Looks like raisin growers in California are having similar issues as well. Price controls never work.
http://dailysignal.com/2015/04/24/wi...gn=thffacebook
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Looks like raisin growers in California are having similar issues as well. Price controls never work.
http://dailysignal.com/2015/04/24/wi...gn=thffacebook
. The maple syrup producers who sell directly to consumers are exempted from this law. It is just the big players they are stinging now but the case will go to the supreme court in Ottawa as this is against our charter of rights but dont forget everybody else in the maple syrup world is benefitting from the cartel.
One thing the system in Quebec does that is beneficial (at least from my standpoint) is provide adequate money for research and marketing. Syrup is not just syrup....it is QUEBEC syrup. They put that out everywhere. In terms of research, the Federation and equipment manufacturers and government all collaborate to funnel significant amounts of research monies into projects that help the industry. In the U.S. this is absolutely not the case. There is relatively little maple industry money available, perhaps $30-40k annually, to be spread among all researchers. We are constantly having to compete with other commodities for federal research funding, and 95% of the money for agricultural research ends up going to corn, wheat and soybeans. The vast majority of the funding for maple research and Extension originates from the institutions involved. As financial resources have been squeezed over the past decade, we have seen reductions in the number of Extension people working in maple in many areas, with the result that there are very few of us left who still do maple research and outreach....and that is being constantly questioned by our institutions as we are asked more and more to support the maple industry beyond our state borders. Between Extension and research, UVM contributes several hundred thousand $ each year to keep the maple program going. Cornell probably a bit less, but a significant amount regardless. We (UVM) is fortunate right now that we have supportive Deans (Administrators) heading up Extension and the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences, however these resources are not guaranteed in any way to continue under future administrations. Sorry for the rant, but it is frequently one of the more depressing challenges of this job.
Everyone..except the consumer. Just sayin. I'm not nor ever will be making syrup for sale. I do applaud anyone who does. I have a problem with price manipulation and quotas tho, whether it's for milk, raisins, gasoline, syrup or whatever. No one should be told how much of anything they can produce and post guards to enforce it. I see the good Doctors point in that it brings in research money, but that money is coming out of the producers pockets at the tune of 25% and could take years to get their 75%. And surely the whole 25% isn't going to marketing and research. I hate to say it, but if syrup wasn't 40+ a gallon, FAR more people would be buying it instead of artificial. Wouldn't that also help the industry?Quote:
Originally Posted by ttowle3
[QUOTE=saphound;282769 I hate to say it, but if syrup wasn't 40+ a gallon, FAR more people would be buying it instead of artificial. Wouldn't that also help the industry?[/QUOTE]
I am not so sure cheaper Syrup would create more sales. I think the people who buy syrup would just be buying it cheaper. I think product education and advertising would have a much larger effect. Besides at the rates it costs to produce a gallon of syrup an awfull lot of things would have to change to make selling syrup for less than 40 dollars practical.
You could be right, Nate. If the retail price didn't drop only the middle man would make out. And I sure didn't mean to p anybody off with that comment. I have learned quite a bit about what it costs to make syrup and it's considerable. Smaller operations do need that price..the big guys with 40 to 60 thousand taps, not so sure. It's a big investment, but I suspect they recoup their money a lot faster than the smaller guy. Just saying there should never even be such a thing as a syrup "reserve" sitting on millions of gallons from a consumer point of view. Real maple syrup is a luxury many, many people just simply cannot afford at this price. It's just the cold hard fact. I'm one of them so I thought I'd save some money and make my own. Ended up costing me twice as much, lol. But maybe if real maple syrup was more common on American tables as say corn is, more research money would be easier to come by. Probably never happen though...
IMO as a producer that wholesales it is tough to do that when you also retail. I have a hard time making this great product and then allowing a dealer to make 30-35% as a markup. But if I don't give that level then they will just go to another sorce that will provide that markup.
I am fortunate in that I inherited our family operation and all the equipment. On the other hand I have added thousands of $$$ of equipment and retubing the bush. It is terrifically expensive to produce but I can make as much in 6 weeks as we do with the cattle over the course of nearly two years. Luckily we grew that business when we were young and now it is paying dividends.
Large producers of maple are just like dairy and beef farms: you must maximize your equipment while managing expenses if you intent to turn a profit. How many taps can one person install and maintain while boiling and packing bulk syrup to storage?
I need to do more advertising in a fashion that will give me the return and not others reaping the benefits of my investment.
My middle son is headed to a great marketing college and plans to make this his project.
We all need to market wisely and I agree that funding studies is important but it is just as important to have studies going on in the production areas of maple.
I remember when I first started changing our farm and trying new techniques...ones that were don't on test farms like our weather patterns were far more beneficial than those done even a hundred miles south. We can never plant oats by the 15th of April without compaction and poor stands. So many farms in our area quit doing oats just to find that our yields were as good or better than those that got them in the ground by the golden date.
Maple is less location related but I think more will listen closer when there is a producer near to them that worked with and had results included in a study.
Its like washing lines. When people saw how clean or lines are they started looking at if not doing washing. Sure it is work but it is also marketing at work. We even got a customer from a passer by that stopped to ask how is it running." All done but to wash the lines." we wash them to have a clean, more productive equipment for next season. He backed up and bought a quart...his guy said its a waist of time and makes no difference.
Thanks Dr Tim and Steve Childs for providing the data that it does pay off in at least better production.
Ben
I live about 13 miles from the Canadian border and hear all the time about grants being awarded to producers in the 100's of thousands. It's hard to compete with someone who has had their equipment bought and paid for when I've had to earn every penny myself. Canada treats their businesses much differently than here in the U.S. Here we're seen as a target for tax revenue. There's a producer near here who taps 55,000 trees on crown land for free.
Canada is not the only place that has goverment grants that greatly affect the supply of syrup into the market,,here in n.h. and v.t. we can get energy efficincy grants. A friend of mine got a leader 4x14 vortex with a steamaway at a total cost to him of $7000. What did he do next? Added more taps and better vacuum of corse! Now he is making another 300 to 400 gallons a year..i can think of a couple of millionaires that have taken the grant money....like they need it...i wont take a goverment handout because i dont want to saddel my children with what should be my debt. I worked, fought, and scrapped for what i have and i proud of that..(i never have been a very good businessman or politicaly correct)....but, just like the atlantic fishing fleet in the 1980's the goverment is going to "modernize and make the industry more efficiant". Look at our atlantic fishing fleet now..decimated,,,how many jobs lost?....if we are a capitalist country why do we have socialist programs? The goverment picking winners and losers....
So who will succed in the futcher? Those who write the best grant proposals?
kinda more on topic...how cool would it be to find a packer that said "i can buy syrup from canada for 2.30 a pound BUT im getting the same price retail i did last year so i will pay my producers the same bulk price this year.....ha ha ha haha,,,,,,,,,,,keep the faith
That may be true regarding maple businesses..only because it can't be moved offshore. But corporate U.S.A rules this country anymore. Just depends what business your in. U.S. manufacturers can relocate to another country and write off everything involved in the move from building the plants, to training the new workers that take our jobs, to all the travel expenses involved. Now they want to avoid paying any taxes just by moving corporate headquarters elsewhere. The ones that stay, big oil, Haliburton, Monsanto, pharmaceuticals, health care HMO's, ranchers and miners on federal land that pay little to nothing..and on and on...they're making out like the bandits they are.Quote:
Originally Posted by eagle lake sugar