Log Prices?

[ehp]

Soft maple down $25/1000  , biggest mover this week was white pine , the big timber logs down $125/100

[Kodiakmac]

Best market here is small neighbourhood mills buying white cedar at $900 to $1000 CAD ($635 - $705 USD) per mbf.

The closest mill that buys hardwood is paying pretty decent prices but the 1.5 hour trucking time REALLY takes a huge bite out of your cheque.  And I don't blame the truckers.  At $7.20 CAD per US gallon plus all the regulatory costs it's a wonder that any of them are still hauling.

[Nebraska]

2.99 / gallon unleaded here in the states if you care to join us. 

[beenthere]

$2.79 in WI today

[SwampDonkey]

Diesel boys, not gas. We pay refinery tax and carbon taxes up here thanks to Trudeau. Spend it to subsidize any nonsense they can dream up. 

[Nebraska]

I know it was diesel, just haven't bought any since bulk farm tank was filled in November. I just looked it was 3.19 for #1red and 2.55 #2 red. Blended load. Feel sorry for Canadian fuel prices.
 I also noticed ERC log prices are down on the mill website I follow once in a while to .47 bf, to get back to the purpose of the thread. 

[ehp]

If things slow down any more we all be telling Barge to put some videos of him on the boat so we have something to do as we sit on the couch , It's not looking to great around here

[SwampDonkey]

Oh well, come May 1st you can always come cut brush by the hectare.  Cut your fortune that way.  The thing about living in NB, you don't know when the hard times hit, because there never is much for good times. My grandfather always said during the depression there was always sportsman coming to hunt and fish so he could guide and wood to cut in the winter. Never ran out of work.

[barbender]

Northern MN is much the same, Donk. The fortunes of the rest of the country ebb and flow, while here it just seems to stay flat all the time.

[ehp]

thing that is happening here is mill is getting few orders these days , yard is full and I mean full. Other mills to the north have shut down so all there bigger loggers just switched and sent to this mill , The timber from up north is big but not much good stuff but when mill is cutting timbers their stuff is good for that , timber logs are paying as much or more that real good butt logs , Mill has enough stuff in yard to last them most likely 3 or so months if they are going full bore 

[chep]

Cutting mostly ash right now. Avg a little over 90 cents a ft. 
We did have a couple yards that were paying 1.25 for butts and 2nd logs but seems like their export market has gotten real tight cos they said no more logs. 
It's sad cutting the ash out of woodlots, but it's on its way out with eab already here. Trying to make the landowner some return on their timber

[ehp]

In my area you do not find much ash thats a live , most of the ash is on the ground now and junk. We still find some but in most cases it has to be not many trees per acre so the bug missed them . I can remember 35 years ago getting $1800/1000 for ash veneer for a average  , now a days maybe $750/1000 and no more veneer . 

[ehp]

Pretty much ash, soft maple and red oak all pay about the same for saw logs . 

[SwampDonkey]

They have detected the ash borer in New Brunswick and Maine a few years ago. But so far the ash in my area is still healthy. I have thousands of ash, but most is young stuff. We have some big ash along fence rows and creeks that border fields, non dying....yet. We have a mill near here that takes ash logs exclusively, they make handle wood. Garant's. They might pay $350-550 range for logs. Ash and red maple were never high value logs here. I'll bet the price is about the same now for 35 years. And as low as $250 for red maple, even today. They get all they need off crown, so way pay more?   No one can compete with the government. This means most of it is sent to pulp, not worth sorting. Hard to find a decent red maple that the moose have not ripped the bark off.

[ehp]

Now lets see how the log prices go , I know a bigger veneer sale that was to happen today did not happen cause of the tariffs , I'm pretty lucky as I only got a bit of coin out in standing bush that I bought , I watched pretty close what I was doing, I know lots of guys that got a fair bit of coin out in standing timber and its going to hurt them pretty hard

[ehp]

veneer sale did go this week and was a fair bit better than I figured with all the trouble going on , hard maple sold quite well also

[nativewolf]

Now lets see how the log prices go , I know a bigger veneer sale that was to happen today did not happen cause of the tariffs , I'm pretty lucky as I only got a bit of coin out in standing bush that I bought , I watched pretty close what I was doing, I know lots of guys that got a fair bit of coin out in standing timber and its going to hurt them pretty hard

Still not sure if the tariffs hurt Canada.  Might help your hardwood mills grab some market in China, Mexico, and EU.

