Mainely Agriculture 2011 Early Spring

8/7/2019 Mainely Agriculture 2011 Early Spring

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Influences in farming

UMaine composites

Emily Adams photo - Maple Candy Product, Bob’s Sugarhouse , Dover-Foxcroft

All over Maine saphouses will be steamingon Saturday and SundayMarch 26, 27 as openhouses are planned statewide. The Maine De-partment of Agricultureposts a list of those par-ticipating farms on thatweb site. We have a fewfarms who would likevisitors and those storiesare within our pages.

Dairy farmernew Agriculture

Commissioner

$46.20. Prices in each state washigher and lower than the average,

however. See story p. 3

Vous parlezFrancais ?

Notre colonneSur l’agriculture

Par notreCorrespondante

Francaise‘Est on page 4

Next Issue

Focus:

To plow,plant,

harvest

New York’s tally in the U.S.Across New England, the average

equivalent price per gallon for 2009

Farm Service Agency in eachcounty he is sure Maine wouldplace higher in total produc-

tion in the northeast states thanit does presently. TraditionallyVermont leads all states withits production levels and lastyear Maine was 2,000 gallonsoff from becoming the secondlargest maple producer to

“We rush so you can flush”

Valley View SepticServing the

Tri-County Area from Charleston

285-7374 717-6194

Mainely Agricul-

ture takes a look at the grow-

ing interest with wood chips

for burning in boilers vs the

expanding use of pellets.

Some units use differing fuels

to fire electric power genera-

tion or heat water to heat pub-

lic spaces and homes.

Just what is the best fuel? Go

to page 14 and examine the

new debate.

Your newspaper looks at the

Maple syrup industry in the

Pine Tree State this issue,

starting on page 5. Could it be

the best season yet? The tree

farmers hope so. Lease tap-

pers have surprising numbers

to pay tree owners and the

established tree operations are

logically in gear from the

length and breadth of Maine,

chock a block full and ready.

See story p. 7

A Maine Debate

Chips vs Pellets

Walter Whit-comb of Waldo Countyis Maine’s new Agricul-tural Commissioner.Mr Whitcomb comes to

Maple farmers await sap weather

AUGUSTA - A second an-nual Maine Wind Energy

Conference was held in Jan-uary with speakers represent-ing energy professions,businesses, homeowners,towns and cities, schools,utilities and legislators allwanting to learn about on-shore to off-shore wind tur-bines, private wind farmsand just what the stakehold-ers and the UMaine invest-ment Consortium is doing to

develop the first floatingwind farm project in the Gulf of Maine and whatthis will do for the state’s growing energy needs.Addressing that technology was Professor HabibDagher, P.E., director of the Advanced Structuresand Composites Center at UMaine. See story p. 2

the posting having served several terms in thestate legislature and his whole life working thefamily farm of Colby (d) and Mrs. Lois Whit-comb on Birches Road, Waldo.. His appointmentfollows Seth Bradstreet, the last Governor’s

commissioner, and the new Governor has pickedanother man who knows farming, and how toproduce food, and good fodder for animals.

Maine Maple Sunday Mar. 27

Emily Adams photo

Profile:

Bob Smith The 2010 USDA statistics for all northeast mapleproducers was reported by Gary Keough, regional

director, at the recent Maine Agricultural TradesShow in early January. He reported the Mainecrop value increased at the same time the amountharvested decreased last year and 90% of the cropis sold in bulk to food processors. Weather asalways, influences the cropping in all northernstates but Maine’s season was again slightly be-hind New York. Keough said if more Maineproducers would report their crop numbers to the

Vol 3 No 1 Logging - Sugaring Spring Issue 2011

Published for farming interests statewide, 5 issues a year, always FREE

An independent farm journal

DORR’S EQUIPMENT CO.468 Hammond St. - Bangor, Maine 04401

Ph945-5965 Or 942-4655

Fx990-4924



2 Logging - Sugaring Issue MainelyAgriculture Early Spring

Syrup StatsContinued from page 1

New York and Maine vieto be the sec-

ond largest producers of

syrup in the U.S. ButMaine could improvethe same if all the tinyboilers of sap would re-port the amounts of syr-up they produce foreach household. Verymany hobbyists such asthis consider it impor-tant to add to agricultur-al statistics and thatkeeps Maine and New

York listed as third andsecond respectively. Amargin of 2,000 gallonsbetween the two statesare the average benchmark for recent years.

Nationwide allproduction was down19% with temperaturesto be too warm in spring2010.

Academics at Wind Energy Event

Photo by Rebecca Corey

Small scale agriculture lost a good manlast August when Bud Kluchnik passedaway unexpectedly. Bud had lived inRipley for some time with his family andanimals and was widely known for his abil-ity with cattle. Bud could drive the bigtrucks, work on heavy equipment and wasalways willing to help someone out. He

gardened, kept dogs, was an avid horseman,was familiar with sheep and goats. Hecould wash off a prolapse and sew up theanimal, give his opinion on ailing animals.Bud attended many large and small fairsaround the state and for some time traveledthe country to larger state fairs. Bud startedslowing down in recent years, but he was amainstay at the Garland Days Family Fairfor almost 20 years. He would bring histruck and trailer, loaded with his cattle,

horses, and dogs on Friday night, set up hiscampsite, go to the chicken BBQ, grabsome pie and ice cream at the HistoricalSociety, and then head for the Home-Brewcontest. He was in the parade on Sat. morn-ing with his cattle and then he just hung outat the rec. field, gave rides, let people takehis picture with what ever animal they liked

of his, but the best part was just letting himtalk about small farms with that welcominggrin and country drawl. He really under-stood cattle, trained many oxen, madeyokes, and loved showing people how hedid it. He gave a lot of support to our smallfair and was the model we looked to everyyear as we started planning the fair.

The Garland Days Family Fair will beSept. 9, 10, 11 this year. Bud won't bethere, but his spirit will. - JIM BUNN

More farming talent not passed on to young farmers

The state Uni-versity Engineering De-parment, Orono ismaking science challeng-es in the wind of ad-vanced structure

composites to positionwater borne wind powergeneration at 3 ocean

levels, 30 m, 60 m, and90 m. All designs to befunded by the consor-tium made up of state,federal, internationaland private stakehold-ers, 35 investors in sum.

SEDGWICK - The first of 3 towns in westernHancock County now set to take up discussion,passed a special vote March 7 to protect consum-ers from shoddy food packaging, suppliers etc.See copy of ordinance on page 16. The main

thrust of the ordinance is to garner more localfood from more local farmers and to encourageconsumer interests in small scale farms. It ex-empts food made in local kitchens similar to aMichigan Cottage Food law without caps on grosssales and types of foods processed. Local farmerBob St. Peter is quoted, “This ordinance createsfavorable conditions for begining farmers andcottage scale food processors to try out and makethe most of each season’s bounty.” Further, hesaid, “My family is already working on someideas we can do from home to help pay the bills

and get our farm going. The other towns takingup this measure were due to decide the same afterour press date passed.

Late news -

1st town passes food ordinance

Prof. Habib Dagher

Augusta W ind

energy

conference

A large number of Maine based firmswere present at Augusta Civic Center shortly afterthe Maine Ag Trades Show to chat and listen to

over 30 speakers on topics related to new technol-ogies, new opportunities and challenges towardsbringing Maine’s lead in oceanography and sci-ence of composite tech to bear upon the NorthAtlantic winds and the great possibility of har-nessing the same. This newspaper chatted withLarry Flowers of Colorado where he is PrincipalProject Leader of that states Wind PoweringAmerican Program (WPA). He has been to Maine3 times in 4 years to speak. He spent the last 30years working solar thermal, village power gener-ation to include wind on the scale of application

of the same for schools and community generation.This was a 2 day seminar and included

day time and evening lectures.

O F M A I N E

Katti M. WebbIndependet Dental

Hygienist

951 W Main Str.

Dover-Foxcroft

207 564-0095

[email protected]

N.. Denture Center Location:

12 Stillwater Ave., Bangor

Cars

Trucks

Applia-ances

Copper

Brass

Alumi-num

In Washington

152 Rockland Rd. 845-2480



Logging - Sugaring Issue MainelyAgriculture Early Spring 3

season at AllagashLake. Allagash Lake.Allagash Lake. Say thatthree times fast, as youcatch your fish next

year.Ice fishing isn’t

the only activity that canbe done in the AllagashWilderness Waterwayduring the wintermonths. Snowmobiletrips into the AWW alsoare a major use for us.It’s common to seegroups go by as theytravel up to see the oldTramway on Chamber-lain and the locomotiveson Eagle Lake, a popularwinter destination. Otheractivities that can be en-joyed, which I personallytake advantage of, arecross-country skiing andsnowshoeing. AllagashMountain is a greatsnowshoe for the morehard-core winter recre-ationalists. If winter

camping isn’t for you,Nugent’s Camps sits righton the shore of ChamberlainLake. These are beautifulhousekeeping cabins thatwill keep you warm duringthose cold, winter nights. Ienjoy going around meetingfishermen and talking outon the ice. It’s really a greatplace. Being among greatpeople who share the samerespect for the outdoorsbeauty and what it has to

offer.

