Using Daily Sugaring Notes

[norman]

Hello,

I am new to the site and have been making syrup for a few years in NW Wisconsin. I am wondering if there is a good format in place anywhere that can assist me in taking better notes on a daily basis while I am in the sugaring woods. I have a little notebook that I use currently but it is very haphazard in format.

Do any of you have any tips on the best way to record daily records of sap flow, sugar content of sap, boil rate, etc, etc? Is there something already created that I can print off and use, or possibly an app somewhere that I can use??

Thanks,

Jeff
Blue Hills Sugar Bush
Bruce, WI

[Kbrooks80]

I setup a spread sheet for tracking. I setup rows for date, collection amount for areas and notes for the day. Also a section for syrup production. I have access to it on my phone for quick entry.
It has been nice to look back at previous years to compare.

[maplestudent]

I cannot offer any assistance, although taking notes is something I should probably do. I did so several years ago....but it always seemed that once the sap started flowing well I'd be in over my head again and the note-taking would end. now that I think of it, if I had taken those notes, maybe I'd be able to solve the 'in over my head again' problems easier.

[VTmaplehobby]

We started writing on the wall of the first maple chalet (plywood shack, built in an hour) in 2014. We reused the same plywood in version 2.0. That piece of plywood is now hanging on the ceiling of our real honest to goodness sugar house. These notes included dates, time, length of boil, production, sap amounts, who was there etc... We still refer to the "writing on the wall" quite often. We now keep a journal that is filled out with much the same information plus weather and improvement notes.

[meadster02]

Maple expert solutions MES is an app for your phone works great

[wobbletop]

I just use google sheets. It's available online, and on the phone.

I put an entry for each day I do something... L sap collected, (calculated running total), brix, hours boiling, L syrup produced, and then any notes for the day on the same line (dumped sap, etc).
Then the years are organized into tabs.

[Ghs57]

Coming from a finance background, I spent my days creating and using numerous spreadsheets for a multitude of purposes. So, setting one up for maple production was a given. It's by no means complicated, and tracks sap collection by location, number of taps, average sap per tap, Sap sugar content, expected syrup output, low and high temp, weather, gals boiled, hours boiled, gph boiled, misc notes and bottling stats. It has a section for sales, but I don't seem to put any of that info in there. I have a basic version on my phone for when I'm collecting.

I seem to think of new things to add every season. I have a sheet for every year going back to 2014, which was my first serious attempt at this. I'd put a screen shot in here, but the text would be too tiny. Anyway, there are many ways to accomplish the same thing. Spreadsheets are free form, so your imagination is the limit. You can just write it down in a notebook (or on the wall). I do track my production by the bottling batch, and label the bottles with the batch number, just in case there is a problem with a bottle. I can then check out others from that batch if need be.

I'm glad I started the record. I look back to prior years all the time.