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Where to sell hard and soft maple in western Pa

Started by Dobie, September 27, 2015, 09:39:38 AM

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Dobie

Buying a large tract of timberland with about half the volume being made up of sugar and red maple.  Looks like a lot of #1's and probably 2+ logs a tree.  I'll need to sell some of the trees to help make the payments which are pretty scary.


Anyone sell maple recently in northern Pa/western New York recently know of a good mill to sell to?


Appreciate the help.

beenthere

The answer likely isn't going to be what you want to hear.
First, IMO would be to have a cruise done on your tract of timberland and find out what stocking you have now. Or do you have that information now?
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Dobie


WV Mountaineer

Why don;t you contact The PA division of Forestry.  the will have all the info on the surrounding mills and such.  Get that info, call the mills, meet the foresters, show them what you want, let them worry about the marketing and such.  Good luck and God bless
Trying to live for the Lord, spend all the time I got with family, friends, hunting, fishing, and just enjoying my blessings.

Dobie

With the amount of volume we're dealing with, I think we should probably be safe and just use a forester.   We were thinking of having the trees cut and skid and sell them ourselves but not sure how fairly we would be treated by the mills.

Ron Wenrich

You don't have the experience level to carry out a sale like that.  To maximize your profits, you would need to get with several buyers of different products.  Some logs will be of veneer value, some sawlog value, and maybe pulp value.  Someone is going to have to be responsible for the bucking of the logs into the highest value.  I don't think it is anything most landowners can handle on their own.

My suggestion is to get a competent forester in there.  Your 2009 inventory should be OK, but you'll want to set a timber basis for tax purposes.  You'll be liquidating an asset which is part of the purchase price of the land.  You might want to talk to your accountant or lawyer to get a handle on this.  Laws may have changed since I've done any of those.

I'm not sure how many acres you're talking about.  You could set things up into blocks and sell at different times so your income stream is spread out over several years.  Small tracts are usually all cut at one time. 

What the forester should do is mark your timber that you want to sell.  You should have an eye to future growth.  A clearcut is starting over.  A high grade cutting will deplete your growing stock, and keep your stand stocked with junk.  Not good for the future.  He then will put the timber out for bids, and you can sell to the highest bidder.  He will know which loggers and mills are worthy of contacting for your type of timber, and their reliability as far as paying goes.  You will then be getting checks for the timber before it is cut.  There should be down money shortly after the sale and the signing of the contract.  The forester should then oversee the operations, making sure the contract is adhered to. 

Shop around for consultants.  Some are good, some aren't.  If there is as much timber on there as you're implying, then I would let them bid on their fees.  A large sale is a good amount of money for a consultant.  He doesn't have to go out and look for other sales, so his operating costs go down. 

The state does have a list of consulting foresters, as well as foresters with many of the mills.  Watch out for the hype of how much mills pay.  They often quote their highest prices, but rarely quote the lowest.  Foresters are often the same. 

Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

mesquite buckeye

Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

bitternut

I strongly suggest that you contact a consulting forester to manage any sale and to also help you devise a management plan for the future of your woods. A consulting forester will walk your land with you for free to get you started.

I recently completed a timber sale on part of my woods and am very pleased with the results. My woods is located in South Western  Allegany County NY which is pretty close to your location. I would assume you would be dealing with the same market area as what I was.

I used the forestry firm of Bruce Robinson in Jamestown, NY. I have used them for quite some time and strongly recommend them. Give them a call and set up a time to visit the property with you. Their number is 716-665-5477. PM me if you have any questions or concerns.


Ron Scott

PA has some good professional consulting foresters. I would strongly suggest using one for your land management and timber harvesting needs.
~Ron

Habitatmgr

The tract you are purchasing sounds identical to one for sale bordering me in the Sugar Grove, PA area.  If so, feel free to PM me or I can go into more detail here as I know a lot of the history of that tract and it was very overpriced when we looked at it and the 2009 inventory was suspect.....

Hard maple was selling good for a while last winter but then it crashed and a lot of it around here got cut for blocking/pallets as it was on the landing or yard and going to stain.

Lots of soft maple around so unless really good quality its not a great seller by itself.

You definitely want to get a timber cruise and a management plan.  Forecon has managed a number of these and probably gets the best bids on managed timber sales.

Dobie

Habitatmgr pm sent.


The forrester who did the plot cruise is someone I've used a couple times in the past on some smaller jobs and his numbers were right about spot on both times.  One of the reasons I liked this piece even though I wasn't sure about the total volume was because he had pricing from the timber crash of '09 in the estimate.  Soft maple he had at $175 per thousand and hard maple at $300 per thousand.  From what I know, soft maple today should be around $300/mbf and hard maple $450-500/mbf.  I'm no expert by any means by the quality of the stand looked to be higher grade to my eyes.  Lots of #1's.   The Cherry looked pretty good as well.

Dobie

Well, we have a forester lined up and hopefully this will be a good property.


Here's a picture from yesterday when we were up there.


mesquite buckeye

Manage 80 acre tree farm in central Missouri and Mesquite timber and about a gozillion saguaros in Arizona.

red

Honor the Fallen Thank the Living

Dobie

Curious,...why would the cherry be going to Georgia?


We were up there yesterday and noticed there is more cherry than we originally thought.

My wife is in front of one of the cherry's for scale.  The bigger trees in the picture are all cherry in amongst hemlocks.





red

My wacky sence of humor.  . WDH has an obsession with Cherry he is in Georgia. .  also know as flat roof country with no snow load
Honor the Fallen Thank the Living

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