Rethinking and discussing our tapping strategies

[buckeye gold]

My very first exposure to tapping and Maple Syrup making was in the 1970s as a kid. My dad tapped 200+ and sold sap to a friend, then my cousin set up a sugar operation in the late 80s and 90s. After they quit I missed having some syrup and started my current efforts in 2009. I remember that we always started early to mid February and collected into March, as a kid. Fast forward to now and I have only boiled past March 4th once and most years I am done by March 1st. Without debate as to cause I think it's time we all discuss how we react. Every year I read the post on when to tap and I faced this decision myself a few years ago. I had already spent a lot of time working around the same issues in my career, as we had activities that were seasonal and temperature driven. What we had decided was it was time to toss "Normal" out the window and be reactive. We learned to watch trends and take chances. what we learned was we offen wasted some effort/labor, but we were usually in place to take advantage of things when they happened. Dr.Tim has discussed this along with many in the Maple Community and I think they would concur, that it is perhaps time we look less at the calendar and more at current trends in weather.

Following a strategy I learned in my former career I started looking at weather trends a few years ago and began developing a strategy that would position me to be ready, when the time came. While I was doing this, technology was developing to take some of the inconsistency out of tapping. Today a large percentage of producers are essentially working closed tubing systems that research has shown can be viable and productive longer in the sugar bush. With these options we can now tap earlier and still have confidence of adequately viable taps through "normal" tapping dates. So as I look and see people playing tapping roulette I wonder why more are not adapting the strategy of tapping earlier and working whatever runs we can get.I know this strings out the season and constitutes more work in cleaning and maintaining an operating system, but I wonder if the gains will out weigh the cost. I have found this is true for me in my area. I have essentially started my syruping a full 6 weeks prior to traditional dates. As I look back over records it has saved me from disastrous seasons at least three times in the last 9 years. Dr. Tim has stated we usually end up with the same yields if we start early as a normal season, with an earlier ending. So I agree that standard thinking would say why go through all the aggravation that comes with early tapping, but I have decided that the aggravation is worth the cost when weighed against disaster. Which would you rather have a 1 week season or a long drawn out aggravating season with full production.

So the final question is, has current weather trends come to the point where we must change our overall approach to tapping? I do not mean to open the global warming discussion, I am only saying we should look at at what we know is happening and develop good responses.

[5050racing]

Totally agree I'm just a hobbie guy 15gal +or- but still take it serious on what I do.So I thought I tapped early last year and this year but turns out not true.I have boiled into April 1st but not the case the last few years.Like your thoughts.

[Maplewalnut]

Agree, stop looking at the calendar and look at the weather. Trends become apparent. Not to get too deep but,,,,Isn't it man's ability to adapt which has proven his success.

[sugarwoodacres]

We keep a log book year to year. NJ has some of the most inconsistent weather I've seen , we have tapped as early as Jan 15th and as late as Feb 26th. this year we had Zero and negative lows in mid January then well above freezing, I think most people agree you have to watch the patterns for your area and be ready. I'm a hobby guy also but like to make 25 gallons a year to be able to sell a bit to pay for supplies and wants each year.

[DaveB]

My understanding is that larger producers with hundreds of thousands of taps start tapping in January no matter what the weather is. With modern systems the season can run much longer than in the past. I try to have everything ready by January but that's not always the case.

In the past couple of years I've tapped around my usual tapping date of mid-February and have gone straight through the end of March. I could have tapped earlier last year but I decided to wait because I knew the weather pattern was going to flip. Many of us had our coldest March on record and I had one week were I could not boil because everything was frozen. I had another week where the sap ran OK but I had to boil in single digit temperatures and fight frozen pipes. When natural cycles turned warmer, I was still collecting sap into April but I several other CT producers that had stopped getting sap by the end of March because they tapped earlier in January.

Having said that, I think there are a lot more variables that come into play for each persons operation today than in the past. That includes equipment, the ability to tap and the current weather pattern and any changes to it that might occur. I vacillate every year between tapping in mid-February and tapping earlier to take advantage of the modern technology I have or just waiting. I find myself looking at the long term weather pattern (I happen to be a meteorologist) and if I think March will turn warm, I'll tap earlier but if it's going to hold out closer to normal, I'll tap when I usually do.

[bowhunter]

I've only be tapping 6 years, but I have noticed the same thing. I am retired so I can collect sap and boil any day I chose. What I've seen is the season is ending around mid March here but also we are achieving the average highs and lows in a different way. I think we used to have more periods of high pressure with clear calm days in late winter than we do now. Now we have several consecutive warm days followed by several consecutive cold days, none of which are ideal for making sap run. Today is an exception, we had a frost overnight although it got only slightly below freezing. It is clear, sunny and calm. I remember a lot of springs in the past that were drier with clear weather. I think that makes a huge different for those of us still using buckets.

[ash10383]

This is only our 3rd year on droplines & buckets and 1st tapping at "normal" time at mid Feb and thankfully we tapped 50ish% more trees this year otherwise we'd be quite disappointed where we are as far as finished syrup, but we are definitely disappointed in amount of sap we've been able (or not) to bring back from the woods. We've been tossing around putting together a small lunch box type vaccum pump and lines for ease of collection but it sounds even better from a standpoint of a closed system for a longer season to catch the early runs since late Feb / early March is so unreliable in our area. Although I doubt this year would have been very fruitful, in NW OH, the Jan thaws probably would not have yielded much due to the extreme lows we were having just prior. I agree Feb went from too cold to even run to not cold enough to recharge the trees with only 3-4 days in between even though the extended forecast "looked perfect" for Feb & Mar. Yes I noticed most days only have 10ish degree tempature approx 35-45deg swings due to all the clouds and rain vs nice 20 degree swings +/- 25-45.

[WestfordSugarworks]

Agreed and I believe we will see people begin to tap more consitently in December or even November as the traditional sugaring season moves from February through April to December through March. I've seen a lot of climate models that show shorter and warmer winters with more variability and extremes. We started December 29th this year but I was angling to start December 20th or so, just wasn't ready yet due to repairs. If good sanitation practices can allow for good sap yields for 3 or more months then why not try to be pretty well tapped in 3+ months before the anticipated last runs of the season? With buckets or gravity it's a little different but I think waiting for the traditional calendar dates isn't going to work anymore.