New England Production

[220 maple]

The syrup production numbers was posted on June 15th. Nineteen precent decrease from last year. That should make the large producers happy who are setting on thousands of gallons of syrup. However the Canadian producers may spoil the short lived party when their production numbers are released? I was told that one producer in Vermont was holding 27000 gallons of syrup until the price goes up. If he could sell wholesale at the price I got per pound he should gross over 800 thousand dollars. I was told he has somewhere between 75 to 95 thousand taps.


Mark 220 Maple

[maplecrest]

there is syrup setting in every large sugar operation i have visited this summer including my own

[220 maple]

MapleCrest,
That's good news for the packers, my fear was with large quanities of syrup setting around the wholesale price would colaspe. The large packer that I know in southern Pa. does not expect much price change during the year. Last year he purchased a lot of wholesale syrup and probably will need more this year because of low production numbers by the local producers that he buys from. He mentioned back before the season ever got rolling that he was approached by Kroger Foods requesting that he bottle for them in a several state area. He turned them down.
I thought the production numbers would be up a lot with all the expansion and the use of check valves. Dr. Perkins was right again when he told me last Fall on here that the CV's would not flood the market. Some producers did very well, I suspect the weather controlled the rest.

Mark 220 Maple

[Russell Lampron]

Up here the guys with vacuum did well. Some had record seasons. The guys with buckets and gravity tubing had a poor season. The season started early and we didn't have many nights with a good frost which is needed for the sap to run without vacuum. My vacuum was on almost 24-7 for 6 weeks and I had a good season. With my buckets I got about 75% of what I normally would.

[red maples]

except for me where I got flooded out for 2-3 days and lost power from the wind storm for 5 days so I without vacuum for about 7-8 days and then my trees budded very early. BLAH!!!! season started great though!!!