For instance around here, cut, skid and bucked is $100 per 1000 for normal stuff and extra $15 per 1000 if loaded on a truck.
I have never worked for an hourly wage, so I don't know what or how to log based on that. What do or how do you charge ................ or are you just buying the timber and you have your time and labor invested in the harvesting?
Just wondering.
The website looks good,
Sam
To preface, my actual business is not logging in the conventional sense, meaning my primary objective and purpose is not to cut, skid and haul timber to a mill. My primary goal is to help landowners meet their forest management goals, and sometimes (even a lot of the time) that means cutting and skidding. So I am not trying to compete with conventional loggers who work by the thousand or something similar. That approach often leads to the landowner being viewed simply as a barrier between you and getting timber to cut. So I structure my business to bring the landowner into a positive, long-term relationship with the practitioner (me). This is not to say that I think that other approaches are wrong, I just want it to be clear that I am in a different business than conventional approaches.
So with that being said, when I do work by the MBF I usually get around $250/mbf. I am helping no one if I can't make a decent living: I'm definitely not helping myself, and I'm not helping the landowner because if I am not in business 10 years from now my whole approach to management becomes a non-option, because I am promoting long-term management perspectives.
In certain situations working by the hour is a better option, because then I have no motivation to either high grade or work faster and potentially put certain sensitive practices by the wayside. I get at least $45/hr for my team and chainsaws.
Horse logging has many strengths, but high production is not one of them. And to make a go of it I need to structure my operation around their inherent strengths, not high production. That is not to say that I can't get a lot done with horses. In certain situations I have cut and skidded 4-5mbf per day for several weeks. With horses being so cheap to operate (daily cost of around $3-4) there is a pretty decent profit margin. But I can't base my business on those figures, or else I risk compromising my main goal.
So there's a little about how I price things. Hope I made myself clear.....
I am interested in improving it though.
