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Logging company you woudl recommend?

chipterp

PMA Member
Has anyone used a logging company that is around south central southeast iowa that they have had a good experience with. We are thinking about logging some walnuts off some of our farms. Any helpful tips would be great also of dos and don'ts. And we are already planning to have a contract and the money in the bank before the logs leave our property.
 
Hire a forester and then take bids. Super cheap and will pay you back ten fold. However, If you are confident in the trees to take and the necessary contracts, I can send you a bid list.
 
I have done two timber cuts over the last 10 years.

I would use your local state forester to setup the area to be cut, and get a ball park value of the trees in the sale.

You would be very surprised at the range your bids will come in at. My first one had 4 bids and they went anywhere from 5000 to 17000 If they know they don't have any competition they are going to bid low.

Your forester usually has a general contract they will give you. Make them sign it. I had trees marked and those were the one they were bidding on. I got paid before they took the timber off the landing site, would be better to get the money up front if you can.
I new the guy that won mine. So I was O.K. with this setup.

The other important thing is to have them in there when the ground is frozen only. They can make a mess of your place if they are in there when it thaws.

The other important item is to have some one do a market value on your ground. What the land worth with out the trees and what it worth with the trees at the point you bought it. This way you can write off between the two.
 
Chip - the Pilcher's are good guys from what I have experienced and have heard about. They are outside of Douds. One of the brothers is Curtis Pilcher, 641-919-4308.
 
Yep. Above. Take a list of 100 guys and talk to forester on who is "bad news" and I bet the forester- private or public- can tell u "here's your likely 10 possible buyers". Bid. If my Grandma was a wonderful logger- I'd still make her bid!!!!
 
Just for your information. I walked my land with a State forester 2 winters back. She was very knowledgeable about trees and I learned a bunch from her that day. The part that didn't go so good was that not one of the loggers were even interested in giving me a bid on the walnut she marked. They all said the marked trees were nothing but junk and they couldn't make anything from it. They claimed that was common for this particular forester.
At this point I am giving it a few more years before looking at logging again as that was the advice from the loggers. I think I will probably try a private forester next time around. I'm not willing to let the loggers go in without a forester, but I do think the forester has to give up some good trees in order to make it worth their while.
 
The market is still pretty strong sold some last week mostly damaged from last summers tornado . There were no real good trees in the mix but some large lumber trees we averaged 1.73 a board foot on the landing. If the sale is not a huge volume sale as in 100 trees or less I would get a the bonded timber buyer list in you area and mark them and get some bids.
You can get a simple contract on line if you don't like the bids reject them all.
Historically this isn't the best time to sell better quality stuff as they don't store well in the heat. I find September is a great time to sell as they are wanting more wood and a lot of access is blocked by standing crops and hunters worried about the deer .
 
Just for your information. I walked my land with a State forester 2 winters back. She was very knowledgeable about trees and I learned a bunch from her that day. The part that didn't go so good was that not one of the loggers were even interested in giving me a bid on the walnut she marked. They all said the marked trees were nothing but junk and they couldn't make anything from it. They claimed that was common for this particular forester.
At this point I am giving it a few more years before looking at logging again as that was the advice from the loggers. I think I will probably try a private forester next time around. I'm not willing to let the loggers go in without a forester, but I do think the forester has to give up some good trees in order to make it worth their while.

I'm gonna make an assumption here... I bet if I went out there I'd probably agree with the forester. And possibly the loggers too, to a point. I am going to GUESS the forester advised u to take out the poor quality walnuts - very smart.... And leave the "good stuff" because it was too young.
I get the point of view from The loggers on lack of quality BUT they would LOVE nothing more than to take your premium young stuff. Which is a huge huge mistake for the landowner IMO. So- how do u solve both issues at once??? 3 ways - 1- obviously find a logger for lumber grade walnut that no one wanted- easier said than done if rejected BUT if there's 50 plus trees there is a market for that and buyers (were there very few trees???). 2) throw in a minimal amount of good quality premium trees- ideally those that may fall in creek anyways. Give em enough to make me want to bid but protect as many premium veneers as possible (I'd never ever ever touch a good growing veneer walnut under 24" dbh but thats me). 3rd- wait 5-10 yrs til the premium walnuts catch up so u can do larger sale with premium trees in the mix. But- unless u have just complete garbage and only a very small # at that- I'm surprised no one bid. Explain ur marked trees, sizes & qty's if able. Something is off here
 
