I had hired a forester to mark my 80 acres in NW WI for a select cut. Bids were due on 10/15. He sent me a text that I didn't receive a single bid on my sale,wtf? The property hasn't been logged in 70+ years. The cordage was estimated at 235 hardwood,140 aspen,30 balsam, and 5 hardwood sawlogs.(36 acres cut area) Almost all of the top quality trees were not marked to and left for the next cutting in 15-20 years. I can't figure it out why I didn't get any bids. We are close to mills and even have a bio mass plant close by. There is also a old logging road in already for getting the wood out.
Not one bid?
- Thread starter ruskbucks
- Start date
Jim Timber
5 year old buck +
So you have 40 trucks of pulp coming out and half a load of saw logs?
M
MoLandOwner
Guest
With that little amount you won't get many guys. Sorry!
Buckly
5 year old buck +
The answer is in your post. All the top quality trees that the mill would want were not in the bid and also, too small of cut to be worth it to any buyers. You would need to throw in enough of the good stuff to make it worth their while. The forester should have advised you in that regard.
M
MoLandOwner
Guest
5 hardwood saw logs? No commercial loggers cut firewood much anymore. They want the bottom 18' for 2 saw logs, then they will take the tops for firewood as a bi-product!
Big Snow Man
5 year old buck +
I took me two year before my forester begged a guy to cut mine. When it went out for bid I had the same response. In 2000 when I cut 9 acres I had 7 guys stand in line for it. Less mills and loggers want large tracts which they can stay for a month or so. Sorry that's the way it is now.
M
MoLandOwner
Guest
Right now Maple is hot and worth good money. If your woods was filled with that, you would have something.
Yes, the woods needs to be thinned almost all the trees that are marked are poor quality, crowding out the high quality trees, with the exception of the birch and aspen that are near maturity.Mostly red maple and red oak hardwoods. I was going to put it in a mfl program,anybody know what would happen if I didn't get anybody to bid, would I have to pay someone to cut?
My woods is mostly red maple, I actually want more oaks going because it is dominated by maples. Would you suggest cutting some of the nice sawlog maples now,and rebid it. The forester explained to me that buy thinning the trees crowding the good quality trees that this would allow them to grow faster and be worth quite a bit more in the next cut. I think if I don't start cutting the junk out my better quality trees will suffer. Suggestions?
chickenlittle
5 year old buck +
For this type of stuff, I'd be happy to get someone in where I came out even. I've considered just cutting the low quality stuff, take some for firewood and let the rest rot.
rocksnstumps
5 year old buck +
Your forester should know your local markets and what it takes to get interest in your logging. Time to regroup with him or other local resources as folks on the web may have good intent but no situational knowledge. The fact that you had no initial bids isn't great but say you were already in an mfl program and were trying to follow your management plan, they would more than likely work with you based on what just happened.
My situation in the past was I got into an mfl plan and they recommended that I do an immediate salvage cut on a bunch of elm dying of DED but not yet gone and worthless. Took two years and had to have a cut done in the early summer instead of preferred winter months but no problem that first year delaying until something could be lined up. Turns out there was a brief window when they were really short on pulp and even my crappy hardwoods with rocky hillside got some value. Yes not much but still enough and at a time when most loggers find it hard to line up work. Rocky hillsides may be hard to work, but at least they dry up sooner than other sites
My situation in the past was I got into an mfl plan and they recommended that I do an immediate salvage cut on a bunch of elm dying of DED but not yet gone and worthless. Took two years and had to have a cut done in the early summer instead of preferred winter months but no problem that first year delaying until something could be lined up. Turns out there was a brief window when they were really short on pulp and even my crappy hardwoods with rocky hillside got some value. Yes not much but still enough and at a time when most loggers find it hard to line up work. Rocky hillsides may be hard to work, but at least they dry up sooner than other sites
SD51555
5 year old buck +
That's why I'm angling to start bringing our huge poplar and aspen trees down. They're worth more as stump browse, cover, and winter food sources than any hope of a logging would bring. We just don't have it.
M
MoLandOwner
Guest
You answered why you didn't get any bids again!
If you are selling just the junk, you will have top pay to get the good trees released. Just the way it is. Or drop the junk trees yourself.
Once I got bids on 120 good Red Oak saw logs standing, back in the 1980's. The highest bid was $3,800. I then put an ad in our local news paper for prime oak firewood. at $25 per pickup load-You Cut!
Got almost $9,000 as firewood. Not saying yours will bring a bunch of money as firewood, but it may be worth a try!
rocksnstumps
5 year old buck +
Again, the assumption above is maybe true, maybe not. If the closest buyer is a PULP mill, they don't give a rip about hardwood logs. In fact the bigger stuff they can't process. They might put aside and resell to some other place if enough value however. If your local markets are sawmills, yes the above statements are true.
Even pulp mill has to be qualified. Some places are looking for softwood pulp over hardwood pulp. Other places place an emphasis on what kind of hardwood (hard maple pulp is preferred for some fine coated paper, the stuff for printing multi color, high quality pics for instance) So you need to know what is true for your local area.....
Rocks you seem to know a lot about the logging in WI. I see a lot of trucks go by with hundreds of small aspen cuttings on them,that I would hardly think would be worth cutting and loading on a trailer.The forester said the market timber is very volatile right now. He is going to call and go over options. With the pulp mill and the bio mass plant that uses wood chips it seems pulp is in demand. I looked up bids early this year and seen most aspen pulp bids around $40 a cord and hardwood from $40-70. I guess I shouldn't call this cutting all "junk" it is mostly red maple that is just to small to be saw logs, a few acres of large birch to be clear cut, some oak,and a few ash.The balsams are the lowest grade. I also seen in the bid that my forester said all balsams over 1"dbh should be cut along with any ironwood. I have thousands of small balsams growing, this seems like it would be time consuming for the logger,maybe this could of deterred some of them along with a cutting like you said in the "preferred winter months after deer hunting.
I will keep that option open. Everybody burns wood up there. My inlaws just paid $900 for a load of 100" sticks of oak and I guess that was a pretty good deal. Somebody has to be in the firewood cutting business that would be interested.
chummer
5 year old buck +
Depends on how many trees and what the price is. Have a forester walk it. He will be able to give you an estimate of what the trees are worth. My logging just wrapped up on 65 acres. I had a 70-30 maple to cherry with a few birch and ash mixed in. I had seven acre where they cut everything except trees saved for a future cut ( 8-12" straight maple or cherry). I also had 5 acres completely cleared for plots. I paid 100k, after forester and paying neighbor for a landing area I cleared 43k. I thought I did ok. 40k was what I was hoping for. I will be able to have another nice cut in 15-20 years if I keep the place. Before the bids came back the forester estimated 45k, high bid was 52k.
