I thought it might be okay to discuss this here. The USDA does allow farmers to cut wood and allow proceeds to be considered as farm income, and I do that on my farm a lot. Slowly I am transitioning from heavy logging to more involvement with sheep, clearing forest into new fields as I go. Here the land base is 90% forest and only 10% field if that gives you an idea of how much logging dominates.
Its been awhile since I cut wood though and had heard that prices were down. They are...on certain pulpwood species like hemlock, fir and spruce. With so many paper mills closing of late, and cheap oil has killed the firewood market, it is hard to get rid of softwood pulp. Biomass is moving, but a new biomass plant is opening up close to me, so soon I can get rid of that even easier, but saw logs is the surprise.
Spruce Budworm, Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, and Emerald Ash Borer have not got to Maine yet so the prices are high because other locales are hurting. We used to get $350/m for Ash, but now it is up to $650/m with oak logs going for $1200/m along with some other high prices. Maple palletwood is paying more then logs due to the powerline companies building lines through New England and needing crane mats (8 X 8 timbers 16 feet long, bolted together to make panels 4 feet wide to drive on. Hardwood pulp is moving, but slowly while softwood is just plain dead. Loggers are leaving it in the woods. I am thinking when I get to logging after memorial Day Weekend, I might buy another sawmill and convert what otherwise would be wasted tops into usable lumber. I have a rotary mill, but with small diameter logs a bandsaw and its small kerf is what really works well for getting the most usable lumber out of a log. I can see where it would be okay for typical logging operations to leave the tops in the woods to rot, but where I am clearing for fields, I can't leave a mess like that and its always nice to have lumber.
Log Prices; Pleasantly Surprised
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