Buying stumpage?

[Firewoodjoe]

For foresters and loggers buying there own. Does advertising or sending flyers work? Or is that knock on the door face to face needed? 

[nativewolf]

It works , like anything low yield.  It is best if sent to an area where you will knock on doors within a week.  In an area where you have referrals.  

[Firewoodjoe]

I don't even want to do it and the competition is strong everywhere here. But profits are getting slim and unless something changes I'll have to start doing more myself. 

[ehp]

Joe this is what I did when I moved down here cause no one knew me and still lots do not , I first got a booth at the county fair and that was 7 days long of talking to people and meeting land owners . I did that for I think 6 years , Yes it cost me money for the booth and a week of not producing anything but if I gained one good 50 acre bush then it was worth it and most times I got 15 or so bushes to cut from that fair, I made flyers and cards so lots were handed out just to get my name out there , next I went on purpose and from the biggest tree hugger in the area and cut her bush cause no one else would even look at it . That alone gained me a lot of work . Once the work gets out that you do a good job and can be trusted cause in my area thats a Huge thing cause you cannot trust many . As far as putting cards or flyers in mail boxes here that is almost a waste of time cause the bigger land owners donot even look at that stuff , they just junk that stuff . Biggest thing is having land owners trust you . I give the land owners the scale slips to show them this is what their timber sold for and that is on bush I already bought so they can see I'm not making crazy money . It's getting harder to compete against the big mills cause they buy everything but you will find enough people that will not deal with the mills cause they feel they are not being treated fair . 

[ehp]

But to each there own but I can tell you I would not be buying a bunch of high grade bush right now . That most likely will come back and bite you where the sun never shines. In alot of cases you can make as much if not more of lower grade timber. Not talking just pallet but stuff that can make timber squares . The real high grade stuff around here goes for such a crazy price there is nothing left for cutting and skidding plus the trucking . The lower grade stuff most do mot want to cut cause in lots of cases you got to work a bit harder as you got to cut more trees to make the footage cause most times the timber is smaller . Just keep your head above water and keep going . Things are going to change for the better cause no one will be left to produce timber at these prices that they want to pay . Its going to be a rough tough year but whom ever is left should start making good money once the demand comes.es back

[Firewoodjoe]

I won't buy high grade. Or at least go looking for it. I don't even like cutting it. Now with the harvester I can cut pine aspen or even low grade hardwood. Something that actually has some cordage per acre. And make more money than these select cuts. It's definitely all about production in most cases. If it's less than 20 cord per acre it's tougher to get the numbers I want. And yeah look up our state sales. Some guys are throwing huge money down.