New Brunswick, Canada- Production going down.

[Maple Trail]

Have not started tapping yet. Usually, wait until March. lots of snow here and only getting up to about 2 degrees during the day. Anyone else in this region tapping yet?

Our production over the last 10 years has gone steadly down every year. Not sure what the problem is. It seems like the tap holes are drying out quickly. We re-tapped some trees last year once the season was in full swing and the trees ran like crazy. It seems like once the season comes it gets to hot to quickly and there is no sap. It is not just our trees it is other producers as well.

Have any of you in other parts for Canada or US been experiencing a de-cline in syrup production over the last 5-10 years.

MMMM. Liquid Gold.

[KenWP]

Is this with new spouts and such. I wonder if the highly vonted CV spouts would give you a hand in keeping production up. That and trying different disenfectants. This year will be intresting for moi also. To see what I can get out of the trees.

[3rdgen.maple]

Absolutely Maple Trail. I have seen the same thing. It really sucks when you gotta keep adding taps just to get the same amount of syrup every year. What I notice here is not the length of the season but how the good runs are disappearing. It is either too cold or too warm and there are just a handful of perfect days. It runs throughout the season but just not like the old days. I was looking at a log book my grandfather kept and 50 years ago he was making more syrup on average with 200 taps than my averages with the 400 I use to have out. This year I will be around 800 and expectations are low.

[802maple]

How many of you guys that are seeing decreasing numbers are not on vacuum but are using the small spout. It is proven that using the small spout without vacuum will produce smaller yields then the old 7/16ths spout will with out it. Just wondering.

[maplwrks]

Just to add to that --- How many of you are using one piece 5/16th spouts that are over 3 years old? 5/16th spouts on gravity are cutting your production by at least 30%, and if they are older than 3 yrs old, you are losing another 30% also. This has been my experience, and PMRC has done studies to prove it. I am not a big fan of 5/16 spouts on gravity systems, as they just don't produce.

[HHM-07]

3rd gen

Check your grandads log book for the time that he normally taped, i know when i was young we never taped until at least town meeting day. they thought that if you taped to early that when the weather was right for good runs they were in the trees to long.


Dick

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

We had our best years 50 years ago. Early 60's we made 1/2 gallon per tap on buckets. we were using the latest technology at the time, recommended by UVM and Cornell....para-formaldehyde:o

[3rdgen.maple]

Dick it was always right around March 1 and a few times mid to last week in febuary and he pulled taps 1st week in april and the latest I seen was April 17. So it is pretty much the same as far as the dates go here for me. If I look at the number it seems that they had alot more consitant runs back then. Many times he noted the buckets were running over and he had to gather twice that day. He never noted how many gallons of sap he got a day. Now if I get 3 maybe 4 goods runs where they are running over it is a good year. I have yet to have to gather twice in one day unless the night is gonna get real cold and I do not want frozen buckets. I should also mention that I still tap those old maples he did but I have less taps in those trees than he ever put in them and some of them are the best runners. I also know that he used the same taps he started out with and used them for over 60 years.
The old school he taught me was a tree at 12 inches was tappable and for every 12 inches you could hang a bucket. I remember one tree he had atleast 7 or 8 buckets on it. It is still alive and I still tap it but only have 3 on it. Something to ponder anyways. Also if I look at the numbers it seems he was around the 1/2 gallon mark per tap. If I get 1/4 gallon per tap it is a record breaking year. So it all boils down to one thing. We just do not get enough perfect sap running days in a season anymore. No wonder why they invented vac setups.

802 I have always run the 7/16 taps on buckets just like he did. Not until last year when I ran out from adding taps did I start buying 5/16.

[Mac_Muz]

I am small time but got more sap in buckets per day in the 80's and up to the mid 90's when I moved away from Sugar Land.

If i recal right with 22 taps in the mid 90's I was getting joint compound buckets to over flow out the tap holes i drill in them.

No more of that happens. With those 22 pats one year I made 11 gallons of maple sugar, and there is no more of that either.

2 years ago not wanting to make more than 5 gallons finished I used 15 taps, and made about 4 gallons.... So last year i added taps to be 35 and made around 3 gallons for the extra effort.

This year I kept the same 35 taps, and set them yesterday in Tamworth NH. I checked some buckets this moring and some trees are running while others have dry taps. No bucket has over 2 inches as I type.

So I think something is wrong, but have no idea what that is. My goal is 5 gallons, for my personal use and a few gifts.

[KenWP]

Well in 2008 I didn't tap as I lived in Alberta and got nothing. Last year I ended up tapping 150 and expected maybe 4 gallons of syrup and got 20. This year is still up in the air as how many I tap but might be 200 and might be 400 so expect about the same as last year again.

[Maple Trail]

Thanks to everyone who replied. Well it sounds like production is going down every where. I have been doing this since I was a kid with my father and grand-father and we basically tapping the same trees today. I remember back in the early 90's gathering sap and getting (1000 +Gals) 11 tanks of sap from 700 taps in one day. We had to gather every day to keep up. Now we are lucky to get two tanks of sap and you might gather once a week. We are in the process of going through and thinning the woods, cutting the dead stuff ect. Not sure if this will help. We had between 1700-2000 taps last year and we did not make 100g of syrup. Very discouraging. But I still love it and will keep it going.

[maple flats]

That is rather low. Last year I made 125 gal on 600 taps and in 08 I made 186 gal on 500 taps. Had lots more freeze thaw cycles in 08. This year I'm likely looking at only about 650 taps. Time will tell. Still too cold to start here but it could come in a few days.

[802maple]

There could be several reasons for a reduction in sap. Some are man made and some very well could be by mother nature. I know not many years ago it was common thought that a quart per tap of maple syrup was considered a average year, now atleast in this area it is getting more in the 1/3 of a gallon of syrup per tap amount to be a average year. Most sugarmakers in this area that are up to date with technology are even over a half gallon.

It also seems that sugarmakers are pushing the start up date earlier and earlier every year. I personally wouldn't tap before the 15th of March here in Lincoln and I was told all of those years that I had missed half the season, but when I ended up making more syrup then the rest would per tap, I was told it had nothing to do with me waiting. Now it could be mother nature also who knows, but this weather we are experiencing now came around back years ago and the old timers than would just use it for getting ready and then after town meeting when it warmed up they would go at it.