Need idea's in sw wisconsin to clear 150 ac of woods for pasture

[2stick]

I own a cattle ranch in sw wisc., I have 150 ac of hard wood timber that was logged hard 13 years.
I need to make more pasture, so I decieded to clear it. Is their any value in what is left , it would be nice to have a positve cash flow while clearing this land, I  do own alot of land clearing equipment  just hate the thought of pushing it into piles and burning.

Open to any idea's

Thanks Jeff

[ely]

down here its either pulp wood or firewood. alot of work eitherway.

[Ron Scott]

Any wood chip market near by?

[beenthere]

2stick  Can you post a pic or three of what your woodlots generally look like now? 

There is chatter in southern WI about biofuels. Am thinking it is a long way off, if anything at all. The dreamers rattle off a lot about all the biofuel that could be burned...low quality wood, oat hulls, corn stover, marsh hay, tree tops, switch grass, etc. etc.  And they are real careful to exclude pulp wood and saw/veneer logs from their list. But if the price be right, all would be fair game and whatever is easiest to gather.

Takes 7 to 10 times the volume I understand to make up for the cheap coal. So moving the material in trucks with high cost per mile will be a deal killer.

[SwampDonkey]

If it's like dense hardwood species than it may not have much value yet. If it's aspen and birch then it still may not be of much value because the size may be small still. If it was logged hard, that could mean a lot of things. Could have high graded all the best timber with all the suppressed, deformed, twisty, bent over trees left. Or it could have been cut with hardly a pole left. Or maybe it was opened up with a more indiscriminate cut leaving seed trees for the new forest, then a later entry to remove the seed trees once the new forest gets going. Describe the woodlot situation a little better with some pictures. Clearing land isn't cheap, but if you own the equipment I guess you have one leg up on the situation. 150 acres is a big field.  ;D

[thecfarm]

I can't sit here and see your land,but it may even "pay" you just to give the wood away,if it's all small stuff.Won't have to bother with it and play with it trying to make a dollar on it. Here in the state of Maine a chipper would come in and do all the work.The land is cleared for the cost of the wood.Would not have to baby sit a burning pile of wood.

[banksiana]

How about find some pasture land for sale nearby and orchestrate a land trade?

[2stick]

I'll try to post some pictures later today, it is not a dense wood because of the cattle that do graze all summer they keep all the under brush down. Most of the trees are hickory,white oak , red oak, hard maple, ash and cherry 15" at the stump and long and straight, I  need to remove enough trees to get the grass to grow, buying more land in this area won't pencil out. My open land will support 2 head per acre the whole grazing season may-oct, the 150 arces of  wooded land  will only support 20.

[SwampDonkey]

By dense wood, I mean those exact species you listed. They are denser in weight and Sp. gravity and grow a lot slower than aspen and white birch. ;) So you have a few 10"-12" DBH ave. hardwoods. So was it actually cut hard, or was it one of them diameter limit high grade cuts to remove anything over 14" for just the logs? This doesn't mean that all the smaller wood was junk, but typically they are not as valuable because they were not dominant in the canopy and did not have the min. top diameter for that but log in the local markets. Many would have been suppressed flat topped junk, but there are always a few nice ones among them.

[ahlkey]

With the species that you mentioned and if the average sizes indicated are correct it all depends how much volume of merchantable logs are left and if the terrain is not problematic.   I did a turnkey job last year that included everything except stump/slash removal and the landowner  pocketed a fair amount of income to hire that out as well.   A lot of variables are involved of course but in my case I did bring my sawmill, processor, etc... on site to do the lumber and firewood as the landowner wanted both.  Everything was nearby my shop making it worthwhile for me to transport my equipment.  That transportation advantage and location to my shop made a huge difference.  So it is possible to make out but a lot of variables exist.

If you are not familar with the market I would strongly suggest you consider a consulting forester to broker the sale for you even in a clearcut situation.  Their fees will be less than a typical harvest and they should be able to get you the best prices on any merchantable timber.  If you do in fact do 150 acres and even if the site is very thin you should be able to get enough volume to make it worthwhile.   Good luck  

[banksiana]

One step would be a cost / benefit analysis on the process of converting to pasture or growing the timber (from your description, the timber doesn't sound too bad) for a future harvest.  A good consulting forester should be able to give you some long term figures on the timber income.  Not sure how to compare it to raising stock, but I am sure it can be done.   I have worked in that area some in the past but it is about 5 hours southeast of me.  Long ways to go to look at 150 acres.

[SwampDonkey]

Seems kinda low for carrying capacity on 150 acres pasture. I've seen 50 or 60 graze just 100 acres. Father had pasture he would rotate with crops, but never had any pasture at any time larger than 60 acres with 25 milk cows and his hay fields were a lot nicer than what they call hay these days. Actually those hobby hay growers never last long, gotta put something back on the land every year. :D

[jim king]

Need idea's in sw wisconsin to clear 150 ac of woods for pasture

What a difference between here and there.  You would go to jail for that here.

[alan cox]

we sell quality firewood here in michigan.  fyi.  a rick of cut and split.    lady size pieces.  stacked in their garage is  150$     if you take your time and process this wood.  stack it on old semi  trailers.  park them for a year so you have quality.  and I mean quality dry wood.  the people are looking for that kind of wood and are willing to pay for it.
average semi trailer delivered is approx 3 grand to you after expenses.

we do it all the time

do not let the cheap skates fool you into thinkinng that the market is as low as it is.  you will get whatyou ask.  marketing marketing marketing is the three words that will get you through.

be aware that we are going into a severe depression.  its just starting up. so dont spend a dime anywhere you dont need to.