little-d

to sell or not to sell. first let me say i am from north ms, and don't know nothing about your timber type and the lay of your land except what you have told. my name is dan and i am a forestry ranger level 2. timber and land managment along with fire controll is my main job, and yes we stay gone fighting wildland fire alot. if you need the money, do some cutting. if you only want to open up a place to make a plot or some shooting lanes you will have to find a small time logger to do this ,make sure you do a dry land cut (make it a point to have that in your contract) if you turn loggers loose on your place when the ground is wet you will hate yourself for years to come. skidders dragging logs to a loading zone will makegullys across your place that will forever change the land,a skidder tire is about 4 foot wide and when pulling logs through wet soil the the bottom of the skidder will drag the ground so your looking at 4 foot wide gullys that are at least 3 to 4 foot deep they will hold water year round .timber price is at a all time low because of all the pulp coming from the storm zone down south,it will take about 3 more years to get all the damaged trees to market. most of the timber down there is going for pulpwood because of the tree being splintered. after all the mess is cleaned up and the wood in the south slows down the price will come back up to a fare price, another thing about selling timber now is the cost of fuel. the loggers themself are having a very hard time finding truckdrivers to haul the loggs in and the ones who are still doing it are making the timber owners pay the extra fuel cost,so look for about 30 to $50. per load to cover the fuel cost . if you want to cut anyway save yourself the cost of anything you can do on your on . flag out all your stream side zones, back away from the edge of the creet at least 50 foot and do no cutting in these zones,make sure thats in your contract also, flag out any good funnels or saddles where the deer move. the only good money that will come from your land will be from your saw loggs pine or hardwood. have you had any fire damage on your place long ago if so your timber may be hollow if thats the case you will lose lots of money. small hardwood up to a certain size will grow back but pine won't. you would need to replant the pine back by hand and controll the hardwood in these pineplots with herbaceous chemical, if you don't the hard wood will take over. without looking at your trees doing some plans taking some plots and getting to know what you have on your place there is no way to give any amount you may get. when your country service forestry makes it back put your name on the list for him to come out and do a managment plan on your land. in ms. there is no charge for the service unless you want them to mark some leave trees or do some dozer work. the county forester will have a list of timber buyers get this list make a contract saying what you want and send it out to all the buyers and sell it by sealed bids. and make sure when you make up a contract make sure the loggers are going to fix all loading zones and recover all skidd trails.

Robertesq1

Columbia County

MarinePride

I finallly was able to get a Virginia state forester to take a look at my stand of trees. It's just amazing how much info I was able to obtain from him concerning the age of the trees and how the soil makeup effects everything. Bascally, my trees, which are mostly pulpwood, will be worth somewhere between $300-$400/acre.

I was also told that getting the area cleacut would improve the hunting 100%. The forester estimated that the tract was clearcut 50 years ago, so it's due to be cut again or the pines will just be blown down or die. Surprised to learn that most pines only live about 60 years. I found out that oaks can live over 400 years[:-]!

The only discouraging part is that the land is shaley and dry, so certain species will not flourish for replanting. There is a hybrid pine called lobpith that the forester recommended for replanting. All in all, I was very impressed with the info and time they VDOF devoted to taking a look at my tract.

the blindbowmen

good topic . i have about 50 acers of northern white and red pine and a lot of oaks and cherry ......dont think of your trees as money . once cut you will under stand . i wanted to thin some of my trees out and found it caused a wind sheer that kill 30 more the next wind storm . after that ever year i lost 10-15 trees a year to storms because of what had been cut ...think before you cut . gone is gone ... i like the new walk paths and open shoting lanes . but i miss the trees as well ...i had the Amish cut 50/50 and i have 4700 broad ft on hand .....find someone in your area that has cut and see how there lane looks now ///....

MarinePride

The logging was finally completed towards the end of April 07. Basically, one guy cut about 20 acres that was easily accessable and didn't touch the rest that would have required a lot of earth work. This guy was low budget all the way. His equipment was old and payed for. Basically I was able to get $2 per ton for pulpwood and 40% of the saw timber sale. When it was all said and done I got just over $2K.

The regrowth is coming in nicely and I think it was great for the habitat. The deer have been eating the regrowth from the hardwood stumps and the area is now more open. Some tress were left so it wasn't a complete clearcut. Total pulpwood removed was over 730 tons for 20 acres.

The only thing I didn't like was that the logger was always asking if I would go halfway for things like pipe for skidder crossings and rock for the road. I then asked the guy at the paper mill how much he was selling the pulpwood to them for and he said about $20 per ton. Knowing this I'll sell the other 20 acres for timber. I'll use it for firewood before I give it away at $2 per ton. It's kind of a kick in the balls when I provide the trees and don't get much for them.

It took about 6 weeks for this guy to cut 20 acres. It's interesting that several loggers looked at the trees and passed, but this guy was small enough to be interested.