Your w in ter oh-vah?

What a lot of people aren’t familiar with is,some of these attractions are just as unique whenseen in the winter. Most sections of the waterwayare quiet during the winter, not true for February.

February opens a special one month’s ice fishing

The locomotives at Eagle Lake in winter

(photo courtesy of Kevin Brown, AWW chief ranger)

By Christopher SilsbeePark Ranger, Chamberlain Bridge

Allagash Wilderness Waterway

Most people are familiar with the Allagash WildernessWaterway (AWW) as a unique, wild, and scenic waterway withbreath-taking views and the rich history from a century ago thatstill can be seen. Most people come to the AWW to enjoy thewaterway’s canoeing and fishing opportunities, camping on its81 campsites, touring the history center at Churchill Dam,

maine.gov or write MaineBureau of Parks & Lands,106 Hogan Road, Bangor,ME 04401

For more information onthe Alllagash dial207-941-4014, web mail:heidi.j.johnson@

WindsorFair

Princess

Rebekah Cox of Beals Island,serves now as Windsor Fair’s 2010-2011 Princess. She visited the 70thannual Maine Agricultural TradesShow in January and stood for thispicture. Behind her is a view of anew building at Maine’s secondlargest state fair next to Fryeburg.

She is the daughter of Mar-tha and John Cox, Jr.

Interesting facts: Forty eight per cent of all Maine tourists are Mainers and this represents28% of Maine’s GDP. In layman’s terms, Mainersbuy local.

There are 93 members in the Maine SheepAssociation as reported in The Producer circulatedat Ag Trades Show in January. They seem to begoing out for business to recruit new members by aplan to put out a new packet including a welcomeletter, by-laws and calendar. Lifetime membershipsare available as well. Good deal if you like sheep.Their wool pool will be held at the New EnglandLivestock Expo, May 20, 21, 22. See advertisementon page 15 for contact people regarding enteringlivestock in NELE.

Central Maine Sheep Association havenot held a spring meeting yet and their wool pooldate will be at Dover Fairgrounds the 3rd Saturdayin June.

UMCE held a Vegetable and Fruit School,March 15 in Portland and the 16th in Bangor.Deadline for getting in the $30 fee was March 1 tohear guest speakers Dr Jude Boucher, UConn CE

and Dr Jonathan Franz a Research Horticultuist forUSDA-ARS New England Plant, Soil and WaterLaboratory and he is based at UMaine, Orono. Top-ics taken up were High Tunnel Grafting, Pests, Overcom-ing Barriers to Farming, Recon of Nutrient Deficiencies inlettuce, and “30 Reasons to Switch to Deep Zone Tillage”among other neat dirt farming topics.

Kennebec and Somerset Conservation Dis-tricts are taking orders for fruit trees to plant so if that isyour farming interest. Go for it. Other state Districts offerthe same. Keep in touch with your local Farm ServiceAgency office in your county to learn more.

Keep this newspaper keyed in to your farmingcommodity interests for the PR we can provide. Our reach

is gaining ground.

Maine Highland Farmers are encour-aged to join the Wellness Initiative

where no fee for vendors can garnerproduct sales in Greenville for sum-mer events. Hours for selling areSaturdays noon to 4 pm in July &August. CA Dean Hospital will offerpublicity and farmers should contacteither Ken Tolman, P.A.-C or JessicaHargrove at 695-5215 [email protected]

Farmers take note



4 Logging - Sugaring Issue MainelyAgriculture Early Spring 2011

The Middle EastThe forces of nature are brilliant in the capacity to

rule life for all of us. Time is on all our sides, for the tormentof humanity prey to never learning how to live and let live.The hassle of the collared force of man vs nature is not abattle to fight. Historically, at the same time, this is also anexciting period to be living through. It brings back to me themarvel of the American 1960's where upon many streetcorners stood a protestor. We Yanks are a mouthy group.For our 2 cents, that is what the world needs, we thoughtthen and now, the locals right on back to those in power. A

continued protesting and expressing one’s free opinion. Thatis healthy. That is the most basic of all humankind rights.A fundamental to a healthy body and soul. It gets oldquickly but it’s good to let it out, scream and shout.

When the earth falls out from underneath you, keepon protesting. Cry out, hang on and finish the ride to the endof the mudslide. The next day might, could be, should be,sunny and warm. That’s living with the forces of naturefrom Mother Earth and our men and women merely players.

The Japanese

We can do very little to ease the pain and sufferingof the resilient Japanese at the juncture of both world historyand their history for the pending meltdown of one or moreof 4 nuclear reactors following the precedent setting earthquake and tsunami. In this country our press called thesummer “spill” in the gulf the worst in “our” history. It isand was the greatest oil spill in all history of a civilizedworld. Thus far, this year and the tail end of the last seem tomake our globe indeed the global village Marshall McLuhanpredicted. Diverse and unsettled but one family.

Like Cato, give his little senate laws,

and sit attentive to his own applause.

Pope - Prologue to the Satire.

The silence that accepts merit as themost natural thing in the world,

is the highest applause.

Emerson - An Address July 15, 1838

A company of tyrants is inaccessible

to all seductions.

Voltaire - A Philosophical Dictionary.

Les habiles tyrans ne sont punis.Clever tyrants are never punished.

Voltaire - Merope

MainelyAgricultureMission Statement

It is our volunteer missionto support and encouragea vibrant and thriving re-turn to family farming / forestry along with build-ing a more healthy farminfrastructure, a sustain-able and wider regionaleconomy based upon ag-ricultural traditions hand-ed down for centuries.

Such agrarianism is in-deed a culture at the sametime it is an economy.We foster and supportsuch a local economy,state wide.

Editorial ContributorsFabienne ProstEmily AdamsBill SawtellGordon MooreEllen MacMillanJack Strout

Small World

Welcome Mr Witcomb.

I first met Colby Witcomb a number of years back and his

Mrs. Lois when called to shear some sheep Lois wantedclipped. Colby was a soft spoken man and being hard of hearing I didn’t catch all he said upon that first meeting.The second year was better for a brief chat and that was that.He died within the bridge to the next shearing season.

Son, Walter Whitcomb, is Maine’s new Ag Commissionerand I like the choice this Governor has made to put him inthe seat. He comes with about 12 years of Legislativeexperience and a life of cattle farming. That to me seems adamn good combination for not just milk interests in the

state but for our other crops as well. This is a Waldo Countyfarmer and the soils of that county are among Maine’s best.It is a difficult road to make good hay with ocean mists.And the men and women of the farming silk really have toknow their crafts and be quick about it. The tassles of theleaves of good grass are a kind of silk to capture and bale.

We expect good activity in Agriculture, while apparentlyfrugal on the state level and this choice after Seth Bradstreetis a good follow up and augurs continued progress straightahead. Congratulations Walter Whitcomb and Maine Ag.

Viva Libertad ?

Qui aurait cru il y a trois mois que l’année 2011

verrait un vent de démocratie souffler sur le MoyenOrient et l’Afrique du Nord ?La Tunisie, l’Egypte, et bientôt la Lybie voient leurspetites ou grandes dictatures s’effondrer comme deschâteaux de sable, et ce qui est nouveau, par la seulevolonté de leurs peuples.

Comme une traînée de poudre, l’espoir de ladémocratie se propage, amène des peuples à se rassem-bler au cœur même de la cité, et en dépit du danger, àdéfier courageusement leurs petits potentats, qu’on

pensait indétrônables.Dans le contexte de la crise mondiale que nousvivons, cet élan des peuples du Moyen Orient vers ladémocratie est un formidable espoir pour eux là-bas, etpour nous, ici, pays occidentaux, qui parfois, impuissantscapitulons trop facilement devant les nouveaux potentatsde la grande finance mondiale.

