College of Agriculture & Natural Resources

Reprinted from The Detroit News

by Mark Hicks

Imlay City— For the first time in nearly a quarter-century of making maple syrup, Gerald Nelson started tapping trees a week after Groundhog Day.

The longtime Lapeer County syrup producer usually starts in mid-to-late February, but Michigan's warmer-than-normal winter spurred him into action. It was either that, or risk losing his best chance to easily tap the golden nectar if the mild readings linger.

"It kind of becomes a million-dollar question: Do I tap now and get what is available?" Nelson said. "If not, will it be there in March, when we usually get it?"

While Michigan's unusually warm winter has lifted everyone from construction firms to salt truck drivers, it's no fun for the state's nearly 700 maple syrup producers, who depend on Mother Nature to supply the right temperatures for tapping.

The forecast is nothing to gloss over — for the producers or consumers such as Elizabeth LaMoreaux of Milford, who insists that hand-tapped syrup trumps the store-bought kind.

"It's all in the taste," she said. "It tastes truer. … It's just right."

Balmy spells can shorten the tapping season by pushing the tree to start budding. If that happens, it could squeeze a multimillion-dollar state industry that seeks the richest, sweetest topping for pancakes, cookies and other foods. "Everybody is calling me and asking me what I think," said Larry Haigh, president of the Michigan Maple Syrup Association, who has a syrup-making and supplies business in Bellevue near Battle Creek. "I'm saying: 'Get ready. If it warms up, I'd go at it.'"

Last year, when the industry churned out 123,000 gallons and ranked seventh among the nation's maple syrup producers, the brewers' season averaged 29 days, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Production value was estimated at between $4 million and $6 million.

But in 2003, considered a warm winter, the season averaged 16 days, netting just 59,000 gallons worth $1.84 million.

Production is "influenced greatly by the average number of days in the season," said Jay Johnson, director of the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service state field office.

Collecting the sap boils down to timing and weather.

The best conditions for tapping the highest-quality syrup are when the region has long stretches of daytime temperatures near 40 degrees and overnight lows below freezing — typically in late February and early March, said Richard Kobe, chairman of Michigan State University's Department of Forestry.

"Once it gets warmer ... the trees are transporting other kinds of chemicals in their sap, and it then lowers the quality of the resulting maple syrup," Kobe said. "As the trees come further out of dormancy, it's a less desirable syrup."

According to the National Weather Service, February temperatures have averaged some five degrees above normal. This year's January was the 17th warmest on record.

The weather service predicts regional temperatures staying near or above average through March.

Jim Loncar, who has a small syrup operation in Milford, checks the forecast keenly. He plans to start tapping Monday.

"It's like gambling," he said. "You just take your chances."

Veterans like Bill Ross of Lenawee County know all too well about negotiating with nature.

Once in the late 1980s, tapping at his maple business in Onsted lasted three days and yielded barely enough syrup to bring to his own table. "The quality was even worse," said Ross, who in a decent year produces about 60 gallons of syrup.

Craig Arnold's Sugar Bush & Farm, with some 1,000 trees near Attica in Lapeer County, produces an estimated 220 gallons of syrup for markets and festivals in robust years. During one mild spring in the last five years, though, only 32 gallons came out, he said.

"It warmed up and stayed warm and the buds came out and we were done," he said. "You need those freezing nights."




From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120218/METRO/202180359#ixzz1rBvRv05E