Out of the Woods Webinar UPCOMING

The Out of the Woods webinar series continues this Thursday night, July 20th at 7 PM out of our partner Future Generations University.  The Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area (AFNHA) is featuring on this month’s event and will have agroforestry experts speaking to the life of a forest and the benefits these different living organisms bring to the ecosystem.  It might not be as maple-focused as it usually is, but the focus on holistic forest integrity should be integral to any maple producer’s mindset.

The AFNHA “conserves, interprets and promotes forest heritage to enhance landscapes and communities” throughout regions of Appalachia.  Though their focal area are specific counties of Maryland and West Virginia, there is much to be learned from their unique approach to asset-based tourism and community development in heavily forested landscapes.  Here is a beautifully done webpage within their site that walks through the seasonality of different forest edible plants and derivatives.

Register Here Now.

3 Paths to Increasing Profitability

Ohio Maple Days 2022 did not disappoint.  The food was fantastic, the vendor room crowded, and the presenters shared a wealth of knowledge of expertise across a wide range of subjects.  To wrap up the day, we had a trio of talks approach the goal of increasing profitability from 3 different perspectives.  A big thanks to Mike Rechlin, Les Ober, Mark Cannella, Carri Jagger, and Rachel Coy for finishing off our Maple Days program on a high note!  Be sure to mark your calendars for next year’s conference December 8th and 9th!

The first talk, led by Carri and Rachel, explored how to increase profitability by focusing on maple products.  What is the breakdown of selling maple syrup in smaller and smaller volume units?  What value-added products have the highest margins?  Are there alternative maple products that you have never even heard of before?  Detailed breakdown after detailed breakdown, producers could see their input costs and “shrink” as well as returns across various value-added maple products, from maple cream and maple candy to sugar and cotton candy.  Beyond the typical suite of value-added products, the talk also provided a quick overview of just how creative one can get using maple as an ingredient in products ranging from lip balm and hand lotion to marinades and sap seltzers.  The over-arching takeaway: it might be more work to create value-added maple products or sell your syrup in smaller units, but the reward is likely increased profits.

Mark Cannella took the second perspective in a totally different direction.  If your personal operation is stuck at a ceiling of 500 taps and you cannot expand staying on your own property, consider leasing maple taps or purchasing maple sap to increase your overall profitability.  The basis of Mark’s presentation can be explored more fully at Maple Manager in the form of sap pricing calculators, leasing guides, and lots more.  Exploring how sap leveraged from elsewhere can achieve economy of scale to justify a big equipment purchase or simply grow the volume of syrup for your market, leasing must be considered.  Another provocative idea Mark raised was that of multi-owner partnerships.  In other words, what would it look like for you to merge aspects of your maple operation with other local maple producers.  In the woods or in the sugarhouse, the possibilities for crafting a creative business structure is limited only by the imagination.  Staying true to best practices, legal agreements, and thorough cost-benefit analyses BEFORE diving in is always the key!

Finally, Mike and Les brought it all back home and put the emphasis where it ultimately must begin – maximizing the efficiency and profitability of the woods you manage.  After all, it is a common axiom that the sugarhouse is the place you spend your money, but the woods is where you make it!  Their talk leveraged Future Generations University’s work via an ACER grant dedicated to production and profitability.  To model best practices and engage producers at the unit of an individual and unique operation, researchers have been engaged in consultations that seek to identify room for improvement, equip producers to improve and enhance their operation, and then follow up to track progress.  While the talk could easily be the outline for an entire textbook or a week-long workshop on maple sugaring, it is sometimes good to step back from the details and look down from the bird’s eye view for some much needed perspective.

Regardless of a producer’s scale or experience, there was something for everybody in the 3-part profitability module to close our 2022 Ohio Maple Days event.  We look forward to seeing you next December 8th and 9th but hope to cross paths with you before then!

Maple Sap-Only Enterprises – Participants NEEDED

Chris Lindgren and Dana Ruppert from University of Vermont are recruiting active or prospective maple sap-only producers to participate in a research project.

UVM Extension Maple Business is developing financial tools and technical guidance to help folks make decisions about maple sap business ventures.  To jump start this effort, they are currently conducting a Producer Survey to gather in-depth information on sap business economic activity across the maple region.  It is hoped that the information gained from the study will help maple sap producers understand and learn more about production practices, costs and markets to enhance business opportunities.  Production, marketing, business practices and peoples’ interest in the maple sap project and resources are at the heart of this survey.  Their goal is to reach as many regional sugarmakers and sap producers as we can over the next couple months.  The results of this survey will be published by UVM Extension, shared in industry publications and discussed at maple conferences beginning in 2023.

To take the survey – and remember this is for sap-only enterprises – please scan the QR code or visit Sap Survey at the Maple Manager website now.

