If you have timber (pines) harvested how do you get paid?
- Do you get a quote and get handed a check before they start?
- Do you get a quote and get paid based on the amount of timber that they transport?

Do you work with a harvester or do you find someone to handle things and he gets paid a percentage?

This is near Valdosta, GA.

You can do it either way. I sold some on a bid, but wished I would have done a weigh ticket sale, you'll make more money, as long as the pulpwooder is honest.

You could call a forester and have them over-see the cutting; They will make sure the timber company has their tickets and weights correct. Of course that comes with a ~10% fee.

I usually find my own harvester and then my own forester to over-see things.

Dealing with an honest buyer I would sell on a per ton basis, I would sell directly to a large sawmill, depending on products. On lump sum bids somebody is going to lose. I have an old client that was selling a large tract and was offered about $850,000 for it. It was cut on a per ton basis and he got over $1,500,000 for the same tract, just an example.

We hired a consultant to over see 800 acres of pulpwood and chip and saw at about place. If you can’t be there a couple times a week, your prob getting screwed. Set the bond high so you can hold out a significantl amount of their paycheck until they get the property back in good shape. Mainly roads and tops

We deal with a good honest logger. Usually 50/50. Paid when complete.

Buy the ton is the only way I would ever sell any timber. You could still hire someone to give you an FMV is you wanted an cut estimate. Good logger is a must also. He can make you pocket book bigger if he is a good merchandizer.

When I clearcut my property I called the forrester, he brought me a contract stating what they would pay for pulpwood( hardwood and pine), chip and saw, etc. he then paid me weekly and he provided weight receipts as well. Getting paid by tonnage is the way to go imo

I hope you aren't selling hardwood grade logs by the ton.

Showing my ignorance: I honestly don't know what you are getting at by that statement.

Well......................No. Scale only. We used to sell Mead some of our logs back in mid 90s by the ton but the good ones went to elsewhere.

From what I read on here I’m not so sure that there is such a thing as an honest logger in pine country.

High grade hardwood or big pine is sold on the scale. Board footage is calculated using a stick scale or one of three other methods that already have the volume calculated for you.

Correct, but here's what makes it pretty much impossible in our area. There will be several species of trees on a price sheet, within those species there will be several grades. Say you pull on the yard with a trailer load, you may have white oak, red oak, poplar, chestnut oak, walnut and we'll throw in hard maple and cherry or two. Within all those species you'll have several grades , all different prices per 1,000BF. Next load may have a much different mix of species and grade. It's just not done in real hardwood country. I understand it is in LA . I am also told the folks that buy hardwood by the ton in LA will pull high grade logs out and ship them North , flipping them for big $. I know I would.

I was told there was a feller got a wild idee and tried buying by the ton up here. Of course he had to pay a good price to compete with all the many mills that scale . After a load or two the loggers started bringing only junk and low grade logs. Didn't work out as planned for him.

Hear some of the big timber companies keep them on starvation wages too.

Had a buddy, whom I didn't know at the time, who had pruchased a 40 on a mountain not far from here. Was gonna get it select cut. Had on man come in and offer him 8K for the hardwoods. He got a couple more to look. Finally had a man from TN offer him 38K. He took that offer and paid it off. Just sayin there is definantly some dishonest folks that log but then again there are those type folks in every type of work.

At $4-$5 a ton for pine, it ain't hardly worth cutting pines anymore

That seems to be the way it works most of the time. Timber companies can keep them on good tracts where they can get production consistently and move a lot of wood. Or you can get a little higher logging rate and bounce around to smaller tracts. I don't see many loggers who consistently cut on good tracts of private land and I think that's why they typically get paid a little more.
The sawmills are making the money right now. The high lumber prices are not getting passed along to the timber buyers, loggers and landowners.

Loggers are going out of business a lot. There have been 4 in south Bama and NW Fl that went out in the past couple of months, and it is rare that they are replaced with family owned loggers. It is almost impossible to get small tracts of wood cut, unless it is dry and a 3 week monsoon hits.

I’d have to disagree with that. Hardwood logs overall are the most expensive that I’ve ever seen them and have been for the past 6-8 months