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As always I try to follow each state on mapletrader, even though I shut down for the season on March the 10th, I was told by the CDL rep, that I was one of the few that had a good season in West Virginia, I know a lot of producers in WV and would estimate that most did not have a good season, just curious if anyone else could add their thoughts on their home state?
Mark 220 Maple
USDA NASS Stats typically come out in June. Not as many states are included for the last few yrs (cut-backs at the national level). IMSI and NAMSC will report for each state at some point. Quebec is still going. I'd say that lower yields are going to be the norm in many locations this year.
ohio was roughly 60% of normal. most had 3 weeks of season with only one rain after the little bit of snow melted. water table is still down quite a bit. alot of syrup flavor does not match color, most did not make delicate, 1/3 amber, almost 2/3 dark with a trace very dark. trees shut down before bad flavored syrup was made.
My season was within a gallon of last year, but 40% of my syrup was made from my early taps. If I had waited until traditional tapping time I would have only made a 60% crop as Fred said
I waited until Feb 24 to tap and was done by March 24. I made 84% of my expected yield on 50 taps. 10.5 gallons out of an expected 12.5. And it is really higher then 84% because about 8 if my 50 taps are reds and the 1 quart per tap does not apply to them.
I had as much sap or more then other years however my sugar content at the hole was 1% max on smaller sugars and 2% max on larger sugars. Red maples were below 1% or .5%. That is what left me then less with my EA of 12.5 gallons on 50 taps.
As I see it my patience to not tap early paid off again. I know of another sugar maker in Oakville, CT at a similiar long/lat also tapped in my window and ended up giving some of his sap away towards the end, as he put it he did not want to be "Greedy". Others who taped in CT in late Jan or early Feb I do not think were as happy with the results of there season, unless they re tapped. Taps sat in a frozen deadlock for three weeks in February with a few teaser days mixed in that only brought early aging to the tap hole.
The effects of threes weeks of freeze with teasers days mixed in on tap holes is untested and poorly researched. But the net effect of this on a tap hole can not be good in my opinion and this year bolsters my feeling on that frontier.
There was absolutely, positively, nothing about this season that will make me more prone to tap "early" next season.