couple pics... post what your currently cutting

[mike_belben]

Congrats hustler.  That your dad in blue?  

[chevytaHOE5674]

Funny you guys can move so much firewood. UP here everybody and their brother has some land so they just cut their own wood. A few small time loggers that sell 8' firewood but nobody selling cut/split.

[barbender]

There's too many guys selling cut, split and delivered up here and it keeps the price down. $180 per full cord delivered is a common price. If you buy wood to process, most loggers are getting $85-100 per cord. That doesn't leave enough room to make money, IMO.

[mike_belben]

I still dont get how you measure full logs into cords.  Weigh a few loads then just pick a price for a full truck?

[jwilly3879]

If it is on a loader truck the driver has a pretty good idea what he has on. The fellow that trucks our wood has been doing it for many years and has made thousands of trips to the mill hauling 8' pulp. He puts 7 cord of mixed hardwood on the triaxle, no one has complained. Our poplar pulp goes to a shaving mill and they stick scale it and the triaxle usually scales about 7.5 cord. Everyone that buys the 8' from us is happy with the quantity.

[barbender]

Mike, 95% of the wood around here is moved in 100" lengths, crosswise on a trailer so it's pretty simple to measure. The problem is, say I pay $100 per cord for a 12 cord load of red oak. I think if your lucky, you'll get 10 cords of cut and split out of it. 9 is more realistic. That already puts me at $133.33 invested in my cord of cut and split (plus my splitting cost), and I still have to deliver it. I continue to add up my costs, and pretty soon I have more invested than the $180 per cord I'm getting. Every year someone new gets a processor and tries their hand at it, lasts about a year and they're belly up. Unfortunately there's enough new people that want to try it that they keep that price down around the $180 mark. I think it should be around $300. Since I can't get that, I split and sell whatever I can get free or cheap. There's not enough margin otherwise.

[BargeMonkey]

 Unless your buying your own wood on the stump or partnered up with someone for processor wood it's a rough market around here. If you bid on these bigger state sales they throw the firewood in for pennies. The problem is how many times you handle it. A triaxle load is 650-725 around local and that's 6.5 cord of 16-22' wood, wont be long we will be 250 a cord local, no ones sitting on huge piles this tr. 

[Tin Horse]

Where I am I pay $2400.00  load. ( 2 Pups). Supposedly ABOUT 16 cords. I've never gotten that. Gave that up for now. When I process the lengths ( some 16' and some 8').  I have waste on almost all logs. I'll burn it but it's still lost profit. Some customers wonder if the shorts are free. When it's all processed, stacked and then delivered I've had to do about half the load to break even. Sad profit.
For now I cut and process off my own property but I can't do that forever. Though maybe more profit excluding all the extra labor. Definitely no money in delivery. I sell for $330. delivered. Price going up $10.00 this year. I won't do it for less. About 30 cords a year. I have mostly good customers but any complaints I politely explain costs. If they don't get it quick I drop them off the list. As with milling I love the work but it"s still gotta pay.   

[mike_belben]

My brother got a "7 to 8 cd" load of logs delivered and i see about 5 when its all put up. Think he paid $750.

[BargeMonkey]

Congrats hustler.  That your dad in blue?  

Thank you Mike, it's been a struggle. yes that's my father, he still goes like a savage every day. I have 1 younger brother, I sent him a house plant for Christmas last yr, told him to carry it to replace the oxygen he wastes. 🤣 From left to right it's the 2 guys from the bank, our engineer who you cant quite see, our congressman, myself, my father, the county administer, town supervisor and another local person who got in the picture. 3 long yrs and finally getting there. 

[barbender]

Go easy on your brother😂😂😂

[chevytaHOE5674]

There are two local guys that sell cut and split by the pickup load for basically beer money and that's it. Few years back a guy bought a processor and tried to make a go of it (was trying to sell wood very reasonable) but there just wasn't many buyers. It is a yooper tradition to get your buddies together with a few cases of beer to "make wood" lol.

[WV_hillbilly]

wow I feel fortunate in our area cause I pay $400-500 for a tri axle load of 6-7 cords . they are clearing a lot of right of ways  around here so i do sort out some nice sawlogs too.  the last load had a real nice 30' sasafrass 18" at the butt.
 Last year I got a whole load of red oak that the mill rejected cause of metal in 2 butt logs . I made firewood out of half of it and sawmilled the rest . some of the logs were 24 -28" butt logs . cost me a couple chains on the chainsaw, piece of angle iron buried deep ,made a mess .

Otherwise well worth it .  

[Skeans1]

Guess we're different out here but firewood you'd be lucky to find tops everything goes for pulp out here 2' chunks up to as long as you can haul.

[chep]

Started a new jobSunday. This is 3.5 days of forwarder work. Processor had a week head start and I'm still a couple days behind him. Tough ground and small wood. Plus side is good main roads and short hauls. Rottne 16 ton smv forwarder in the background.
Long low pile sawlogs. Big pile is firewood. Tall log pile is pallet, veneer up above (not much) and hardwood pulp in near ground.
Firewood guys are hot to trot and this is a good mix of northern hardwoods.
Hot as blazes glad for a.c. and a cab to hide in. Save the hand cutting for the next cool morning. Processor hasn't left me much on this one though. Got to cut off a few steep banks for him.
Be safe and cool


up

[Skeans1]

 
 These are some older pictures of a red alder patch I cut a couple years back
 

 

[BargeMonkey]

Theres less and less "real" firewood guys around here, used to be alot of guys who did 40-50 cord while unemployed for the winter, doesnt exist anymore. I know of another decent sized firewood / logging business who is going to go out here soon rumor has it. I'm backing a couple other processor guys plus myself right now with wood, I've got one guy who's dumping it up near Saratoga for 375 a cord, my bells is going to be busy this yr.

[barbender]

Man if I could get $375 a cord I'd go buy a processor tomorrow.

[chevytaHOE5674]

People bauk at the beer money guys selling for 180 a cord for cut split around here saying it's too much. 

[mike_belben]

$60 a face cord cut split delivered and stacked.  It dont buy much beer.

[teakwood]

$60 a face cord cut split delivered and stacked.  It dont buy much beer.

Really?  You loose money at this price, right?

[mike_belben]

My cost is fairly low.  Ive never paid for wood, saws run filtered waste motor oil on the chain side, i run a chain to death. So i guess its gas and labor.  Probably pays fuel plus maybe $3/hr or something like that.  

I lost the house in the middle of raising young kids, and never moved in with anyone else, wife and i never begged or freeloaded.  We tightened our belts, stripped away all the comforts and started diggin out.  My dad taught it to me as a boy doin scrap and i taught it to them doin wood.  So the real payment comes when my adult children are competent to endure curveballs on their own.  I dont think i will need to explain to them that no one owes em a good paying easy job.  We are the people who are content to do hard stuff cheap.  


Itll get better when boy starts school this summer and i can get the rest of my equipment.

[ilog4u2]

Yeah, $65 a face cord here, cut split and delivered. My blockbuster is gonna sit here and not get worn out. Really the delivery is what costs me the most time and money. My son, myself and son in law all have outside wood stoves though so we still cut lots of firewood for ourselves.

[quilbilly]

We get around $200 per cord. Sell close to 80 per year and do bundles as well. A few big guys buy firewood logs for pulp price and sell it in the city for 250-350. They do about ten cords a day and gross profit is around 1200

[barbender]

I just saw another one of the locals put their processor up for sale. I don't know if he's upgrading or getting out of it.