This is a great opportunity to help the maple research community continue to build support and tools for all varieties and styles of maple operations.

Getting Down to the Business of It All

Mark Cannella, Farm Business Management Specialist for University of Vermont Extension, ventured down to the Buckeye State to kick off our Ohio Maple Days weekend on Friday, December 9th.  Mark’s half-day seminar helped nearly 20 maple producers give serious consideration to their maple business plan.  From modules on strategic planning to marketing to managing finances and calculating true profitability, group discussions and active work sessions engaged participants.

No matter the scale of a single maple operation, our commodity market is determined by a host of macro factors that are sometimes easy to observe but as often are difficult to suss out.  At the level of the single operator, those macro factors mingle with local variables to produce a host of challenges and opportunities that vary year-to-year and even within a single season.

Participating operators asked hard questions that forced good conversations – conversations that sometimes ended in relatively clear answers, other questions that resulted in more…well, questions.

“How do I transition from a hobby to a business that can support my whole family?”

“Should I make that change truly believing it will be good for my family business in 2 generations future?”

“How can I better care for my trees?”

“How do I balance the need for equipment upgrades with the challenge of having enough labor to increase my number of taps?”

“How do I juggle maple and the rest of my responsibilities?”

These questions and more provided excellent fodder to stimulate 4+ hours of lively discussion.  Thanks to Mark for bringing his business planning expertise to Ohio!

Additional online business planning tools can be found at www.maplemanager.org.

What Will the Ohio Maple Syrup Industry Look Like in 2050?

(This is a follow-up post to the July 16th post on leasing and evaluating maple stands. It contains more questions than answers.)

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I had a chance to read in depth the latest edition of The Maple News. What caught my eye was an article about a recent study concerning the health of maple trees in the Adirondacks Mountains of upstate New York. The article documented the relatively slow growth of sugar maples in that region. For many Ohioans reading articles like these, the importance does not always hit home because the article is about someone else’s problem faraway from the local sugar bush. So why should we be concerned? The answer to that question became all too clear after attending a two-day planning meeting for woodlot management at Holden Arboretum.

Holden Arboretum is a nationwide-recognized premier arboretum covering 4000 acres with all types of hard and softwood tree species. Holden’s tree research is highly respected around the world, and the property includes several old sugar bushes and a grove of super sweet trees. One of Holden’s latest projects is entitled the “Working Woods”. It is designed to examine how local woodlots are managed, not only for timber but also non-timber forest products such as maple syrup. The initial meeting was more of an introduction to the project but also provided a chance to share opinions on the subject of forest management. The group sitting at the table included arborists and foresters from several states, commercial foresters, experts from state agencies, and members of the Holden staff. I was fortunate to be selected to represent Ohio’s maple syrup industry and what I took home from the discussion changed my perspective on forest management.

For several years now, one of my OSU Extension projects in Geauga County has been to examine what is happening to the maple tree resource in NE Ohio. This project entitled, “Preserving Sugar Maple for the Next Generation”, is finding out that NE Ohio maple syrup production may be entering a new phase. After World War II just about every farm (most small dairy farms) had a sugar bush. The sugar bushes were small and there were many individual sugar camps per square mile. This gave the appearance of an endless supply of maples to tap. Fast track 50 years later to the year 2000, most of the small dairy farms were sold because their owners could not keep pace with the modern expansion of the industry. Many of the sugar bushes were cut down and replaced with housing developments or other land use conversions. Housing development also increases the demand for home furnishings, and one of the most popular furniture hardwoods today is maple. It is no surprise that Ohio has become one of the leading producers of hardwood furniture in the country, and that industry is centered in Holmes County just 60 miles from the Geauga County. Suddenly with a new interest in the maple tree, and it is not only for syrup production, tracts containing old sugar bushes are being harvested at a steady pace to keep up with the furniture industry’s demand. This would be okay if we lived in an area where there were expansive tracts of timber, but we do not. Instead we live in an area where there are small woodlots, 10 to 20 acres that cannot absorb extensive harvest. To make matters worse, the people doing the logging feel that the only economical cut they can make is a clear cut, and whether perception or reality, selective cutting just does not generate enough revenue to bring in a mill. As a result, northeast Ohio has become the poster child for bad logging practices.