DanM3029

We had a big wind storm in Central NY on Labor Day in 1998 that did a lot of damage to the trees. I have about 40 acres of hardwoods, and about 100 were damaged (tops broken off, blowdowns, etc). I consulted with a forester who took a look at the damage and recommended a "salvage cut". The trees tat were damaged would loose all of there value the next spring if the sap started flowing (it would stain the veneer), so, after deer season, i had him makrk the trees that he would recommend on cutting. He gave me three options, 16 inches and over, 18 inches and over or 20 inches and over. He said that if we cut everything 16 inches and over, there would be nothing left, 18 inches and over would be an aggressive cut, and 20 inches and over we would be able to cut again in 10 to 15 years. We decided 20 inches and over. He remarked those trees in a different coor, and put the wood lot out to bid. We had a conract witht he forester where he would get 10 percent of the total bid price. I thought that was high, but our contract called for him to make inspections on the job three times a week, make sure the foresters were insured, put the log landings where we wanted them, put the roads where we wanted them, cut the competeing vines out of trees, girdled necessary trees, got any permits that were required, held the sealed bid auction, and made sure the property was left in the condition we requested. He also gave me some advise regarding girdleing of trees for wildlife habitat, leaving the tops for habitat, and how to make the land more wildlife friendly. He was hands on every step of the way. We ended up having about 400 trees auctioned, mostly maple, poplar, elm and . Well, the bids came back and they ranged from $13,000 to $80,000. I could not beleive the disparity in numbers. We finally settled on a bid of $78,000 based uponm the reputation of the mill and logging crew. It was well woth the $7800 we paid the forester, and we are definately gogin to use him again on our next cut. if you are interested in the contract we used, I could probably dig it up. It was pretty solid and you could ahve it tailored to your liking. There are a lot of logger around, and some do ot have the best reputation in the world.I would only say 'do your homework'.

daleh

I sold all my timber on our tractin VA. The main reason was to replant in pines and get some good money in the years to come. Oak has little value right now and timber in general is down. The time of the year and the demand drive the market. This year when the bad weather hits and rebuilding goes in effect will be when timber prices go up. Also if you can get in your place to cut when it is wet makes yours more valuable.
If you don't need the money right now wait. you can't possibly get any food plots in till they get out which might be when?
Making a mess of your land is something to consider. Most people will just harvest and leave a gaint mess.
MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SOMETHING IN THE CONTRACT ABOUT CLEAN-UP and TIMELINES.
Timber consultants are like used car salesmen. You have to shop around and do homework. If they want it they will pay for it and clean it up

HEAD0001

If you know nothing about selling timber then your most important asset needs to be information. Remember the following facts-they will serve you well.
1. Broker's get kickbacks from loggers-it is that simple. You should understand what that means.
2. When you get paid in advance of the cutting- a good rule of thumb is your check is 1/2 the value of the timber. Think about it-who is going to pay top dollar up front??? The logs have to be on the ground to be graded.
3. Depending on the type of pulp you have-it should bring $4-$8 a ton, depending on species(density of wood).
4. I always sell my logs to an independent buyer who grades your logs on the landing.
5. Go to the nearest forestry school and pay a professor or student to cruise your timber, and tell you what you have!!! Do not trust anyone who can have a dog in the hunt. This includes state foresters!!! Do you really think they care???
6. Timber is down right now-unless you have grade Cherry. You could pay a guy with a dozer and cut 10,000 BF of Cherry and your share should be $5-$10 thousand. Do you have any good cherry?? A student or professor will tell you. You can bet a buyer or broker willl not tell you!!!
7.I have sold veneer Cherry for as much as $7 a board foot.

I buy and sell tracts of land. I live in rural WV. I buy the land, sell the timber, then sell the land. There are plenty of guys who will cut small tracts of land, as long as you have good access, and not alot of water on the property.

Spend some time and acquire as much information as possible. Spend money to acquire this information. Tom.

MarinePride

I've already had the timbering done, so now I'm getting to experience the rapid regrowth of the hardwoods and the piles of slash that seem to be all over the place. I still have 20 acres that is not as accessable because of the hilly terrain and I'm not going to get that logged. Why? Because after my first logging experience I'm not really all that satisfied with the way the land was left and the $2/ton I got, but that's just me. I'll probably just use the rest for firewood.

timbercruiser

I don't know when or if the timber prices will start to make a rebound, but it doesn't look good. When I started to work with International Paper Company close to 35 years ago they were paying the same prices for delivered pine pulpwood to the mill as they are now. When you look at the increase in equipment cost, diesel cost, labor cost and all the other cost there isn't but one place the cut can come from and that is the stumpage the landowner gets. Lately the market for hardwood pulpwood has hit rock bottom and you almost can't find a mill in the area to take it at any price.