pclausen
Veteran Member
So today I took my first load of cut loblolly pine to the saw mill. They pay $38 ton and the mill is 10 miles from my property.
I rigged some 4x4s to my trailer to hold the lumber in place for transport. I used some 1/2" bolts with some worn down auger teeth on the bottom the secure the 4x4s.
Here is my first load which represents 4 trees. Each piece is 16' 4" long.
I hit the scales going in and then again when I left. The timber came in at 9,560 lbs, which is 4.78 tons. So that came to $181.64, meaning each tree was worth about $45.
I figure it takes maybe 2 minutes to drop a tree, another 3 minutes to haul it out to the loading zone, 5 minutes to cut it into 16' sections, and another 3 minutes loading the pieces onto the trailer. So maybe 13 minutes to process and load each tree. Taking a load to the mill is about a 30 minute round trip and burns 3 gallons of fuel. Tractor burns maybe 0.25 gallon per tree, and the chainsaw let's say another 0.25 gallon including chain lube. So that works out to about 4.25 gallons. Assuming $4 gallon, my fuel cost per load is around $17 and it takes me around 1.5 hours to cut, load, and haul the timber to the mill.
So my net profit is $181.64 - $17 = $164.64. The hourly rate works out to $109.76. Not too bad! Some of these figures are probably a little optimistic as I was not timing myself when dropping or cutting up the trees.
I rigged some 4x4s to my trailer to hold the lumber in place for transport. I used some 1/2" bolts with some worn down auger teeth on the bottom the secure the 4x4s.

Here is my first load which represents 4 trees. Each piece is 16' 4" long.

I hit the scales going in and then again when I left. The timber came in at 9,560 lbs, which is 4.78 tons. So that came to $181.64, meaning each tree was worth about $45.

I figure it takes maybe 2 minutes to drop a tree, another 3 minutes to haul it out to the loading zone, 5 minutes to cut it into 16' sections, and another 3 minutes loading the pieces onto the trailer. So maybe 13 minutes to process and load each tree. Taking a load to the mill is about a 30 minute round trip and burns 3 gallons of fuel. Tractor burns maybe 0.25 gallon per tree, and the chainsaw let's say another 0.25 gallon including chain lube. So that works out to about 4.25 gallons. Assuming $4 gallon, my fuel cost per load is around $17 and it takes me around 1.5 hours to cut, load, and haul the timber to the mill.
So my net profit is $181.64 - $17 = $164.64. The hourly rate works out to $109.76. Not too bad! Some of these figures are probably a little optimistic as I was not timing myself when dropping or cutting up the trees.