Quote Originally Posted by philkasza View Post
We were thinking of planting about 20 acres of maples. I talked to a local forestor and he said I would be foolish to tap those but rather grow them for top quality lumber or vineer 30 or 40 yrs down the road.
Very few trees in a woods will ever end up as veneer trees. You can certain increase the chances of veneer-quality timber by regular thinning (to promote growth) and heavy pruning (to reduce knots), and great care in doing woods-work to reduce stem damage to the butt log. In most circumstances it is going to take longer (perhaps WAY longer) than 40 years to get a tree to merchantable size for veneer.

This argument has come up a number of times, and there have been several studies to look at it over the past 50 years. Most are done by state or Provincial Forestry Departments. To generalize, in most timber markets, for most circumstances, if you use tubing and vacuum, you wind up better off (higher net profit) tapping the trees than cutting them (if you're making the syrup yourself, even in a bulk syrup market....the equation is different if you're selling sap, or leasing trees). You make a little income each year sugaring, versus selling timber once every 80-120+ years).

I think Mike Farrell of Cornell University has a calculator that can help determine whether it is better to cut or tap individual trees. Quite simply, if it might be a veneer tree, don't tap it.