Pay price for tops

[freemind]

What is a reasonable price right now, to buy tops?

A local guy has some tops for sale. Just how many, I don't know. He had an ad on CL for firewood. Cut your own, 25 a load, he cuts it, and it was 75.

Thought maybe he was selling standing trees, turns out it is only tops and a few dead standing.

Told him I was not hip to pay 25 for a load of limb wood. Wood is only selling for 50-60 a truckload. He told me that there are some decent size pieces, but who really knows until I see for myself.

I know wood prices are down right now. I don't mind paying a fair price, but I have no idea of what that is. I live in Indiana, and I think I have seen tops in the past priced at 2-10 dollars.

What is a fair price to offer him, and would you all pay the price all at once, or say weekly based on what you cut?

I don't know the guy, nor do I know just how honest he would be. I would rather hope not to pay for say 100 tops and he end up cutting some I have paid for and sell it.

Opinions please.

 

[Turkeyslayer]

I know a few guys that pay $18 a full cord. I also know a couple that pay $9 if they skid it out to a landing or $15 if you skid it out for them. I personally think $18 a full cord would be about the max I would pay.

Edit- Wood locally goes for around $180+/- a full cord

 

[Metals406]

I'd be willing to pay $10 a ton for 3" and up. . . It all burns.

Let's say your wood weighs 47 lbs/ft³. . . You'd get 6,016 lbs. of wood for $30 smackeroos. . . Less wood weight, the less you pay.

Thirty bucks a cord is a good deal. The way folks gotta drive anymore to harvest it, you can't hardly do it for less than $100 for a days outing.

But, stuff is regional -- what's good there may not be good here and vise-versa.

 

[Cambium]

Had a guy who wanted $250 for straight trees (4 cords worth) or $50 for 2 truck loads of tops. The tops are 4" diameter or larger. I'm debating if the 4" diameter was worth paying for!

 

[dingeryote]

That is NUTS!

Last I knew, Freemont was a fairly good sized town with some good farmland around it. Put your own ad in the local shopper "Fence row clearing" resonable prices, and do the same in the state Farm beurau newspaper.
Craigslist is free, put one on there.
The ad's will cost you a couple bucks.

Get out and do some woodboogerin' in the countryside as well.
Print up some cards with your name and number, and knock some doors.
Chase down any downed trees ya see. Make a hobby/obcession of it.
Ya meet some of the greatest folks this way.
Leave your card on the cork boards in the diners and greasy spons, in the small towns where us farm trash go for the latest gossip and indigestion.

I helped the cousin clean out a BUNCH of tops today, and they all went to an Amish friend we have. They were just sittin' there and he could use 'em, and there's more in there than any 10 people can cut and burn before they go to pooch. There's lotsa good folks out there with tops cluttering up the woodlot, not just the yahoos on Craigslist looking to make an easy buck on crap wood.

I get lots of wood from folks knowing I'll clean out a fencerow/windrow for them.
Sure ya gotta chop up a bunch of grapevine, greenbrier,sumac and other crap to get to the few good trees, but it's free wood, and you're trading.
Word travels quick and some of the fencerows can have some really,really, really, NICE wood in 'em. Hell, I have been offered cash in addition to clearing the rows, and quite often I am shown old saws with dust on them that would be great to rehab..

Screw that DORK on Craigslist.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[indiansprings]

We've never had to pay for tops, all the landowners we deal with are glad to let us come in and cut the tops up, we use a four wheel drive tractor to push up the limbs that are left, in some cases we just hand stack the brush thats left. The landowners are glad to get it cleaned up for free, every once in a while we have a guy ask if he can have a face cord or rick for every 15 to 20 rick we cut. I wouldn't pay the guy a dime, your doing him a service.
We just finished cleaning up thirty acres of tops and just worked out a deal with another land owner for 160 acres of tops, free. Here with the humidity the oak will start turning very punky and rotten after a couple of years on the ground, their glad to get rid of it. All but one has let us cut up the cull logs that are usually left, that is were the easy money wood is. We keep two guys dragging up tops to a central location and keep one guy sawing when enough is cut up for a truck load, every body grads a maul and starts splitting and loading, tough pieces are dealt with by the hydraulic splitter.

 

[Ductape]

Talking to a local logger here 60 days ago about cordwood...... he said going rate for standing cordwood was about $17 / cord. Me personally..... i'd figure tops would be worth less since all the choice wood is gone at that point.

 

[freemind]

Dingeryote,
I hear ya. I work on a farm. 5000 acres of crops. I won't cut any live trees, as most of the land we rent. This years tree trimmings, none so far have been given to me. We trim fence rows every year.

I will do some of your suggestions. I don't want to drive far though.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[amateur cutter]

That is NUTS!

