Influence of demographic characteristics on production practices within the Ohio maple syrup industry.

摘要

Maple (Acer spp.) syrup production contributes approximately $5 million annually to Ohio's (USA) economy and provides supplemental nontimber forest product income for forestland owners. To better understand the factors that influence this important non-timber forest industry in Ohio, including producer heritage, producer age, sap collection methods, size of maple operation, and educational programming, we conducted a detailed survey of all known Ohio maple syrup producers (761 total producers). Over 80% of producers responded to the survey (620 respondents), making our analysis one of the most extensive of a maple industry in North America. In general, most maple operations in Ohio were part-time, family-based enterprises and over 25% of Ohio's maple producers were of Amish heritage. Although we estimated that there are over 400 000 taps in the state, the typical sugarbush was relatively small - the average sugarbush was 27 ac in size and over a third of the operations have fewer than 100 taps. Chi-square analyses did reveal several significant ( alpha =0.05) associations among producer characteristics. Although Amish producers were significantly younger and had significantly larger operations than their English or non-Amish counterparts (P<0.001), a higher proportion of English producers reported using tubing collection systems than Amish producers (P=0.031). Additionally, while larger maple operations tended to use tubing systems more frequently (P<0.001), we did not detect a significant association between sap collection method (bucket versus tubing) and producer age (P=0.169). Finally, English producers tend to be older. Older producers (>53 years old), producers using tubing collection systems, and producers with more than 250 taps were significantly more likely to participate in Ohio State University (OSU) Extension educational programming (P<=0.05). These results suggest significant relationships among producer demographics and the characteristics of maple operations in Ohio, and future OSU educational programming should be tailored to reflect these important relationships.