Anyone know how the timber market is currently doing? I am considering doing a selective cut on my property. I have a mixture of red and white oak, tulip poplar, maple, hickory, beech, cherry, and a few walnuts and elm. I got one bid so far with more coming. The bid averaged out to $152.00 a tree based on how many trees he said he would cut. I was told that the woods was last timbered in the late 1950s.

Thanks for any tips or advice.

Walnut trees are big money if they have some size. They're mostly for veneer, my Dad sold 13 walnut trees a year ago for 29K. That was PA.

We just had some parts of the plantation clearcut and they piled the oaks and left them. We’re letting some folks come in and get firewood. Hope it’s better for you up there.

I would be interested in someones knowledge on the current walnut market as well. In the last five years is it currently up?down?steady? Not taking over the thread just of someone chimes in maybe some walnut specifics as well.

I have never seen a mixed batch of trees sold at one price for each like that. Do get another estimate......jk

check your pm's!

B. Walnut, white oak, hard maple, white ash prices are good if you can find a mill or broker that wants them. B. Cherry prices are low and demand is even lower unless top diameters are 16” or larger. Crane Matte log market is strong in my area.

Best to hire a consultant Forester who works for your interest before selling to logging contractor or sawmill.

Get many bids. Determine what diameter cut, what species are being selectively cut, how they will get the trees out, where will the landing be, what will they do afterwards with roads, cutting tops down or not? how will they compensate you for damaged trees, will they bring stone in to repair the roads or improve the roads, do they need to build any bridges? White oak is very strong in our are now. I've seen bids differ by $200,000. Ask how many
loads they estimate being removed. Are they estimating board feet based upon Scribner or what other scale? Some don't count the third log and consider that gravy for them. Others that need to feed their mills get much more aggressive with their offers when they need logs. Also have the money paid upfront prior to any cutting in my opinion. Also how soon do they have to start and finish? If you give them more time it sometimes helps them.

SOOOO much more to it than price...if you want a good, productive job.

MinkGuy touched on some of it, but there's more involved than that, even.

first two questions to ask yourself: what am I trying to accomplish with this timber sale? Am I just mining the current value, or do I care about long term MANAGEMENT?...CRUCIAL questions!

How many acres , how many trees involved !

You really need to know what kind of volume you have. A price per tree means nothing.
I'm not familiar with timber values in your part of the world but I can guarantee you that each species will have a different value in dollars per thousand board feet.

That’s crazy. You could get more than that cutting a tree for firewood!!! Uncle just sold a single walnut tree for almost 6,000

Hire a reputable consultant forester. If you don’t you will regret not doing so. A good consultant will make you enough more money on a timber sale to more than cover his fees. They will also be able to tell you which loggers are reputable and which ones are crooks.

Exactly how are you going to count the number of trees this guy's going to cut down? Your return will be based on someone deciding how many trees were cut, you going to follow the cutters around and keep a tally? You just going to take his word how many he cut?

This might be of help to you. They can likely source you to reliable contacts in your area.

https://walnutcouncil.org/

I've never heard of such a bid around here either

Thanks for all the replys.

He gave me a lump sum price for the trees. I just did the math based on the amount of trees he said he would take and it came to $152.00 a tree. I know the value of each tree and each species of tree varies depending on the size and type of tree. It seemed a bit low to me.

The majority of my trees are red oak, white oak, beech, and tulip poplar. Most of my trees are 20 to 30 inches in diameter.

You are about to get skinned. The type of outfits who skin people will likely not do a thing to prevent destroying the root systems of the trees which you want them to leave with their heavy equipment.
Selective logging is a dying art if not completely dead.
If I had timber and I didn't want it all clearcut, I would choose to have strips of my property clear cut , leaving the rest of my timber unmolested. It is not a perfect plan, but if the alternative is a hot wet mess of damage trees, and low-ball prices, it is better than what these people want to do.
However, looking at it from a loggers perspective, he can't make the same money for the same effort doing a proper selective cutting compared to clear cutting. That may be the cause of the low-ball price which was offered to you.
Keep shopping.

In my area a bid structured like you have is very common. Just a overall price for the whole job.

Listen to OKforester he is spot on. Foresters are worth every penny. We had a small thinning job done on 2 wooodlots. One about 30 acres and the other about 10 acres. I feel like the forester didn't even make good wages for the amount of time he spent cruising the timber and consulting me about his recommendations for the woodlots. Especially since he was a hour and a half drive from us and came out probably 4 times over the course of 3 years before any sale was ever made. He had a considerable time investment in long before he ever got anything out of it.

If you don't use a forester Minkguy has some good advice. However if they start talking about a diameter limit just show them the door. That is a lazy mans way of managing a forest imo. Some trees are of poorer quality and should be cut at smaller diameters to make room for better trees. And nicer trees should often be left to grow and gain value for the next cut. Its a shame to cut a beautiful strait tall timber tree just because it meets the 16 inch diameter limit. Ten years from now it would likely still be a beautiful timber tree but at a 20+ diameter.

you can't hardly give it away around here, hardwood firewood is 80 dollar's a cord delivered.