Log prices

[WDH]

The leaves on the soft maples are toothed between the lobes.  The leaves on the hard maples are entire (not toothed but smooth).  

[WDH]

There are a couple of hard maples, sugar maple, black maple, and southern sugar maple.  

The hard maple that you have in Tennessee is sugar maple. 

[stavebuyer]

Mike,
I used to buy a world of pretty nice Sugar Maple in the Crossville area a few years back; including some veneer in the winter months. Also a surprising amount of nice Cherry for that latitude. Altitude matters . Some logs that come out of the Smokies at 4000' ft + are on par with the Cherry and Maple coming out of NY and PA.  Some of the north slope ground around Crossville is only half a step behind it. Your Red Oak on the other hand is about as poor as the Maple and Cherry are good. 

[moodnacreek]

Mike,
I used to buy a world of pretty nice Sugar Maple in the Crossville area a few years back; including some veneer in the winter months. Also a surprising amount of nice Cherry for that latitude. Altitude matters . Some logs that come out of the Smokies at 4000' ft + are on par with the Cherry and Maple coming out of NY and PA.  Some of the north slope ground around Crossville is only half a step behind it. Your Red Oak on the other hand is about as poor as the Maple and Cherry are good.

I bet if you dumped a load of hardwood logs in old Stave buyers yard he could tell you where they where cut.

[ehp]

cut a few walnut today , longest veneer was 34 ft long but not huge in diameter but we will see how it goes with the veneer buyer , I sure pounded alot of log savers today 

[mike_belben]

The monster yard maples were in the center of monterey about a mile from the bluffs.  

Whats ironic is i have some decent red oaks [on second thought nevermind.  When sawn our decent looking red oak turns to low grade knotty lumber] but crap for cherry, seems they wont grow on my site. They sprout easy enough but NEVER stay straight for me.  Anything arches them over before 6" dbh.  I have zero mature cherry.  

White oaks that escaped harvest are small but pretty good.  WO is definitely my best tree.  Walnut, zero. Now the scarlet oaks, yeah theyre firewood usually and make up atleast half the reds.  Black and post oak too.. Most of all that is doaty, knobby or full of shake. Hickory seems fair to me but you guys see stuff outside of my little bubble so my opinion might be pretty juvenile as to whats really out there.


Springfield mass had great red oaks in every patch of urban swamp where you couldnt stick another crack house.  Overcrowded with big boys just falling over from old age.  I never left my street for firewood.

[Hogdaddy]

Any update on prices? I heard red oak is easing up, but haven't seen it in the log prices yet... 

[nativewolf]

@ehp how did that walnut do?  We cut a few logs but the sap was pretty big, like 2" on a 20" log (so 4" of sapwood, only 16" heartwood).  

@Hogdaddy - Red oak is up here in VA. 

YP moved very aggressively this month, back up to $600+ on international scale or 700 doyle depending on the mill.  With that pricing you are seeing real lack of logs on the yard.  The $600/mbf intl is also just gatewood price, no negotiation.  I expect we'll do better by 5% or more.  Time to start cutting YP again.  

On the lumber side of things Walnut sawlogs are averaging $2, from $1-3+.  That's a big jump from last year.  

WO is still moving up, sold a massive rotten WO log, stained, for $1/bf and already regret it.  

Armstrong flooring buyers called looking for any kind of oak or hickory lumber, they are falling short.  

Latest HMR shows that eastern hardwood production has plummeted these last couple of years and Oct production (US only) was only  1/2 of 2018.  Mill log yards inventory is apparently getting tight.  

The warm dry weather should have had loggers hitting high production in Michigan, Ohio, WV, PA, and NY if they had good timber to cut.  

Log buyers continue to drive for a day to buy big WO so I am suspicious I'm still not getting max price, need  @stavebuyer to sell some logs for us.  :D

Last update, Chestnut oak.  We sold first and second logs min diameter of 17" , $1600/mbf straight through.  They truck them.  So that is some progress but nothing like the +2/bdft that I hear is possible.  We have 50mbf of big chestnut to go so we may still hold off and look for higher pricing.  Anyway, 1600/mbf picked up at landing for CO in northern va.  

[Hogdaddy]

Thanks for the report @nativewolf 

[ehp]

has not sold yet but is at place waiting for buyer, I got about a truck load of veneer waiting for him. 

[ehp]

but I did pretty good last week when I sold veneer , Im very happy with what I got 

[ehp]

and I had to cut a log off the 34ft walnut, log truck could not lift the log 

[ehp]

so sawmill ordered a new log loader for the truck , went as big as they make for up here 

[nativewolf]

Good on you!  So 2+ on the hard maple and we'll see what happens on your walnut. I'll have a price range on mine on Friday.  I don't expect much, it is not great.  

[nativewolf]

BIG increase in rough long WO, $1000/mbf for 30'.  International. 12" top min.

[ehp]

hard maple is better than that $3 to $5 average on veneer 

[ehp]

I was talking about the $2 average , I only have had 1 log below $3 so far. The walnut has been sap right so I'm not thinking much but I can always hope 

[ehp]

hard maple

 

[Don P]

Thanks for the report , we were having trouble finding a few white oak trees for a bridge job and a 20 acre tract came up reasonable this week that had some white and chestnut on it, mostly red from what I saw as we snagged a few whites yesterday. Might build some timberframes with the reds unless the price is good. I have seen yellow poplar going down the road here the past month or so, it had been only white pine.

[nativewolf]

hard maple

Wow...well that is perfect

[WDH]

This week's HMR shows hardwood lumber prices up for many species.  Red oak lumber is moving briskly and is in short supply.  China has come back into the market.  Cherry is moving up, hard maple, walnut, and white oak are moving up. 

[Ed_K]

 Just got the 3rd quarter stumpage report from the U of Ma. Prices on the stump have gone up considerably. W/oak went from $75. to $200. Cherry $50. to $175. Sugar maple $175. to $300. Yellow Birch $40. to $175. Black birch up $5. Lot of others from 5 to 45. Even Hemlock came back on board at $30. All prices MBF.

[mike_belben]

I think the free paychecks have spurred the upper class to invest in housing to park their money where it wont errode from printing press dilution.  Well, that and covid has mobilized the wealthy to escape population density.

friend of mine and his wife are both top middle class high earners and it took them a year of getting outbid when they were offering more than asking price already.  Half million to buy a house with a garage, 7 weeks ago.  


How else can you explain the housing market growing likes its the dotcom days when half the economy is in a forced covid closure?  Travel, hotel and restaurant biz are in the toilet, prices should be down on everything. Lumber has tripled yet every time im in lowes theres guys in line with full dolleys like its on sale in some sorta upside down world.  

If mayonaise tripled id stop buying it.

[nativewolf]

We did not do well on the sappy walnut, $8 max.  One log thrown down into high end sawlog at $4, it was nearly 1/3 sapwood.  Walnut sawlogs went from $4 to $1.

Had a black oak butt go for $1400/mbf and that's a new high for us on black oak.  

White oak staying strong with veneer from $3-6.

[mike_belben]

$8/bf isnt good wyatt?  Ive never hit $2/bf.