How much acreage do loggers need?

[elitts]

I'm looking to get started as a hobbyist sawmill, and I plan to pursue the avenues of tree services and Craigslist for free/cheap logs in the beginning.  But I would like to start looking at picking up small woodlots over the next few years.  I'm not going to be able to compete with any serious operation; so I assume I probably want to look at the sort of small lots that it isn't worth the time of serious loggers to bother with.  I have to imagine that a 2 or 3 acre lot worth a logger's time would be nearly unicorn-level rare. 

That said, how big does a woodlot need to be before commercial loggers start looking at it?  Assuming it's mixed species, with no particular attention paid to actually maintaining it as a woodlot.  I was originally figuring I should stay under 10 acres, but I wonder if I couldn't go a little bigger, as long as I'm not in an area where the 15 acre lot is surrounded by 600 acres of woods.

Hopefully that question actually makes sense to people.

[coxy]

I have made a good chunk of change cutting 2a lots I don't make a habit of it but if the trees are nice ill do it cause i can move my little jd 350 with my f250 cuts down on paying someone 400 to move me in and out and the dozer is small so you don't trash what little bit of trees are left  ;D

[jdonovan]

varies quite a bit by area, and the equipment they run. Here in Central VA they'll show up for 5 acres, but the land owner won't get very much money. So many don't do it.

You should know what your cost to mobilize and return to yard are, plus per-day running costs. Look at those vs the value of the wood, should tell you if you can do it economically or not.

Generally if all the contractors in an area are leaving all the jobs below size X there probably is a reason. You may be a different size operation, and therefore can't go after the big jobs, but be cautious on the small profit jobs, because it doesn't take much to go wrong and all the profit is gone, and the job costs ya.

[Puffergas]

Sometimes it's the value of the timber not the size of the track. Go for it.

[BargeMonkey]

 Like these guys said, quality over quantity on small woodlots. I've cut alot of 5-10-20acre woodlots, alot of times around here they are the ones that haven't been hammered off. I've got a friend in western NY who will move in for 30-40trees if the wood is right. Just be careful on some of the CL adds, alot of people think they have gold and expect you to work for free and pay them all the profit, always keep stuff like wires, houses and wet areas in the back of your mind because 1 big problem and your insurance is gone. I typically won't move my mechanical set up in for less than 75mbdft anymore, takes me 2 days to move and it's a pain.

[MJD]

When I first got my mill I got a lot of nice logs from home building sites, sometimes through the builder other times from the tree service doing the clearing. A lot times I would get the logs free from the builder but had to take everything, from the tree service I would buy the logs I wanted for a little more than they could get 4 firewood.