Year Round Firewood Business

[Curlycherry1]

600 acres, if you have the demand get a skidder/tractor/dozer and a possessor. Depending on terrain one of those options will be great.

Even with a fairly heavy selective cutting of cull tree 600 acres can only supply a big operation for a few years. My brother's biggest supplier of logs says he needs about 400 acres to keep my brother happy for one year. He cuts 10 to at most 20% of the trees for firewood in the managed forests he works in. The rest are left for lumber. Tops do not work well for many processors. They are too crooked and thus are time wasters to process with the big mechanical processors.

 

[Dalmatian90]

My opinion, which probably is worth what you're paying for it:

600 acres gives you a lot of management options, especially if it hasn't been abused in the past by practices like high cutting (taking all the best trees at one time, leaving a less diverse, "weedier" forest).

I'd get in touch with a forester (not a logger or saw mill -- an independent forester...you county extension will be able to point you in the right direction; they may even have a state forester who can give you half a day or so of consulting for free).

He'll be able to tell quickly if it looks like a worthwhile timber stand.

If it is, he can talk with your family to figure out how fast they want to clear it, etc. In my mind, 600 acres of forests up here being actively managed would let you harvest 40 acres for timber each year on a 15 year rotation continuously -- that's probably $10-20,000 in timber every year till the end of time. Possibly a lot more if the forest is healthy, and prices are high.

Maybe you front-end load the harvest a bit to do 120 acres or so...think "seed capital." Say after taxes you have $40,000...$20K for living expenses, insurance, etc and $20K to buy a used delivery truck, a conveyor belt to help load and pile, a fast splitter like a Super Split, used tractor to use in the woods. The firewood business can be going through thinning the forest to improve the timber quality. I'm not sure it would be enough to support a family, but my guess is it could be a very well paying part-time job.

I'd also ask the forester for recommendations on an accountant who is familiar with forestry work -- there usually some special tax treatments, plus stuff like capital gains and all that can get involved.

Now I don't want to get your hopes up. Forester may look and say there's no timber value now, and you're best just cutting firewood for the next 20 or 30 years while the forest heals from a previous bad logging experience. But I think it would be crazy with a piece of land that big not to have an experienced professional take a look.

 

[CRThomas]

If you around a big city bundled firewood sells year round bundled firewood is for looks looks looks not heat remember not heat. I sell as much bundled firewood in 100 deg. As I do in the winter

 

[CRThomas]

I apologize in advance if this question has been asked before.

I was interested in learning some information about how I might be able to run a year round firewood business, especially pertaining to the Southern part of the country (Texas).

Should I expect to only cut wood in the summer, let it season and only be able to sell it in the winter?

Are there opportunities to get wood sold during the summer? My grandfather has said many restaurants use the wood, obviously, but I would be sitting on a lot of oak. I'm not sure what type of wood they use.

Right now, I am just a one man deal. However, I am weighing my options with 600 acres of land that has trees (90% oak) to be readily taken down and in close proximity to the Dallas / Ft Worth.

Thanks for your time. Feel free to lay it all on me. So, far I love being out and working hard, but I want to know what the possibilities are from more experienced fellas out there.

Ryan

Look in to bundled firewood I sell it year round as much in th summer as in the winter bundle firewood you have o think different looks not heat looks not heat