WASHINGTON, D.C.—It’s official.  A lousy maple crop in the U.S. but maybe not as bad as first thought.

Sugarmakers in the U.S. made 3.42 million gallons of maple syrup this season, with Vermont leading the way, followed by New York and Maine, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, a branch of the USDA. 

Last year’s crop was 4.11 million gallons nationwide.

While some areas fared much worse than others, the maple crop overall was 83 percent of last year’s production, not quite as bad as some forecasts of 75 or 65 percent of last year’s big crop.

Vermont came in at 1.54 million gallons for 2021 production, down from 1.95 million gallons last year and 2.07 million in 2019, according to the statistics service.

New York’s total production was 647,000 gallons this season, compared to 804,000 gallons last year. 

Maine made 495,000 gallons this season compared to 590,000 last year.

Other big producing states were Wisconsin at 300,000 gallons and Pennsylvania at 165,000.  New Hampshire made 127,000 gallons and Michigan made 150,000 gallons, the report said.

The statistics service did not survey Ohio, Indiana, Connecticut, West Virginia, Minnesota or Massachusetts sugarmakers.

The lower production comes at the same time sugarmakers put out 245,000 more taps than last year, the statistics service said.

In all, maple producers in the U.S. put out 13.3 million taps this year, compared to 13 million last year.

The lower production is blamed on poor weather conditions for sap flow all season.

Sugarmakers in Vermont reported opening their season on March 8 and closing on April 5. 

Sugarmakers in Wisconsin had an even shorter season, with most reporting their first boil on March 6 and their last boil on March 31.

More details from the USDA survey will be reported in the July print edition of The Maple News.