Boiling neighbors sap, whats fair

[deckers007]

A neighbor approached me about boiling the sap from his red maples on his property that he did not have time to boil. i got a total of 260 liters from him. I told him i would take a cut of the syrup produced.

I never measured the sap sugar content, so i did a 50:1 ratio, which worked out to 5.2 liters of syrup. I told him i was going to keep 2 liters and 3.2 for him.

He is not a close neighbor, just someone who approached me, i took a look at the trees he was tapping to make sure all was good.

Does this seem fair?

[Ivyacres]

I take my sap (3500 gals) to a man to get processed. We split 50/50 and also don't measure sugar content regularly. We have the same kind of trees and he has come and inspected my woods to verify the trees that are tapped. I don't know about mixing reds with other sap trees and are you providing the bottles? I either provide my own (99%) or buy them from him.

[unc23win]

Personally I like 50/50 but a lot of people do 60/40 where 60 goes to the boiler. I think you need to check the sugar content each time or trust him to do it. If you take sap on a regular basis its hard for your cut to be what you figured given that there will be a loss in filtering and canning and such. Treat them well and fair and keep them coming if you can handle the extra processing it will be worth it to you.

[maple flats]

I boil for others on shares. As long as the sap is fresh and clear. I base my % on the sugar %. If it is 3.0 or more I split 50/50, if 2.0-2.9 split is 45% to sap supplier, at least 1.7 but under 2.0, split is 40%, at least 1.5 but under 1.7, sap supplier gets 35%, 1.1 up to but under 1.5, sap supplier gets 25%, 1.0 or less I will not take the sap.
Many years I get some that is 3.0 or above, this year the best was only 2.1%.

[wiam]

I pay 60% of what I get paid wholesale for the syrup. Every load gets sugar checked and goes through a water meter. That makes it fair to both sides.