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Log Prices...

Started by Ljohnsaw, September 28, 2018, 03:29:36 PM

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Ljohnsaw

I am working on my cabin and using a bit of cedar for my sills and front deck.  So, I've about used up what incense cedar I can get to on my property.  In my area (a block that is NOT part of a national forest), the local power company has contracted another company to do line tree clearance.  They have take down quite a number of cedars and a few pines. 

A quick drive by, they look like they would fit my needs quite nicely.  I was told they are waiting on a permit to collect and sell them to a mill.  I could gather them with my log arch as they are all within a mile of my mill and just 10 to 20' off the road.  How do I offer a price on these logs in hope of getting them? 

I'm somewhat clueless.  I was thinking of asking him what the mill is paying and asking further if that is at the mill or here on the ground.  Also, if it was an at-the-mill-price, if he was transporting them or if the mill was taking care of that.

I can use the Toolbox to calculate the bf in the logs I want.  Do I just offer xx¢/bf as is (converted to a $/log)?  The logs are sitting log-length (trimmed of branches) anywhere from 20 to 45' and 18 to 32" at the butt.  What's a reasonable number?  25¢, 50¢, 75¢/bf?

Or do I catch the trucker and ask/make a deal with him?
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.

mike_belben

Get on the phone with the power company and the sub company, "hey im john, and i was wondering if there was someone available i could speak to about the wood from your line clearing on xyz road, id like to buy them."


When you get to the head honcho, start with "do you have a price in mind?"  

End with "well, they are worth X to me where they lay right now." 

Never ever ever argue "what theyre worth" ... It just aggravates people.  Thats the opposite of your goal here.  Be a sweetheart. 

  
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Southside

Utility ROW - first thing they will ask for is your insurance.  I am betting in CA they will then ask about permits.  I suspect it will be easier to make a deal with either the trucking outfit or the mill itself and just pay for delivery.  

Once you start dealing with utilities the ball game changes and the little guy is not even a bug. 
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nativewolf

Quote from: Southside logger on September 28, 2018, 09:50:33 PM
Utility ROW - first thing they will ask for is your insurance.  I am betting in CA they will then ask about permits.  I suspect it will be easier to make a deal with either the trucking outfit or the mill itself and just pay for delivery.  

Once you start dealing with utilities the ball game changes and the little guy is not even a bug.
I'd agree.  I mean you want basically a TT full of logs?  That's nothing to most mills.  If you offer a driver a good price and he can have you unload  it at your place he might take it.  You can unload it?  
Alternatively, you can pickup at the mill.  Just go to the mill, explain, and offer to pay a good price on the logs but that you only want 1 TT full.  If they can make 20% on the logs they'd probably do it.  
What is the utility?  Lots of large and small in CA.  If you have a very local co-op sort of utility they could be approachable.
Liking Walnut

Ljohnsaw

Well, this is the biggest utility in Northern California, so I'm less then a speck of sand :-\

When you say offer the driver a price, I don't know the ownership of the logs at that point.  Does the trucker buy the logs from the feller and sell to the mill or does the mill buy and higher a trucker?  I could use 15 to 20 logs but I'd be happy with 10 if that's all I could get.

I have a SkyTrak with a big pair of log tongs to unload.  I can pick 9,000# with it.
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.

charles mann

have any of ya'll bought logs from a mill before? driving through east tx a few wks back, i went by a couple small mills with some timber big enough to build a shed for my mill and few other projects i want to do once i get my mill built. 

i wasn't sure if a mill would be willing to sell the timber, they just bought or bought and setting on the yard till they could get around to milling them. 

who would i start with in asking to purchase the timber? granted, i would much rather get them for free from a land owner that needs the timber cleared, but i don't mind buying either. plus iv got to transport them 75-170 miles depending the town/mill that will sell them to me, back hm, since in my location, pine is almost as scarce as hen's teeth.  
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moodnacreek

The tip or small end of a log is the diameter you measure. You only look at the butt for defect.

Skeans1

East and west coast are different about how stuff is done, typically west coast you're working for the land owner not so much a mill. Trucking will normally be handled by the logger, even dispatch setups of the larger companies is land owner based. Most of us out here are working on a percentage of what's actually delivered you normally don't buy stumpage you're cutting over here like the east coast. To buying logs myself being a land owner we have had people stop buy looking for say 10 or 15 logs and you give them the price they normally turn right around.

nativewolf

Quote from: ljohnsaw on September 29, 2018, 01:50:17 AM
Well, this is the biggest utility in Northern California, so I'm less then a speck of sand :-\

When you say offer the driver a price, I don't know the ownership of the logs at that point.  Does the trucker buy the logs from the feller and sell to the mill or does the mill buy and higher a trucker?  I could use 15 to 20 logs but I'd be happy with 10 if that's all I could get.

I have a SkyTrak with a big pair of log tongs to unload.  I can pick 9,000# with it.
If the truck driver, working for the log owner is willing to sell you the logs I think you'll be ok.  Sorry to hear it is one of the big ones.  Have you just tried going to a local mill and buying right from them?  Mill managers are like humanity in general, some are pretty good guys and understanding, they might want a profit but they is business.
Liking Walnut

Ljohnsaw

Quote from: moodnacreek on September 29, 2018, 08:45:08 AM
The tip or small end of a log is the diameter you measure. You only look at the butt for defect.
I know...  It is just that this area was burned clean in 2002 or 2003.  They planed a lot of Ponderosa on the several thousands acre burn scar.  They are about 12-15' tall now.  Along the road where the power lines go, the cedars re-genned on their own and got quite big quite fast!  So the tree crew just dropped them perpendicular to the road.  I was just driving by dreaming of them.  I'd say the tops are cut at 10 to 12" but these are mostly full tree length logs.  I do need a number of 31' cedar logs.
I'll have to do some digging to find out who was doing the cutting.  I see lots of logging trucks but I don't think I've ever seen cedar being hauled.  Maybe that's a good sign - mills don't want it? 
Last year a HUGE pine, probably 150' and over 48" in diameter was dropped next to the road.  They chunked off the top two logs (20' each) that were way dead (lightening?) and exploded when they hit.  Then the remaining they dropped.  It was rotted in the middle.  It is just huge!
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.

SFires

I use to work ROW clearance done everything from brush dragger to General Foreman over my own branch. Best bet is to contact the vegetation manager from the power company.  They are the one's who have the finally say in what goes and what doesn't. Most will tell you that as long as its in ROW or stacked out from a ROW job then its fair game to anyone who can get it especially if you made the effort to contact them first. Also there's a good chance you'll get future offers on good deals.  
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