Can I pay a timber company to thin my small pine stand?

[anthonyz]

Just an update to let everyone know that I FINALLY had a small timber company contact me and just finished thinning my 12 acres. We thinned to about 70 sqft basal area per acre. 

BIG thanks to Texas A&M forestry for creating the My Land Management Connector webpage. That's how this timber company / forester found me. I was able to enter the location and size of my land and specify the services I was looking for. It took several months, but I was finally contacted by a logger who had another job in the area. https://texasforestinfo.tamu.edu/MyLandManagementConnector/

I ended up getting paid (a little) for my timber rather than having to pay someone to thin. I'm pretty happy!

[Stephen1]

Thanks Old Greenhorn. I've had trouble getting foresters to even call me back to say that they aren't interested. Maybe I need to approach them differently and say that I want to hire them to consult so that they know I'm not trying to bring them in on a thinning that won't make them any money.

I have thought of trying to do it myself, but this is just a weekend place for me. I live about 2.5 hrs away during the week. It took me all weekend just to put a hog fence around my deer feeder if that tells you anything about my "abilities." ;)

We all have "ability issues" So it took you 2.5 hrs. you did it yourself. 8) 
A tractor, a chainsaw and your in buisness. Drop a few trees everytime you are there, skid them to a central area. When you have enough rent a chipper. Maybe you can gather enough to make a small log building. Make a hunt camp. It's only time and your labour. A lot of us on this forum have done quite a bit that takes longer than the Profesional, but we did it ourselves.
If your not interested in making money from large pine, what does it matter if you miss the thinning stage by a year or 2 or 3. 
I always tell my customers that I custom saw for,  The trees took a long time to grow, don't expect your table top tomorrow. 
A forest is not a vegetable garden that grows in a weeks. 

[sealark37]

Do a little research to find a local yard that buys pulpwood from small cutters.  These yards are found on rail sidings.  The yard can put you in touch with the guys you are looking for.  You will need to give them the wood, and maybe some boot.    Regards, Clark

[Lnewman]

Why not just try hack and squirt doing it yourself?

[peelwvu]

Not sure about Texas but I was in a similar situation in PA.  My 12 acres was primarily hemlock which was dying (wooly adelgid).  A forester buddy of mine got me in contact with the local paper mill.  I was in the same situation you are.  They didn't want to bother with only 12 acres.  I ended up contacting my neighbors to see if they would be willing to get their's cut too.  Their hemlocks were in the same situation as mine.  One said no but the other said yes and our combined 32 acres were big enough for them to come take it.  Got a few $$ out of it and didn't have to worry about a mess of dead hemlocks in 5 years.  My only warning is they stripped all the branches of mine in place as they cut.  Be prepared to be wading through branches for a while.  It's been a chore making deer trails and food plots. 

[wisconsitom]

Good conversation.  I'm in similar boat-have small acreage, some of which is fast-growing hybrid larch, which we planted too close together in some instances.

There is commercial sawmill in tiny town ~ 4 miles from my site.  I believe they primarily saw pallet scraggs.  If nothing else, it would be my desire to see my thinnings go to that mill.  I'm going to keep one eye cocked on this thread as I too believe I may encounter some difficulty in attracting help to so small a stand.  I've got Amish guys in the area too, and they seem to value larch timber...so that may be another option...Amish loggers are frequent in that area.