# for those of you buying logs



## jimmyjames (Jun 30, 2013)

I've been doing some research lately about purchasing logs in the future, right now I can get all the logs I want for almost free, but of course those are all yard trees from tree services, a lot of them will produce the funky figured wood that I like but many folk don't like that and want defect free figure free lumber. Anybody here buy logs from any log yards? I don't have the resources to buy directly from the landowners since here in Iowa to buy from landowners you must be a liscenced arborist as well as being bonded and carry a very expensive insurance policy so for me its not currently cost effective for me to jump through those hoops, only way to justify that cost I would have to harvest timber year round. Buying timber without those credentials here can land you in jail and/or huge fines..... so I must buy all ready harvested timber and it must be from one of those bonded timber buyers. With that said what's everybody currently paying fort saw logs? My research has given me wide ranges of prices that are all over the place......


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## Mike1950 (Jun 30, 2013)

My 2 cents worth which with inflation would probably be worth a half centavo!!! Why would you want to buy the straight nice logs- to try to compete with the big mill??? I do not think that would be where the money and opportunity would be. Access to the yard trees gives you a unique market that they would not want. also the big pile with metal marked in them, if you can cut fancy short lumber and turning blanks that would be a market that they could not compete in nor want to. Market what is desired and needed- find a hole and fill it. Maybe then the big mill is your ally- start competing and they will not be.


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## Kevin (Jun 30, 2013)

Mike is right, and I would add the first thing you have to do is *decide* on a market to cater to. You can have a yard full of logs but if they don't produce the lumber your buyers are wanting then you're in the firewood business. If you want to cater to local cabinet shops then you need straight grained red and white oak, walnut, poplar, hickory (still a kitchen cab fad in most areas), whatever else grows in yur region. If you're going after furniture and craftsman you need a little bit of straight grain logs but mostly figured stuff - considered defects at the mill. After you identify your market then you can identify sources for those logs. 

I don't think you want to compete with the bigger mills and saw for grade. No money in it right now unless you saw containers and sell to the Chinese and I think that market is volatile right now but not sure, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot bamboo pole. Me no likey do business with Chinee. Make big headache for little leprechaun.


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## jimmyjames (Jun 30, 2013)

I guess I should have mentioned the logs I would want to buy, mainly soft and hard maple, most of the yard trees have a lot of heartwood, the log yards I have talked to have large sapwood maple.logs and I can pick and choose which logs I want. Most other species from the tree services will fill my needs just fine. Plus if any of the yard trees I get are crap I will have my log splitter to chop them into firewood.


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## Kevin (Jun 30, 2013)

jimmyjames said:


> With that said what's everybody currently paying fort saw logs? My research has given me wide ranges of prices that are all over the place......



Prices can vary so much regionally, that it can be very misleading to look at what prices are elsewhere. Best to run down bid and ask for your specific region. AFA having to be an arborist to buy a log here or there, that's something I never heard of. Bound to be a way around that I'd think, of course laws too vary quite a bit regionally. I mean, in some states a man can actually marry a man. :i_dunno:


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## jimmyjames (Jun 30, 2013)

Kevin said:


> jimmyjames said:
> 
> 
> > With that said what's everybody currently paying fort saw logs? My research has given me wide ranges of prices that are all over the place......
> ...



The log yards sell the logs per board foot, the only bidding that happens here is on the stump or veneer logs. I can buy logs from landowners if they put the logs up for sale them self, I can't legally go to a landowner that has standing timber and offer him money for me to go in and harvest logs from his timber, especially on timbers that have been monitored and replanted by the DNR, here they are really picky on reforestation and selective harvesting, I've even tried to contact the large excavating companies that do land clearing and all of them sell the trees they remove from the properties and are put up for bid before they are even taken down......


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## Mike1950 (Jun 30, 2013)

Kevin said:


> jimmyjames said:
> 
> 
> > With that said what's everybody currently paying fort saw logs? My research has given me wide ranges of prices that are all over the place......
> ...



Hey what is the deal here - why in the hell are the mods letting this crazy Irishman go to the dark side and get political on us.:rant2::rant2::fit::fit::fit::smack::smack:
Tis not the world we grew up in.

I have only driven through Iowa on I/90. Not many trees. We out here have trees till hell won't have it. They are being ate by the bugs but the huggers won't let them log- but then they burn and the huggers won't let them log them. All soft wood though. NO mills cut hardwood only the little guys cut hardwood from yards. A different world we live in.................


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