MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – Doug Bragg has produced just 200 of the 600 gallons of maple syrup he normally produces but he hasn’t given up yet.

The forecast calls for frost during the next two nights.

“We’ve got high hopes, everybody’s getting ready here,” Bragg said of his East Montpelier maple operation.

The right combination of temperatures could cause a significant sap flow, capping a maple sugar season that so far has been disappointing.

Cold weather early in the season followed by warm temperatures means sugarers will end up with half to two-thirds of their normal crops this season, said Henry Marckres of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture.

“It’s been a pretty spotty year,” he said.

Vermont is the largest producer of maple syrup in the country generating about 500,000 gallons in a normal year. Retail sales of maple syrup bring in $15 million a year, Marckres said.

But this year the sugaring season started late – for many in mid-March – and has already ended in the southern part of region.

“It’s been terrible,” said Charlie Robb, Sr., of Robb Family Farm in West Brattleboro.

The dairy farmer typically produces about 400 gallons a year but finished with half that this year.

“It takes just as much work to set up for a good year as in a bad year and to clean up,” he said.

Not only did the season start late but it stayed cold, said Bill Eva, president of the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association. “It didn’t warm up enough for the sap to run. When it did warm up, it warmed up too far too fast.”

Sugarers in the southern part of New Hampshire that he’s talked to are averaging about 50 to 60 percent of a normal crop, he said. Some producers in southern Maine were reporting declines of up to 50 percent over last year, said Deanne Herman, marketing manager for the Maine Department of Agriculture. But the southern Maine producers account for only 10 percent of the state’s production.

“The northern sugar makers are right in the thick of it,” she said.

Sugarers rely on freezing nights, followed by thawing days for the sap to run. Temperatures in the 50s and 60s can bring a quick end to the sap flow.

Bragg speculates that the heavy snow and rain this winter produced a deep layer of frozen ground.

“A lot of trees are just starting to thaw out, believe or not,” he said.

Jacques Couture, whose sugarbush is near the Canadian border in Westfield, is banking on the same weekend weather forecast as Bragg is.

“It’s given us a glimmer of hope,” he said. So far, he’s only produced a third of what he expects to produce this time year. He also knows that the weather can change.

“We’ve learned to roll with the punches,” Couture said.

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