How big of a tree to haul to lumberyard vs firewood?

[Jules083]

This week I had some ground cleared for a natural gas pipeline that's coming through. I started working it yesterday cutting firewood, and today ill be past the first 'wall' of tops and into the good stuff. I'm wondering at what size I should start planning on hauling out? I have a front end loader, trailer, and Dually pickup that ill be hauling with. 45 minute drive there.

All trees are cut in 20' sections already. Mostly oak, with some cherry, hickory, and some I don't reconize. I know some of the nice ones I should sell, but some of the borderline stuff I'm not sure about. The 12" or 14" stuff mainly. Obviously the 20"+ oak is getting sold.

For what its worth the farm was logged in 93. There isn't a whole lot of real nice stuff, but quite a few that are over 20".

I'll put a picture up soon, I'm getting ready to head down there.

All typos and misspellings blamed on my phone.

 

[Gologit]

This week I had some ground cleared for a natural gas pipeline that's coming through. I started working it yesterday cutting firewood, and today ill be past the first 'wall' of tops and into the good stuff. I'm wondering at what size I should start planning on hauling out? I have a front end loader, trailer, and Dually pickup that ill be hauling with. 45 minute drive there.

All trees are cut in 20' sections already. Mostly oak, with some cherry, hickory, and some I don't reconize. I know some of the nice ones I should sell, but some of the borderline stuff I'm not sure about. The 12" or 14" stuff mainly. Obviously the 20"+ oak is getting sold.

For what its worth the farm was logged in 93. There isn't a whole lot of real nice stuff, but quite a few that are over 20".

I'll put a picture up soon, I'm getting ready to head down there.

All typos and misspellings blamed on my phone.

You might check with your local mill before you assume they'll buy your logs. Some mills look for certain types of wood and don't really want to pay for anything else. One thing you can count on....they're going to pay you a lot less, if they take the wood at all, than you thought.

You can always cut the logs for firewood.

 

[Jules083]

Good call on checking with them first. I know there isn't a whole lot of money in logs, but there's something there anyways. I did some little logging about 10 years ago on 4 acres, I was getting between 600 and 1000 per car trailer load of cherry. This stuff is a bit nicer than that, and I believe oak brings a bit more than cherry. I'm hoping to average $1000 per load, but I'd be happy with $800.

I currently have more firewood than I know what to do with. 6 acres of woods got clear cut.

All typos and misspellings blamed on my phone.

 

[northmanlogging]

yep call the mill, talk to their buyer, find out the minimum they will take in diameter and length, as well as species, you can also ask what their current prices are, and what lengths they like to have...

 

[Jules083]

I'll ride up to the mill on Monday and see what they have to say. Right now everything is cut in 20' lengths.

The company that's putting the pipeline through has to stack the logs in an 'accessible' location, so I'm not in a real big hurry over it anyways. I just figure the more I get done now the less I have to worry about later. Plus I would imagine the mill would want the logs as soon as possible, rather than something that's been sitting in mud for 3 months.

All typos and misspellings blamed on my phone.

 

[Icehouse]

In our neck of the woods mills are hesitant to take small amounts of " farmer logs " as they call them, due to the likely hood of nails, spikes, barb wire, etc. this may not apply to you, hope not. Like someone on here said, just saying

 

[Jules083]

In our neck of the woods mills are hesitant to take small amounts of " farmer logs " as they call them, due to the likely hood of nails, spikes, barb wire, etc. this may not apply to you, hope not. Like someone on here said, just saying

I'll see what they say, but its all clean wood.

Can't really see anything good in the picture, this is a thinner section. There's a few buried in here though.

All typos and misspellings blamed on my phone.

 

[mdavlee]

Last time I called log yards around here cherry was $6-750 1k and white oak was the only oak they were buying. Red oak they wouldn't take.

 

[KYLogger]

Here in Ky the mills are wide open and hungry but $800-$1000 a load on a car hauler is a pipe dream imo....I live in the "hardwood capitol of the world" (their words, not mine) and white oak is in the 150-300 wos is 5-8, ro is topping out at 8 but averaging 4-5, cherry is 3-5 (cherry is in the crapper now) poplar is holdin' it's own with good big stuff bringing 5 tops, hickory is doing fare as well with an average of 2-5. All our stuff is measured on int. scale and these are for good clear logs, lose your grade than the price drops like a rock. In average to decent timber I can expect 500-700 a load, I usually haul in the 2,000-2,200 mbf in my single axle. If it's cherry or walnut they will probly buy it 20' on the rest of the stuff around here they want it 8'-10'-12'-14'-16' and they like a little 3-4" of trim as well.

Most of the mills around here are pretty friendly to "farmer loggers" cause half the loggers are farmers too:msp_biggrin: You will probly not get what one of their full time guys get but it should still be worth the venture. Another possible market may be an Amish mill (if you have any around) they deal with smaller guys all the time and ain't nearly as picky!

Hope this helps.

 

[twochains]

Like everyone else has said...check with your local mill. Alot of tie mills are fairly reluctant to buy "gate logs", mainly due to incorrect small end diameter and length plus the possibility of them being yard logs with hardware in them. If your local mill has a scrag setup they will most likely take most species of timber...but they can tell you how to cut it. You would probably be surprised at what a scrag mill will except.

I just re-read KYLogger's post...see his specs are different from ours, our tie mills want 10'4 and 9'4. And our scrag mills generally want us to keep over 16'. Best bet is to talk to the mill owner. Good luck.