Cherry Timber Prices

   / Cherry Timber Prices #1  

scesnick

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Sep 19, 2004
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Garrett County Md. ( Western Md.)
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I have a few very nice chreey trees i was thinking of selling to the lumber yard. Anyone out there know the going rate of cherry right now?
 
   / Cherry Timber Prices #2  
The market for cherry lumber is very low now. Suggest waiting to cut any cherry trees until the market improves.

You will of course need to have the trees sawn into logs, then the logs into lumber, the lumber dried and surfaced before the lumber yard is likely to be interested in some of the better grades of the cherry lumber. That is if you meant selling to the lumber yard. ;)

Talk to a local forester to learn what is happening "on the ground" in MD.
 
   / Cherry Timber Prices #3  
In VT and NY area it is about $450 to $500 per MBF ( Thousand Board Feet )delivered to the mill for number 1 logs with 3 clear faces and 12" minimum top at least 8' long.
I agree with BeenThere. You could pick a better time than now.
 
   / Cherry Timber Prices #4  
Yup I'd wait.
Cherry around here is way down too.
 
   / Cherry Timber Prices #6  
Nice thing about waiting is that they will be worth more when you do sell them.
We are getting about a 1/2'' of growth per year on our cherries, 2 years ago a neighbor cut a bunch of his, he was getting around 500 a log, (the guys cutting it did a nasty barber chair on the one, it must have been 3' high...made me glad to wait). The forester I had out said to open some canopy and just let them grow another 5-10 years before thinking about logging them. I figure i can wait until the little one is ready for college.
 
   / Cherry Timber Prices #7  
Unless you have a local mill that will buy them, it is pretty much firewood. We have a lot of cherry trees, I've cut a few and hauled them to a sawmill about 20 miles away. It cost more than it's worth to get them milled. Around here, unless you are talking 10 acres or more of trees, timber buyer's aren't interested. And to hire somebody with a portable mill means paying $500 or more minimum for them to show up. I am going to cut several down this year, they do make pretty good firewood.
 
   / Cherry Timber Prices
  • Thread Starter
#8  
Unless you have a local mill that will buy them, it is pretty much firewood. We have a lot of cherry trees, I've cut a few and hauled them to a sawmill about 20 miles away. It cost more than it's worth to get them milled. Around here, unless you are talking 10 acres or more of trees, timber buyer's aren't interested. And to hire somebody with a portable mill means paying $500 or more minimum for them to show up. I am going to cut several down this year, they do make pretty good firewood.

I sold a few about 5 years ago. I simply cut them down cut them in 8'6" lengths and loaded them in my dump trailer. The mill was more than happy to take them and if I recall we made somewhere around $800 a tree depending on if they were considered "veneer" quality of not.
The reason I asked my original question of todays value is because I plan on cutting a few more but the mill I used last time burnt down ( go figure) and I wasn't going to bother finding another mill if the price was low.
 
   / Cherry Timber Prices #9  
Check out your state's extension service to see if they track timber prices. Years ago the NC the extension service had a phone number that would tell you the price of timber for the last quarter for different areas in the state. It was only split into pine and hardwoods though. I think they now have a website to provide the last quarter sale prices.

I checked the prices a few years ago and the prices were down about 50% from when we sold timber.

Later,
Dan
 
   / Cherry Timber Prices #10  
Unless you have a local mill that will buy them, it is pretty much firewood. We have a lot of cherry trees, I've cut a few and hauled them to a sawmill about 20 miles away. It cost more than it's worth to get them milled. Around here, unless you are talking 10 acres or more of trees, timber buyer's aren't interested. And to hire somebody with a portable mill means paying $500 or more minimum for them to show up. I am going to cut several down this year, they do make pretty good firewood.

Your numbers don't add up too well. :confused3:
But maybe you are talking orchard cherry trees, and not black cherry that is a fair different tree. Or low-grade black cherry, such as we have in WI.

Portable mill owners will come to a job for less than that minimum, from my experience.
 
 
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