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Thread: Western Wisconsin

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    River Falls, WI
    Posts
    831

    Default Western Wisconsin

    Got about 1/3 of our taps in. Started on the south side. Some trees running, but so far only on the southernmost edge. Already over 40 today. Didn't freeze last night. Snow's disappearing fast. Almost feels like 2012. Forecast looks better in a week, but so far I'm not seeing anything that makes me want to put in more taps and clean the evaporator. If the buds hold off, things could shape up, but it doesn't look good if this warmth keeps going. Anyone else thinking about skipping this year, or at least waiting to see what happens next week?
    -Ryan


    Went off the deep end. Might be in over my head...

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Oneida NY
    Posts
    11,547

    Default

    Keep going, the sap will run as soon as mother nature says so. Right now the ground is frozen hard too deep.
    Dave Klish, I recently ordered a 2x6 wood fired evaporator from A&A Sheet Metal which I will be converting to oil fired
    Now have solar, 2x6 finish pan, 5 bank 7x7 filter press, large water jacketed bottler, and tankless water heater.
    Recently bought another Gingerich RO, this one was a 125, but a second membrane was added thus is a 250, like I had.
    After running a 2x3, a 2x6, 3x8 tapping from 79 taps up to 1320 all woodfired, now I'm going to a 2x6 oil fired and a 200-425 taps.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Mindoro, WI
    Posts
    29

    Default

    My trees mainly face south. So far nothing is running. I learned a long time ago to never make early predictions about the season. Heck, last week it was well below zero. Who knows what will happen in a week or two? Patience...

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Knapp, Wis
    Posts
    1,872

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    I learned along time ago when all the BTO's get their taps in, you have at least another week before things really like to happen. Yes it feels like 2012, BUT 2012 had one of the warmer February's on record, while this year was the 3rd coldest. There is a fair amount of frost where there was no snow cover and with every day being plain jane and fair weather, that is not conducive to good sap flow. We need some storms and weather systems moving in, thats when we get the best runs. With that being said, I'm not optomistic that it will be a barrel buster year. I will be getting all the vacuum taps in and going, but will hold off on the bags until next week and then determine weather it will be worth doing them or not.
    Mark

    Where we made syrup long before the trendies made it popular, now its just another commodity.

    John Deere 4000, 830, and 420 crawler
    1400 taps, 600 gph CDL RO, 4x12 wood-fired Leader, forced air and preheater. 400 gallon Sap-O-Matic vacuum gathering tank, PTO powered. 2500 gallon X truck tank, 17 bulk tanks.
    No cage tanks allowed on this farm!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    ontario wi
    Posts
    3

    Default

    My Southside reds just started giving sap today. Got a couple of gallons out of 36 taps.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    River Falls, WI
    Posts
    831

    Default

    Well, thanks for the encouragement guys. I talked tapped our gravity lines and have done about 2/3 of the buckets. Collected about 150 gallons of sap yesterday. Enough to fire up the cooker. Some trees are running a little bit, but most seem dry. Sap in the tank tested at 3.8%, so at least something is on our side. Still keeping our fingers crossed for next week. Temps are supposed to cool down a little. Haven't started leaving the refrigerator door open yet, but it's tempting.
    -Ryan


    Went off the deep end. Might be in over my head...

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Wisconsin -Vernon County
    Posts
    43

    Default

    Hi Ray Maack - Tom Moore in Dell, (hwy P) any update? I'm going to look at 15-20 taps all south fence line in afternoon sun. Hoping to have enough to boil.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    River Falls, WI
    Posts
    831

    Default

    It's running good today!!!
    -Ryan


    Went off the deep end. Might be in over my head...

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    Hudson/Somerset, WI
    Posts
    16

    Default

    Yep, same here. Those frosty nights work wonders!
    2014 10 Taps for fun
    2015 20 Taps for even more fun!
    2016 20 Taps
    2017 40 Taps to double my fun again!
    2018 40 Taps

  10. #10
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    River Falls, WI
    Posts
    831

    Default

    Well it looks like I forgot to check back in on this thread I started. Last year ended up being pretty decent. A little less than our average on a per tap basis, but we made about 105 gallons from our 420ish taps. As I recall, we ended up making most of our syrup in April, so I obviously tapped a little early. At the end of the season, the oldest holes dried up before the most recently drilled holes, so there was room for improvement, as usual.

    This year, hopefully without jumping the gun and tapping WAY too early, we tapped out 80% yesterday. It ran really hard, with some single taps putting out 3 gallons in 18 hours. It ran all night, but has slowed considerably. I'm guessing we'll have about 400 gallons when we collect this afternoon. Pretty good for the first 24 hours! Based on how our test taps did, we missed a good amount of sap on Friday, but we had onions to plant, so there wasn't much choice in the matter.

    Going forward, it looks like there's a little chance for sap tomorrow, and then it freezes up until Friday. All in all, it seems to be a good start to the year. We get enough sap right away to get everything sweetened up and get us moving around and then a nice 4 day recharge that'll allow us to get everything dialed in without the drowning in sap.

    Here's to a good early sap season in 2016!
    -Ryan


    Went off the deep end. Might be in over my head...

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