Bringing in a loggining operation

[Prismseed]

Got 5 acres, 4 of which is densely wooded with a mix of oak, maple, and holy.
Short on cash and aching for more clear land to work with.

Starting to consider selling logging rights or something to get some cash and get bigger space for a garden and some livestock buildings.

Thought and information please?

[ozark mike]

"Short on cash and aching for more clear land to work with." just because the trees are gone it does not give you "CLEAR LAND" to work with

my question is.......will the money that you get for the few logs you get off pay for the Cat to come in and push the stumps out so you can clear that land for a field or building site.....if not all you will have is a wood bare area with a bunch of unimproved pasture and would pretty much be considered waste land til it is cleared, and by your words, "short on cash", may be a ways down the road

[TnAndy]

IF you have a State forestry division, call them for help....they can often guide you in a sale. For most folks, a timber sale is a once in a lifetime deal, so do your homework.

IF you don't have a State forester:

Get at LEAST 3 bids. Told this to a neighbor on his sale: First guy that came bid $17,000.....the timber sold to the highest bidder for $85,000. Think the first guy was a crook or just REALLY bad at estimating ?

IF you include "clean up", be VERY specific on the conditions the land is to be left in, and set up a performance bond for the loggers ( either a cash amount held by your attorney or an insurance type bond ) so they don't walk off into the sunset after the logs are gone, leaving you with a mess that will take most of your timber profit to clean up.

DON'T cut "on shares"....where you get paid a certain amount of the loads delivered to a sawmill, or a dishonest logger will be delivering to more than one mill.

There are many honest loggers out there....there are also a lot of crooks.

[Prismseed]

Well, I have an abundance of neighbors with tractors and a friendly disposition to help. Plus a brother in law who works with heavy earth working equipment. So I might have a chance to get the work done without being charged a fortune for stump clearing. Most logging companies don't carry off every felled tree and leave alot of scrap. I'm hoping to bargain with a neighbor who takes our fallen trees for firewood, 'free firewood and some cash to help rip out the stumps'. I'm not looking to duck a bill entirely, but I'm hoping to trade favors for a reduced price.

Was hoping to get enough to pay a few small bills like a mortgage that's below the $7k mark and still have enough money to put up pasture fencing, set some goats loose to keep the brush from growing up as the stump clearing might be a long term process. Tempted to add in hogs to till the soil but that would take higher grade fencing.

[Micheal]

Don't know anything about loggers where you are, but 4 acres of wooded land ain't much to harvest around here. I'd be lucky if they would even come out to look, that is unless they needed a good laugh that day.
Here, local loggers go by how many trees are over 16-18 inches in dia.(at chest level) in any one spot. If you can go anywhere in the woods, stop and count more than 5 trees over 16-18 inches in dia then they will consider harvesting. Short of that they don't want to be bothered, "not worth the time".
But hey, that's locally and not where you are......... hope you can work out some kind of arrangement.

[PhilJohnson]

Originally Posted by Micheal

Don't know anything about loggers where you are, but 4 acres of wooded land ain't much to harvest around here. I'd be lucky if they would even come out to look, that is unless they needed a good laugh that day.

Same here, my parent's had about 30 acres of woods. No one wanted to log it. Finally they found someone to come out. Guy marked some trees and then never returned. You might have to find a really small operator. The bigger ones have 250,000 dollar log processors to pay for amongst other things. There is a lot of overhead in logging.

I have done a little logging myself. Just me, a friend, and a loader tractor. Why not try to log it yourself? Right now in my area pine is going for about 85-100 bucks a cord. I am lucky the local sawmill guy isn't very picky and he will take them all the way down to 8 inches at the base.

[tnokie]

Around here in middle Tn. they will come and do small acreages. My neighbor needed some extensive work to shore up a gully that was threatening to erode under his house. They logged a gully of his,not over three acres and he was able to do a lot of major dirt work. But they will leave the tops for you to clean up,and that can be a huge job.

[foxtrapper]

Have had a number of friends and family have logging done on their places over the years. The destruction done to their places in the name of timbering was always remarkable. Ruts several feet deep, piles of slash and brush up over your head. Etc. No one seems capable of destroying land like a timbering operator.

