Big popple

[jegushee1]

29 inch popple. Nice stuff !!

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

They get big here too. We have a couple in the yard that are a good 3-3.5ft at the butt.

 

[1270d]

Found a honey comb in an aspen that size a couple years ago.
What are your markets jegushee?

 

[jegushee1]

All popple here goes to pulp once in a blue moon you find a log buyer but not very often. Luckily hardwood pulp payin over 50 bucks a ton and high grade popple a few bucks more so it's still good wood to cut!

 

[1270d]

That's a good rate on pulp! You buying stumpage or cutting your own lands? Our clear aspen 8-30" goes for veneer. The rest is pulp or to the OSB plant

 

[jegushee1]

Stumpage on this lot. Yea it's weird that popple is the only wood there is no saw log market for here in maine? Oh well we got it pretty good up here compared to other states when it comes to selling wood

 

[Jim Timber]

That's a good rate on pulp! You buying stumpage or cutting your own lands? Our clear aspen 8-30" goes for veneer. The rest is pulp or to the OSB plant

Who's buying veneer aspen in MN? I'm about to take out a bunch of 12-15" trees.

 

[1270d]

I think chucker is from there, maybe he knows.

 

[Jim Timber]

Chucker's practically my neighbor. I thought you were from here with your location.

I could haul to WI if the price was right.

 

[chucker]

with the little I deal with popple/aspen(50 cord a year) the best market is for c,s,s firewood... after trucking fees to have a delivery of semi loads to a small mill there's not much of a market for veneer peeler's or bolt's that I am aware of with a decent profit. stumpage fee's, fuel an distance to the bigger mill's will eat the profits fast for the small tract logger doubling down trying to do both with out high production. my word of advice to you jim is a contract which is another story in it's self! maybe try sappi in west baxter ????

 

[1270d]

The mill we ship to sometimes is in the western UP. It would be a 6 or 7 hour run to that mill from Brainerd area.

I have quite a few relatives in the brainerd lakes area. East gull lake and Baxter.

 

[Jim Timber]

I had a good long chat with Pat at Sappi a week ago, and he said the mill in Deerwood was paying better on open market (100 cord contract vs auction buys of tracts) than they were and he'd see what he could do to hook me up with them or someone with a bigger contract to sub to. They're paying 25/cord on the landing or 105 in their transfer yard (out West of Brainerd about 10 miles). So for a 30 mile drive (one way), I can quadruple my money selling to them. We've got 7T axle limits coming into my place which makes a log bed semi not practical. The difference in price delivered will more than pay for a straight truck, so I'll be hauling myself. I have a C65 with new rubber and low miles lined up for cheap ($3K) which needs a bed fabbed up and a driveshaft center bearing installed (was a pumper fire truck) before it's ready to roll. Both of those are easy for me to do. I won't make a killing, but I'll get the equipment out of the deal and a little $$$ for my time. My aspen is about 5 years from being a liability to itself (I'm already seeing top loss with high winds), so I need to get it out while it's still worth something.

Selling the tops as camp firewood to the locals is something I'm unsure about (logistics, time involved, and my not living up there). Sappi takes 4" at the small end, so that's a decent utilization on my stand. I can just about sell every aspen growing right now.

Wallenstein FX85 will be here in 2 weeks.

 

[chucker]

at 105.00 per I may need to rethink about popple/aspen c,s,s for a faster profit margin! besides sappi is only a quarter mile away....

 

[Jim Timber]

I was seeing $110 on 100 cord contracts from last fall which puts it at $11K if you fill it. Pat says the Deerwood mill is paying that or better, but Sappi's down to 105. I'm not sure how many cords I can cut and stack in a day, but with how fast aspen cuts, I won't have much down time changing chains, and I already know I can do a 10 hour day on the tractor easy (from the road building). My big aspen are in dense clumps on my stand, so I can potentially have the wife skidding while I fall trees. Even if it takes me 3 months, it's not a bad part time job.

He said something about needing insurance to contract with them, but didn't get into it. Any idea what kind he was talking about?

 

[chucker]

at least liability for sure to cover their butsky as soon as you pull onto their un/loading area. I did not know that McMillan was still operating?