Inroduction

[Busysawyer]

The decision to cut high value trees off your own property is one I have had to deal with myself.  We own a good bit of generally mature hardwoods, more high grade white oak than anything, but with a good many walnuts. We also own a grade lumber business. So what do we do about all our trees? Virtually nothing except enjoy them.

Here's why:
When we started, we didn't know anything and could have cut our high value trees into lumber and ruined them.  It would have been a waste of good wood. Basically turning gold into lead.  I did cut a lot of lower value trees to get our business off the ground, and we made money, but I lost a lot of money and learns some valuable lessons.    

We could have sold them to buyers and made some good money, (our neighbor did) but deep down, I didn't want to do that.  The trees would have been gone and then what?  The value of the land would have dropped commensurate with the value of the trees harvested.  So make money, lose money as a landowner.  

Once we knew what we were doing in the business, I could turn them into very valuable lumber, no problem.  However, by now, we sell so much wood, if we had been doing that, our place would look like a desert and we wouldn't have had a tree left on the place.  So we would have developed log sources anyway.  However, we do have 3 1\2 miles of fencline, and cross fencing so there are always trees that are leaning and need to come down.  I don't hesitate to take them down.  I also use Google Earth to look over our farm and identify distressed and dying trees, get their locations, and I take them out routinely.  No use letting money go to waste.  I consider the healthy trees a growing investment, and leave them alone.  The distressed or questionable trees are invenstments that have reached maturity, and I cash them in.

As our business grew, we had to learn to buy and broker logs, and have log sources, and now we actually don't need to cut our own trees down, anymore.  I say let other people cut theirs down, but not mine.  

As far as veneer buyers, the ones around here generally pay up to $8 to $10 per bdft for walnut, maybe $4 per bdft for an average veneer white oak.  However, in our market, with walnut, for example, I can take that same log, or even one of a lesser "near veneer" quality, process them up properly, and get $15 per bdft.  So if I was going to cut them down, I would use them myself.  However I wouldn't do that unless I knew I could make the money.  If I had some of your huge walnuts, I might be targeting $20 per bdft as finished product.  How much is the veneer buyer offering you on the stump? With your current business maturity you may not be able to match that in high grade lumber sales, but what about in five years?

As a landowner and sawmill owner I can take a slightly different perspective.  

I have no idea what a veneer buyer would pay. When the tree buyer/ arborist was here I asked him what kind of products would be made from our trees and he said we had a lot of veneer quality trees and those would be sold to a veneer company and they would mill the rest. I have been researching buying loads of logs to mill but haven't got very far yet. I really don't want to cut very many of our trees. I will definitely try to learn how to mill properly before I get into any high value trees. We need to clear about an acre or so for a work area around the barn and there are two really nice walnuts that need to come down and a couple of big red oaks. We are trying to work out a deal with a family friend for his trees to get started.  He has thirty acres and just happens to be littered with nice walnut . I'm sure we can come to an agreement.  He wants a lot of other work done on his property and is wanting to work out some bobcat work in his deal.  Hearing your story of success is motivating me. Our plan was to start with the smaller less valuable trees that we need to cut anyways and start learning there. I have two 5 gallon buckets of anchor seal here we are going to use as we cut trees and set them aside. The goal is to have the lot cleared, a pile of logs stacked and kiln built when the mill arrives at the beginning of May.  I am really hoping the retired pro can shorten my learning curve. When he talks I listen. Thank you again for the advice.