DOVER-FOXCROFT – Bob Moore of Bob’s Sugar House was busy boiling sap Monday, in what normally would have been the middle of his sweet season. For Moore and many other producers, however, the season is off to a very late start and they are worried that warm weather could stop the season before it really gets under way.

The weather this week will be key, but producers say the heavy snows this winter also are limiting production.

Moore said that at least 75 percent of his 5,000 trees are unreachable this week, still buried in snow. “I have trees that still have 3 feet of snow around them,” he said. “It’s not looking good right now.”

Maple syrup producers in the lower part of the state – the Lewiston, Auburn, Minot area – report they are doing well with the combination of warm days and cold nights.

But in central and northern Maine, this season appears to be mirroring the poor yield of the past three years.

“As usual, for some folks, especially in the far south of the state, sugaring season is over,” Kathy Hopkins, a maple expert with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension in Skowhegan, said Monday.

“But I doubt they’ll be done tapping in The County until June,” she joked. “In some places, they just can’t get to their trees and all their tubing is buried under snow.”

Maine’s maple syrup production – a $7.2 million industry that in the U.S. is second only to Vermont – can start anytime between mid-February and late March. But like most agriculture ventures, the season bends to the whim of Mother Nature.

“This week could help,” Moore said, but only if daytime temperatures hover in the 40s and it freezes at night. “But if it shoots up to 50 or 55 and only gets into the 30s, well, that won’t work. It will be a very bad year – again,” he said.

Maine’s syrup production dropped by 25 percent last year, compared with the national average of 13 percent, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics. The Maine yield was 225,000 gallons – 75,000 gallons less than the year before. It was the lowest production rate in six years, the USDA reported, and some Maine producers said their yield was even less.

The USDA also reported that the overall sugar content of the syrup last year was lower – a naturally occurring phenomenon that means it took 45 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup vs. 44 gallons in 2006 and 40 gallons in the 2006.

Eric Ellis of Maine Maple Products of Madison, a company run by the Lariviere brothers that taps 50,000 trees in northern Somerset County, said the season in the north country hasn’t even begun. “It’s a week to 10 days late.” Ellis, like Moore, is concerned that it may get too warm too quickly.

“We only made syrup one afternoon last week,” he said. “The Skowhegan area is certainly below average.” Somerset County has the distinction of being the highest-producing county in the country.

But three – and now possibly four – years of below-average yields have depleted supplies. “Although we are getting a higher price, because there is less syrup, we have no carry-over from last year’s crop,” Ellis said. “I think all we can hope for is a few weeks’ production.”

According to USDA statistics released in June 2007, after last year’s harvest, both retail and bulk prices were up considerably because of the low yield. In Maine, only 6 percent of all syrup is sold retail and 2 percent is sold wholesale. The lion’s share – 92 percent – is sold in bulk.

While the retail price per gallon rose from $35 in 2005 to $39.50 in 2006, the bulk price increased from $1.60 a pound ($19.40 a gallon) to $1.95 a pound ($24.30 a gallon).

In 2005, Maine produced 265,000 gallons, well below previous years. In 2007, that slipped even further, to 225,000 gallons.

Hopkins said there is a bright spot in this season, however. “Those that are tapping and making syrup are making really good syrup. It is very light and sweet. And, the season could go longer than usual where the snow keeps the woods cool.”

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