Business with the Amish

[inspectorwoody]

I live a few miles from an Amish settlement and my travels take me out there quite a bit. The other day as I drove down the road I noticed a pile of ash logs next to the road and thought I might have struck some cash! Well I pulled in the drive and spoke with the Amish guy who was clearing about 5 acres of Cottonwood, Soft Maple and Ash. Come to find out he didn't want to sell the ash as they were going to use if for the barn and stalls etc. I mentioned to him I would buy the cottonwood and soft maple he seemed happy and worked with me in making sure they were bucked to length etc. as I could not be there during the day. Well I went back after a few days and they had a nice pile of logs. i got out of the truck, log rule and note pad in hand. I was ready to count up some board foot!!  ;D Than he asked the magical question..."How much am I looking at for these logs/" My reply..."The cottonwood is only worth 3-5 cents a foot....." I didn't get to finish as he prompted to tell me another Amish guy up the road who owns a pallet shop would give him 20 cents a foot for anything. I couldn't believe it. There was no way I could go that high and expect to make anything after trucking etc. and even if I did buy them for pallet stock, I would only have got about 15 cents a foot. I guess I can't have all the logs  ;D It amazes me how they can buy them for 20 cents a foot and turn around and make money using them for pallet stock. Do I need to give up inspecting lumber and start a pallet shop?  ???

Anyone else have any interesting stories of business with the Amish...I'm curious to see if I am the only one who got the raw end of the deal!

Gadget  8)

[Jeff]

They call the mill quite often asking for prices as if they are buying.

Our rule is anyone with a german-like accent is quoted %100 higher then retail. The only reason they call is so they can set thier prices just below ours. We have NEVER sold a board to an amishman, but they call weekly and visit probably bi-weekly in good weather.

I however, have bought several peices of amish furniture at about 50% of what you find it in the furniture stores :

[Brian_Rhoad]

  How much could you pay for logs if you didn't have to pay insurance and income tax? My uncle lost all his pallet contracts to Amish shops that under bid him. Here in PA they passed a special exemption for the Amish so they can have their underage children work in the mills and pallet shops. My opinion is, if they want to deal with the non Amish they should follow the same rules we have to!! Taxes, insurance and wages make up alot of the overhead in a business.

[Mark M]

My dad's family used to live right next to a number of Amish families just outside of Geneva Indiana. He and his 4 brothers used to play some pretty mean (albeit funny) tricks on those folks. More than once the neighbor came banging on the door with his squirrel rifle threatening to shoot my dad or one of his brothers.  

[steveST]

I talked to an Amish feller who owned his own Super Hydraulic who was sawing for $60/day!! I told him that he should go to McDonalds to work, get a free BigMac each day and pocket the mill payment instead. ;)

[Norm]

The going price for softwood pallet logs around here is 12-15 cents bd ft delivered, but you can bet he's not getting 20 cents from the guy down the road. There are also a couple of amish mills around here that are tough to beat on price but their quality isn't the best and you never come out on the good side of a deal with em.

Patty used to sell baked goods at the farmers market in DSM and the amish would come over to see what her stuff was selling for so they could either beat our match her prices.

[Bibbyman]

We sell ERC to a young Amish cabinetmaker even though there are a dozen Amish mills in his area.  What cedar they have is not worth sawing into lumber.  Mary always stops in at the bakery just down the road and always has a good visit and buys an armload of stuff.  We get along well with the Amish in this community.  

Their mills saw mostly pallet material and some also make pallets.  I've seen in one of them and it didn't look any too safe.

One problem some of the Amish mills have is the lack of a loader to unload trucks without dump sides or a knuckle boom loader.  Most loggers in our area have went to trailers with fixed posts. This may be one reason they have to pay more for logs.  But I did see one Amish mill with a loader setting in back.  They may have someone "outside" run it.  Or maybe they have it there for their logger to use to unload.  

