Lake Erie Maple Expo RECAP

Guest post by Carri Jagger, a MUCH appreciated piece of the Ohio State Maple puzzle!

On November 10th and 11th the Pennsylvania Maple Producers Association and the Northwestern FFA hosted the 2023 Lake Erie Maple Expo in Albion PA.  The Expo kicked off on Friday morning with a variety of sessions from beginning maple production, confections, and value-added products to tubing installation and vacuum.

I had the opportunity to attend the Advanced Tubing and Installation workshop on Friday that was taught by Steve Childs, retired maple specialist from Cornell University.  Steve taught us how to use the basal area angle gauge to estimate the potential number of taps per acre.

Steve also taught about evaluating your current maple tubing system to make sure that it is operating as efficiently as possible.  He shared the Cornell Maple Tubing and Vacuum System Notebook with the class.  You can view and print the notebook from the Cornell Maple Program Notebook Series Website.

On Saturday the conference resumed at the Albion High School where there were 4 concurrent sessions that covered 30 different topics.  I took the opportunity to attend the maple value-added track where I learned about using a glucose meter to check the invert sugar levels in maple syrup.  Determining invert sugar levels are important if you are planning on using your maple syrup for maple candy, sugar, cream and other confections.  If you would like to learn more about making maple confections check out the Cornell Maple Confections Notebook offered at the website above.

I also attended sessions about the distillation of maple and making beverages with maple.  Michigan State and Cornell are both doing extensive research about using late season maple and off flavor maple to distill into a marketable product.  Cornell has created recipes for several maple beverages and those can be found at the Cornell new product development site.

In addition to the conference there was also a trade show to visit with vendors about new and existing maple syrup equipment.  The conference was a great learning opportunity for both new and seasoned maple syrup producers.  The Lake Erie Maple Expo is always the second weekend in November and I encourage you to attend.

 

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!