Do any of you guys Cut firewood Full time?

[firewolf]

Hello all
I am new to the Forestry forum and was just wondering if any of
you . Do firewood for full time?

and what do you think of the Price difference between Wood Vs Oil / Gas etc
are you busy ? and are are people still wanting to pay 1970 prices for there Wood.
Even though Oil is through the roof .. 8)

[Splinter]

I only cut for myself, here is a fuel calculator

$5/gallon is roughly equivalent to $700/cord for hardwood.
$250-300 for green CSD around here.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/experts/heatcalc.xls

[WildDog]

Welcome firewolf.

I am in Australia so I won't bother with price differences, my Town of aprox 6000 people  supports about 6 seasonal firewood cutters. We have very hot burning hardwoods, a lot less wood is burn't these days with wood combustion fires/heaters as opposed to open fire places I put one piece of hardwood in the box before bed, shut it down and have coals in the morning, could'nt do that with open fires.

[firewolf]

Welcome firewolf.

I am in Australia so I won't bother with price differences, my Town of aprox 6000 people  supports about 6 seasonal firewood cutters. We have very hot burning hardwoods, a lot less wood is burn't these days with wood combustion fires/heaters as opposed to open fire places I put one piece of hardwood in the box before bed, shut it down and have coals in the morning, could'nt do that with open fires.

Just Curious what do you mean by having very hot burning Hardwoods?
Are the like an oak? 

[Sawyerfortyish]

I don't know if I could be considered full time or not. I have a firewood processor and do 3-400 cords a year. I don't run it every day but deliver wood every week of the year. Everyone here has finely gotten it into there heads that everything has gone up. I've been told that a cord of wood is equal to 150 gal of fuel oil. Splinter is right if fuel and wood were equal in value wood should be 700.00 a cord. I'm at 200.00 a cord right now and have more calls for wood than ever this time of year. Yes there are people wanting to pay 1970 prices for wood. Just had one the other day tryed to tell me how poor he was(he's not I know better)so I told him not only will he be poor but he will be dang cold this winter too.
  WildDog how cold does it get down under? Here in winter it can hover around zero for weeks and I don't mean celsius. I have burned as much as a cord in ten days when below zero in my outdoor wood furnace. I know you have much harder woods than our oak or hickory. what kind of wood do you have?

[SwampDonkey]

I burn about 7 cord in 8-9 months here and use sugar maple, beech, yellow birch. I buy all mine cut, split and delivered. Takes me 2-3 days to stack in the basement depending on how keen I am. It goes for $200 a cord from my source and some areas it's close to $300/cord. Nobody is getting rich off it. But you see, wood prices are not controlled by firewood barons or listed as a commodity on the stock market, although it is regulated to some degree on volume basis that no one state or province can agree on. That would be too easy. So anyway, some processors have learned to set the price and stay firm, while others try to undercut for the sake of moving wood weather or not it is profitable. Never will understand why someone wants to work for nothing. It's always the same with anything sold off the farm or woodlot, it gets a lot worst with a whole lot of operators, than with a few. Some people get great satisfaction from cutting their own throats. Many times, based on the probability from a roll of the dice, many under cutters are not relying on it for their livelihood.

[Stephen Alford]

Hey Firewolf; welcome to the forum,there is a renewed interest on the island in woodheat  for contractors and homeowners alike. My classic firewood story occured one evening when making a delivery. After introducing myself to an eldery lady as the guy with her wood she responded " oh dearie I am so sorry, come in and tell me how you lost your farm !"

[WildDog]

Just Curious what do you mean by having very hot burning Hardwoods?
Are the like an oak? 

Hot burning is probably not totally correct as pine with its sap will burn fast and hot, these hardwoods are dense and provide plenty of hot coals.

WildDog how cold does it get down under? Here in winter it can hover around zero for weeks and I don't mean celsius. I have burned as much as a cord in ten days when below zero in my outdoor wood furnace. I know you have much harder woods than our oak or hickory. what kind of wood do you have?

Our eastern hardwood's are usually eucalyptus and gums, the moderately dense include Red/white/yellow Stringy Bark, and Red Gum's, the dense ones are Yellow/White/Grey Box, Broad & Narrow leaf Ironbark(this is the densest)

The Ironbark provides really hot coals and s said toshorten the life of your firebox if used as the sole fuel, I primarily use 75% Stringy bark and 25% Box or Ironbark. Narrow leaf Ironbark grows in hard light country and makes for good fence posts. The Box's and Ironbarks split well enough when green but can be literally impossible to split when well seasoned. I recently posted some pics in another firewood post of the grain comparisons of Stringy bark and Box. Just about everything that comes out of the Australian Bush is hard.

My town of Glen Innes regularly records the coldest temps in the state, we get snow, sleat and plenty of frosts, the six frosts last week in town were aroud -6 Cellcius, but our house is on the crek and we had -10 under cover on the verandah, it's not unusuall to get -15constantly on the creek, nothing as bad as some of you guys get over there.

[AlexHart]

I sell about 200 cords of cut and split wood a year although I will probably go over that by quite a bit this year.   Between the CSD wood and calls for loads of log truck length I have never seen demand like this before.   Its just ferocious... and I don't even know how a lot of these folks get my name.   I've been getting $225 a cord for about a month now and have had very few people even hesitate.   I suppose if I was more of a cutthroat I could get 250+ and still have as much work as I could handle. 

I think things are going to get ugly around here come about Thanksgiving time.   When the average guy decides to maybe fill up the fuel tank a little bit for the winter and all of a sudden has to write out a $1480 check or whatever it is for something that used to cost maybe a couple hundred bucks there are going to be some unhappy folks.   

[Sawyerfortyish]

I know exactly what you are saying about being busy with firewood this early. I had to change my thinking about giving the summertime customers wood at a reduced rate just to keep things going. Now it's more like this is what it is if you want it now or it will be more later. I've been talking to other guys that do a lot of wood and raising my prices right along with them. I don't want to be 20.00 a cord cheaper than the next guy and get flooded with orders that I can't keep up with.

[Climber]

Hi,
i am runing tree service company in NH. Firewood is my by-product. So far this year I sold about 70 cords. It is cut 16"-18" NOT split and it's green.
My price is $150 per cord and I am sold out for this year.

Right now I am advertizing for "Early bird. Get ready for 2009-2010 season" for $160 per cord. So far I have 20 cords preordered.

It's absolutly right 1 cord of firewood is evivalent to 130-150 galons of oil. Because it's not convinient you SHOULD sale it for about price of 100 galons of oil.

Guys it's your time. So many years you were trying to brake even. If you follow this rule (100 gal of oil) finaly you'll be profitable. You can renew your old bitup equipment.

Ones  a wile I geting customer who is not capble to pay full price give him/her a brake. But when some one just trying to get savings for your cost tell him to come on his truck and load.

BOTTOM LINE:
Finaly it is the time to get compencated accordingly for your hard working.

[woodmills1]

yes firewood is going strong here in southern new hampshire.

[logwalker]

Hey Climber, I read your post and I don't understand it. If you say we should be selling for the equivalent of 100 gallons than why are you charging $150? We are selling for $225 around these parts and losing ground on every cord. I am going to start advertising for $300 and see what happens. Joe

[Climber]

Joe,
I am selling cut, unsplit, green.
If I split and season it will be $300-350 in june, by september $400