This is typically done with a sugar bush lease. Check out Vermont's Proctor Maple Research center, Proctor has a suggested lease form, which should be finalized by a lawyer.
I lease 2 sugar bushes and I do all the work, as do most if not all leases. Most leases are based on a per tap lease payment each year and the lease should be for a minimum of 10 years. While a few are shorter, most producers will be unwilling to bear the expense of setting up a sugar bush without at least 10 yrs guaranteed. My leases are 10 yr, and renewable for 10 more as long as I have lived up to the terms. On my larger lease there is also written into the lease, the provision that if the owner dies, or sells the land, that the lease passes to the new owner for the duration of the lease term. I'm not familiar with Vermont's tax structure, but in New York, my landowners qualify for an agricultural assessment based on my production. Here, as long as I average $10,000 in total sales in agricultural products for the previous 2 yrs, they get a nice break in the property taxes.
As an example, on one of my leases (Where I pay $.80/tap/yr the landowner told me his tax savings was greater than the lease payment, but then again, that in in NY, the spend and tax state)
Good luck, you will have no problem finding someone to lease if the site is good for maple production.
Last edited by maple flats; 06-22-2014 at 07:20 AM.
Dave Klish, I recently bought 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.
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