Buying and selling walnut logs?
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You need to find a log buyer (start at a lumber mill) and ask what they want. The answer will most likely include something about "not yard trees". Scroll down to the logging and sawmill forums on Arboristsite too.
I tell customers that they are highly valuable. I tell them to pay me to take the tree(s) down and they can sell their highly valuable walnut logs to someone but I get paid to get it down safely and remove the brush. If they want I will grind the stump out but the swirled grain of the stump makes it highly valuable as well.
Superjunior2
ArboristSite Lurker
I've had people ask me how much I would pay them to remove their walnut trees lol! sorry but it doesn't work that way.. I treat a walnut like any other removal, you don't know if that tree has a peice of metal in it which makes it worthless.
That being said.. the value of the wood depends how the mill grades it. 1 through 5, and obviously how much board feet you have. Last season I got 1500.00 for one grade 5 (veneer grade) walnut butt log.
That being said.. the value of the wood depends how the mill grades it. 1 through 5, and obviously how much board feet you have. Last season I got 1500.00 for one grade 5 (veneer grade) walnut butt log.
Superjunior2
ArboristSite Lurker
It definitely can be. When we got a crane we quit doing firewood and take all of our hardwoods to the mill. The amish folks over there drool over walnut, it pays the most. But you never know what's inside the tree. We took down a 40+ inch black walnut, I thought for sure I'd get as much for the lumber as for the removal itself. Got into the meat of the tree and it was as blue as a surfs ass. worthless...
For those who don't know: blue = metal in the tree (reacting with the tannins).
The blue wood could, in theory, be worth a lot of money to somebody who wants the unique wood...but to find that buyer is a lot of putzing around trying to sell one piece here and one piece there... no production sawmill will take that.
I took down a walnut tree for the exchange of the log. We knocked the top off chipped everything 10 inches and under they kept the wood. We cleaned everything up. I hauled the log 15 miles away, got a check for a grand that was it. I think we had about three hours at the job site. It was a very nice log very symmetrical not a single branch for 12 feet almost perfectly round. It was the middle of winter and there wasn't much going on at the time. I have an offer for two thousand bucks for two trees standing in the backyard that could be easily hammered out in a day. The majority of the walnut trees in an urban environment the logs are the equivalent of beer money. The good trees around here are in the center of groves and river bottoms where competition for sunlight creates an awesome structure for producing logs.
This is a great deal but I assume not one you can manage to run into on a regular basis (Unfortunately) Was this recent or early last year when the walnut export was Booming? Not being Cynical but am curious about the market around me.
Thanks..
Indiana market price for a 24" veneer grade log ( perfectly straight and clear) is in the range of $5.oo per board foot delivered to the mill. Small logs are not worth much although if you have a local Amish mill they might be the best bet
You could easily double that in Ohio...at least last winter. I'm thinking somebody is under-paying. Of course, that might be right for yard trees...if they are willing to take the risk of buying those trees.
I strongly advise woodland owners to hold on to their trees if they are getting anything less than $6/foot on the stump...if they wait, it will be back to $8...I have seen that come and go enough times over the years. Saw some $12-$13/foot on the stump last winter.
Just heard about a buyer/exporter today that has orders from his foreign contact: wants him to send 15 containers per month of walnut veneer logs...so maybe those prices aren't gone yet.
Took that from the Indiana timber report and I went to the "way low" side just to be safe. They report a pretty large range of sale prices per grade as I am sure you well know. Did not want to get people too excited about "high value" walnut. Based on my own personal experience with my ex ma in law, she gets screwed on every sale because she never gets competing bids or even knows what she sells
crotchclimber
ArboristSite Operative
My company's taken down a few, but there aren't many left since thousand canker has killed off most of them here. We got two possibly millable logs from the last tree; we will be taking them to a mill soon but probably keeping some of the wood after the mill owner takes his cut probably.
In reply to Woody...:
Makes sense... On one hand, if you go in expecting low, you will be happy to get more. On the other, if you go in expecting high, you might actually get what it is worth.
The situation you described with your xMIL is very typical. Just read an article last week about sales with consulting foresters involved bringing 11-12% more than comparable sales without. That study was done in southern pine. I suspect it is higher here with the less competitive markets and higher value timber. Some of these timber pimps have been having their way with the woods for way too long. The good buyers who do a nice job and pay fair generally aren't knocking on doors begging for folks to sell...people find them.
Of course, that is all in the woods...I have a forestry background before starting into arboriculture. Selling individual yard trees is a different game. To a certain degree you gotta take what you can get...but knowing what 'fair' price is should at least get you in the ball park. If you sell to mills on a regular basis, learn to look for the signs of the things that cause them problems (metal!), and develop a good relationship, I suspect there is fair money out there. We don't do big removals, so I am not in the game of selling yard trees.
Makes sense... On one hand, if you go in expecting low, you will be happy to get more. On the other, if you go in expecting high, you might actually get what it is worth.
The situation you described with your xMIL is very typical. Just read an article last week about sales with consulting foresters involved bringing 11-12% more than comparable sales without. That study was done in southern pine. I suspect it is higher here with the less competitive markets and higher value timber. Some of these timber pimps have been having their way with the woods for way too long. The good buyers who do a nice job and pay fair generally aren't knocking on doors begging for folks to sell...people find them.
Of course, that is all in the woods...I have a forestry background before starting into arboriculture. Selling individual yard trees is a different game. To a certain degree you gotta take what you can get...but knowing what 'fair' price is should at least get you in the ball park. If you sell to mills on a regular basis, learn to look for the signs of the things that cause them problems (metal!), and develop a good relationship, I suspect there is fair money out there. We don't do big removals, so I am not in the game of selling yard trees.
Mom had 20 acres of old growth loblolly/hardwood which was succumbing to pine bark beetles so we decided to cut. She got a $14,000 bid. Brother is school supt, got his 16th section land mgr to cruise and bid it and they got $31,000 and kept the hardwood. I offered MIL to accompany cruiser thru her woods on 3 occasions which she declined because she was not selling. Each time she took the first bid and did not even know how many, species or bf she sold. Caveat emptor except substitute the Latin seller for buyer!
I worked near Fresno California about 12 years ago where walnut groves are very plentiful. When an orchard gets to a certain age it has to go. Many farmers would advertise free wood. You had to have somewhat of a reputation for completing a job before you could get started. What we did was climb the tree about 20 to 30' up and set snatch blocks on several main limbs then run steel cable to my winch which was chained to several trees. The best time for this was not during the summer but when the ground was moist. Start up the winch and run until the whole tree was completely out of the ground. Then we cut all the limbs down to about 14'' to 16'' which I got for firewood. The guy I worked with trimmed all the roots and loaded up the base in a dump truck and hauled it to his yard where he immediately waxed them and put them up for sale. He had several years where he cleared several hundred thousands of dollars with the bases. I remember several really nice bases that sold for $5,000 each. He also had a small mill where he cut them up for gun stocks and made even more $$. In my best years I sold more that $50,000 in firewood. As usual I was in the wrong business at the wrong time. Thanks
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