Vacuum...minimum number of taps

[highway]

Good morning,

As i get older, I am looking to reduce and ultimately move away from buckets. We currently have over 200 taps on buckets and 600 on tubing. I have a small sugarbush in the back of my property with some mature maples and a few mixed red maples. I figure roughly 100 taps or so.The total distance for the proposed mainline from the bush to the road is about 600 feet. It slopes away from the road and sugarhouse but the elevation difference is only about 7 feet or so. I am pretty sure that cold be overcome with a sap ladder?
My specific questions is at what point does vacuum become unrealistic? Or better said, is 100 taps on vacuum worth the expense? I am certainly willing to put the effort in to install the mainline and taps. And spend the money for the vacuum pump and accessories, but would like to know if there is a cost benefit? I recognize the variables from one lot to another but just looking for some guidance and expertise.

I hope I have provided enough information to start the conversation. Thanks in advance for your input.

Happy Sugaring

Ed

[ecp]

Ed,

Ill do my best to tackle this one from a money standpoint as I think that is where you are coming from. If you had 600 taps on good vacuum for the year you could generalize about 6 pounds per tap (obviously sanitation and tapping practices would need to be well done because you can throw production in the ocean if you are not getting good holes and keeping the vacuum high). Assuming average bulk market pricing of $2.15 per pound you would make $7,740 of income from those 600 taps (600 times 6 times 2.15). There are way to many variable here to guarantee any numbers that is what the income potential could be per year.

The one constant I can tell you is vacuum pumps when managed properly are the only this that pays for themselves in terms of income (yes RO's to have a return on investment but that is from saving fuel not producing more syrup). A proper vacuum pump will always pay for itself.

Hope this helps.