Syrup success only moderate in ’05

SKOWHEGAN – Maine’s maple syrup producers are reporting that their season this past spring was a moderate success, sweet but too short.

New England maple syrup production for 2005 totaled 782,000 gallons, down 16 percent from last year, even though producers reported tapping more trees. In Maine, the drop in production was 9 percent.

It’s no surprise that cold weather is being blamed for the drop in harvest. Maine’s maple season lasted only 24 days, compared to the usual 30, and producers complained that it warmed up too late.

Jeremy Steeves of Skowhegan, who taps 10,000 trees in southern Somerset County, said the cold slowed the sugar maple’s natural process of the movement of the sap up and down the trees.

“It just didn’t seem to run,” Steeves said Monday. Many large commercial producers are putting in vacuum systems that actually pull the sap from the trees when conditions aren’t ideal, rather than waiting for it to drip.

“It pays for itself rather quickly,” he said, “because it can increase your yield by 50 to 100 percent.”

Maine’s producers boiled up 265,000 gallons of syrup this spring. Other states showed even larger drops in production. New Hampshire was down 31 percent, Vermont was down 18 percent, New York dropped 13 percent, Massachusetts dropped 20 percent, and Connecticut was down 9 percent.

Aubrey R. Davis, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s New England Agricultural Statistics Service, said Monday that every New England state reported the same thing: The season produced good-quality syrup, but it was too short.

“The 2005 maple season was rated too cool in temperature, causing production decreases in all five New England states,” Davis said Monday. “Temperatures were reported at 57 percent too cool, 22 percent too warm, and 21 percent favorable. The season started late because it was too cold and then warmed up too fast.”

The favorable conditions were experienced only in northern Aroostook County.

But even though production was down, if consumers thought their syrup tasted sweeter this year, they were right.

According to Davis, this year’s syrup production had a higher sugar content than last year.

“Approximately 40 gallons of sap was required to produce 1 gallon of syrup this season,” Davis said. “This compares with 42 gallons in 2004 and 41 gallons in 2003. More light syrup was produced than last year, but overall most syrup produced was of medium color.”

In addition, Davis reported that prices were up around the country this year, except in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

The national 2004 average price per gallon was $28.40, up 10 cents. But the price dropped $3.10 in Maine to $19.40.