As a buyer, I couldn't call the local mill I dealt with and demand $60 a ton for mixed hdw logs, they'd laugh me right off the phone. And if I did do that, they'd likely have cut my quota when things dried out...
I understand that. But I guarantee you that 7X9 ties from down there are bringing $30-$31 per tie just like they are from up here. And they are going up. I won’t be surprised if crossties are. $35 apiece before long. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again......... I think the whole system in south Alabama is seriously flawed. Seems to me it’s all about making the big guys rich and keeping the little guys right on the poverty line.
Brent, I think you are 100% correct that the system down here is flawed from the perspective of the small landowners, but I don't know of a thing we can do about it. A few big companies control the mills, and they set the price. The laws of supply and demand don't apply in regards to the price of the final product.
The only solution would be more mills being built, and we are seeing a little progress in that. I think one of the big problems that we have is there is nobody trying to recruit new mills. The forestry organizations that you would think would be doing that are primarily controlled by people who work for those few companies, and they have no incentive to work towards new mills.
I think there are fortunes to be made by absorbing the excess supply of forestry products in central and south AL, but there doesn't seem to be much interest. When a company does decide to invest in forestry in the southeast, they usually just buy existing mills instead of building new ones. I'm not sure this problem has a solution.
