Time to thin pines. Any guess on value.

[Jstpssng]

Is that one cord per what? Acre, tree, I don't understand....

Good call! That should have read roughly one cord of biomass per acre for every foot in height.

I first heard that number at a continuing education course on herbicides years ago... over the years it has seemed plausible.

 

[dmccarty]

We timbered part of our land after we bought it. We used a forester that my FIL used to log his land but I also talked with another company. Selling timber is like selling a house/land and the forester is like a real estate agent. We went with a guy we could trust and we liked. We had a contract that specified what was to be taken and what it was going to cost. In NC, you want the timber contract to mention Best Management Practices(BMP), since that is a book that covers how the logging operation. We also added things to the contract to cover other concern we had.

Our forester counted and measured each and every tree so we knew how many MBF of pine and hardwood we had to sell. The tree inventory was used for the auction we had one morning after sunrise. Highest bidder won the contract. The forester got a percentage of the sale, the more money on the contract, the more money he made.

We were not thinning pines but I would think the forester would have to have an inventory for those pines in order to sell them. The hard part is knowing what should be taken. In our case, each stump and tree was marked so we knew what should have been logged. How they do that for a thinning operation I have not idea but the forester will know. I sure as heck would be checking the logging operation to make sure they are doing what the contract allows. I checked the logging of our land everyday and the forester was checking as well.

The NC Extension office is a great source of information about logging. They have classes about contracts and forestry taxes every so often and the information is on line as well. I would think SC has similar information. One thing is for sure is that there is a lot of money in trees, even when the market is depressed, and many people get taken by loggers because the owners did not do their homework. I know someone at work who is very smart but they sold timber to a guy who knocked on the door... They had no idea what the timber was worth and they just took his price...

Later,
Dan

 

[ArmyPair2]

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I always know if I get paid or not......:laughing: But seriously, do you have any idea how much you got paid for the 20 acres? That is really what I am trying to get an idea about. I have no idea if I should be expecting $10 an acre, $100 an acre or $1000 an acre.....although I'm guessing it will be between $10 and $100 an acre.

:2cents:All I can say this is what it was like in Alabama in 2009 when we started to build a new house. We got in touch with all the logging companies and got a walk thru of what I wanted thinned and cut down. When we was down to a few logging companies we asked the wife's family the low down on them seeing her family has been here since the late 1850's. After we picked one we did a contract and they wasted no time cutting away but in my contract it was said I wanted a road cut out to where the new house was going to be built. The trees was a mix of pine and some hardwood.

Once the road was done and by contract they thinned and cut out 10 acres all around where the house would be built. Most of this was pine trees with some mixed in hardwood and they would load up the trailers. When I saw the trailers have been parked for over a week I asked them why? I was told that they was watching the Market and waiting on a good price for the trees.

We got about 5,000 for the pines and a road that is over 1/4 mile long but when I do it again I will hide a trail cam near the front yard to count the loads coming off the land just to make sure. We did get all the mill receipts and the weight so they was on the up and up. The bottom line is the market and what is in for demand will decide on how much you can get from one day to another.

 

[Larro Darro]

I got around to looking up my old load tickets tonight. On reflection there was about 15 acres of slash, 3 acres of sand pine and 2 acres of mixed trees{some pine, but mostly oak}. The 15 acres and the 2 acres were thinned {pines only} and the 3 acres of sand pines were clear cut. We made $5700 on that piece. We also had about 9 acres thinned down at the river field. 7 acres of it was slash about the age of the other, but 2 acres were older {and sold as chip and saw}. We made $3300 on that piece. This was four years ago, right around Christmas time. Hope this helps you out.

Larro

 

[N80]

That does help. Thanks.

 

[creekbend]

In our locale, hardwoods cut for Sawtimber usually bring the best prices. But around 6 years ago, PINE saw timber was selling higher. Perhaps there were low levels of pine for lumber available at the time. BTW, Yellow Polular in our locale is being shipped to Red China. One use is for Chopstickes and Toothpicks.