Ce petit cataclysme au Moyen Orient marque unenouvelle page dansl’Histoire. Espéronsque cette graine de

démocratie seméegerme là-bas etici aussi !

Fabienne ProstParis, FranceLe 6 Mars 2011

Translation:Who would have

thought three months ago that2011 would see a wind of

Democracy blowing in theMiddle East and North Africa?Tunisia, Egypt and Libya soonsee their small or largedictatorships collapsing likesand castles, and what is new,by the will of their peoples.

Like wildfire, thehope of Democracy isspreading, leading peoples tocongregate at the heart of thecity, and despite the danger,bravely defying their smalldictators, we thoughtinvincibles.

In the context of the

global crisis we are living, thiseagerness to Democracy of Middle East peoples is a greathope for them there, and for ushere, Western countries, whichsometimes capitulate too easilyto the new potentates of thegreat global finance.

This cataclysm inthe Middle East marks a newpage in History. Hopefully thatthis seed of democracy sproutsthere and here too!

Tel. 965-2332

- Established Summer 2008 -Sh e e p M a rk e t P u b lish in g C o .

PO B o x 6 3 2 B ro w n v ille , M e 0 4 4 1 4

[email protected]

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Founding Publisher Wallace Sinclair



Logging - Sugaring Issue MainelyAgriculture 5

Supplement

This time of year when the days get lon-ger, but the winter won’t let go, there is onehopeful sign of spring. The quietude of the winterwoods is disturbed in certain parts by peoplesnowshoeing around where no human activity hadgone on for months. In the old days this activitywas in the form of preparing tap holes, tappingand hanging buckets. These days the activity ismostly in the form of repairing plastic piping andgetting ready to tap as many maple trees as possi-ble in a short a period of time. The maple syrup

industry is awakening from a long down period.

I started the write an article about thechanges in the production or syrup, but insteadI’m going to tell you just a bit about one producerthat I work with. This guy makes his living fromhis farm and the sugar bush is a big part of hisyearly income. He’s not a large operation bytoday’s standards but more of a mid-sized produc-er. The big guys are putting in 50,000+ taps aseason, and sending out bulk syrup in 35 gallondrums. His procedure utilizes plastic tubing and

piping which concentrates sap to several large

800 trees this spring. This added about 1/3 asmuch acreage to the sugar bush. These are mostlyforest grown trees and not ideal as sugar trees butthey are large trees and have relatively largecrowns. In time these crowns should spread outand increase the amount of sap that is produced byeach tree. After completing the cleaning he no-

ticed areas which were not stocked with sugarmaple. The landowner decided to purchase mapletrees to fill in the voids. We calculated about 40trees needed to fill in voids, based on a 35 foot by35 foot spacing for each tree. He didn’t just useany old tree but he did his homework and locatedsources for high sugar yielding Sugar Maple andSilver Maple. Yes, I said Silver Maple. He wentwith the Silver Maple as the nursery which soldthe trees claims that these trees will be capable of producing very quickly. I hesitate to repeat theclaim of the nursery. Silver Maple thrives in

warmer climates than Sugar Maple. It’s veryinteresting and if the claims prove to be true itmay revolutionize the industry.

drums. His procedureutilizes plastic tubingand piping which con-centrates sap to severallarge containers which

he pumps into a transfercontainer and takesdown to his sugarhouse. Part of this oper-ation is piped directly tothe sugar house wherethere are several hold-ing tanks for the sap. Atthis operation sap isboiled on a mid sizedboiler fired with wood.He uses almost all

Northern White Cedarto fire the boiler. He isfortunate in that he hasa fair sized ownershipwith lots of cedar grow-ing on it. Recent im-provements in thewoods included thecleaning (cutting of allmature timber exceptsugar maple) of severalacres. I think he is plan-

ning on tapping about

By Gordon Moore

Spring is closing in, the sap is running,the snowpack is beginning to melt, and the Legis-lature is in full swing. More than most depart-ments, Conservation is tied closely to the seasonsof the year. The state’s economy is beginning to

grow again, although the continuing national re-cession in housing construction has put a damperon the lumber market. Maine’s volume of stand-ing timber continues to grow as harvesting re-mains below sustainable rates, which positionsMaine very well for anticipated rises in commod-ity prices. We rank second in the nation in pulpand paper production, and we are within strikingdistance of becoming No. 1. We welcome thechallenge.

As our annual growth rates in the forestscontinue to accelerate, our department’s team of

entomologists are tracking multiple threats frominvasive insects and disease, including an expandingevidence of spruce budworm in Quebec, the originsof our problems in the 1950s and 1970s. On thefirefighting front, our track record is exemplary, andwe continue to focus our resources on being aggres-sive first responders with our fleet of Huey helicop-ters.

That Maine has not had a single forest fireover 1,000 acres in 20 years, coupled with aggres-sive disease control, accelerating growth rate in theforest and a stable working forest landmass of over15 million acres augurs well for our rural economy.Column by Conservation Commissioner Bill Beardsley

In the field

Commissioner’s comments



packcopnt

6 Logging - Sugaring Issue MainelyAgriculture

MADISON – The larg-est wholesaler of mapleproducts in Maine isMaine Maple Productsof Somerset County.They take syrup fromtheir 80,000-tree sugar-bush, add syrup fromtwo other Maine sugarmakers, and produce

between 25,000 to30,000 gallons eachyear. The demand forMMP’s products keepsabout seven individualsemployed year round,including owners Marcand Hélène Larivière,their three sons, Jean-Pierre, Martin and Fabi-en, company managerEric Ellis and sales

manager Don Yeaton.“There are few that cansay maple is their year-round livelihood,” ex-plains Ellis, who creditsMMP’s success to theuse of technology suchas reverse osmosis ma-chines and state-of-the-

State’s largest sugaring

is in Somerset County

Eric Ellis, ManagerSupplement

Maine Maple Products Inc.Eric Ellis, Mgr. Don Yeaton, Sales449 Lakewood Rd, Madison04950207-474-3887Call toll free: [email protected]

art packaging equip-ment and a deliveryroute established over25 years that consists of friendly relationshipsthan just business trans-actions. MMP packagessyrup in everythingfrom boutique 1.36ounce containers, larger

plastic and specialtyglass sizes for consumerand retail-gift markets,five-gallon jugs for res-taurants and bakeriesand 40-gallon stainlesssteel drums to thewholesale markets.Most of their business iswholesale destined formarkets within Maine,supplying smaller pro-

ducers seeking to sup-

plement their crop. Anetwork of pipes span-ning 1,000 acres of leased land in T7 R19

[Big Six Township] car-ries sap from 80,000trees along a network of pipes up to three inchesin diameter for a dis-tance of up to twomiles. It passes througha handful of pump sta-tions, which are moni-tored remotely by videoat the evaporator housewhere six reverse-os-mosis machines slashsyrup production time.Marc and Hélène Lariv-

ière split their time be-

tween St. Zacharie,Quebec and Madisonwhere the syrup is pack-aged in a range of con-tainers before it isshipped to mostlyMaine customers. “The4,000 sq. ft. Madisonpackaging and distribu-tion facility boasts anew conveyor packag-ing system acquired inmid-2010 means “it willprocess twice as much

syrup in the course of one day and with lesslabor,” according to El-lis. “Technology reallyhas become the key toour industry.” TheLarivières’ home in St-Zacharie is less than tenmiles from the sugar-bush. HélèneLarivière’s grandfatherstarted maple produc-tion in Big Six Town-ship in the early 1900swith a sugar camp that

from horse-drawn sapcollection and wood-fired evaporation tech-niques. The Larivières’purchased Maine MapleProducts, Inc. in 1993from Raymond Tit-comb of Farmington.Ellis has worked full-

time for the companysince 1988, after gradu-ating from Thomas Col-lege with a B.S. inBusiness Management.He had grown up in theFarmington area and, inhigh school, assistedTitcomb in the mapleorchard. After theLarivières purchasedthe business they leased

the Titcomb locationthen acquired the Madi-son property in 1996and designed the pres-ent facility 12 yearsago, which includes anapartment at which theLarivières stay duringthe week to oversee op-erations. The Madison

plant is open 8-5,Monday through Fri-

day, year round.

Story content provided by sunburyexchange.com



AUGUSTA– The Maine Forest Service (MFS),

under the Maine Department of Conservation, isrequesting applications for shovel-ready, wood-to-energy conversion projects for funding throughfederal recovery-act monies with not much leadtime. Aps due March 24.

