Last year’s sudden and early spring was sweet for most New Yorkers, but it put maple producers in a sticky situation by ending the production season abruptly.

Entering this year’s maple-producing season, which generally stretches from late February to mid-April, maple producers are eager to put last year behind them.

“We’re always optimists,” said Helen Thomas, executive director of the New York State Maple Producers’ Association. “Every year we start over with hope and optimism.”

“We were looking for a bumper year,” said Gordon Tibbitts of Tibbitts Maple in New Hartford. “Last year was terrible. We made half a crop, 50 percent of what we did the year before. It warmed up. It never got cold again. The sap production was way down.”

When compared to 2009, there was a 39.4 percent reduction in yield per tap in the state in 2010, according to statistics from the National Agricultural Statistics Service. While there were 73,000 more taps in 2010 than in 2009, 127,000 fewer gallons of syrup were produced.

Unfortunately, the weather – including the snowstorm early last week – hasn’t been conducive to sugaring.
Ideal weather for maple syrup production is temperatures above freezing – in the high 30s – during the day and temperatures below freezing – in the mid-20s – at night, said Joe Alm, program assistant at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Lewis County.

“You’ve got to have that constant freezing and thawing action to get sap running,” Alm said.

While Tibbitts’ experience last season was a common one across the Mohawk Valley and the state, the Adirondack region did well.

Marvin Widrick, owner of the Golden Maple Shanty in Lowville, said, “We had one of the best years we ever had last year.”

At this time last year, Widrick had produced 35 percent to 45 percent of his maple crop. This year, he has only processed about 2 percent to 3 percent.

“At present time, it’s not looking as good,” Widrick said.

But, the producers said, making judgments about the 2011 season would be hasty.

While weather is the primary indicator that sap will be running, Thomas said, technology, such as vacuum systems or more efficient evaporators, have been “developed in the past 20 years to help make the available sap easier to get.”

Tibbitts, for example, uses a small two-line vacuum system on his maple farm, which has 1,100 taps. The technology is such a boost, he said, that without the system, they wouldn’t have made a quarter of what they were able to last year.

“We had sap and neighbors didn’t have anything,” he said.

And, the producers said, there is the possibility – the hope – that the season could extend well into April.

“We’re all hoping we have a nice long, drawn-out spring,” Thomas said. “New York traditionally has a lot of sugaring weather in April.”

 “We’ve got a lot of time yet,” Widrick agreed.