Log Prices?

[stavebuyer]

The trucks and trailers are heavy spec and were purchased to hold up running 10% over in the mountains not to maximize payload on the big road. The drivers and loader man often aren't being held accountable to maximize as much as warned not to overload and be put out of service overweight. They could do better, but the average over time is what it is. I broker the logs, so the freight is not my area to oversee. When I used to handle veneer from this region 3200' was about it on an aluminum flat with light bolsters. Used to sub-contract this route out by the foot and they hauled heavy and bypassed the scales. Now with the electronic logging and hours of service you can't pull that off without making it a two-day trip. Used to be that you could get some flatbeds to backhaul. Now the bourbon trade has monopolized those lanes. Trucks and drivers aren't to be found.

The RR's claim the oak ties from this neighborhood are slower growth and heavier than anyplace else. These old mountaintop Chestnut Oaks are mostly from places that were skipped over when this ground was first logged in the early 1900s.

The wood is heavy, the trucks are heavy, the operators are erring to the side of being light rather than over. Maximize everything you could easily trim the $.45 haul down to about $.40 which is certainly worth doing but sometimes water goes over the dam. 

[newoodguy78]

Does anyone know what the white pine market in central Mass is currently?
I cut probably 2-3 tri-axle loads this week. Most of it is nice stuff, hate to see it wasted. It's essentially a by product of a farm improvement project I'd like to find a home for. 

[KWH]

Newoodguy78, it all depends on if you're buying or selling. :D You could see if Brain Dammon in Fitzwilliam NH would buy them. He is on rt12 right below State line truck service. I'd give him a try.

[cutterboy]

Or Robinson's sawmill in Hardwick Mass.
WR Robinson Lumber Co.

[newoodguy78]

I tried Robinson, was surprised when he told me they aren't buying right now. 
I'll give Damon a call and see if there's any interest there. I've bought a fair amount of lumber from both places in the past. 

[kantuckid]

The only logs I see moving here are cut by crews that work for local mills that own the timber. It's rained about 1/10" in last 5-6 weeks here and the deer are ganging up on my farm pond. Lots of leafs down, fire is a serious possibility but today, Sunday plus Monday & Tuesday says rain is coming. 

[ehp]

white pine is pretty good here , its as high as its ever been for me . The log home pine market is high as well but a real pain in the butt to deal with as you move and move the logs for the buyers to look at 

[customsawyer]

I was looking in the equipment trader and on page 5 they had some forwards on there. 2 of them were close to 20 years old with over 18K hours and they still wanted close to 80k bucks for them. Any that were close to 10K hours were around 250K. That's a lot of wood you have to move to pay for high hour machines. Are these prices normal? How much are the new machines? It seems like a tough market to be in if you have to have one of these to get the wood out.

[barbender]

Yep those are normal prices for forwarders.

[Firewoodjoe]

I was looking in the equipment trader and on page 5 they had some forwards on there. 2 of them were close to 20 years old with over 18K hours and they still wanted close to 80k bucks for them. Any that were close to 10K hours were around 250K. That's a lot of wood you have to move to pay for high hour machines. Are these prices normal? How much are the new machines? It seems like a tough market to be in if you have to have one of these to get the wood out.

Small one is $350+ mid to big size is 450-600,000. The only way that works is cut a lot and trade in soon. So your investment is only half what you paid and hopefully very little down time. 

[stavebuyer]

My quartersaw buyer calls today and says they went too far on the last price cut and it impacted their procurement numbers. Now they will revert to paying in full when the logs are scaled and add a $.30 bd/ft freight allowance.

[nativewolf]

Now that is good news!  Hope you are cutting some nice large chestnut oak on that ridge.  

[Woodfarmer]

So how do you guys store logs. All my Ash logs are checking terribly, the splits run the entire length of the log.

[stavebuyer]

Keeping the bark intact helps a bunch. In the growing season a tree felled and not bucked or moved until the leaves wilt will help retain the bark. Winter cut logs will retain the bark naturally. "Debarked" logs either can be stored under water(a lawn sprinkler goes a long way), or sprayed with a coating like Anchor Seal. Anchor seal is great for end checking but is tough to coat the sides as well as expensive due to the quantity needed to treat an entire log. Commercial mills use sprinklers on the dark woods. Wood like Hard Maple they saw their inventory every week and don't try and store due to storage degrade. Common for grade mills to start their week sawing Hard Maple on Monday until its sawn out and stockpiling the oaks under water.

High grade logs are more perishable than most realize. They won't "rot" overnight, but they will certainly stain in week of hot and humid conditions.

[ehp]

WF, kind of wrong time of year to be cutting ash and the better the ash is the worse it splits , I had a job that had real good ash and it had to be cut right then so cut the logs up in 3 log lengths so 24 to 32 ft length and sent to the mill like that , mill cut them to length the day they were being sawn into lumber 

[customsawyer]

Back to log prices. Just heard yesterday some outfit in TN. came down here and bought the white oak off of a tract. They payed $100.00/ton to the land owner, I'm sure for the best grade logs. For reference that is around what I pay for good tree length WO delivered to the mill, mixed grades. That will put it around 50 cents per bf. The biggest difference is this price was payed to the land owner. It will still need to be cut and hauled a min. of 3 hours and probably closer to 5 or 6 hours to get to where the whiskey is made. 

[stavebuyer]

White Oak staves cut from fast growing trees tend to leak. Somebody may get an expensive lesson with south-Georgia logs.

[ehp]

we pay more than that for white oak standing here and if good white oak its alot more than that here

[OH logger]

we pay more than that for white oak standing here and if good white oak its alot more than that here

Same here

[customsawyer]

For reference that is about double what is normally paid for standing white oak down here. There is a reason y'all get higher prices in the hardwood market report too. Yours is a better quality WO. Ours is full of stress and can be a pain to saw because of it. 

[Peter Drouin]

Here it's .40  BF for the pallet del to the yard. I don't do pallet, I get a good saw logs for grade stakes and lumber. And that's like .70 a bf.

[Hogdaddy]

So, when he said per ton, how much does $50 a ton on pallet timber figure per foot. Hardwoods. Just need a rough guess.

[customsawyer]

I'm talking about what the landowner gets. Not what the mill pays. Would have to add logging cost and trucking cost per ton per mile to get that figure. At $50.00/ton would be a little over 25 cents per bf. but you won't get that for pallet logs or pulp wood. Probably 10-15 bucks a ton to the land owner. This is all for hardwoods. I wish Danny was still here he would have more info to add to this. Don't know what loggers are getting per ton now with these new fuel prices or what the trucking cost have gone up to.

[Hogdaddy]

Yeah. That's what they're paying for pallet hauled to the mill here. $50

[ehp]

nothing here is by the ton or cord, she is all by the 1000, land owners here get paid very well and there is enough guys buying timber there is no nice good deals unless its real junk and no one wants it . White oak is a tree you got to be quite carefull at buying cause we normally only sell the top grade of veneer cause its a long truck ride for the logs so they only want the top stuff and I mean its got to be perfect so you better know what your looking at cause the next grade down is a huge drop in pay , its less than half