Under the federal American Recovery andReinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 Wood to EnergyGrants Program, $2.7 million will be available asgrant funding for the installation of wood-energyboilers to all Maine public entities or parties withpublic buildings, including schools, hospitals, state,county, cities and towns and tribal governments.

“This program provides opportunities forsmall, wood-to-energy projects even as Maine looksat large-scale, high-tech conversions,” Commission-er Bill Beardsley, of the Maine Department of Con-servation, said. “Testing multiple techniques withsuccessful demonstrations in these smaller projectsoffers opportunities for replication in every town inMaine.” Eleven awards have been won in Mainesince the grant came about under the recovery act.

“We are pleased to be able to offer thisfederal grant money to applicants around the state,”Donald Mansius, MFS acting state forester, said.

“This program offers an important opportunity forMaine to create and retain jobs and to demonstrateits leadership in renewable energy. Converting towood heat should allow successful applicants torealize significant cost savings, keep the fuel dollarsthey do spend circulating in the Maine economy andhelp reduce Maine’s dependency on foreign fossilfuels.” See:

http://www.maine.gov/doc/mfs/arra/pages/rd_3_pre_a

pplication_info.html Or email Thomas C Wood, MFSsenior planner at ARRA Public Building Wood-to-EnergyProgram, (207) 287-3920 [email protected]

Innovating Sapper retiresSKOWHEGAN - The only Mainer to ever beinducted into the Maple Hall of Fame in Croghan,

NY, Robert S. Smith of Skowhegan, retired in2010 after selling his business to Kevin and KristiBrannen’s Spring Break Maple and Honey of Smyrna Mills, which included maple candy clientaccounts like retail giant L.L. Bean.

When he started in 1964, syrup retailedfor $6 a gallon, No. 2 fuel oil was 12 cents agallon and he rented 1,800 roadside taps in theSkowhegan region for 25 cents apiece. That firstyear resulted in 400 gallons using a five- by four-teen-foot, oil-fired, fire-brick-lined, masonry archevaporator (used until 1990) based on a design by

C.O. Willits and constructed in a sap house, about1,000 feet from their home in downtownSkowhegan. It produced three to four gallons of syrup an hour. The side business dovetailed nicelywith his work as a land surveyor and consultingforester, because those jobs slacked off in themonths of March and April when maple produc-tion is at its busiest.

He bought 1,800 16-quart metal bucketsfor 80 cents each (with covers for another 25cents) and dumped the sap-filled buckets into two,250-gallon gathering tanks he transported on a

tandem U-Haul trailer he rented seasonally. Later,he acquired a used creamery truck with a bulk tank and pumped sap for about a mile along one-inch plastic pipe using a gasoline-powered pump.

He adopted reverse-osmosis technologyin the 1970s. Maple-candy production started in1974 and grew to a 70-store market mostly alongthe Maine coast. Sales of syrup and maple candyto just L.L. Bean were about $87,000 by the late1980s. A gallon of syrup makes 7.5 lbs. of candy.

Packaging started as cans and, by the

1980s, he added litho-

graphed tin packagingand plastic.

He ceased theSkowhegan-area taps in1990 and, that year,leased 12,000 taps for20 cents each from In-ternational Paper innorthern SomersetCounty. He made 3,000gallons that first yearand would never exceed

that again. The poorestyear was 1,400 gallons.He invested about$250,000 in equipmentand had one reverse-os-mosis machine. He op-erated there until 2003and sold the lease in2005 to Jacques Roy.

He was in-ducted into the

Robert S. Smith

Maple Hall of Fame in May 2001. He had beenthe Maine Maple Producers Association delegate

(he was MMPA president for three, non-consecu-tive, two-year terms) on the North American Ma-ple Syrup Council (serving as its president; thefirst Mainer to do so) and also served on theInternational Maple Syrup Institute.

There is still a future in maple syrupproduction, he says. Anytime is a good time to getinto it. Consumers are becoming more educatedand the market is expanding.

Mainely AgricultureCan now accept Word Pad 2000

news releases,

requests for advertising, Etc.

[email protected]

Forest Service Calls for

Wood-To-Energy Project Aps




cows is 7 days a week. Employees take care of the cows on shifts with BJ and Barry helping inthe feeding of both the milkers and the replace-ment animals. Good feed, translates to goodmilk and good beef. Maple Lane Farms controlsall fodder from harvest to stomachs and like our-selves, the quality of the feed promises betterresults. For all animals.

It could be said that Maple Lane Farms has the

cure for what ails the beef industry. “One of thekeys to our success with beef has been we don’tput a knife in anything until it has hung at leasttwo weeks. Makes a tremendous difference,” saysBarry by pre-cool hot hanging beef and pork before it goes into the holding cooler.

Slaughter , skinning and of fal

removal is done very quickly

Wi th pow er l i f ts to protect the

meat . And then ro l led in to a

Chi l l coo ler i m m ediately


From field to fork and glass this farm does it allEach farm year begins in the woodlot and

fields. At Maple Lane that tradition continues.

cord of sawdust a week to keep young stock, pigs,beef comfortable. Maple Lane Farm harvests

thousands of square and round bales as that isextra cash flow and controls all fodder for their

meat livestock and overall farm activities

month to month. Next to Charleston Correc-tional Facility, Maple Lane Farms is the secondlargest employer in town of local men andwomen in the various trades needed to milk

cows, cut wood, cut up meat, split wood, har-vest and deliver hay to other farmers. They alsoraise about 500 acres of corn and 100 acres of barley for feeding and sell the excess throughouteastern Maine. The family farm raises beef andhogs and soon will set up a large show ring todisplay horse and cattle roping activities of vari-ous Maine and out of state clubs needing a newregional facility to hold meets. This agritourist

investment follows the most recent new barn con-struction to house more livestock for increasingretail sales of home grown meat. Meat demand atMaple Lane Farms increases month to month andby example, January is usually a very slow andthis year was as busy as cutting is during huntingseason. Meat customers are particular to theHiggins brand and are willing to wait for the cutsand acknowledge that what they receive is grownon the farm. This is a story of the rebirth of familyfarming in Maine; involving the public directly

showing cause and effect of food on the table.

Barry Higgins

Chester Sawyer

An 8 month MLF Holstein dressed outat 796 # shown with skinner Webster

Young II

arry, wife Mary and son B.J.Higgins (who is the 4th generation) are

the key people in the family farm fordecision making and are quick to pointout the characteristics of this diverse op-eration and how one season melts intoanother. Most people know that milking

Chilled, hung, skinned Maple Lane meat

BMaine weather requiresample fuel for heating afarm house, a large meatprocessing plant andmilk parlor there inCharleston. Maple Lanemen harvest 50 cord eachyear just for that purposeand the daily tending of 80+ milkers requires 12

A view of a second new barn and feed-ing livestock. Pigs and cattle are com-

fortable here in partitioned quarters.

The meat cutters at Ma-

ple Lane Farms know

how to break down beef.

In the past, when theyhave occasionally hired

part-time help, they

have discovered that

box cutters with experi-

ence cutting boxed beef

have “no idea how to

break down a beef.”

“That’s getting to be a

lost art, too. Says Barry,

It’s hard work.”Their busiest season is

August to the middle of January. They process50 beef per week. Itslows to eight or ten perweek in the off-season.“At times it is stressfulto keep up with thegrowth. You have tocontinually change theway you do business tokeep up with it. Thisfall, September 15, wehad all of our orderscaught up. We had allour beef orders filled.Our freezer orders andso forth and we knewwe had to get thosecleaned up because of

moose seasoncoming at the end of the

B.J. Higgins



meat, milk, hay & Ag eventsLogging - Sugaring Issue MainelyAgriculture 9

Maple Lane workers fabricateda cooler door saving many dollars in

manufacturedpurchasing

Photo by Mary Lord

month. Moose season came on and there’s also--Icall it--pig season, people start slaughtering theirhogs and people get their meat ready for the

winter. Fall’s the time they do that. So from Sep-tember 15th until mid-December we weren’t ableto slaughter any of our own beef. The only thingwe slaughtered was we had to take care of a smallwholesale business we have. So, by mid-Decem-ber, we had somewhere between 45 and 50 beef sold and customers waiting. Some of them hadbeen waiting since the end of September. They areaddicted to what we do. We got all remainingorders filled by the end of the month. January2011 throughout the rest of the year orders arefilled weekly .