One thing I learned at the Holden meeting was that along with increased harvest pressure maples are now under increased environmental pressure from other fronts. We live in a world of invasive species, natural imbalances, and yes the polarizing term, climate change. As the study from the Adirondacks noted, trees that should be thriving are just not growing at the rate they should due to multiple factors. In Ohio we have also seen increased pressure from wildlife and insect damage on the surface and earthworm damage from beneath the soil. Both have led to reduction in the regeneration of young trees to replace the aging trees that will soon be lost. I have been able to document this at Holden Arboretum over the last 8 years. While recently standing in the middle of one of the Holden Arboretum Working Woods demonstration sites (an Old Sugar bush), I was alarmed at the overall lack of regeneration. The question came to mind – If you are unable to regenerate new growth in a well-managed woodlot inside an arboretum, what are the chances of maple trees coming back in a site that had been clear cut for timber production? The answer to that is all too obvious. Only under the best circumstances would a clear cut woodlot spring back into maple production. Unfortunately in northeast Ohio, Best Management Practices in logging are seldom used. This leaves one to ponder – With 60% of Ohio’s maple syrup currently being produced in northeast Ohio, what will the Ohio maple syrup industry look like in 2050? The bigger question is what will be needed to protect the valuable sugar maple resource.

One result coming from the OSU study is that the risks to maple trees are significantly higher on private property than on public property. There are still good healthy stands of maple trees growing in our parks and on other public lands; however, even those maple stands are under constant pressure from overabundant deer herds.

Landowner education is must for managing private woodlots. Education process starts by showing a landowner the range of options available for woodlot utilization and management. Beyond that, landowners still need to be convinced that the best way to make those decisions is to seek professional help before signing any contractual agreements. This means that certified foresters need to appraise the resource. If they decide not to cut and to pursue non-timber forest products, landowners need to contact someone who can show them how to make that happen as well. As Cornell University Maple Specialist Dr. Michael Farrell points out in his book A Sugarmaker’s Companion,

Often the best way to save a maple tree is to utilize it for maple syrup production.

It is not my intention to dictate what a landowner should do with his or her property. Certainly if they have made up their mind to harvest the timber for whatever they are offered, they have the right to do that. The problem is that what looks good on the surface does not always end up that way and there are often regrets when the process is completed. We need to make sure woodland owners are making informed and educated decisions with all the information on the table. Hopefully somewhere along the way, we will see fewer woodlots suffering the brunt of unsustainable logging practices and more going into maple syrup production. In the meantime, enjoy the hours you spend in your sugarbush and never take the sweet gift of making maple syrup from these magnificent trees for granted.

Author: Les Ober, Geauga County OSU Extension

Evaluating and Leasing a Woods for Maple Syrup Production

Expansion in maple syrup states have been in high gear over the last several years. In New England and New York, there is little doubt on how and where expansion will occur. In both areas you have mountainsides with literally thousands of maple trees, and much of this land is owned and leased by the government or large private companies. If you can swing the operating capital and lease the land, expansion is as simple as running a pipeline down the mountainside to a sugarhouse. Okay – I realize it is not that simple but it is a lot easier than what expansion looks like in most parts of Ohio. We have fewer trees and in smaller concentrations distributed across the state. There is also the obstacle of convincing landowners to lease their trees which can be very difficult to say the least.

Let’s look at the process of leasing trees for maple syrup production. The majority of trees in Ohio are privately owned, and the land that is publicly-owned (either by the federal or state government) is concentrated in southeast Ohio – a region that has never been considered prime maple producing territory. Sixty percent of the maple production in Ohio is done in the northeast quadrant of the state. Northeast Ohio has experienced increased pressure from urban development and the price of that land reflects developmental value not agricultural value. This often makes it unaffordable for someone to buy a woodlot for maple production. To compound the problem, much of this land is owned by “Baby Boomers” who are aging or are now ready to leave Ohio and transfer ownership to a sibling or third party. Often the cost of ownership (e.g., property tax) or the cost of settling an estate ultimately determines what will happen to an estate. Many times the family is forced to liquidate assets such as timber to offset these expenses, and as a result, many potentially prime sugar bushes have been cut down and lost in the process. Unfortunately in times of financial stress, families do not feel as though they have time to explore all their options and fail to receive the timber’s full market value as a result of a quick sale to settle financial obligations. Later realization of this unfortunate fact often compounds the agony of estate settlement.

Today a profitable maple operation relies heavily on technology to be successful and that includes a vacuum tubing system. The financial and physical investment of installing a tubing system necessitates a long term (7 to 10 years) lease, but many landowners are hesitant about entering into this type of agreement for a variety of reasons. One of the primary reasons is that the owner does not want to be bound to a binding contract if something unexpected were to happen and they had to sell the property. Even if a sale is not forthcoming, many owners are cognizant of how their decisions might impact the next generation. All these concerns should be considered when designing a maple lease. An emergency escape clause that protects the rights of both parties is one way to deal with this concern, and another method to soften those objections is for the landowner to get a substantial financial return for leasing the woods.

