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Some pics of this years teak thinning

Started by teakwood, December 11, 2014, 04:48:57 PM

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Clark

Very impressive! You've done a very good job thinning your teak, I'm a bit jealous that you have the land to work on.

It would be nice to hear from crtreedude or if you want to update this thread you have a captive audience.

Clark
SAF Certified Forester

teakwood

Thanks guys, it was a lot of work over the past 10 years. I bought the finca in 2004 (120acres, 91acres i planted with teak in 05,06 and 07) The pics are from the 2007 part, so the youngest. When i bought the land it was still cheap, then a lot of rich americans, canadians and europeans raised the land prices in Costa Rica to the unpayable, (20,50or sometimes 100times what it was worth) In 2008 this market crashed and almost no land was sold since then, lots of people who bought in 06-09 lost a lot of money. I would say that land cost now 5times more than in 2004, so i was lucky there. teak is a good business but its very long term. you invest 10years before you see the first $ and maybe 15years to break even! But after that it gets intersting.
Its nice to have good feedback from same class peoples!  :)
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

enigmaT120

Quote from: teakwood on December 13, 2014, 03:56:47 PM
I would say that land cost now 5times more than in 2004, so i was lucky there. teak is a good business but its very long term. you invest 10years before you see the first $ and maybe 15years to break even! But after that it gets intersting.
Its nice to have good feedback from same class peoples!  :)

That's a lot faster than even my Douglas-fir in Western Oregon.  I had no idea Teak grew so fast.
Ed Miller
Falls City, Or

Dave Shepard

crtreedude used to post pics of what he was doing down there. I think at one point he bought something like 8 Baker 18M mills to process his trees. Not sure if it was teak, but they were very fast growing. Haven't heard from him, or our other CR transplant in some time. :(
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

petefrom bearswamp

Geez,
My red oak plantation was planted in 1995 and 1996 and my biggest trees are now 8-10 " dbh.
Kubota 8540 tractor, FEL bucket and forks, Farmi winch
Kubota 900 RTV
Polaris 570 Sportsman ATV
3 Huskies 1 gas Echo 1 cordless Echo vintage Homelite super xl12
57 acres of woodland

teakwood

Teak is fast in the first 10years, up to 12-14", from 10-20years (could get to 18-20") and with 30 years (up to 24-26") but the conditions have to be perfect. On my 91acres, about 30 acres are exelent, 30acres are good and the other 30 are like very slow growing (after 10years, 4-8" dbh) of course the slower growing wood is a lot better than the fast growing in quality, density. Most teak companys cant wait until 20 years, they cut after 15years (and then replant) because they have a lot of employes and costs. I hope that i can let my trees grown until 25-30years, then you are talking value of the wood.
I will give some examples: 1m3 (0.28cords) of unsawed logs (8' long pieces):

6" = 50$
8" = 94$
10"= 190$
12"= 250$
14"= 300$
16"= 370$
20"= 520$
and those prices are for the same volume!!!! (1m3) So you can see, the bigger the diameter (older trees) the more interesting it gets.



National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

Ljohnsaw

So, if you wait 30 years, could you get maybe six 8' sticks out of one tree?  And would the tree be worth around $4,000-5,000? 8)
John Sawicky

Just North-East of Sacramento...

SkyTrak 9038, Ford 545D FEL, Davis Little Monster backhoe, Case 16+4 Trencher, Home Built 42" capacity/36" cut Bandmill up to 54' long - using it all to build a timber frame cabin.

Skidder Kev


teakwood

Quote from: ljohnsaw on December 15, 2014, 07:03:44 PM
So, if you wait 30 years, could you get maybe six 8' sticks out of one tree?  And would the tree be worth around $4,000-5,000? 8)
Not exactly:  Those prices are for one cubic meter! so one stick of 20", 8' long will give me 0.5m3, so i need two pieces to get a cubic meter.
After 30 years lets say that a good tree will give me eight 8' sticks: first stick 20" (0.5m3,260$), second stick 18" (0.33m3, 150$), third stick 16" (0.28m3,100$),......, last stick 6" (0.032m3, 2$). so if you ad all the volumes of all sticks it could give 1.5-1.8m3. So between 500-800$ maybe, its not an exact sience.
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

coxy

so between 5-800 a tree  :o    if so I think im going to plant some teak  :D thanks for sharing  your info

teakwood

the best trees will bring that, but i think there will be a lot of 200$ trees too. until they are 30 years old, just 120 will be remaining per hectare (about 45 per acre) after all thinnings.
Teak dont grow where you live guys, sorry!  ;)
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

coxy

Quote from: teakwood on December 16, 2014, 04:21:12 PM
the best trees will bring that, but i think there will be a lot of 200$ trees too. until they are 30 years old, just 120 will be remaining per hectare (about 45 per acre) after all thinnings.
Teak dont grow where you live guys, sorry!  ;)
if we make a big enough  green house they should :D  :D

crtreedude

Quote from: Dave Shepard on December 15, 2014, 01:01:41 PM
crtreedude used to post pics of what he was doing down there. I think at one point he bought something like 8 Baker 18M mills to process his trees. Not sure if it was teak, but they were very fast growing. Haven't heard from him, or our other CR transplant in some time. :(

Yep, still alive, just saw this marked. We are still down here. Just read this thread with interest.