[nativewolf]

Lumber prices finally started moving a bit higher this month.  However, in this area the push to clear building projects by April 1st (due to bat restrictions) means that the sawmill have people on quota even as the mills lumber prices move up.  Loggers can't get a break but maybe end of April we see some price improvements.

Yellow Poplar lumber is almost 20% higher than the lows of December.   We'll see what happens.  

Also, the softwood oriented people are fighting a glut of harvested pine in Virginia and cutting as much hardwood as possible, not helping things to see them clearcut a stand just to keep people busy.  I stopped by one yard and spent an hour talking with them.  Them most they've ever had for a tractor trailer of logs is $7k.  I've seen the trucks now and it is all cut at 16' to fit on pine trailers and you'll see double stems, crotches, etc on a nice butt log.  At the mill instead of grading it as 2 8' logs- one great one lousy it is all graded as a lousy tie log.  Terrible merchandizing and at some level they know it.  Don't care.  Treat it like pine.  

Pine pulpwood is on quota and hardwood starting here.  

[nativewolf]

forgot to add- white oak lumber is dropping a bit as the stavelog collapse is pushing more WO back into the sawmills.

[240b]

ash logs are at 500/ m
 local yards are pretty much shut down.  buyer said they have 123 loads or 
about 900k feet they cant move. and will probably saw it now. they paid 90 cents a foot and will have to truck it 80 miles to mill. they at least are having local log trucks move it. considering what they've made stuffing conexs last 3 years, they'll probably be ok.  We didnt even talk about maple.  Hopefully, this down turn will thin out logging contractors.   
  
   

[taylorsmissbeehaven]

Nativewolf, could you elaborate on bat restrictions?

[nativewolf]

Sure, we have several species of bats that are quite endangered.  They fly into mature hardwood stands in the spring to give birth and they hide their young in cracks in bark, etc.  The young babies can't fly away and won't be able to til the fall. So, during the spring and summer you cant harvest areas if those areas may hosts one of these increasingly rare bats.  This restriction applies to projects that require regulatory approval not harvest on private lands for commercial timbering purposes.  It impacts road building, conversion for solar facilities, etc.  

Also note that Canada has imposed tariffs on USA lumber and I see brokers looking for RO and WO in canada.  So, I expect Canadian log prices for Canadian logs to increase, that should help @ehp and other Canadian friends.  It's going to really hurt American veneer manufacturers and won't help American hardwood mills.

[nativewolf]

ash logs are at 500/ m
 local yards are pretty much shut down.  buyer said they have 123 loads or
about 900k feet they cant move. and will probably saw it now. they paid 90 cents a foot and will have to truck it 80 miles to mill. they at least are having local log trucks move it. considering what they've made stuffing conexs last 3 years, they'll probably be ok.  We didnt even talk about maple.  Hopefully, this down turn will thin out logging contractors. 
 
 

Need more people using wood in buildings and furniture and cabinets.  We don't have enough contractors as it is.

[ArkansasOaks]

Unfortunately in the commercial construction world wood has all but been replaced.  In some places it's due to fire ratings and I don't see those ever returning. But in others it's due to not enough carpenters. The company I work for won't even touch a wood building anymore. 

Granted most apartments, smaller buildings, and some hotels are still wood but it's becoming less and less.  It's rare we put anything not MDF or plywood in one.  

Residential it seems like the developers are still going but that's not my side of things. 

[SwampDonkey]

I remember an old timer, a good friend. I'll never forget it, the day he complained about using expensive hardwood products to 'dress up' the halls of the new hospital. He said we don't go there to look at the beautiful wood grain, we go for health care. But that is government, they'll spend money on anything whether it is sensible or not.  He had quite a loud voice at times, you could here him across the river.

He was an avid wood worker , a WWII vet, and his nephew was one of Irving's head foresters. I miss a lot of fellas of that generation.