When it was all said and done, none of them made in money in the venture. Sure, they got a few bucks for the trees, and spent all that cleaning up the remaining mess.

[ronbre]

a neighbor of ours had a pulper come in and clear the land and hired someone to come in to pay for the stump removal and then dragged the area..but it still wasn't clear by a long shot..will require tons of work to make it usable..as it was all in pines..

good luck

[TurnerHill]

Around here (NH) 4 acres is right on the cusp. You may get someone to take the trees down in exchange for the wood, or you may need to pay them to do so.

You sure wouldn't be getting paid, though.

[ldc]

Prism' : you might want to search the archives as there is a lot of detailed info on logging and problems of, stored there. Want to add, that you might be able to sell timber/lumber locally, for example, if there are furniture makers who like to use holly, or another specialty wood. Best wishes, ldc

[diane5000]

Hi there,

I had it done to my 10 acres five years ago. When the time came to sell my property, I lost what I made, in having to lower the listing price...not to mention the eye sore
from the aftermath (and the logger was reputable with instructions to keep things clean).

Diane
http://frombeyondthegrid.com

[farmmaid]

We are SO lucky in our area. We have a man that logs with a team of horses, leaves MUCH less mess. I have seen him work the horses and he is careful and treats the animals well. If you ask him he will drag out the tops for you to cut for firewood. He was logging our neighbors and asked Mike to walk the boundry with him so he would not cut any of our trees! ( and he didn't)!!
Even a few trees he will come and log, he is very busy!

[Bonnie L]

Find out how much a logging permit is. The cost of the permit might eat up any profit.

We found a logger who cut selectively & we were able to do it without a permit because most of the trees were near the house & barn. He was good, but we still have stumps & piles. He would have taken care of those, but it would have cost us more than it was worth.

I don't know about anything other than pine, which is what we have, but with your mix it might be better to go into the firewood business. Also LDC's suggestion about specialty woods.

[Karenrbw]

If the 4 acres is densely wooded, the trees that are there may not be harvest quality unless you will be selling them for pulpwood (which is usually pine) or for firewood.

[hunter63]

Originally Posted by ozark mike

"Short on cash and aching for more clear land to work with." just because the trees are gone it does not give you "CLEAR LAND" to work with

my question is.......will the money that you get for the few logs you get off pay for the Cat to come in and push the stumps out so you can clear that land for a field or building site.....if not all you will have is a wood bare area with a bunch of unimproved pasture and would pretty much be considered waste land til it is cleared, and by your words, "short on cash", may be a ways down the road

Tough sell at best.
DD and SIL did 10 acres, more because the trees were starting to get "bugs", yellow pine, real close together.
Got something like 6 bucks a ton, and are still dealing with a huge mess 2 years later.
Worked out as the trees dying sorta stopped, (they had left so many per acre)and they did get a little for them.
If the market is down, might not even get a crew in there.
If up, still not much value, so don't plan on getting rich.............

[highlands]

Unless you've got veneer quality logs that small an acreage is not going to give you much money. The wood prices are down right now. We log and have a lot of forest land so this is something I pay a bit of attention to.

On the other hand, if your goal is to clear some land for agriculture, pasture or garden, then go for it. You might want to consider doing some thinning, some selective cutting to improve the grade of the logs for the future cuts. Perhaps you can make it so you do have more open land and do have some future good quality logs.

Just don't expect a lot of money off of so few acres. Market's poor and that's not much land.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
Save 30% off Pastured Pork with free processing: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/csa
Read about our on-farm butcher shop project: http://SugarMtnFarm.com/butchershop

[PhilJohnson]

Originally Posted by Bonnie L

Find out how much a logging permit is. The cost of the permit might eat up any profit.

Permit for logging? Must be a Washington thing. There is no such thing in Wisconsin as far as I know.

[TurnerHill]

Originally Posted by PhilJohnson

Permit for logging? Must be a Washington thing. There is no such thing in Wisconsin as far as I know.

We don't have a permit, per se, but we do have a timber tax.

[Old Swampgirl]

If you do get a logger to work for you, plan on spending what you make to get the stumps removed, then have the dozer come in. Make sure they understand that you'll need good drainage. And don't let the loggers work if it's wet & raining; you might never get the ruts out.