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Selling rounds or logs to firewood sellers

Started by livemusic, December 20, 2020, 07:13:56 AM

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livemusic

Does anyone know anything on this? Say you want to sell logs or rounds to firewood sellers. Do you think there is a market for that? You could cut logs into any length necessary for sellers to haul them away, even, say, 4 ft, which would give them three 16 inch rounds. They would need to be not so heavy as impossible to load into their vehicle, so, it depends on the diameter. For large DBH, you might have to sell rounds. Just investigating this for having a market for trees I would like to take out from my woods for crop tree release. I am thinking there are sellers who do not have woodlots and I wonder what is their source other than scrounging free wood!

Also, if you know anything on pricing, that would help! I wonder what sellers would be willing to pay for their 'raw material' per cord?
~~~
Bill

stavebuyer

For the most part the "value" in firewood is more in the processing and delivery and not so much in the raw material. When I bought firewood "logs" I wanted poles that could run through the processor without manual handling. Rounds had to go through a splitter which is more handling and less productive. I would pay quite a bit for good oak/hickory processor logs and decline the offer to have free "blocks" delivered from loggers wanting to clean up the landing. Of course the "clean-up" blocks included odd lengths/double hearts/rotten ends and not uniform 16" desirable rounds.

The point being you could easily sell the pole wood that you would have no issue loading with a small tractor. Large diameter logs too heavy to load and cut short would have a very limited market. Anybody with a heavy enough processor to handle large diameter likely would not be interested in shorts because of the increased handling and most people with smaller processors would probably not want them unless you could deliver to northern IL!





livemusic

Quote from: stavebuyer on December 20, 2020, 07:48:53 AM
For the most part the "value" in firewood is more in the processing and delivery and not so much in the raw material. When I bought firewood "logs" I wanted poles that could run through the processor without manual handling. Rounds had to go through a splitter which is more handling and less productive. I would pay quite a bit for good oak/hickory processor logs and decline the offer to have free "blocks" delivered from loggers wanting to clean up the landing. Of course the "clean-up" blocks included odd lengths/double hearts/rotten ends and not uniform 16" desirable rounds.

The point being you could easily sell the pole wood that you would have no issue loading with a small tractor. Large diameter logs too heavy to load and cut short would have a very limited market. Anybody with a heavy enough processor to handle large diameter likely would not be interested in shorts because of the increased handling and most people with smaller processors would probably not want them unless you could deliver to northern IL!
This is not a heavy firewood use area. There might be someone in these parts with a firewood processor but I've never seen one. All of the sellers I see are small, typically, one-man operations. The minimum someone would have would be an axe, hand split, and sell only onsite with no deliveries. The maximum someone would have is a chainsaw, log splitter, trailer and tractor to load to the trailer, and they deliver. I was thinking that some of these people do NOT have access to a woodlot. Other than scrounging wood, I don't know where they get their source.
~~~
Bill

mike_belben

What does a rick or cord cost in your area?  


Price of the finished product tells you what the raw material is worth.   I dont think its gonna pay what youre hoping. 
Praise The Lord

livemusic

Quote from: mike_belben on December 20, 2020, 09:16:34 AM
What does a rick or cord cost in your area?  


Price of the finished product tells you what the raw material is worth.   I dont think its gonna pay what youre hoping.
Cord sells for $200 to $300 in this area, definitely most being toward the lower rather than the upper. Most of that is delivered and stacked. I've seen some even sell cords for $180 but as I said, some sell for $300. These are posted asking prices.
~~~
Bill

dougtrr2

Why not just visit or call these sellers and see if they are interested?  I can speculate all day long on whether there is a market, but the true answer lies with the people you are trying to sell to.  A visit with some of your product could tell a lot.  Someone might say over the phone that sure they would be interested, but a site visit with product and money changing hands is the real answer.  Good luck.

Doug in SW IA

mudfarmer

Like stavebuyer said, the "value" is mostly in the processing and you won't likely get much for unprocessed wood, think pulp pricing by the ton or very little per full cord if selling to someone that needs to make a profit on it after they do the rest of the work.

If you do some time and motion studies while harvesting you might find that the trees are worth almost nothing unless you place no value on your labor. People here sell for $50-75/"Rick" and if you are processing by hand or with a splitter and no processor that means either your time or the wood has no value especially at the low end ($150/cd)

If they are delivering and stacking for $200/cd they likely will not pay much if anything at all for the wood and if they do you can count on somebody replacing them in a year or two when they realize they are paying to work.

You might check on pulp prices/specs, or big chip operations for biofuels etc to see what your thinnings are worth on the market. Sadly it will not be much. I am in the same boat, but have so many other things going on that it is advantageous to me to sell log length firewood if possible so as to not wrap up any more time than absolutely necessary in cutting skidding loading and hauling. Most recently someone approached me, not vice versa, because they heard I was thinning a hardwood lot. The trees were going to come out one way or another and I can only burn so much in a year. Without a processor it would not be very profitable compared to other endeavors to buck split market and sell everything that is marked to come out. If someone wants to pay a low but fair sum for the raw material from TSI work definitely jump on it IMO.

Sorry for rambling jumbled thoughts! Best of luck

livemusic

This is different from logs-into-firewood but last year there was a tree service that cut a neighbor's large oak. He did something I had not seen before from tree guys... he kept the butt log for sale to a mill. I asked a number of questions and he was open, and I was surprised at the value. He loaded the butt log into a dump trailer and I think the value was around $200. I thought that was a lot. Also, it was willow oak or water oak, it wasn't southern red oak or white oak.

On my land, I am saving, nurturing trees that big, not cutting. But some could be harvested due to being too close together plus other issues. Of course, you'd have to have a loader and also a big trailer.
~~~
Bill

