Tapped Wayyyy Too Early

[bison1973]

I believe most on mapletrader got fooled by mother nature and tapped way too early here in Wisconsin. Myself included. I've beeen watching others jump the gun for years while I waited. This year I gave into the hype and jumped at it too. Needless to say it looks as though the taps will be sitting for nearly three weeks before we get any sap weather again. Wishing I would have stayed with my traditional tapping schedule.

[Peepers]

What is your traditional tapping schedule? I've only been at this a few years and everything started up good in early March and ended in early April for us the past couple of years. I'm due West of you a few hours and am getting a little nervous with all these thunderstorms, rain and no freezing temps in the 7 day forecast.

[benchmark]

I did the same thing. I told myself on Saturday not to get too excited- then Sunday came along, the few test taps i had out were flowing steady, guess i couldn't hold myself back from the drill. Now its rainy, not freezing at night and no real good freezing weather in the near forecast. Should have waited......... Last year i didn't tap until the 18th of March.

[bison1973]

Most years we would tap from the 15th to the 20th of March.

[Dave Puhl]

No... its this crappy weather...last year at this time I was going at it....Its just like farming...you gotta take what is given out by the weather..

[Peepers]

I just hope it gets cold again (can't believe I'm saying that here in MN) so we get some sap. Darn el nino, global warming, whatever this is giving us 50's and thunderstorms. :evil:

[markcasper]

Finally got one woods on vacuum tonight pulling 19". Sap was dumping well. On to get the other tapped woods on vacuum tomorrow and then tap the next one-300 taps. I wish I had all my vacuum tapped and running, hopefully by Saturday night. I am glad I have no bags out yet, am going to do 500 of them, but will wait until it looks like its going to freeze at night.

[TF Maple]

I know it was early when I tapped this year, but if I hadn't started, I wouldn't have any syrup and then this long warm spell would really seem bad.
I think they will still run until the end of March with the right weather and if they shutdown in April, I'm OK with that because I started early. It's a gamble every year, so I rolled the dice early.

[jfroe939]

We didn't tap too early. This weather is just giving us the screws. If it were still 20 for the highs I would say we're too early, but when we're getting mid-40's or low 50's depending where you're at with no freezing nights in early March, that's just out of character with normal. The bad part is that alot of guys dump alot of cash into upgrading various equipment and when it's only March 12th and I'm already pegging the year as below average, it certainly puts that not-so-good feeling in your tummy when you had visions of sugar plums and boat loads of income dancing in your head just 2 weeks ago. But I suppose I didn't have any problem receiving a great year like last year so I also have to accept the idea that not every year will be a bumper crop with some form of dignity, too. Either way, it's fun being in the woods this time of year doing something you enjoy. Plus, look at it this way- if it's a bad year you don't have to work as hard filling up the woodshed this year!

[bison1973]

I disagree... if the trees aren't running now what was the point of tapping them early? The little sap we got would have more than been made up for by having fresh tap holes when the runs really started.

[markcasper]

Tapping early with new spouts, adaptors, or cv's is certainly not going to be as big a deal or any deal compared to bags or buckets. Those that just used the spouts hanging in the woods are going to run into "dry hole" early. Why would this year be different than any other?

At least the surplus will be used and maybe you won't have to get on a list this year to sell bulk syrup.

[bison1973]

That's if you sell bulk syrup...I don't... I don't make enough to supply my customers. So I like to maximize my oportunities.