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Here's an idea. Why don't larger producers lease land down South and Up North put their sugar shack at one or the other. RO at the non sugar shack site and truck the post RO sap to their Sugar shack facility? Might get two more weeks. Plan B not mutually exclusive lease land to tap in the fall - your utilization rate doubles - maybe
I have a friend that has 25,000 taps in southern Vermont and another 20,000 taps in Northern Vermont. They do truck concentrate to one site.
Spud
For the big guys I dont think its neccessarily about how long the season goes, but more about overall production. If they can get just as much finished product without the cost of shipping sap to be processed then thats what they are going to do to save money. They probably dont care how long it goes, just how much they can make and how much it costs to make it.
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Originally Posted by kipegan
You could do this, however there is considerable overlap in the seasons even from (for example) northern and southern Vermont (about 3-3.5 hr drive). So for a good part of the season you'd be spending a LOT of time on the road. That time might be better spent putting more effort into keeping the woods at one location very tight.
I have trees across northern Connecticut and I see a two week difference between my trees in the Connecticut River Valley and the ones in the hills. That helps extend my season by about two weeks but like Dr Perkins mentioned, I do spend about 45 minutes trucking sap from my furthest sugar bush back to my sugar house a couple times a week. Thankfully I live in the middle between my sugar house and those trees but still, I do lose a few hours.