Consider the fact that an average lease on cropland now starts around $100.00 per acre (averages are higher in some areas and lower in others). This would mean that woods with 80 taps per acre renting for $1.00 per tap would be nearly equivalent to many cropland leases. This quick comparison also demonstrates why maple lease rates need to start at $1.00 per tap to keep a woodlot lease competitive with other market options. Using competitive rental rate per acre as the cost basis, the most important task is to accurately estimate the number of taps per acre.

Since the early 2000s, finding a previously untapped sugarbush in prime condition in Ohio has been increasingly difficult. Often, a maple producer hears about a stand of timber that might be available for tapping, but after closer inspection the woods falls short of expectations. I can tell you from experience that I have walked more than one woodlot where the owner was sure he or she had enough trees to make syrup but reality told another radically-different story.

In other cases a quick hike reveals that the woodlot is 2nd or 3rd growth timber containing large numbers of smaller trees that are not yet large enough for a profitable timber harvest. Maple syrup production in these younger stands may be a viable option but landowners are expecting an immediate large financial return from his woodlot. More careful evaluations may reveal only single tap trees interspersed with even more trees that are not presently large enough to tap. In these cases, a producer should attempt to convince the forest owner that maple syrup production is a worthwhile endeavor only if the lease is long-term.

On the occasion that a sugarbush contains many large mature maples, it may be difficult to make a case that the landowner could make more money by leasing maple syrup production and foregoing a timber harvest. The only chance you may have is to increase the rental rate per acre and suggest that a careful timber harvest be done to capture some timber potential while releasing crop trees.

Of course, just having maple trees present is not enough to have a profitable sugarbush, so what other criteria should be considered as a producer determine the feasibility of transforming a woodlot into a sugarbush? The equation begins with a solid layout plan. The best way to determine layout is to use a GIS map with contour lines to find high and low points. Producer should avoid excessively long mainlines going to trees scattered over a wide area. Slope is important but there are work-around methods to deal with slope issues. The most common problem with slope is that the woods often slopes away from the collection point. This problem can usually be solved with the installation of auxiliary tanks, long pump lines, and a transfer pump big enough to handle the volume of sap produced. But of course, everything comes with a cost that must be considered.

If you are lucky enough to find a woodlot where sugar maples are the dominant species with trees evenly dispersed throughout, you have found a real jewel. However, most woods with sugar maples will have a mix of red maples and other hardwood species as well. Regardless of overall species composition, producers should consider any woods with 80 taps per acre a solidly viable sugarbush. Anything below 50 taps per acre would be considered marginal at best.

If the woods has been previously harvested, tree size may be an issue. Remember that trees should be at least 10 inches in diameter to tap. There are quick ways to assess tree size and density of tappable trees. You need an angle gauge or prism to determine tree size at a distance. For closer examination, a 32 inch circumference chain or rope equates to a 10-inch diameter tree. The best way to determine tap numbers is to lay out a circle with a 26.3′ radius. Standing at center and using the angle gauge or prism, count all of the trees 10″ diameter and larger within the circle. Because a 26.3′ radius circle is equivalent to 1/20th acre, multiply the number of trees by 20 to estimate the number of taps in an acre. For example, if you identified 4 single-tap maples in your 26.3′ radius circle, you would multiply 4 times 20 to yield an estimate of 80 taps per acre. In order to get a representative sample of the woods, you want to repeat this randomly at multiple locations throughout the sugar bush and average your results for a reliable estimate of average number of taps per acre for the woodlot.

Now it is time to estimate your syrup yield from the sugarbush. A well-managed vacuum tubing system should produce upwards of ½ gallon of syrup per tap. At $50.00 per gallon, you can now calculate your gross proceeds based on the average number of taps per acre. To continue with the 80 taps per acre example above, you would expect to gross approximately $2000 per acre. Before you get too excited, remember that is a gross return and your production and infrastructure expenses (including labor!) must be deducted to give you a net return on your investment. Spreadsheets such as the Maple Syrup Business Planning Guide from OSU Extension can help with this tedious projection.

Of course there are many other components of a good lease agreement, but simply stated – any lease should be grounded on the basis of Best Management Practices. This includes everything from tree size determination to landowner liability protection to other allowable practices (e.g., firewood gathering) and everything else in between.

Once a reasonable lease offer has been assembled, you must now convince the landowner. Put yourself in the shoes of the landowner and ask yourself would you consider entering into this contract if it were offered to you. Hopefully the answer is yes, but if it is not, then you should reassess before moving forward with the offer. What happens next will determine the success or failure of adding this woodlot to your operation. You now become a salesman trying to convince the owner, and hopefully the landowner will think the lease is as good of an idea as you do. If you have done your homework and you make your case honestly and sincerely, you should have a good shot at successfully expanding your maple syrup operation.

Author: Les Ober, Geauga County OSU Extension