firewood processing

[Ed_K]

 In the Northern Logger there's an ad for custom processing. The guys in Conn. he will travel anywhere in NewEngland When I talked to him, he was getting $70. per cord with a minimum of 100 cords. That was 2 yrs ago when I called.
There's two companies renting out small processors here in the Greenfield area for $150. - $250. per day, they say you can average 10 cords a day.
I think you have a good chance at a niche market.
I used to do 60 - 100 cords per yr an wore myself out.Now I just sell log length on the landing. Much easier  ;D .

[evergreenforestmgmt]

I saw this and had to reply.  You're 23 years old, you bought a cord king 60, it's paid for, and you process 75-150 cords a year???  You got to teach me your skills.  I'm 28, Have a Hakki 1x37 for 3 years, I sell just over 200 cords a year, and mine is only half paid for.  Now my machine new was 12,000.  Yours used was at least $50,000.  Now how do you do it after buying your wood, processing it, selling it for let's say at best $100 profit a cord, did you manage to do that?  Sorry, I've been doing firewood for only 5 years, and working my a$$ off almost everyday doing it, and I'm only half paid on my $12,000 machine.  You just sound incredible.

[cheyenne]

The only thing wrong with jumping into the pool is not knowing how to swim......Cheyene

[gunman63]

Lets see here, U do 200 cords a year, used a $100 a cord profit, thats 20 grand a year, for 5 years, $100,000, and only half paid for a $12000  processor, (I used your  figures in this). But if u are working your a$$ off like u say,  I know what a 1X37 will do, but use only say 6 cords a day, they will do more, and say 200 working days a year, theres more of them to, thats 1200 cords a year, and using your $100 profit thats $120,000 a year, talk about economic stimulis. 8)

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

I do 75 odd cords a year with a 359 husky chainsaw and hand splitting about 3 + cords hand loading I can cut n load 8to9 ton on the truck in one good day:o :
i woudnt mind a hakki 2x as Rob my old boss has two off em both runninng for only 6 to 8 months a year and he sells about 2000 cords pa and i would only buy one if i had a larger volume of wood to do myself but if i ever get the odd job where ill need to do say 20 to30 cords in one hit Ill just borrow one of Robs off him as he has allready offerd afew times but hes 120 miles away  ;) ;D 8) 8)

Reguards Chris

[lonewolf]

 I would get in touch with someone local who is selling 8' wood by the semi load they could probably get you plenty of work. I have 1 feller in this area that works with a trucker. He has a fw processor and skidsteer and seems to work real steady. I don't know what he charges . Around here I get 65/cord for mixed hrdwd and 75/cord for red oak 8' wood plus trucking.

[Cord-n-8R]

lonewolf, you sell truckloads of 8' logs for firewood? How many cords to a load and how far will you deliver? I might be interested in a load. I'm in S.C. WI. Please PM me with/for more info.

Thanks

[tw3006]

evergreen, maybe you should come by my house and see ALL the other equipment i have, haha, then you would really be surprised. I work almost every day either logging or tree work with my father. I meet him at 6 or 6:30 to go to work. Usually i can process a full cord before he meets me, then deliver it when i get home. Plus I work weekends. I cut all my own log length firewood on clearing jobs near my house or get it on our tree jobs, so trucking is low cost, and besides my time firewood is free, and most times i even get PAID to do clearing jobs, my delivery is always close, so turn around time is fast. You spend money on things that actually help your bottom line, not Mc D's everyday. If anyone wants to hear more i'll be gladly go on, and feel free to stop by sometime.

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

TW Keep on going mate this story sounds like ive herd it before but i like it more  every time I hear it from someone else  Mate  ;) :D ;D ;D ;D 8) 8)

Reguards Chris

[FYRWOOD GUY]

had any problem with metal in the wood yet?
i'd be on the look out for it.
i tried what you want to do,but found it did not work well.i stay home and do it for them,they bring it tree-length i saw & split it and load back on their truck. $45.00 per cord

[evergreenforestmgmt]

