Reasonable price for my timber?

[BenjaminPQ]

Hello All,

I've cleared some forest and I'm selling the lumber. Approximately, 80% is cherry, 10% maple, 10% other hardwoods. The biggest ones are probably 24 inch in diameter. It's all been cut and stacked in the last 6 weeks. Here is my ad on Craigslist: https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/grd/5713143172.html

What is this timber worth? I'm certainly not looking for top dollar but I don't want to get ripped off either.

Thanks!

 

[BenjaminPQ]

I found this price guide for Ohio:

http://ohiowood.osu.edu/images/Final_TPRspr2014_to_fall2014_(1).pdf

It basically looks like 1 dollar per board foot for large cherry and hard maple logs. So, a 20 in. by 12 foot cherry log would be worth about 200 bucks. Does that sound right?

 

[PJM]

That price guide is old; you should be able to find a more recent one from that OhioWood site. To help determine value you need to know the volume of wood. To do this you should scale the logs. For each log you need the small end diameter (inside bark) in inches and the log length in feet. Then you can use commonly available volume tables to look-up the volume for each log. Pretty sure that 1/4 inch International and Doyle are commonly used in OH. For example, see https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/fnr/fnr-191.pdf.

I would also suggest marketing the logs to local buyers that you can also get from the OhioWood website. Try to get bids, if you can, to determine what the market is willing to pay for your logs.

 

[Gypo Logger]

It's really hard to help you here, because most accomplished loggers know how to cut for grade and yield. The disadvantage is that log buyers can easily spot those that don't. Most of it learned by hard won experience.