The Bovine Bugle

SPRING MEANS RUNNING SAP AND RUNNING COWS

The cows and heifers are enjoying the milder weather and sunshine. This time of year I have to keep the cows from running out of the barnyard gate when I open it to drive the tractor in to do some work in the barn or feed them some round bales. They want to get out to the pasture and run around and start grazing. I look forward to grazing season this time of year, too. Once the animals go out to grass, life on the farm becomes much easier.

—Jonathan, Howmars Farm

The sap started running like crazy March 21. We gathered Friday, Saturday, and Monday. The temperatures had been just right and the ground was thawing out, creating ideal conditions for the sap to "run" in the sugar maple trees. This year we put out 422 buckets. Normally we put out 600-650, but we decided to cut back a little. My dad, Howard, does all the boiling. At the end of the weekend, we had made about 70 gallons of syrup. Based on the number of taps we have out (422) we should make 120-130 gallons for the season if the weather conditions remain good. The syrup quality has been very good this year, too. The syrup has graded either fancy or medium amber. Last year we made no fancy, and only 10 gallons of medium amber out of 150 gallons of syrup.

We gathered sap again the following week, but there wasn't as much in the sap buckets. It amounted to about 2 1/2 tubs. The sugar content dropped a bit, too. On Friday, March 26, the sap was testing 3 percent sugar. March 29 the sap was testing 2.7 percent. As the sugar content of the sap drops, it takes more sap to produce one gallon of syrup. The standard is 40 gallons of sap to produce 1 gallon of syrup.

—Jonathan, Howmars Farm

Posted by Blogger Chris at April 7, 2004 10:30 AM