So, how did I end up here anyway?

teakwood

Remember this thread? It's time for the next thinning in the same areas. second commercial thinning at the 12th year. I will try to make fotos from the same points so you can compare the growth we have on teak.


This is how we loaded in 2014


Look what i found! that grapple was laying around near the office of the big neighbor teakcompany. the CEO wouldn't sell half year ago, i ask again, the maintenance chief told me: go pick that thing up and look if you can get her working, she was laying in the whether for 2 years. so he prefers that i take care of her and use her, later we will talk business. Sadly the rotor is missing. how much is such a grapple in the north and how much would a used rotator for this size be? It's from a 22to wheel excavator, mine is a 30to crawler excavator.

poor old Hilux, that thing must a weight 700kilos

connected to the hammer/sheer piping, if i get a rotator i will have to enable the bucket piping


still have to turn by hand but sure beats the hell out of loading by hand!



National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

Ed_K

 I built a pin and bushing for the grapple on my tractor loader, has a pin to lock it straight or at 90°.



 

 I use to machine to turn the grapple, it's a little slower than a rotor but most times I run this position and it works great.
Ed K

snowstorm

if it used an indextor rotator. a lot of them did. 1000 would be a deal

teakwood

1000 would be great and i would not hesitate.

did the first trial run, it works extremely good, the grapple turns around slowly left and right and with the same machine movement i can more or less control the turn. of course a rotator would be perfect.

We will load first flatbed friday, so we'll see how that works out.



Teak price is bad this year, 30% less on the short sticks and 50% on the big, longer, good ones. i won't sell the big ones this year, i have decided to mill them all to 2x6's, that's what they most use for building the roofs around here. even if i can't sell them right away i can store the cut lumber as long as i want and will earn a lot more than selling round wood.
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

teakwood

Did the first load of short wood, dang are the prices bad. for the load i received 1000$, last year it was 1500$. At least i could bring my loading costs down to like 100$, last year i had to pay 200$ for 6 people loading by hand. the grapple works like a charm. two guys make bundles of 14-18 sticks, every stick has to be measured by the buyer, and then i grab that pack with the grapple and can pretty much load it by myself. We lasted 3 hours for the 24m3.

Got my first order for 70 pieces of 2x6 's. so i have decided to mill all bigger sticks to lumber. the price of round wood is just too bad this year.

    




National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

mike_belben

Well, thats great about the grapple then.  Looks like weather has cooperated for you.   smiley_thumbsup
Praise The Lord

thecfarm

Glad to see the grapple worked out better for you.
Sorry to see the price went down. The joy of being a logger. :(
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

teakwood

Quote from: mike_belben on January 20, 2019, 08:30:08 AMLooks like weather has cooperated for you

We are at the beginning of dry season, the best time of the year. it was a beautiful clouded fresh day at 26C/ 79F 
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

nativewolf

Good news/bad news beats all bad news.  Glad the grapple is working and enjoy that weather..best time in the tropics for sure, unless you can get up to 2000 meters.  

How much do you get for a sawn teak 2x6?
Liking Walnut

teakwood

I can sell 2x6 's in 3,4m 4,2m or 5m, 11' 14' 17' length. The longer the harder it gets because they are still smaller logs and of course it gets more expensive. one log gives me 2 2x6. for the short ones i get 26$ for each piece, 34$ for the 14' and 45$ for the 17 footers.  one round log gave me around 34$ in 2018 but this year the same log pays 20$.

So two 2x6 at 26$ is 52$ instead of 20$, of course i have to do the work of milling, but it's just work, i already have the mill, the excavator, the storage to dry the lumber i can't sell right of.
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

teakwood

Installed the mill today, we did a nice loading platform. throw 10 logs on there with the grapple and then we can easily move them by hand. 





National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

teakwood

little update

last week we loaded the 5th load of shortwood and i'm very busy with the sawmill also.

Before

After


That was a 500$ order of 4 6X6s' and 10 2X6s'


all the bigger sticks go on the mill


I try to sell some of them directly, freshsawn and
the rest gets stored under roof and air dries.
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

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