Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Timber prices?

I know timber isn’t going for what is was a year or two ago but I’m curious to see what some of y’all are seeing these days. Specifically southwest portion of the state.

Can t speak for ur area . Lots more options for mill there than in northwest al where I live . Pine Pulpwood prices here is $28 a ton . $22 to loggers a maybe 5 or 6 a ton to landowner. Cns would be bout $12 a ton to landowner. Mills pay $35. Sawlogs from $18 to $20 a ton for landowners. Mills pay around $40 to $45. Sawlogs are treelenght 8” to 10”tops. Cns is 6” tops. Everything here is sold by ton an treelength . Hardwood is way different . Crosstie $70 a ton an white oak whiskey barrel logs are $200 a ton . Hardwood logs are usually split 50/50 to logger a landowner. Sometimes landowner gets 60% price of he logs. No local mills for hw pulp in this area. If ur sitting on good hardwood tract with lots white oak logs ur sitting on a gold mine . I know this is probably way different in ur area. Pine lumber prices went from $1700 a thousand ft last yr to $388 a ft a few weeks back .

Wow thanks for that info you just made my day lol I got a cut done last year and got $22/ton pine pulp, $35/ton for anything that was not pulp. Can’t remember what the hardwood was because there was very little of it. Only thing I have ever timed right

At this point I can make a pretty solid case that you would ultimately make a smarter investment and earn more $$ off the interest on a savings account than you can off a bunch of trees.

Terrible Investment.

Good, maybe everyone will stop turning every square foot of land into a pine plantation. It’s like someone flipped a switch 30 years ago and every Tom, Dick and Harry in Alabama woke up with dreams of being a forester

Pine

It all depends on how close you are to the mills and how bad they want it. We are still lucky in Monroe county in that we have some pulp and saw mills nearby, Trucking is what kills you. The stumpage price the landowner gets is what's left after paying the logger to cut it, paying the trucking costs and the commission come out.

As for planting pine, It's an income producing long rotation crop. most paper mills down here just take pine only now. Not much of a market at all for hardwood here in Monroe county. One local hardwood mill just shut down nearby and loggers don't want to fool with hardwood. The logger population is dwindling and they pretty much choose what they want to cut. Hard to even get a thinning done now, especially on small tracts.

It ain’t what it used to be for sure. Especially when we were getting the money from the state

I agree unless you inherit the land. Cash is much easier to manage too!

My , what a difference a couple of hundred miles make . Up here no one wants pine, but they'll pay huge $ for veneer and stave grade white oak.

Recon what Red Oak would bring? Large , Virgin trees?

Red oak is down , has been for a while. Depends on the grade . Stave grade white oak is always the steadiest price. People drink when times are good and when times are bad.

This is unheard of in my area . Just shows different prices accordingly where you live and competition for wood and different markets to choose from . We have only one pulp mill in our area and they only take pine. Hw got be trucked to Steveson and distance eats all the profit. We work on the old champion/IP land what is left bout 180k acres . They constantly clearing land and turning it into row crops . . Done sold a bunch . Leasing to farmers for $70 an acre. They say More money doing that than growing trees.

I got a told a price last week for thinning and a clear cut and I told the fella I wouldn’t even open my gate for the price he gave me. I can’t remember what he was offering me per ton but it wasn’t worth me messing with

For those with inherited land that have timber, just remember that a thinning is not so much about the here and now as it is about what you'll have in future harvests. Not to mention a boost in ground level vegetation for wildlife habitat, once a closed canopy is opened up.

“Selling timber is hard, it’s not rocket science, it’s harder”.
Get your timber to a merchantable size, then wait on wet weather/markets to bring the best price.
2011 the prices went crazy high, then last year they went way up. “You thin when you have to, then clear when you want to”.
We made some good money the last year and a half, sold some when prices went up 50%, then sold more when prices went up another 50%. Had we known, we would have waiting and sold when it peaked at 100%, but who ever knows these things?

Guaranteed 5% return a year for timberland or more if u manage it properly. Thats why real estate investment trusts owns 15 million acres of timberland.universities a college’s investment in REITS because it’s a safe a risk free return. I know many landowners/loggers pay for their land with timber sale then first cutting of pine is profit . Harder to do today with land prices so high .

Brush I got lucky on that one.A very good friend leaving the timber industry set me up directly with a mill. The pulp price was exactly double anything I ever got before. Not much pulp though it was mostly very mature very big thinned Loblolly.I got a great site index so they grow good. It ended up cutting well over $3,000/ac so I was definitely a happy camper.

If you want this type of return (5 to 7%) you have to buy well stocked industrially managed large pine plantation tracts at an attractive price with good access and good site index in an area with a strong timber market. Or better yet be lucky enough to inherit it and gain step up basis.

That’s a great cut. My timber was crap when I clearcut and got only about $700 an acre.