getting started

[W.G.R]

Im wanting to start my own small logging company most of it i understand but i do have a few questions, my family has 127 acres we had logged when i was a young boy, obviously to young to ask any questions more excited to watch the skidders and big trucks lol. One of the questions i have is if i down the trees and then then bring them to the mill will they buy them off me or is it a contract, or dose it depend on the mill. Also the land owner, do they get a percentage of the profit from the logs sold i know there are specs for the logs that the mills are looking for, is there a general rule of thumb??

 

[imagineero]

Oh boy....

 

[KenJax Tree]

opcorn:

 

[GRTimberCO]

I guess I'll bite on this one. Might aswell, I can't dance and it's too wet to plow...

1. I've never been to Ontario. Call your local mills and ask what and how they buy logs. Get a current price sheet. In my part of the world you will do better with a contract but if you are a "small logger" then you probably want have the ability to deliver the volume of wood a contract would require. WE have enough mills to pick and choose where we send wood. Nice big hardwoods go to Gilkey Lumber, junk Pallet logs go to Glenn lumber, pine pulp goes to Bowater but if you want to cut it in to 20' lengths you'll do better at South Mountain pulpwood where they sell it on contract to Georgia/ Pacific who feeds it in a chipper sideways and makes OSB board out of it. We shop them often and we maintain our friendships with one even if we are trading with another. They all understand it's business and nothing personal but I cant sell Block grade white oak logs to the pallet mill for $320 a thousand when I can haul them 25 more miles up the road and get $850-1000.

2. Landowner- You are a small business owner. We pay the land owner a percent- saw logs based on board feet, pulpwood on the ton. The goal is to pay enough to stay busy but no more than you have to. Land owners dip into your expense column on the ledger sheet. You want to be fair and generous but logging in the red so you can split the income 50/50 with the landowner is a great way to go out of business.

Like I said earlier, I've never been to Ontario. In this part of the world there are only two ways to log for profit- Go big or stay small. Anywhere in the middle you are getting killed. You can make money as a big operation like the Bobby Goodsons of the world- Two loaders, six skidders, a dozen log trucks on contract burning up the road. You can make money as a small operation. Just a couple guys with a stable old skidder, a loader (Maybe just a tractor with pallet forks), cutting, bucking and limbing with chainsaws, and loading on tandom axle log truck. But in the middle, oh it's a nasty place for a business to be. It's a slow and painful "I just needed one more load to make a profit this week and we blew a hose" death for a logger. See in the middle you have just enough equipment to raise your expenses but not significantly raise your production. Example- You've got a nice grapple skidder that can drag Kings Mountain all the way down to Gaffney, SC, but your chainsaw can't keep up with it. Or you've got a nice Peterbuilt truck and a 42 foot tandem trailer but it just sits 95% of the time waiting on wood. You've got a nice feller buncher you are making payments on that is dynamite in row planted pines, but squirrels have started nesting in it because you've been on a big mountain tract of hardwood for the last 3 months. Should I go on? The middle is no man's land in the logging business, atleast in this part of the world.

 

[Gologit]

Like I said earlier, I've never been to Ontario. In this part of the world there are only two ways to log for profit- Go big or stay small. Anywhere in the middle you are getting killed. You can make money as a big operation like the Bobby Goodsons of the world- Two loaders, six skidders, a dozen log trucks on contract burning up the road. You can make money as a small operation. Just a couple guys with a stable old skidder, a loader (Maybe just a tractor with pallet forks), cutting, bucking and limbing with chainsaws, and loading on tandom axle log truck. But in the middle, oh it's a nasty place for a business to be. It's a slow and painful "I just needed one more load to make a profit this week and we blew a hose" death for a logger. See in the middle you have just enough equipment to raise your expenses but not significantly raise your production. Example- You've got a nice grapple skidder that drag Kings Mountain all the way down to Gaffney, SC, but your chainsaw can't keep up with it. Or you've got a nice Peterbilt truck and a 42 foot tandem trailer but it just sits 95% of the time waiting on wood. You've got a nice feller buncher you are making payments on that is dynamite in row planted pines, but squirrels have started nesting in it because you've been on a big mountain tract of hardwood for the last 3 months. Should I go on? The middle is no man's land in the logging business, atleast in this part of the world.

Great post. Logging there or logging out here...lots of things the same.

 

[northmanlogging]

I think I'm in the same boat as the OP...

There are a few mills around here that have what they call an open yard, they take everything, any way you can get it to em, legal or not... (stay legal please...) they may not pay the best but they will almost always buy. I've taken anywhere from 2 logs on a borrowed car trailer, to full log loads, they buy it all.

Call the mills in your area find out what they buy, if they are buying, what they want for lengths, diameters, plus wastage/snipe etc.

trim the knots down to nothing, keep the logs as clean as possible (mud rocks etc), give the mills quality logs all the time and they will learn to like you, give em junk, they may eventually stop buying from you.

Remember the mill holds the purse strings, you bow to them (yeah its sucks I know...) they pay what they feel the log is worth, not what you feel your owed...

Keep your costs low, if the skidder doesn't need to be running shut it off, make as few trips back and forth to the site as possible, don't run things hard, you'll do better running light and fast then heavy and slow. Plus you won't break down as often.

Be honest with the landowner and their neighbors... the dishonest gypo doesn't get work for long. Most the work you will get will be word of mouth, do a good job and they will tell their friends and family all about how you came through for em, cheat em and they may even call the police...

Good luck, its a tough little world and allot of very hard work, but worth it when it works...

 

[W.G.R]

thanks guys i hope to get some things in the works and ill keep ya posted the more steps forward i take

 

[northmanlogging]

So I am ass-u-meing that you can fall and buck trees, hook a choker, and kinda have a clue about how to move logs right?... You would be amazed how many want to be a "lumber jack"... and have never so much a stared at the arse end of a skidder, but then I wanted to be a rock star and only know about 4 chords, but I played really loud so it was ok

 

[W.G.R]

yes i do my dad showed me how to do the basics then he hurt his back