Cherry Forest Tree Pricing

[UID Wood Works]

I recently ran across a property owner with many cherry trees he would consider dropping and selling for me, question is what are they worth? I am interested in the 10 biggest ones.

- Most are smaller, 18- 24" with a few 28-32" with long, straight trunks
- These are forest trees
- Property owner to drop and stack/load me

We're a custom furniture business and we do not currently have any Cherry in inventory and are working on building up our hardwoods. I am interested, but at what cost? After some researching it looks like cherry is going for around $.50/bf in log form?

Any advise or direction would be helpful!

[ladylake]

 

.50 a bf seems real cheap for cherry that you'll sell for $8 to 10 a bf or more.   Steve

[nativewolf]

Well if has cut and stacked them then the only thing missing from mill pricing is transport.  You could offer him a discount on mill log purchase prices.  We are seeing pricing from $500-$2000/thousand.  Defects would be heartwood, gum, bird peck. 

Where are you from?  I'm cutting a large amount of cherry now and more in January, we're in Northern VA. 

You'll want to seal the ends carefully and store logs carefully.

How are you going to get them sawn?  Lots of members here saw and would enjoy sawing some nice cherry.

[woodman58]

In the mid-west I am lucky to get $3 a bf for cherry that has been sawn and kiln dried. The price you get really depends on where you live. If you live close to a big city you can get a better price for your lumber. If you live where I live people don't like to drive 2 hours to buy your lumber. I have a few select customers that will travel for the lower price, some as far away as 380 miles. There have been many saw mills pop up between me and the big city.

[Resonator]

There's a subject thread in Forestry and Logging, "Very large black cherry tree market?", you might want to read.

[Ron Wenrich]

Looks like the OP is located in Albany, NY according to their website.  Since he's only interested in the biggest 10 logs, I would think that they may be veneer quality, unless the veneer has been picked out.  I haven't been around the veneer markets for many years.  50 cents a foot is less than what good cherry brings on the stump.  High quality sawlogs is probably triple that.  NY state stumpage report has cherry going from 40 cents to $1.50 for stumpage.  You're getting logs, which means logging costs should be added onto that. 

You might do well to contact other mills in the area to see what they're paying for logs.  Not all logs are prime or veneer.  Baillie, Wagner and Gutchess are big producers.  If you're pulling the best logs, you should be paying what they're paying. 

[nativewolf]

I'd say Ron has it right then, leave it to a PA man to know the cherry market and Albany should not be too far off of that. 

[Brad_bb]

Do you have a plan for sawing and drying the Cherry?  For Cherry, get some log savers and flitch savers from UC coatings. Cherry tends to split at the ends and these can help reduce your loss from that.

[UID Wood Works]

Excellent info guys

$1,200/1000bf is what my local mill is paying for veneer logs delivered. I am going to start off that basic number and see what the land owner has in mind. Until we cut one of the trees we dont really know what the insides of them look like. Most trees are veneer grade, clear 4 sides.

I will report back with my findings. I made contact with a local sawyer who has a nice woodmizer, he runs it much cheaper then my mill can offer and its nice to support a smaller guy like myself.