“When I graduated from high school we built apretty good retail market on raw milk. And, actu-ally, there was a delivery route where we didseveral stores. And then Chester, my head meatcutter, had some meat-cutting experience. He wasmilking cows for me. So we were selling milk outof the milk room in gallon jugs and had a prettygood customer base. So we set up a room in my

dad’s cellar--a cutting room--and had our beef slaughtered at a federally inspected slaughter-house. And we brought it back, cut it here, pack-aged it in Styrofoam trays, and sold it out of themilk room on an honor system. People couldcome in, take what they wanted, put money on therefrigerator and away they went. That’s how weactually started back in ’70. We went from thereto building a processing room over in our shed.Built a cooler off the back of the building. Westarted out state inspected and went to federal.”

Milking parlor 2x6

At that point, the whole meat industry in the Stateof Maine was declining. That’s when Bangor

Beef went out of business. Alco Packing went outof business. Swift left Bangor.

Rather than a local meat industry, it went to aregional one. That’s when the boxed beef busi-ness actually got really popular. We decided inthe late ’80s to shut our store down and go back tojust custom beef and went from a good sizedbusiness to a small business and started buildingour freezer business with sides and quarters, sell-ing to locals and we’ve grown from that. We builtthis building in ’06 and the place has just kind of taken off. We’ve built something here every year

since our original building. We expanded ourlivestock-holding facilities in ’07. And then in ’08we added a freezer and some extra storage area.And then, in 2009 and 2010, we started our newprocessing room, and 2 new coolers. We’re stillgrowing at a pretty fast rate, about 30 percent onall species last year [2010] over the year before,except for deer. We were up a little on deer, buteverything else was up at least 30 percent.”

“When the customer comes in here, they’reimpressed with the cleanliness and sanitation wehave here. And I hear that over and over and over

again. And the other thing we’ve done--I don’tknow if we came onto it by mistake, or what--butthe cure in what we’re using on our smoking onour bacon and our hams--we actually smoke a fewtop round beef roasts-has come out fantastic. Weuse our own, secret cure and we use hickorysawdust to do our smoking with. We put in astate-of-the-art smoker, all computerized so everybatch comes out the same.

That’s been a big hit,our smoking. We start-ed smoking in April of

2010 [when] the firstbatch of smoking ranthrough. We got ourcure recipe to the pointwhere it seems to meeteverybody’s tastes. It’snot too salty, not overlysmoked, but smokyenough, and quitesweet and it seems tobe a hit with everyonewho has tried it.”

Smoked hams , (top) smoked

Pork, (right photo)

Fresh Roast

In addition to meat and dairy, Maple Lane Farm

promotes their hay and silage business with the following

facts. “It’s a very diversified farm we’re running here.”

“Last year 77,000 squares and about 1,200 round bales.

Between corn and grass--we chopped a lot of grass, too--

and hay, we farmed about sixteen hundred acres” in four towns.

In reference to a door Maple Lane Farm con-

structed for the chill room, “When we set this up, I knew

what I wanted for a door and what the dimensions were

and this door was going to cost me between four and five

thousand dollars. Between my son and the guy I’ve got in

the shop, the carpenter, we built this door. We built it for

about sixteen hundred. This is not a factory door. This was

manufactured right here on the farm.” They build most of

their buildings with very little outside help.

In 2010, they processed 177 moose and

about 350 deer.

“We’re going to build a ring here,

100 by 200 for Central Maine Team Penningto come to Charleston.“

“Team penning is when they come inwith a team of three horses and they pen cattle onhorseback. We’re going to supply a place for them

to do it We’ve promisedthem a hundred head of cattle to use to practicetheir clinics and to haveactual shows here.

. They pen cattle onhorseback. They do thisat four fairs in the state,Farmington, Windsor,Skowhegan and Ban-gor.” This will be theirhome base, here. We’llbuild an arena betweennow and the middle of May. “

“[It’s a] major ex-pense for us. It’s kind of getting us into agri-

tourism a little bit.We’re expecting horsesespecially out of eastern

Canada, as well asmany from Maine, NewYork state, New Hamp-shire and Vermont. It’sa large organization inthe state here. Theyhave a hundred and for-ty, fifty members andthey have about eightevents every year. Fourof them would be here.”Our objective is to get

as many riders, as manypeople, here as we can.We need good cattle fa-cilities. “The more peo-

ple we draw, the more

successful we’ll be.”

The animalswill be three to sevenhundred pounds liveweight.

Family Effort - Left to Right, Kylie, Mary, Brandon, Randa ,B.J.,

Barrett, McKenna, Barry, Amy & Mike.

Then in the mid-80s

the family lost a grandfa-ther clause and had tobuid a new building. “Wehad a store on the farm atthat point. We sold meatout of the store and milk and so forth.That was a time when all

the stores went to a meatprogram. Before theHannafords and all thosehad the big meat program.

It is notsomethingjust anyonecould do.Maple LaneFarmscurrently hasabout 250head of beef cattle on feed..

Stop in

& visit.



The relationship logging has with sapcollection starts with the universality of woodlotsthat many farmer capitalize upon with a studiedstewardship. Kristi and Kevin Brannen of Smyr-na have taken some 40 acres of young growthrock maple and gardened the trees and their equip-ment to drill 3500 taps that deliver from a pint toa quart of syrup per tap, after processing. Lastyear was great with the average of over a quartfinished syrup per tap. They make good use of asouth facing sugar bush, half of which is high

ground gravity fed deliver to the sap house wherethe sap is easily collected. Compared to the daysof the past with cans hanging from a tree methodof the last century, theirs is a mix of storagecapacity, gravity lines and vacuum flows with the

full advantage of re-verse osmosis machin-ery that shortens thetime it takes to boildown the liquid into the

various products theyproduce.

What began asa sort of hobby in 1998when Kristi suggested

Logging takes a back seat at this time of the year. When March comes around for Kevin,maple refinery is one of the important businesses.

Last year they bought out Bob Smith’sMaine Maple Candy name and some equipment.This agreement is also matched with a new deal-ership the couple maintains for Leader EvaporatorCompany and they represent Sugar Hill, the syrupcontainer company with an inventory for fellowproducers.

In his logging contractor work Kevinuses a 753 John Deere Fellerbuncher with a 20inch Wartah Saw head. The trees shown herewere too large for the slasher so they were buckedby a chainsaw, but the old growth trees from

Huber lands demonstrate Kevin’s ability to har-vest inside protected lands.

While haymaking and collecting saphave defined seasons, collecting honey and beekeeping has direct influence on how the Brannens’

to her husband that hetap some trees oneMarch day as logginghad a hiatus has broughtthe couple to invest in

equipment, variousstyle pipeline and ma-chinery that make theiroperation a well re-spected business.

Spring Break Honey and Maple Taps all Resources

Steaming sap house

& summer hay

FreshMaple Candy

Supplement

Four Pine

150 years old

cut nearBaxter

Park netted9800 board

feet sold toRobbins

Lumber of

Searsmont

Kevin Brannen

Bees. Trees. Hay.

Maple Products.

Defines Aroostook Farm

harvest hay. While hayhas a limited windowand weather influence,the large number of hives Kevin maintains

has a wholly differentroutine coming when itdoes within haying sea-son. The hay they makeis purchased by a localcattle farmer and thefarm usually gets 250-300 large round balesfrom about 70 acres of fields on the lower sideof the Brannen lands.Usually hay is not har-

vested until the cloverhas peaked to allow thehoneybees opportunityto harvest the nectar.

The farm gives sugar bush

tours in Maple Season

and is open on weekends

from 10-3 and weekdays

from 10-4 pm.

www.mainemapleandhoney.com

Smyrna, ME 04780

Visit & order on line





Farm/Home planning notes, chats, gardening, needs, misc.. .

New to Mainely Agriculture...

Maine Maple: Beyond Pancakes (2007) byElizabeth G. Hodgkins and published by theMaine Maple Producers Assoc. is available froma number of maple producers. The collection of 179 favored maple recipes from Maine cooks andchefs includes toppings, glazes, sauces, appetiz-ers, beverages, cereals, breads, meat, fish, poultry,baked beans, soups and main dishes, vegetables,salads and desserts.

For the Kitchen:

Will the lady who

Submitted a GarlicStory resubmit it?

Computer Crash

Evaporated it.

- the Publisher

MOFGA & MPBN report Maine’s StateVet Don Hoenig saying he doesn't knowexactly how many southern rescue dogsarrive in Maine every year, but he estimatesit's in the thousands. One option he's con-sidering is to require all rescue groups im-porting dogs to use only USDA-licensedtransporters--something that would make iteasier to monitor the dogs coming into the

state.Meanwhile, to try to get a better picture,

he sent out an email to all Maine vets,"asking for input on whether they'd seenanimals that had gotten sick or died, orarrived here in a debilitated condition, be-cause I'm just trying to build up some realfacts rather than anecdotes."

