Advice on buying logs

[Ronnie]

I have never purchased logs from a logger and was looking for some advice before I made a phone call to one. I have no idea how they charge, what they charge, the lingo they use. Maybe some of my fellow Kansas sawyers could help me with local prices?

[Kansas]

First question would be, what do you want to get out of them? Is this for grade, pallet, trailer decking, etc? And then the species that you want. What are your abilities to haul them yourself and/or unload? In other words, do they need to have a picker truck? Quantity you are looking for?

There are some things that I won't put out in public about certain loggers in your area. Shoot me a message.

[paul case]

I buy some from local farmers and lately from a dirt construction  outfit clearing some land near me for a bank. Mostly pallet and tie quality logs and I pay them $.25 bdft doyle scale delivered to my mill. If I haul them and they load them I pay $.20 and If I cut there trees  I pay $.10. Some logs that show up are only good enogh for firewood and I only pay 1/2 scale for them.  Hardware turns any size log into firewood. That is blue in the end or visible hardware such as nails or wire.I tell them this up front.

Good luck calling a logger and getting a load of logs. I cant get a logger when I need one around here, unless it is one that no one else would buy from. PC

[jim blodgett]

I would try to identify a few different potential sellers, then contact them saying something like,

"I've never bought logs before and don't know waht normally happens, but I am interested in building a long term relationship that benefits you, and benefits me...that's how I like to do business.  Does that sound like something you'd be interested in?"  Then I'd explain whatever it was I hoped to source - maybe the occasional truck load of one species, or maybe the odd short load of another, or both...

I'd pretty much keep saying the same thing to as many people as it took until I found someone who I thought was a good match - that their normal business practices and mine were compatible, that we'd each walk away satisfied every time we do business.  Of course, it might take a while to find the right partners to build your network with, but it's the only way I want to do business - with people with the same sense of fair play as me.  Anything else is just about money, and that's a destructive path.

[Kansas]

The biggest problem in Kansas, is that there are very few mills to take them to. Most loggers here now leave everything standing but the walnut, and maybe take a veneer oak or two. The maple, ash, other species are mostly considered pallet logs now. And there aren't many of those around either. So you have to put too many miles on the logs to get to a market, hence they don't cut them down. Even the walnut can get a little tough. In my area, most of them are going up to Miesters in Wisconsin. Down in the southwest, probably Neosho MO or thereabouts. Sadly, because there isn't a good market for most trees, farmers are starting to view them as weeds, and doze them out. 6 dollar corn pays a lot better. I guess in the short term it is good, because you can salvage them behind the dozer. Long term, it isn't.

[Full Circle]

I'd pretty much keep saying the same thing to as many people as it took until I found someone who I thought was a good match - that their normal business practices and mine were compatible, that we'd each walk away satisfied every time we do business.  Of course, it might take a while to find the right partners to build your network with, but it's the only way I want to do business - with people with the same sense of fair play as me.  Anything else is just about money, and that's a destructive path.

Very well said, Jim Blodgett.  I'm trying to build my whole business (customer and vendor relationships) around this philosophy.  I've seen the effects of measuring success only in terms of dollars (saved or earned) and it is both short-sighted and, very often, short-lived.

[WDH]

Most loggers here cannot afford to have their trucks sitting for long periods of time.  You have to be able to unload a log truck efficiently, or they will not fool with you.  Another options is to get set up to go to the woods where the logger can load you truck/trailer on his landing. 

[jim blodgett]

Full Circle said - "I'm trying to build my whole business (customer and vendor relationships) around this philosophy.  I've seen the effects of measuring success only in terms of dollars (saved or earned) and it is both short-sighted and, very often, short-lived."

Yeah, it's hard to find a healthy balance between the need to generate income and finding fulfilling work.  Add in human nature and interpersonal relations and it's a handful.  At least for me.

[Bibbyman]

Our experience with loggers is, 

1) they want to sale you what they have and have no market.  It's not like I'll take one of these, two of those and can you get me a dozen of something specific.  They don't have time to sort it out.  They want to fill their truck and deliver it. 

2) Most tend to deal with a small number of markets.  Once they're comfortable with the markets they have, they're really reluctant to deal with another – especially for a small, spot market.

3) Take anything they tell you and double it or cut it in half.  They tend to exaggerate.

We talked to a local logger several times over a couple of years.  No logs.  Then one day I came home from my day job and Mary was covered up with logs and log trucks.  Seems the checks at the local mill were bouncing and every logger in the area diverted to our mill – even ones we never heard of or talked with.  She bought five loads of logs in one afternoon before cutting them off! 

If I were in the market for a few logs now and then I'd try to develop a relationship with a tree removal service. 

Another possibility is buy from another sawmill.  We get a couple of calls a year from other mills wanting logs.  Always when they're out and we're out or nearly out too.

[Peter Drouin]

A small guy like me has taken along time to find the right loggers to help me with what im looking for. Long logs, different kinds of trees, ( hard wood or soft wood). Like I had A guy want 5000 bf of hemlock and 10000 bf of w pine for a timberframe. so when I tell the logger I want 200 12' w pine with 10" to 12" top end, so I can make the timber that I need with not to much side lumber, and be the best grade . I have to pay a little more :D but thats ok. they make a special pile for me :D :D so when I send the trucker (thats another story) he;ll ask where Petes piles :D :D. some times the top end is a little big but it;s all ways the best grade. and sometimes like last week the logger called me and had some butternut and B cherry that was as crooked as a dogs tail, but he knows I make turning blanks for the wood turners, I bought the logs by the BF.  better price then fire wood. and I think one of the butternut logs has some figure in it, will see :D :D

[snowshoveler]

I made friends with the local tree removal guys.
Right now I have 3 tandem loads of red pine sitting by the mill.
All I had to do was pay the trucking.
  Chris