[Weekend_Sawyer]

 When my brother's house was delivered, in large chunks, a crew of Amish showed up in a van to do the labor. They had power tools, compressor, nail guns ect. I talked to their driver, a retired guy who drove them to various job sites, he said the van was his as were all the tools but since the Amish were nice enough to make the payments for him he let them us them   ;)

 Once while driving up in Pa, I was at a stop light and saw an Amish buggy cross over and pull into a gas station. I wanted to go back and see just what kind of service he stopping for.

 By the way you may think "My Brother" does a lot but actually I have 4 of them. I am the youngest smallest and the prettiest!  

[ohsoloco]

I sell cants to the local pallet mill for about 29 cents a board foot....3.5x6, and 5.5x6 cants.  This mill is owned by an Amish man.  They must be getting laxed in their ways of life, cuz a little amish boy runs the Case forklift to unload my trailer when I take a load by.  And, yes, it has rubber tractor tires on it  :D    You can tell an Amish household if there's a tractor sitting in the yard with iron wheels on it  ;)

I can't see anyone paying that much money for pallet logs   :-/

[dewwood]

There are a lot of Amish mills in our area.  They pay $250Mbf for logs delivered(you must furnish your own unloader).  There is one fellow paying $250 for logs sawing cants on his WM and selling the cants for $270.  Now I get some oversaw with my WM but not quite that much.  They make it almost impossible to get into any aspect of the pallet business because they will price so low that they are not even making decent wages, but they are real busy.  I do a little pallet work just to use up some low grade.  I went to bid on a job and asked the gentleman what they were currently paying for their pallets, he said $3.95 each, my cost to make them would have been $4.15.

You can't under bid them, you just have to find out what you have that they need and price accordingly.  Sometimes I can buy lumber from them for what the logs would cost me and I still have to saw it.

On a different note I do respect them for some of their customs, you do not see any Amish in the old folks home, they take care of their own, also in times of emergency they help one another as well as some of us English.

We are all people, some wear different hats or turbins or whatever but we all live in the same world.

Just my thoughts on my Amish neighbors.

Dewey

[Ron Wenrich]

We're getting 34 cents for our pallet stock, including boards.  Can I make lumber for 14 cents/bf?  Yes, but there isn't a great deal of profit, considering trucking.

Honestly, 3-5 cents/bf is a pretty low price.  Pulpwood prices are better than that, in my area.  That doesn't even cover the logging costs.

Quite often the church will dictate how much an Amish employer can pay his help  Along with the lower income that the Amish pay, they also don't borrow money.  When you can get rid of government, insurance companies and the bank, you get to keep a whole lot more of your money.  

I've worked for Amish and Mennonites.  They are hard workers, and some are really sharp businessmen.  One of the largest mills in the state is Amish run.  They pay comparable wages, and pay a good price for their stumpage.  But, they are a no-nonesense type of employer.  You produce or you're gone.  And that holds their costs down.

There are a lot of Amish that aren't sharp busniessmen.  Their failings come from their thinking that an 8th grade education is all they need.  These are the guys that work for $60/day.  But, they don't have any payments.

I've seen plenty of unsafe Englischer operations.

Jeff, I can hear your Amish neighbors.  "You think our prices are high?  You should see what they are charging up the road".   :D    

[Mark M]

We don't have any Amish up here but we do have some Hutterites. I don't know a lot about them but they live on big communal farms and like the Amish are very hardworking people. I think they originally came from Austria and Germany and many speak a dialect that sounds similar to German but I can't understand them (I can't understand Germany either come to think of it). As far as I know they are fully modern with electricity and the whole nine yards. They buy big Challenger tractors by the 6 pack and are heavily into raising chickens, turkeys, and things like that.

Here is a web site if you want to learn more about them: Hutterites

Mark

PS - that "mischief" my dad and uncles used to get into was back in the 40's. The last time I went to Indiana my uncle took me to an Amish friend of his and got my kids a buggy ride. It was great fun and I enjoyed it too.