"I've certainly seen a number of folkswith the best of intentions adopt unhealthy

dogs through private rescue groups, only todiscover that they were sorely lacking inhealthcare," says Dr. Amanda Rizner, whoworks at South Berwick Veterinary Hospi-tal in York County added.

Consumer Fact:Maine people spend $4 billion per year on food,most of which goes directly out of state (the secondlargest consumer expense in Maine behind energyspending). Farmers want to keep more food dollarslocal. and new activity in winter farming is the key.

Get Real, Get MaineIt is time to update yourinformation on the freepromotional web site,

www.getrealmaine.comIf you want your infor-

mation to be included inthis years FOOD ANDFARMS promotionalbooklet, please updatebefore Friday, MARCH18 and login on the pro-ducer login tab withyour LOGIN ID: andPASSWORD andmake any changes or

additions to your busi-ness information. If your information is cor-rect as is , please let usknow by emailto:mailto:[email protected] If you arehaving problems, wehave a help line avail-able until March 18. Getyour farm promoted ful-ly Get Real Maine is afree promotional website sponsored by theMaine Department of

Agriculture. We getthousands of visits tothe web site and con-

sumers find the site use-

ul to find local vendorsof food products, state-wide. New vendors areencouraged to join in.

W Farmington GrangeThe “Changing Face of Agriculture In Franklin County”as seen through a series of slides depicting some 20local farms and farmers will be the focus of a public

gathering at the West Farmington Grange at 7:30 pm onSaturday , March 19. Grange member, journalist andphotographer Jo Josephson has taken the title of herpresentation from Clarence Day’s “Farming in Maine1860-1940” published by the University of Maine Press.In his introduction, Day wrote: “Constant adaptation toconstant change – that is both the key to and summaryof farming in Maine.” Josephson adds, it is also the keyto its success. In her slide presentation, Josephsonweaves photographs of local farmers at work with statis-tics to make the claim that agriculture is not dying inFranklin County, it is merely “changing its face.” Hightech embryonics, greenhouses, value-added turkey andbeef products, organic pepper jams, breads and cheese

are but some of the new faces of Maine agriculture, saysJosephson, Refreshments will be homemade pie with ascoop of ice cream! The public is invited to attend andthere is no charge for this event. FMI: call Wes Marble@778-6968

April 9. Ham and Baked beans supper and thereturn of the Abbott Hill Wanderers! This is a great highschool group playing American Roots and Country mu-sic. You’ll love them! Supper at 5:30PM, $6 each. Showat 7PM, $6 each. Supper and show together, only $10each.Bangor Grange hall, 1192 Ohio St. Bangor. CallRolf at 973-3976

Jacksonville Grange #358 will be having a public

Turkey dinner with all the fixings on June 19 at noon.at the Jacksonville Grange Hall. Adults $7.00 childrenunder 12 $4.00.

Maine State Grange NewsOur activities each quarter



s more pellet boilers come on line inMaine, chances are Maine Woods Pellet Co.,LLC (MWPC) in Athens is supplying the fuel.

Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor will be addinganother 15,000 tons per year to the demand forMWPC’s pellets when their boiler, fired by pul-verized pellets, is expected to reduce their heatingfuel by over 1 million gallons. Each sealed, dry-bulk pneumatic tanker load will deliver the equiv-alent of 4,000 gallons of heating oil.

MWPC has the capacity to produce up to100,000 tons of pellets annually. Its abundant

supply of raw material from their sister company,Linkletter & Sons, and state-of-the-art pellet mill


Supplement

Maine Woods Pellet brings in clients with qualityVery well regarded

Scot Linkletter standing in front of

pellet mill located in Athens.

Only 100% wood--no additives--getsforced through the pellet die in Athens

we’ve picked up recent-ly, wouldn’t have soldour pellets before. Now,its pretty much all theysell.”

Nowadays MWPCexceeds expectations, inpart, by striving for ashcontent and levels of fines closer to super-premium standards thanthe premium certifica-tion would suggest.“We just label it as pre-mium and let people besurprised how good apremium pellet it is,”says Linkletter, whoregularly tests the pel-lets on site. The compa-ny also has samples bythe bagful tested by aUMaine wood scienceprofessor and sends asmaller sample to Wis-consin for testing by alab certified by the Pel-

let Fuels Institute.

One of the test factorsis the Btu of energy perpound. MWPCs rangefrom 8,200 to 9,000.

Customers commenton the shiny hardness of MWPC pellets and ask

whether something wasadded. “There’s nothingbut wood going in andwood going out,” saysLinkletter. Lignin in thewood that has meltedduring production andcooled acts as a naturalglue with a shiny, hardcoating.

equipment contribute to the company’s claim asMaine’s largest pellet mill. Another plus for hom-eowners is the company sells directly to consum-ers and also accepts pellet bags for recycling, aslong as they are empty and made of LDPE 4plastic, whether they are MWPC bags or not.

Launched in 2007, MWPC struggled with itspellet quality through 2008. Pellet stove sellerslike Mac and Sherrie Curtis at Wayne’s Stove &

& Canoe in nearbySkowhegan, who havenever sold pellets butwere often consulted bytheir customers on

which pellet to buy,used to warn consumersagainst using the then-problematic Athens pel-lets.

But by 2009, the com-pany “changed theirformula, they changedtheir process, and theycame out of it with asuperior product,” saysCurtis, who has usednothing but MWPC pel-lets in his own home,and recommended themto his customers eversince.

There are a lot of opinions like theCurtis’s that did anabout face, said Linklet-ter, “A lot of (distributors) of the ones

A

However, some com-peting brands do addvegetable oil, which in-creases production butgenerates an odor whenburned, as well as plas-tic resin.

Pellet production in2010 was down becausedemand was low, whichLinkletter thinks might

be because the price of heating oil did not in-crease a lot at the begin-ning of heating season.But pellets make eco-nomic sense even if heating oil prices were$2.50 per gallon“You’d still be saving alot with pellets,” notesLinkletter, citing a FuelValue Calculator devel-

oped by the USDA For-est Service, ForestProducts Laboratoryand Pellet Fuels Insti-tute.

News content supplied by

sunburyexchange.com

Mainely

Agriculture is

dropped at many

southern Maine

Irving stations.Auburn,

Farmington,

Kittery, and

selected Mass, &

New Hampshire

refueling sites

by the good

drivers of:

Hartt Trucking,

Bangor, Maine

Pellets, still warm to the touch

“The way pellets should be”

www.mainewoodspelletco.com

Contact Maine Wood Pellets for a dealer near you:

207-654-2237

Home

deliveries

Available

Grandpa Joes Sugarhouse(207) 653-3647 or 207 787-3300

103 Murch Road

East Baldwin, ME 04024

baldwin [email protected]

www.grandpajoes.net

syrup, cotton candy,

maple candy, maple

Needhams, maple pop-

corn, maple-coated nuts,

& other maple products

9 a.m. to 4 p.m

music both d

ays and br

eakfast and

lunch

cooked out

side on the

barbecue

both days..

Pellet testing machine

Mac & Sherrie Curtis



Supplement

The Maine Agency of Farm Fami ly Insurance

We have an agent near you.

Mike Fitzpatrick Miller Associates Andy Daigle309 Main Street 636 US Rt One Box 7 400 Main StreetBrewer Scarborough Madawaska207-989-8880 207-510-6301 207-728-4348

Ron Kofstad Ralph Russo Randy Lincoln26 Rice Street 2 Main Street 24 North StreetPresque Isle Richmond Houlton207-764-5645 207-737-4200 207-532-2016

Tom Foster Jane Nelson Eric Hart

Dan Foster 913 Main Street John Hell659 Church Hill Rd Vassalboro 20 Main StreetAugusta 207-680-2520 Livermore Falls

207 -622-4646 80 0-8 39 -44 35 2 07- 89 7-2 500

Greg Warren Amy Lear Patrick McLaughlin60 Main Street 269 Atlantic Highway P O Box 32Bucksport Warren Alfred207-469-7322 207-691-2695 207-490-0918

800-593-1935

www.farmfamily.com


Project Canopy Offers Arbor

Week Tree-Planting GrantsAUGUSTA – ProjectCanopy, the Maine For-est Service’s communi-

ty forestry program, isoffering grants to Maineschools to plant trees onschool grounds as partof the 2011 Arbor Week celebration and in rec-ognition of Maine’s re-nowned forest industry.

