Starting a Business in Maple Syrup

[The Jones Family Farm]

Has anyone felt uneasy about getting into the maple syrup business? We have a 240 acre farm with a approximately 300 trees that are accessible with a system where we have to pick up sap at two different locations on a vacuum system. We also have another 100 trees further out that might not be cost effective to collect with a vacuum system. Our plan is to invest in more areas to get syrup, but we are on the fence with whether or not this is going to be worth our efforts. I firmly believe that planting trees now would be a good longer term investment that would boost production significantly, but we need to be able to create a sustainable operation for the short time. I think selling the syrup is probably our biggest concern since we are not sure how easy it would be to sell 100-500 gallons of syrup at a profitable price. Anyone have some thoughts on this?

[Maple Man 85]

If you can sell everything retail than you could break even but look at the investment, at the current price of bulk I would not invest in a new setup unless there is an existing business in place so you're not taking the full risk of the investment.

What's the cost of the equipment versus the number of trees and don't forget to include your time (assuming you are not working for free).

At a couple hundred trees it may not be economical depending on how much you're investing. Any expansion we've done I've built a pros and cons list as well as treated it like an investment and would not invest if I couldn't see a return in 2-5 years.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't venture forward, I was a hobby producer for many years and donated my time and any earnings went back into my hobby. If you enjoy it as a hobby then do it, but if you want a business then it has to be looked at as a business.

[wnybassman]

The best way to make a small fortune in sugaring is to start out with a large fortune.

[markcasper]

Probably doesn't apply to your situation, but where I live we just found out that woodlands are bringing $3600 per acre. I asked the specific question in another forum as to how such an investment will pencil with - $2.00 /lb. syrup and people all over wanting to tap trees yet? Noone has yet answered the question because quite frankly I don't see it penciling out. Since you already have the land, and assuming it is paid for, then you'd just have the equipment. Around my area the market is saturated with people trying to sell syrup. It is good on one hand that it is readily avaliable, but many think that they can still get $15 per quart. IMO, prices need to be lowered in order to get more syrup on more tables. I can't see spending all my free time trying to sell all of my syrup retail, and selling for less than my neighbor(s), when I could be working overtime and get paid 3 or 4 times better for my time. So you sell it bulk, take the hit, and wonder how long your going to keep doing this?

[maplemas]

Is there a producer near by that would buy the sap? Woods are cheap to set up compared to a sugar house!!

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

As others have said, at anything less than a few thousand taps you're more of a hobby than a business. Set your goals on breaking even if you don't include your time over the long term. A 0.5 G/tap syrup is a respectable number on vacuum. Assuming you can hit that, you're talking about 200-300 gallons/year depending on how many actual taps you have. If you can do it al retail you'll make out OK but to pay off your initial investment will take a lot of time.

[mudr]

Is there a producer near by that would buy the sap? Woods are cheap to set up compared to a sugar house!!
Ugh, you are not kidding. I just started my sugar house project. Just a basic, classic, 16x24 and it's going to end up being a lot more than I expected. Oh well. Nothing is cheap and it's only money and I have a day job.

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[maplenutter butter]

I'm not sure where you live in MN, but I would be interested in buying your sap. Message me if your interested.

[maple flats]

Making a profit in syrup takes lots of time and loads of work, along with doing everything right. A small operation is hard pressed to break even. To make a business of it you need several thousand taps and you need to sell a rather large portion at retail. Investments are large, sugar house, evaporator, storage tanks (stainless), filter press, vacuum pump(s), Reverse Osmosis, tubing, taps, fuel to boil, insurance, equipment to haul sap unless all sap can be run to the sugar house. These things just scratch the surface, other expenses will add to those.
I'm not saying it can't be done, but it is far from a quick income plan, the first 10-15 years it may not even break even.
That being said, on this forum there are members who make a full time income on as few as 5000 taps, but 10,000 is often considered a minimum for making a syrup operation your sole income.
Most of use make syrup because we are addicted to doing maple, it's a sickness with no known cure but rarely fatal.

[hookhill]

We started sugaring 15 years ago. It was pure enthusiasm that got us started. No regrets. Lots of time, investment and 5000 gallons of syrup later we have made enough money to own some old equipment. Do it if you want to try it but don't go into it for the money. If you own a 240 acre farm 300-400 taps aint gonna make a bit of difference in the budget for real estate that size. If you could get up to 3-4000 then it might be worth it if the bulk price goes up. What else do you do on ground that big...hay, cows, crops?

[Robert K]

Is spring here yet? :evil:
If they find a cure, don't tell me

[The Jones Family Farm]

Thanks everyone for the comments. We work outside of the Maple Syrup "sickness" as "maple flats" puts it, so we are not looking to live off of the maple business. The investment we are planning to put into our pole shed is something that needs to be done anyway, so we aren't looking to make enough to pay that investment off. If we can make enough to pay the up front investment, we are satisfied. We have access to additional trees and will expand as we go. Our major intent is to have this business built up for something to do when we retire. Once we retire, we would like to be established enough that we can "at that time" pull in money for a supplemental income. The beauty of it is, I like to hunt and fish and sugaring is during a time when we don't typically have a lot to do and it get's our butts off the chair and out doing something. Plus....it is a sickness. There's just something about creating maple syrup from a tree. My initial investment will be somewhat large and there is no way I would invest that much on 200-400 trees, so I do have future plans that fit my madness. Also, I have a large number of Birch trees that I can also tap. In addition to that.....I have a good crop of Ironwood that I could play with for some exotic syrup tapping. The main goal is to be able to pay the bills for the first 5 years and then expand from there. We don't expect to pull an income during this time. All we want to accomplish is paying the bills. If we can manage that, we are good to go.

Maplenutter Butter: I live in central Minnesota around the Mille Lacs Lake area. I'm not sure what sap sells for, but I don't think I could invest this much and pay the bills with selling sap.

Hook Hill: We donate our fields to my cousin who has an Organic Dairy Farm. My land is registered organic. We could easily raise cattle, but I don't have the time for it. :)

[maple flats]

Try some birch syrup before you go that route. Some like it, but many don't, but it can give you more use of the expensive equipment. Some of those who do both, find it may not be a good fit, an evaporator sized to handle 500+ taps might be well oversized to do let's say 150 birch taps.

[The Jones Family Farm]

Thanks Dave. I will certainly follow that advise.

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

It sounds like your expectations are in check. Just be prepared in case you don't break even. There's way too many variables to know how you will do. We also have a stake in an operation to look forward to in retirement. Run the numbers, make an honest business plan and you will know what to expect. Syrup prices are going down, not up for the immediate future. Some guys just wing it, like our current 400 tap operation. We keep afloat now, but we don't take any income from it or plan to get our investment back.

[dcast99]

You can also start up the bussiness slowly. Setting up the woods is the cheaper part of the operation. You said your cousin farmers the property. Does he sell retail? If so can you sell your syrup for you? For the first 3 years I brought my sap to another producer for a 50% split. My buddy/business partner is a produce farmer so he sells all of the syrup at his markets. This built up the customer base. After the intial investment was payed back we lucked into a sweet deal on a brand new/never used 3 year old evaporator for 1/3 the price of new. Of course we now had to build a sugar house, but since we did it ourselves with a bunch of repurposed material it's cost was about $3000 total. The evap and sugar house should be payed back next year.