Hi ...anyone ever cut balsam, or cedar boughs for profit? Tipping balsam is usually done by cutting the end 15-18" boughs from 15-20' trees. They are used in Christmas decorations, so it's seasonal. Its a great way to spend fall days, working with only a few tools, a couple guys can cut 3/4 of a ton, or so in a day. They pay $400 a ton, delivered in at the wreath shops.
Heres a couple pics of a day in the brush....
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30923/DSC00156_28229.jpg)
Telescoping clippers
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30923/DSC00160_28229.jpg)
Days end...loaded with balsam
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30923/DSC00161_28229.jpg)
I like what is left of that tree in the first picture.
There are alot of old cedar stumps from bygone logging days in the area, also lots of rail road grades running everywhere, this area must of been a junction of some sort.
Cedar Savage,update your profile so we know where this area is. We won't bite.
I did mean to mention some of that is done around here.
Do you do it on your own property, or do you lease land? How many buyers do you deal with? Looks like fun.
Quote from: thecfarm on November 18, 2012, 08:29:08 PM
I like what is left of that tree in the first picture.
Which of the three are you referring to? ;) ;D
Shotgun..
There are several shops that buy boughs in the area, I'm just selling to one... I usually pay stumpage, around $40 a ton, to the landowner. Several years ago you could get a bough permit from the USFS, but not anymore.
Thank you cedar savage
My aunt used to gather boughs on our land. We didn't charge her for it. . . but she didn't take a whole truckload, either! :D
Quoteyou could get a bough permit from the USFS, but not anymore
:D :D
'cause they looked like that one on the left ?? ;)
Here's a couple more pics of the shop, where I deliver boughs to...
Boughs piled on scale & grave blanket in progress
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30923/DSC00191_28229.jpg)
Loading truck wi grave blankets
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30923/DSC00186_28229%7E0.jpg)
Happy wreath makers
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30923/DSC00188_28229.jpg)
Trailer being loaded with hanging balls
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30923/DSC00192_28229.jpg)
I cut boughs 30 yrs, we would take time from logging to cut boughs. The wife an me tried to cut a ton a day, if it didn't get dark first. My son and his wife are cutting boughs and making wreaths, they do it every year. The Balsam boughs have to have flat needles or they won't buy them.
This is when you can actually say, Money grows on trees.
In the fall from picking wild rice to cutting boughs a person can make a little money.
I passed a small truck that had a load of broughs on it today.
Yea I like getting a little extra cash, just before the holidays. The weather has been great for working outside, haven't seen this nice of a fall in a couple years.
Tipping is quite common around here after 2 or 3 good frosts to set the needles. I have had several thinners over the years who would spend a good portion of their late fall days tipping for extra cash.
When the Cdn dollar was weak in relation to the US$ we also had crews gathering brush from harvested firs to make brush blankets. Apparently there was a significant market in the Northeast US. Many times if you had an opengrown fir there was more money in the brush than the stem.
I've tipped fir before. Here is an old thread on making wreaths and shows my "tipping stick". ;D
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,9097.msg123167.html#msg123167
Swampdonkey I read the thread, interesting to see how its done elsewhere... I've never used a tipping stick, We just pile the tips on the ground in 30-40 lb piles & tie them into bales with plastic twine. How is the stick made? Is it just a stick with twine tied to both ends? Do yo line boughs up on either side as you fill it?
Yup, just a light aspen stick. Make a couple notches on opposing sides at each end to secure a strand of baler twine so it don't slip. Just alternate from side to side with each hand full of tips cut. The ends point out at 90 degrees not interlaced between the two strands of twine. Keep'm 30-40 lbs or the ladies complain at the wreath shop, heavy. Real efficient way to bale and carry short distances in the woods. Everyone up here uses them and the sticks go in with the weight. We get 30-40 cents a pound. So a 40 lb stick is about $14, which you can fill in an hour easily in good tipping.
The wife made wreaths after i got hurt. She had it all set up in the garage with a power crimper, She cut boughs and all so bought boughs. You have to be careful buying boughs or know who your buying from because you can get stuck with junk.
She could make 70 to a 100 a day, but like Al says, if you don't have a good tip cutter you can't do it. The tip cutter would make about 20" high piles on tables for the wreath maker to grab. Its like any job, if people don't work together and do it right you get nothing done.
She had to cut her own tips many times, this slows it all down, but then again you don't have nobody to pay.
A good tipper can keep up with a wreath maker.
Theres a lot of people around here that make wreaths. You get a contract on how many thousand you want to make. Then hope the weather works with you so you can fill it.
I never cut tips in the woods, i tried it once and i couldn't make as much money. I cut boughs about 36' long and went for 50, 40 pound bundles a day. A few times i used the skidder and pulled the trees to the pickup. I tried to make sure i had a nice clear cut balsam sale to cut early fall. This really worked out good.
One fall we were pulling balsam pulp and taking the boughs off the same time. The Ranger came out and asked what were we doing. It was real simple to see, well he says that we would have to pay stumpage on the boughs.
It was a Company sale, i called the Company and told them what was going on. They told me to tell him that the stumpage was already payed on that block and i could take all the limbs i want. That was the end of it, when the Ranger came back out he complemented me on how nice the block was cleaned up.
I wish the USFS would manage tracks just for bough cutting, & put up bough sales again. It seems like the boughs are worth more, than the wood in the stem, especially the pulp. The only market around here for balsam pulp is 300 miles away in the UP, & they make toilet paper out of it. Ya don't make any on it, just get rid of the wood.