WESTFIELD, Vt.—What a difference a year makes.

At this time last year most sugarmakers were in the midst of their biggest sap runs of the season.

But this year—not so much.

Drips and drabs in the southern producing regions and that’s about it.

Even the big sugarmakers in Northern Vermont and New York, who started tapping in December, are locked up.

“We have more snow than I have seen in a long time,” said Jacques Couture of Couture’s Maple Shop in Westfield, Vt. “We have 5000 of our 8000 tapped. More snow tonight and another foot Sunday!”

Some sugarmakers in southern Ohio have made some syrup. But not much. And Kentucky a little bit too.

“We’ve had two days of good runs,” said Samuel Stoltzfus in Cadiz, Ky. “We’re not getting freezing nights.”

That will likely change.

More cold and a lot more snow are expected across the entire Maple Belt through the weekend. And the week ahead looks cold too.

Meanwhile, a lot of sugarmakers are keeping an eye on international tariffs situation.

The Trump administration temporarily suspended a proposed 25 percent tariff on Canadian goods until March 4.

Bruce Bascom, of Bascom Maple Farms in Alstead, N.H. had thoughts.

“The Canadian dollar exchange rate the last couple of days went back down about 5 percent strengthening the Canadian dollar indicating that financial markets are predicting there will not be a tariff. We will wait and see.”

“A tariff would do a lot of damage to the US maple syrup markets for sure,” Bascom said.

Bascom would not say what his bulk price would be going into a new season but said that if there is no tariff, the U.S. bulk prices will be similar to current prices.

“Or maybe slightly higher – uncertain today,” Bascom told the Maple News.

Meanwhile, producers will keep drilling holes, digging the snowshoes out of the back of the closet for the first time in four years, for many.

In Quebec too, it’s cold cold cold.

David Lesley, who has a 400 tap operation 1.5 hours north of Ottawa said it has been fridgid.

“As for tapping up here, although we have had a low snow winter so far we have had a lot of very cold nights, last night it was down to -27 C or -16 F,” Lesley told the Maple News on Wednesday.

“That and a load of snow courtesy of a ‘Colorado low’ is forecast to dump a whack of snow tonight,” he said.

In Ontario too, cold. Bev Campbell in Barrie, Ont. reports that the province is having a winter not seen in a decade.

“What will be the sap yields… could have a lot of moisture in the ground with  melting snow,” Campbell said. 

“Will this effect our sugar content? We have pass our traditional time of year for tapping around February 14 Valentine’s day, as we look at another two weeks of cold weather below 32 ° F during the day, even colder at night.”