First off, I want to apologize to anyone who I may have offended with my previous comment.  I was honestly not trying to cut down (pun intended) TW3006 for his hard work, I was trying to drive home a point that yes, he's worked hard for what he has, but he did not pay off his processor by firewood alone.  He said, that he got most of his firewood for free or really cheap.  His tree service business helps to sustain his firewood business.  
    Gunman. let's take a minute to talk about firewood and money.  You think I've made $120 K in five years?  That would be nice.  Now, first you go out and buy a $12,000 processor, then you want a 1 ton dump truck to deliver, $28,000.  Then, you have a farm and want to have a decent tractor to use for logging and firewood and have capability to move logs around and load the processor and also have for farm work.  $35,000.  Now you are missing something......oh yeah, wood!  This past summer in New England, it rained and rained and rained.  The few remaining pulp mills were buying wood to beat the band.  This high demand/rain made firewood go way up.  Guess where this is going....$150 per cord log length.  Now before you've sold a single stick of wood to a customer, let's say you purchase 200 cords of this log length wood=bammo!!! $30,000 worth of product ready to be processed.  Now fuel let's say is an average of $3.50 per gallon.  It has gone down from the $4.64 we paid last summer, but now is $2.65.  So we'll use $3.50 for a good average to process 200 cords.  It takes about 8 gallons between the processor tractor and loader tractor to pump out 8 cords of wood.  $700 of fuel for processing 200 cords.  Now let's add at least .15% to that figure to account for loading the truck, shuttling wood around the yard, sorting etc.  $805 on diesel fuel.  Now for the fun parts.  Insurance for the truck, equipment, say around $1500 a year for commercial insurance.  Now gas for the truck, same situation as the tractor.  We are "blessed" here for $1.99 gas prices.  Also down from $4+ this past year.  Let's make a average of $2.50 per gallon for gas.  are local, so mileage   You can easily figure an average of $50 per week for the year for wood deliveries alone.  This area isn't densely populated as some are, so you have to travel more than you'd like.  That's a conservative figure of $2,600 a year.  So, let's put it all together.  First I add up all the expenditures.  
                                            $109,905 total investment..........now I try to sell my green wood for $225 per cord, sometimes it is less, around $200.  Depends on time of year and competition.  I sell a little bit of seasoned or dry for more, but not really enough to mention.  So we'll use $225 per cord, green, including a local delivery x 200 annual cords.  Oh no! That's $45,000.  Now remember, you have to keep buying wood as you process it, so you don't run out, or at least have enough to make it from year to year.  Now of course, there are payments to be made on the equipment and wood to buy to be able to make those payments.  So say $45,000 - your annual payments of all the above.  For me, it's somewhere in the neighborhood of $19,521.    So we're left with $25,479.  Now take that figure and divide in two.  I work a full time job and work on the side doing firewood with my firewood partner.  $12,739.50.   Oh yeah, guess what, it's time to buy wood again!! And anyone who is doing firewood, knows that there is tons of time involved, that you wouldn't even want to figure.  Nobody would put the hours in a year to make a lousy $12 grand, but we do it because we love it!!

            Now I know people are going to say, well gee, you don't need all that equipment to sell firewood.  You could just use a dump trailer instead of a one ton, you could use a much cheaper tractor to run the wood yard.  These are all true.  And guess what, you could also split wood with a maul and wedge too!!  But seriously, like I said we do it more for the love of being outdoors and working.  Certainly not for money!

[Rick Alger]

Hi Evergreen,

Can you move white birch and soft maple? After break-up I will be on a lot with maybe 40 cords of it in Wentworth Location.

Rick

[gunman63]

well evergreen in your earlier post u said u work your a$$  off almost every day doing firewood and only do 200 cords a year, thats where i came up with your firgures, yes theres more cost to it than meets the eye, I know i do firewood also. but i know i dont need a $28000  dump truck, a nice used  dump trailer works for me, hauls 2 cords, cost a lot less than your truck, dont need a $35000 tractor either, nice simple skidsteer works the best for me, had that before i started the firewood so i didnt need to buy that either, wood costs me $60 to $75 a cord but i also receive less for my finished  product but try to get $100 a cord over my cost of the wood. dont need a partner to help me out with the work or spending the money, to me firewood is part time, still sold 500 cords this winter. to me 200 cords, if i hit it hard and cut and spilt only is 20 days work, and say 25-30 days to deliver, say 2 cords per load. so i got 50  days in to a $20000 gross after the wood cost, works for me. But if i  had to jump in and buy a $25000 splitter, 28000 truck and 35000 tractor to do it, no way cant pencil it out, thats  one reason this country is in the hole people cant firgure out how to pencil stuff out before  jumping in. No matter how much u love to do something, when your spending this amount of money the average guy has to make money doing it.

[tw3006]

guys dont you know its called green gold for a reason.... HA. but in all reality im sure glad im not trying to pay off my equipment just selling firewood, the first year i got my processor i did probably 250 cords during the summer, and bought all my wood, when i finished my taxes for the year and saw what i made...... I started working full time again with my father. To go along with what Cheyene said theres such a thing as jumping in and not being able to swim but theres also jumping in with the thought you can stay above water but not going anywhere. Diversify... speaking of that i just bought a stump grinder for my skidsteer, anyone have any stumps they need ground??? ;D

[beefriendly1]

If you have decided to do processing for others, please let me know.  We are looking for a contact in N VT near Burlington. 

[timberlinetree]

Hope the sun keeps shining up north. We had a major storm here in October 2011 that put alot of wood on the ground. All of a sudden every lanscaper and his brother were in the firewood business! A lot of homeowners had their own stock piles too. Wood went from $225, pushing $250 a cord down to $175 a cord. Not into big government, but I need a license to cut logs, a license to trim trees, maybe there should be a license/permit to sell firewood commercially... Let's let the bakers do the baking and hopefully some day firewood producers can make just a little of the profits that the oil companies make 

[SwampDonkey]

I've never really seen those kinds of swings because of a storm. I guess it's because we have pulp markets. There are only a handful of processor guys and anyone with a woodlot cuts their own anyway. Around here we just get micro bursts, so the amount of wood torn up in a storm is small potatoes. If it's softwood blow downs, there is no firewood market for that to amount to much. Camp grounds seem to have fir or spruce kindling in dry shelters, something for lots of smoke, sparks and crackling.