I'm gonna make an assumption here... I bet if I went out there I'd probably agree with the forester. And possibly the loggers too, to a point. I am going to GUESS the forester advised u to take out the poor quality walnuts - very smart.... And leave the "good stuff" because it was too young.
I get the point of view from The loggers on lack of quality BUT they would LOVE nothing more than to take your premium young stuff. Which is a huge huge mistake for the landowner IMO. So- how do u solve both issues at once??? 3 ways - 1- obviously find a logger for lumber grade walnut that no one wanted- easier said than done if rejected BUT if there's 50 plus trees there is a market for that and buyers (were there very few trees???). 2) throw in a minimal amount of good quality premium trees- ideally those that may fall in creek anyways. Give em enough to make me want to bid but protect as many premium veneers as possible (I'd never ever ever touch a good growing veneer walnut under 24" dbh but thats me). 3rd- wait 5-10 yrs til the premium walnuts catch up so u can do larger sale with premium trees in the mix. But- unless u have just complete garbage and only a very small # at that- I'm surprised no one bid. Explain ur marked trees, sizes & qty's if able. Something is off here

I'm going off memory here but I believe we marked around 70 trees. There were a few decent 20" trees but very little veneer quality was marked . the problem is there was a lot of 14 to 16" stuff that just had no value. The timber buyers didn't really try to talk me into letting my better stuff go, they just didn't agree with taking the smaller stuff . The last one I met with even told me to leave the good veneer till it hit 24 inches or more , told me that was where the money is. He suggested leaving things alone for 5 years.

One thing the loggers said to me was that they did not measure the trees the same as the forester. What the forester would call a 22, the loggers called a 20 at best. They claimed the foresters don't account for the bark.

In the end, I just decided to leave it all be for 5 years or so and reevaluate at that time.
 
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Waiting to cut is a good plan. If your goals are long term ownership than that makes perfect sense. It seems like the hunting land in Iowa trades a lot anymore. Also some what relevant to this topic White oak is as high now as I have ever seen.
 
I'm going off memory here but I believe we marked around 70 trees. There were a few decent 20" trees but very little veneer quality was marked . the problem is there was a lot of 14 to 16" stuff that just had no value. The timber buyers didn't really try to talk me into letting my better stuff go, they just didn't agree with taking the smaller stuff . The last one I met with even told me to leave the good veneer till it hit 24 inches or more , told me that was where the money is. He suggested leaving things alone for 5 years.

One thing the loggers said to me was that they did not measure the trees the same as the forester. What the forester would call a 22, the loggers called a 20 at best. They claimed the foresters don't account for the bark.

In the end, I just decided to leave it all be for 5 years or so and reevaluate at that time.

BINGO and BINGO.
14-16" - yep, that's your answer. That's not a big tree with not a lot of board feet. Not worth the loggers time. Doesn't take much more effort to pull a tree out with 2-3 times the board feet. 14-16" doesn't make sense for a logger but thankfully you held off. Lumber grade, I suppose if it's junk and you could sell it I would BUT, that's a small tree. I'm gonna guess most lumber companies are gonna want 19+ DBH trees minimum. You are doing yourself a favor on waiting.
Make sure you protect & watch your veneer trees like a hawk when you do a sale in the future. My 2 cents, keep their hands & saws off your 20-23" DBH veneer trees. Like I said before, bare bones min, I personally won't go less than 24" but I let my veneers get to 26"-28" unless they are falling in creek or really crowded or if I'm trying to spice up a sale. I like "gambling" a little too, taking a chance that a 25" tree will make it to 28" - they usually do in my experience and WHOA, the value just goes up exponentially. I just love seeing giant walnuts too. It's odd cause they do nothing for whitetails but I am a little obsessed with veneer walnuts, just love em. Mine are freed on 4 sides of canopy, all vines trimmed every couple years, if I get one with a little branch I find way up the tree - I'll trim it (still veneer for 8' or 3 sided veneer). NO COWS trampling them and trampling the roots, compacting the soil, pissing all over the ground, etc. Borderline "tree-hugger" here. ;) Except this tree-hugger is ok with pulling out the big boy saws when it's timed right & done with precision.
 
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