Sap buy price

A gallon of sap makes 1/S gallons of syrup, where S is the gallons of sap per gallon of syrup from the 2013 revision of the Jones Rule of 86 (Perkins and Isselhardt, UVM Proctor) at the syrup density you choose. That syrup is worth 1/S times the bulk price per gallon, and the seller gets their share of it. The price per °Brix point divides that by the sap Brix, for agreements written as a rate per point of sugar.

Bulk syrup usually trades by the pound. A price per pound is converted to a price per gallon using the weight of a gallon of sugar solution at the chosen density, from the National Bureau of Standards tables: about 11.03 lb at 66.0 °Brix and 11.07 lb at 66.9.

The North American Maple Syrup Producers Manual says there is no uniform sap price schedule, but nearly all methods rest on sap sugar content and the bulk value of the syrup. It calls a 50% split of the syrup revenue to the seller quite common, and notes 60 to 70% in regions where sap producers have invested heavily in collection and sap is in demand. The final split is a negotiation.

The manual’s Table 11.6 lists sap prices at a 50% share from bulk prices per pound. Its figures work out to a heavier syrup weight (about 11.14 lb per gallon) than the National Bureau of Standards gives at 66.0 °Brix, so with the 66.0 standard this calculator can come out up to about a cent per gallon of sap under the printed table. With the 66.9 standard it reads a little lower again, because denser syrup takes more sap per gallon.