for those with experience, how does a logging company determine what they will pay for standing timber? and what would he then turn around and sell it to a sawmill for? example, a 100 ft white pine, 30" diameter straight and healthy. how would a logger price that for buying from the landowner and then selling to the mill? hopefully that is clear. i know it varies by location but a rough idea.
Good friend of mine has about 250 Acres of white pine in Southwest Virginia. Couple of years ago one of the stands had reached practical maturity. Huge trees in there. I've hunted this land for 25 years.
He solicited bids from about 12 different logging companies... of the 12 companies three or four of them actually sent someone out to cruise the stand to be harvested. I forget exactly but maybe 56 Acres. Of the three people that actually put any kind of real effort into the cruise he liked one the best. I don't recall if he went with this company or not but he gained a lot of knowledge on the cruising process.
His contract with the selected Logging Company required that they re gravel any road damage but did not include a replant. The replant was far too expensive for his liking so he did it himself.
I get kind of foggy on the details exactly how many board feet they took, but in my opinion it had to be a masive haul because the trees were gargantuan. As I understand it... all of the wood was be to be processed into Timber homes, I believe that is the ultimate premium desired use of a Harvest.
They were at it for several months. I seem to recall his payment was somewhere between $800 and $1,800 per acre. Like I mentioned before he had 12 estimates. Eight or nine of these estimates for lowball non visit wild-ass guesses.
Overall I was fairly shocked at the low number he received for such a massive amount of wood. He is a smart man and knows what he's doing so I don't believe he was taken.
They also left a tremendous mess. Did a burn the following year and it's still a mess.
In West Virginia a logger friend of mine gets between 500 and 800 for Oak... 500 being Red Oak and 800 being White Oak. That is felled and stacked Lumber of excellent quality trees. Edit... that is per thousand board feet. To recap $500 per thousand on red oak and $800 per thousand board feet on White Oak. That comes out to $0.50 for a 12 inch by 12 inch by 1 inch thick piece of red oak. My guess is the mill charges about 350 to $500 per thousand to process. This wood is sold to the consumer dried at around $3.50 per board foot. White Oak would be accordingly higher. If the White Oak logs are large enough they will quarter saw them for an extra premium on the final sale price. I would expect quarter-sawn kiln-dried White Oak Boards of a 12in width to fetch over $10 a board foot on the consumer Market. If you do not know how to calculate board feet please Google. Quarter-sawn White Oak also known as tiger oak is where that unique medullary Ray occurs. It is highly desirable it is also highly stable. I took down a fence made of quarter-sawn white oak that had been standing for 60 years and was able to resell the lumber as "vintage Lumber"... people went wild over it... wainscotting their den and crap like that.
The third point I will make is depending on the location you may get absolutely nothing. I have a 6 Acre Farm of Premium trees in North Stafford Virginia and could not get a single logger to even come in and take the trees for free. It was simply too small a job and too much of a hassle for them, so we set up a sawmill and are making our own Lumber with it. Got lucky... all of the maples are ambrosia maple.
Good luck in your project, expect to be disappointed and you may not be in the end... 10% chance.
