Board Foot Price

[wilcox_11]

I am buying a piece of property in 3 weeks that has never been harvested. I am thinking about getting a sawmill and cutting enough off it to build my, garage, barn and sugar shack and possibly selling some lumber. Was wondering what everyone is selling there rough cut lumber for? It has sugar maple,white birch, yellow birch, spruce, and fir.

[beenthere]

Seems it would be prudent for you to estimate what your lumber costs would be for the garage, the barn, and the sugar shack and use those figures to justify the sawmill cost.  Then if there is a retail market for rough lumber it would be extra "profit".
There really isn't an 'open' market for rough cut lumber, IMO. One needs to work at selling it until word gets around that you have rough cut lumber available for someone to come in and buy.
Buyers of rough lumber are not prolific, or you'd see wanted ads in places like CL. Large buyers get hardwood lumber that is graded and bought by grade (trained inspectors sort the lumber and grade it green at a mill).

[Ron Wenrich]

How much land are you talking about, and how big are the trees?  You might be better off selling the timber, then buying your lumber.  If its "never been harvested", then there should be high value timber on it.  It would be a shame to take high value lumber and throw it into construction lumber. 

Factors that go into lumber value include stumpage, logging costs,  milling costs, drying costs and transportation.  Not to mention the profits that are in between all those operations.  You'll have to factor in the cost of buying and maintaining a mill into your lumber equation.  You'll also need some sort of support equipment to handle logs and lumber. 

After you factor everything in, you might be better selling the timber and using that to buy construction lumber.  Then you can use the time it would take to mill enough for you buildings to actually building them. 

[wilcox_11]

its 22 acres

[drobertson]

If its good stock you should be looking at least 1000bdft per acre, and sounds like it should be better than that, size depending of course.
Sounds like a management practice is in order, whether you do it or have it done. 

[tmbrcruiser]

I would talk to the local county forester, he will give you some idea of the quality and quantity of your timber. From there you may want to hire a consulting forester to advise you. In my area yields of 4,000 to 10,000 bf are common, clear cutting can push yields up even more. Good luck!

[tmbrcruiser]

Oh, one more thought. You are buying property with timber so you will want to have the timber appraised before your purchase to create a bases value. While all tax advice should be confirmed by your accountant. It has been my experience the purchase price includes a commodity and the sale of the commodity up to the bases is not taxable.