets .grey blends into landscape better than blue. good luck

[Cody]

Another is don't leave tubing and stuff that you don't use laying in there woods.Keep it clean,garbage in,garbage out.Seen one woods were it was leased,old tubing,beer cans laying through out the woods.

[markcasper]

I think in general people are pretty receptive to farming, and sugaring for the most part. I do know of a buddy whom has a bunch of sugar maples on his property in Belchertown MA. One day a guy stopped and knocked on his door and asked to tap them. My buddy said yes go right ahead. He made it look nice with modern buckets, and came every couple days to check them. At the season's end he came back to take the buckets and gave them a quart of syrup. My point is that if you make your presentation presentable with buckets I think it will go over much better than if you string tubing all over their property.

Good luck!! Amazes me how syrup makers don't want to pay much for tapping others trees. Amazing how someone makes a 1/2 gallon syrup per tap and and then complains about paying .50 cents or .75 per tap, or only gives them a quart of syrup. Sugarmakers should be paying $3-$5 per tap to rent trees based on current prices. In crop farming, fully 1/4 - 1/3 of the gross profit goes for taxes, rent, right to farm the land. Great for the sugarmaker being cheap, not so good for the landowner.

[maplenutter butter]

I should of given more detail. We are sitting at 12-1400 taps this current year. We have offered a few people $1.00 a tap for woods that have 3000 plus taps. I have not heard of people that pay $3-$5 a tap. Seems a bit steep. On a good year you may get a half gallon per tap, but what about a bad year? I am seeking 5-10 year contracts.

[McAllister farm]

Amazes me how syrup makers don't want to pay much for tapping others trees. Amazing how someone makes a 1/2 gallon syrup per tap and and then complains about paying .50 cents or .75 per tap, or only gives them a quart of syrup. Sugarmakers should be paying $3-$5 per tap to rent trees based on current prices. In crop farming, fully 1/4 - 1/3 of the gross profit goes for taxes, rent, right to farm the land. Great for the sugarmaker being cheap, not so good for the landowner.

I can't see how a sugar maker could pay $3-5$ per tap and make any money! I don't know what the going price for bulk syrup is per lb is out there but here it is only ranges between $2.05-$2.40 lb for certified organic syrup.we pay $.75 per tap plus we have to carry liability insurance and pay taxes on sugarhouse and equipment our sugarhouse is built on the sugarbush.

[McAllister farm]

I should of given more detail. We are sitting at 12-1400 taps this current year. We have offered a few people $1.00 a tap for woods that have 3000 plus taps. I have not heard of people that pay $3-$5 a tap. Seems a bit steep. On a good year you may get a half gallon per tap, but what about a bad year? I am seeking 5-10 year contracts.
I agree with you, I think a $1.00 a tap is a very fair price I can't see how a sugar maker could ever pay $3.00-$5.00 a tap!