Some 20 grants,amounting to a maxi-mum of $1,000 each,are available for Maine

schools through fund-ing from the USDAForest Service-Urbanand Community Forest-ry Program and corpo-rate sponsors, accordingto Jan Ames Santerre,

Project Canopy di-rector.

“Every year during thethird full week of May,students and adults join

together and celebrateone of Maine’s mostvaluable natural re-

sources – our trees andforests,” Santerre said.“Trees help cleanse theair we breathe and thewater we drink, whilebeautifying the commu-nities where we live.Maine schoolchildren

can learn important les-sons about value of ourforest land and makesignificant connections

to our ecology throughthe simple act of plant-ing trees at their ownschools and watchingthem grow.”

Maine’s forest indus-try has a $10 billion im-pact on Maine’seconomy and employsmore than 20,000 Main-ers. Green-industry jobs

account for an addition-al 8,000 jobs in Maine,and that number isgrowing.

ledged as part of theMaine Forest Service’sannual Arbor Week cele-bration, May 16-20. Theapplication deadline is 5p.m., Friday, April 29.

The Project Canopygrant funding can beused to purchase andplant one tree or severaltrees of the school’schoice. The plantings canbe dedicated to ArborWeek or to an individual

who is significant to theschool. The school proj-ects will be acknow-

FYI Project Canopyhttp://project

canopy.maine.gov.

Steve's GeneralStore, Oxford

Paris Farmer's

Union, Bridgton

Village Tieup,

Harrison

Jordan's Store,

Sebago

Whistle Stop

General Store,

East Baldwin

Also in so Maine

you can find

Mainely

Agriculture at




Supplement

Wood slices on waterTheodore Zafiropoulos photo,Skowhegan School of Art

By Emily Adams

Two more Maine projects will wean theiruse of about 1 million gallons of heating oil eachand create demand for woody biomass this year,

but one will burn wood chips while the other issiding with dry, refined wood. JacksonLaboratory’s pellet system in Bar Harbor is ex-pected to start making steam at the end of Marchand Colby College in Waterville broke ground inFebruary on an add-on to their existing plant.Jackson Lab will buy 15,000 tons of pellets a yearfrom Maine Woods Pellet Co., LLC, confirmsplant manager Scot Linkletter.

The highly processed pellets will betransported in sealed, dry-bulk pneumatic tankers(the equivalent of 4,000 gallons of heating oil),

blown through a flexible hose into a storage silo,then pulverized into dust which is combustedusing Swedish technology. Jackson Lab is expect-ed to offset the annual consumption of 1.2 milliongallons of fuel oil, according to a Nov. 2010 blogon the website of Kevin Freeman, a director of business development at Pizzagalli ConstructionCompany, which is construction manager for theColby project, too.

The technology is a pulverized woodpellet-fired boiler system with a steam turbine thatis expected to reduce the firm’s heating costs by

$700,000 a year and its electricity costs by$200,000 a year. Colby will use 22,000 tons of wood chips, according to mechanical engineerPaul Libby, the college’s assistant director foroperations and maintenance. The kinds of compa-nies positioning to compete for Colby’s businessmight be suppliers like Carrier Chipping, PlumCreek and Cousineau as well as sawmills.

Colby will be following the lead of, andimproving on, the experience of Middlebury Col-lege by using a wood chip gasification systemmanufactured by Chiptec Wood Energy Systems

of Vt. During full operation, Middlebury dailyReceives two to three live bed truckloads of chips

A Maine Debate

Chips vs Pellets

process.Until now, Colby has been buying an

average of 1 to 1.2 million gallons of No. 6 Bun-ker C oil to supply heat and hot water to a littleover 1.4 out of 1.5 million gross square feet,according to Libby. The college expects to reducetheir oil consumption by about 90 percent--up to1 million gallons. Colby has also been co-generat-ing electricity (to the tune of 600 kilowatts perhour) and plans to co-generate in the future. Mid-dlebury has their chips dumped directly into astorage container, sorted (larger chips are shred-ded in a grinder) and superheated to emit gas thatis ignited to over 1100 degrees to heat water for

campus use and turn turbines that generate 20percent of the campus electricity. Colby plans toavert problems created by frozen chips that clogthe system and do not gasify well by constructinga storage area holding three days supply of chipsheated from underneath the pile by diverting heatproduced by the plant. The price of clean, wetwood chips is about $55 per ton and refined, drywood goes for $160 per ton, as of Feb. 2011,according to Leo Dwyer of Reciprocal Energy of Sandwich, NH, which is coordinating the JacksonLab project. Dwyer cautions end users from being

confused by the low cost of chips.. They need toconsider the lower capital and maintenance costs

of pellet systems andthe higher heat content

and combustion effi-ciency of pellets. Wetwood chips will have tomeet certain specifica-tions published in mid-Feb. by Innovative Nat-ural Resource Solu-tions, LLC of Portland.Pellets arrive at a pelletboiler site already mea-sured for things likemoisture content, ash

content, sulfur, Btu’sper pound, chlorine,density, fines, and dura-bility, which is whyLinkletter says chips areto pellets what crude oilis to refined fuel oil.The low cost of wetwood chips make chipsystems look attractive,but the price per Btu iswhat you’ve got to wor-

ry about. The pellet millis owned by Linkletter& Sons whose raw ma-terial also ends up aswood chips and thefeedback they get leadsLinkletter to concludethat chip burners areway more picky thanpellet burners and thatexperiments using cleanchips used in the paper

that, ideally, are twoinches square with amoisture content of 50percent or less com-posed of any kind of wood, according to afive-minute video atwww.middlebury.edu/

sustainability that illus-trates the Middlebury

industry have also resulted in difficulties. Thedifficulties chip burners have with chips might

have more to do with the infeed systems associat-ed with chip burners than the chip burners them-selves, according to Eric Kingsley of InnovativeNatural Resource Solutions, LLC of Portlandwhich wrote the fuel specification that was ex-pected to be released in mid-Feb. for the boilerColby will be installing. Suppliers will likelycome from within a certain radius of Waterville;preferably, but not necessarily, within 50 miles.The heat content of the two fuels is 16.2MM Btuper ton for pellets versus 8.5MM Btu per ton for50 percent moisture chips, according to Dwyer,

and that the combustion efficiency of pellets atJackson Lab will be 85 percent versus an estimat-ed (if lucky) for a wet chip burner. Attempts toreach the Colby project’s engineer, Chris Shum-way of Rist-Frost-Shumway, P.C. [RFS] directly-for this report were not successful because of hisschedule, but, emailing through an office repre-sentative, he indicated that the heat-content andcombustion-efficiency issues are well document-ed in the industry and are not subject to engineer-ing opinion and he noted thatcombustion-efficiencies are published (and certi-

fied) by equipment manufacturers. RFS does notadvocate one source of biomass – or any other –fuel over another and has a pre-set opinion, orvested interest, in the application of wood chipsversus refined wood, and that every project hasspecific and unique drivers.

Dwyer notes that the Colby system, which is anadd-on to existing infrastructure, will cost $11.5million and produce 27,000 lbs. of steam per hourcompared to $4.2 million for Jackson Lab’s stand-alone, fully independent boiler facility that willproduce 40,000 lbs of steam per hour. Libby’sresponse to the observation that Jackson Lab willbe making 1.5 times the steam for nearly one-thirdthe capital expense is that each application has itsmerits and that each needs to be weighed againstall costs and specific operational needs. Colby isaware that Middlebury really struggled, perhapsbecause they got out of the sweet spot for themanufacturer and is trying to learn from a lot of the problems that other people had concerning thedelivery and handling of chips.

The Maine examples will also be able touse No. 6 fuel to top off demand during the coldmonths and for back up when maintenance occurs.

Content by sunburyexchange.com




three U.S. maple pro-

ducers again again lastyear with 890,000 gal-lons based on the mostrecent statistics reportedin June to the USDA'sNew England Agricul-tural Statistics Survey.There was a slight,2,000 gallon differencebetween the No. 2 spotheld by New York (312,000) and Maine

(310,000). Maine pro-ducers are gearing up tobe as successful as othernorthern tates and manysugar makers fromMaine travel to otherstates to bolster theircraft with new educa-tion elsewhere, saysEric Ellis, President of the Maine Maple Pro-ducer Association. In

trying to bring the edu-cation closer to home,the officers of theMaine Maple ProducersAssociation elected El-lis to lead the three per-son board at the annualmeeting held at the AgTrades Show at Augus-ta Civic Center this pastJan. 2011. On anothersubject Ellis encourages

producers of any sizeout there to participatein the statistics surveythis season. “We feelthat’s why we fall be-hind New York becauseenough Maine produc-ers might not be re-sponding” said Ellis toMainely Agriculture.