mudfarmer

Trying to sell firewood logs without a loader sounds aggravating  ;D You could use a spar tree and parbuckle cable like the old horse loggers or have the customer hire out a self loader truck I guess.

If you are going to buck them into rounds why not split and sell firewood yourself?

livemusic

Quote from: mudfarmer on December 20, 2020, 10:03:52 AM
Trying to sell firewood logs without a loader sounds aggravating  ;D You could use a spar tree and parbuckle cable like the old horse loggers or have the customer hire out a self loader truck I guess.

If you are going to buck them into rounds why not split and sell firewood yourself?
I do sell firewood but if there is a market for rounds or logs and if I have a lot of wood and not enough time to do it, it's another option to do something with the thinned trees.
~~~
Bill

woodworker9

Around here, yard trees are free.  People trying to sell their logs from their properties that they cut down, where they want you to cut and load yourself, usually rot in place.  I get all the tree service and homeowner wood I process (15 cords this month) for free.  

I can show up with my 14', 14,000 lb. GVWR (16K with tongue weight to truck), which holds 6 tons of cargo, to one local spot and fill it full for $50.  I have to cut and load.  He doesn't have a loader.  I have not used him yet, because my other sources have not dried up yet, but I'd gladly pay the $50 if I was without anything to process.  Hasn't happened yet.  FB marketplace and Craigslist offer up about a handful of ads daily of people wanting their yard trees hauled off....free.

If you want to deliver 50 cords to Northern Illinois, I'll take it all!!!   ;D ;D  
03' LT40HD25 Kohler hydraulic w/ accuset
MS 441, MS 290, New Holland L185

mike_belben

What mudfarmer said.  I am in a market that needs thinning but will only pay $150 cord and thats usually requiring delivery and only sells during cold.   


Ive been at this a while every which way and it boils down to this.  That price requires a processor and dumptruck it cant pay for so you gotta build both from junk or pay to work.  
Praise The Lord

hedgerow

About five year ago I was cleaning a big area on one of my farms and it had a fair amount of good sized elm trees. I burn 10-15 cord a year in my Garn for myself but I only burn locust and hedge in it. Seemed some folks were interested in the elm trees so I logged them out and piled up. When it was all said and done two to three years later I had given away most of the elm logs and had a hard time giving them away at that. Now when I cut a elm down it goes straight to the brush pile and get burned. Not dealing with people that say there coming to get logs and never show up. 

livemusic

Quote from: hedgerow on December 22, 2020, 09:32:59 AM
About five year ago I was cleaning a big area on one of my farms and it had a fair amount of good sized elm trees. I burn 10-15 cord a year in my Garn for myself but I only burn locust and hedge in it. Seemed some folks were interested in the elm trees so I logged them out and piled up. When it was all said and done two to three years later I had given away most of the elm logs and had a hard time giving them away at that. Now when I cut a elm down it goes straight to the brush pile and get burned. Not dealing with people that say there coming to get logs and never show up.
Do you think they knew it's hard to split? Did they know it's elm? Maybe somebody wised them up! Although, I have come across people that actually like elm firewood. I like it ok but not splitting it. I find it to be an attractive yard tree, I like them for that, so, don't want to fell them unless it's necessary.
~~~
Bill

hedgerow

Quote from: livemusic on December 22, 2020, 10:18:23 AM

Do you think they knew it's hard to split? Did they know it's elm? Maybe somebody wised them up! Although, I have come across people that actually like elm firewood. I like it ok but not splitting it. I find it to be an attractive yard tree, I like them for that, so, don't want to fell them unless it's necessary.
They all knew it was elm and I even offered to a couple of them that I knew they could use my splitter if they wanted to split it before it left the farm. Heck I even offered a saw to one of them one day. Back when I sold firewood I sold a lot of elm. It makes good firewood. Best time to split it is in the winter when its frozen up. When I lived on my other farm and heated with wood stoves I burned a lot of elm. I don't sell wood any more and I want max btu for my Garn so I just cut and burn locust and hedge for my self. 

antifreeze

I get 8' "saw logs" from a local tree service.  The local paper mill closed down so he's glad to unload them for $60-70 a cord on me - delivered.  I buck them into 24" rounds.  The mostly aspen splits easy (half or quarter depending on size) with an 8# maul. I feed my P&M about 8 cords a season.  It keeps me young!
Burn wood.  Stay warm.

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