El Nino not so sweet for maple sugaring
By Erin Carroll Thursday, January 7th 2016
LINK TO TV SEGMENT:
http://abc6onyourside.com/weather/el...maple-sugaring
WSYX
DELAWARE — Sugar days at the Stratford Ecological Center in Delaware are a big hit every year. You can get tours of their maple syrup making and of course sample the goods at their annual pancake breakfast the first weekend of March. But the record warm temperatures this winter so far are not good for maple sugaring.
Ideal temperatures are 20s at night and around 40 degrees in the afternoon. We haven't had many of those days so the trees have began to bud prematurely. Those buds then become vulnerable when the temperature drops.
This process could do two things: change the hormones in trees which gives the sap a bad taste and it could cut the sugaring season in half. A normal sugaring season would be 6 weeks, but Jeff Dickinson, the Excecutive Director and Farmer at Stratford says this year the season could be more like two or three weeks.
Other unusual signs we found at the farm were flowers budding and bees out of their hive because they think it's Spring. They've begun to feed the bees because they've wasted energy looking for flowers and are using reserves inside the hive.
There are some positive signs with the mild winter on the farm. The cattle are still grazing on grass saving Jeff a lot of money on hay. He also says it's pretty comfortable for him to work around the farm without freezing.
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