To receive thissurvey form in the mail,

call 1-800-642-9571.

. Just beginning your

Maple Grove? Did youknow it normally takesforty gallons of sapfrom a tree with twopercent sugar to pro-duce one gallon of syr-up? Not sure how muchto invest in tools of thetrade? The pricey butexcellent are reverse-osmosis machines to el-evate the sugar run to

ten percent, with thatboost it reduces to eightthe number of gallonsrequired to make a gal-lon of syrup. Thanks totechnology, the samework force that process-es sap from 10,000 treesusing low-tech meth-ods, can handle the

the 80,000 tree produc-

tion groves with justtwo personnel on theevaporator, one on thereverse osmosis ma-chine, another doingline maintenance and ahandful of others tohelp out as needed.Presently, most of Maine’s syrup origi-nates from a swath of maple ten miles deep

along the Canadian bor-der with tree densitiesthat reach 100 mapletrees per acre. The com-pany Ellis represents isone of several majorproducers operating inthe state where maplehas more value with ahole drilled through the

money log.(The mapleproducers slang for thecraft of sugaring.)

For those tapping afew rock maple andhave done so all theirlives such maple stands

garner good syrup forthe family table and willafter the patient gather-er passes on. On theother scale, Landlordslike Timbervest, LLCof Atlanta, GA whoseholdings are managedby Boston-based Land-Vest, which has an of-fice in Jackman, seemcommitted to a long-

term maple presence bygranting lengthy leases.And anyone attendingthe Farmington MapleMania should comewith questions to getstraight answers foryour sugaring plans.

Story by

sunburyexchange.com

and the publisher

FARMINGTON--The

first annual Maple Ma-nia maple festival willbe held June 9-11, 2011at the campus of theUniversity of Maine atFarmington. The three-day event will be mar-keted to sugar makers tooffer technical sessions,a trade show, and visitsto local sugar houses.Until now, the most

popular such event hasbeen in Vermont. SinceVermont leads the top

Make plans now“Maple Mania in June”

Mainely Agriculture endorses this fine AG event. Please Attend.

2Sons Alpaca FarmSuperior Customer SupportRicki & Randall Waltz- Owners

38 Russell LaneDamariscotta, ME 04543

207-557-5650www.twosonsalpacafarm.com

Kitchen LicensingWorkshop. - March 17from 6:30 to 9:00 pm atHoulton High School.

Co-sponsored by MOF-GA and SouthernAroostook Soil and Wa-ter Conservation Dis-trict. For thoseinterested in processingfood at home for resale.Contact: SASWCD,532-2097, Ext. 3, [email protected]

et.net

USDA's Agricultural Mar-keting Service (AMS) ispartially funding the pur-chase and installation of equipment in a wool pro-cessing facility to developbase layer garments for theU.S. Army. The U.S. Army

has provided the U.S. woolindustry with a two year$750,000 Small BusinessInnovation Research(SBIR) grant to develop do-mestically produced proto-type military Extended ColdWeather Clothing SystemGeneration III base layergarments from a form of washable wool that is resis-tant to melting and ignition.

This project became possi-

ble through a $400,000 US-DA Wool Trust Grant madeby AMS that partially fund-ed the purchase and installa-tion of the equipment in theChargeurs Wool USA woolprocessing facility. This fa-cility is producing washablewool top which can be usedfor a variety of domesticallyproduced wool productsthat are already reaching themarket.

Chargeurs Wool USA is

the last wool processingplant in the United Statesselling high quality andhigh value wool used forclothing manufacturing.

If the project is successfuland the U.S. Army transi-tions to wool-based undergarments, the 82,000 do-mestic sheep producersacross the country may seethat United States maintainsa domestic wool processingindustry.

Changes in

Wool futures

A recent survey concernedwith Natural Resource As-sessments garnered 250 re-spondents and over 90%identified which part of theKennebec Watershead theyreside and half controledless than 5 acres. Homeowners numbered 82 %with 2% having shorefrontlots. Just under 10% farmedand 23% said they hobbyfarmed..

Kennebec & Somerset

Soil/Water News



The Larocheteam is Mike on left andDancer on right.

A neighbor, 14 year oldCassie Duclos along forthe ride, snapped thepicture.

16 Logging-Sugaring Issue MainelyAgriculture

Supplement

Most pages of this paper are focused this issue

on the Maple Syrup industry in Maine and onsome people involved in woods and logging.

Here Kevin Brannen of Smyrna teaches the

granddaughterof a closefriend, Kenne-

dy Bencivenga,how to tap a

tree, last year.

Our business:* Chain link fence, PVC fence

Steel & wood guardrails, woven

Wire fence, wood fences, iron &

Aluminum ornamental fence,

electrical gate openers & access

control ** fence & pole barn, holes* pressure treated posts (round &

square, all sizes)* Northern white cedar(round & square, all sizes)

* pressure digger/earth augur -holes drilled 8-36” dia., up to7’ deep

* down hole hammer drillsholes in rock 12-18” dia. - upto 9’deep

* all types of soil

PO Box 206 Carmel 04419

207 848-2795

207 843-2903

Hancock towns tovote food safety

Small farmers are increasingly beingfaced with new regulations with which they cannot afford to comply citing there is no evidence

that any illnesses have resulted from consumersbuying from local farms at farmers markets,road side stands, etc. Laws in some states al-ready ban church/Grange suppers because of misguided concerns. As a result, some localHancock County farmers have written a pro-posed Local Food Ordinance which soon willbe voted upon at town meetings in Blue Hill,Sedgewick, Brooksville and Penobscot.

WHEREAS All people are endowed with certain inalien-able rights, and among these are life, liberty and thepursuit of happiness; andWHEREAS Food is human sustenance and is the funda-mental prerequisite to life; andWHEREAS The basis of human sustenance rests on theability of all people to save seed, grow, process, consumeand exchange food and farm products; andWHEREAS We the Members of Halcyon Grange #345have an obligation to protect these rights as is the Com-mon and Natural Law; and in recognition of the Grange’sproud agricultural heritage; and the necessity of agricul-tural, ecological and economic diversity and sustainabilityto a free and healthy Society;THEREFORE Be it resolved, that We the Members of Halcyon Grange #345, stand on our rights under the 10thAmendment to the US Constitution and reject such Feder-al and State of Maine decrees, statues, regulations orcorporate practices that threaten our basic human right

to save seed, grow, process,consume and exchange foodand farm products withinthe state of Maine; and

Be it further resolved that

We the Members of Hal-

cyon Grange #345, shallresist any and all infringe-

ments upon these rights,

from whatever sources

that are contrary to the

rights of the People of theState of Maine; and

Be it further resolved thatwe the Members of HalcyonGrange #345 support theLocal Food and CommunitySelf-Governance Ordinanceof 2011 which will be on the

town warrants at the annualmeetings of the towns of Blue Hill, Brooksville, Pe-nobscot and Sedgwick, inHancock County, Maine.

Grange resolution

passed by unanimous voteon Friday, Feb. 4th, 2011.

Letters to the editorby email must have phone

and town of residence

[email protected]

Maine Woods Pellet Company of Athens has

been recognized by a national Internet review-er that they manufacture the best pellet in New

England. Many tons of pellet await shipment.

sunburyexchange.com picture

Erin and Na-than Cheever of Polandwere out recently withJim Laroche with hiswife Norma in the light

color team sleigh of Mi-not for Equis exercise.The Cheever’s groupare named Copper (thebrown) and Steel (thegrey) Nathan drove.

288 Curtis Rd. Swanville 04915 930-7027Buyers of ALL TYPES of Scrap Metal

Ad this size on

Classif ied page $5.

M ore Com in g Even ts - pg. 15Currently-Maine’s

conservation districtsare taking orders forfruit trees and other edi-

bles now in Kennebec,Somerset and Pis-cataquis / Penobscot atthe minimum and theremay be other districtsconducting such order

taking also. Look upthe telephone numbersunder US Government,Farm Service Agency,

Soil and Water Conser-vation Districts locatedin your county.

Next paper - Mainely

Agriculture will be on thestands again in early May.

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Mainely Agriculture 2011 Early Spring

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