Last I knew, Freemont was a fairly good sized town with some good farmland around it. Put your own ad in the local shopper "Fence row clearing" resonable prices, and do the same in the state Farm beurau newspaper.
Craigslist is free, put one on there.
The ad's will cost you a couple bucks.

Get out and do some woodboogerin' in the countryside as well.
Print up some cards with your name and number, and knock some doors.
Chase down any downed trees ya see. Make a hobby/obcession of it.
Ya meet some of the greatest folks this way.
Leave your card on the cork boards in the diners and greasy spons, in the small towns where us farm trash go for the latest gossip and indigestion.

I helped the cousin clean out a BUNCH of tops today, and they all went to an Amish friend we have. They were just sittin' there and he could use 'em, and there's more in there than any 10 people can cut and burn before they go to pooch. There's lotsa good folks out there with tops cluttering up the woodlot, not just the yahoos on Craigslist looking to make an easy buck on crap wood.

I get lots of wood from folks knowing I'll clean out a fencerow/windrow for them.
Sure ya gotta chop up a bunch of grapevine, greenbrier,sumac and other crap to get to the few good trees, but it's free wood, and you're trading.
Word travels quick and some of the fencerows can have some really,really, really, NICE wood in 'em. Hell, I have been offered cash in addition to clearing the rows, and quite often I am shown old saws with dust on them that would be great to rehab..

Screw that DORK on Craigslist.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

Hi all, fairly new here, but been burnin a while. Gotta agree fully with above comment. Talk to folks, treat them & their property w/respect, & you'll prolly never run out of wood. The briar patches are great. I carry a large line trimmer w/a brush blade right on my trailer. LOVE THE SITE

 

[ericjeeper]

We've never had to pay for tops, all the landowners we deal with are glad to let us come in and cut the tops up, we use a four wheel drive tractor to push up the limbs that are left, in some cases we just hand stack the brush thats left. The landowners are glad to get it cleaned up for free, every once in a while we have a guy ask if he can have a face cord or rick for every 15 to 20 rick we cut. I wouldn't pay the guy a dime, your doing him a service.
We just finished cleaning up thirty acres of tops and just worked out a deal with another land owner for 160 acres of tops, free. Here with the humidity the oak will start turning very punky and rotten after a couple of years on the ground, their glad to get rid of it. All but one has let us cut up the cull logs that are usually left, that is were the easy money wood is. We keep two guys dragging up tops to a central location and keep one guy sawing when enough is cut up for a truck load, every body grads a maul and starts splitting and loading, tough pieces are dealt with by the hydraulic splitter.

Well around my farm.. You won't be doing me a service.. They can just rot down. Obviously OP needs some firewood. Therefore I would be doing him a service.

 

[freemind]

Well around my farm.. You won't be doing me a service.. They can just rot down. Obviously OP needs some firewood. Therefore I would be doing him a service.

Well Eric, what price would you charge for tops, if you were selling them?

Would you expect to have a check for all the tops at once, or would you be willing to get paid at the end of the week for the tops cut?

 

[Curlycherry1]

Beware the conditions of where the tops are located. If a bad skidding operation was in there and they ripped the place apart then it could be a nightmare to get over and around all the ruts. I have seen woods a person could not walk in let alone get in and get firewood out of. I got some pics I will see if I can dig out of before and after in one woods I was supposed to cut the tops out of. Ruts 3-5' deep and filled with soupy mud.

 

[TreePointer]

:agree2:

Where I am in hilly western PA, treetops are often a lot of work to get to and then get it out. The first takers will get the easy stuff and the second or third guy will be left with wood in a ravine or impossible hillside. Personally, I wouldn't pay a dime for it, unless I had no other leads on getting wood.

 

[clearance]

Tops? I usually buck untill the branches start and leave the top in the bush, where they belong. Them little peices are a major waste of time. But we have lots of trees, too many.

 

[STLfirewood]

I think it's all relative to what wood brings in your area. I pay $15 a cord for tops if they let me log the place(small acreage). But that means I'm making money off he grade white oak and the other logs also. The guy I buy some firewood from pays $6 a cord. I like top wood. I split every piece of wood I sell. Even if it's 3" branch wood. I usually cut down to about 4-5" branches. Top wood cures faster then truck wood.


Scott

 

[Butch(OH)]

We are on the edge of flat farm country and "the hills" and around these parts hardwood tops are typically free because there is an over abundance of them, some people ask for money but they dont get it. If culling whole trees from a woodlot the land owner asks for a quantity of wood or other form of payment that varies a lot. Farmers are hiring outfits with track hoes with a boom mounted hydro ax to beat back fence row growth and thus fence rows can usually be had for the asking and cleaning up the brush if the owner knows and trusts you. With more people burning and hardwood timbering at almost a standstill this could change quickly. Like somebody else said, local conditions vary a lot, as does pricing.

 

[City Slicker]

Tops?

Im just south of ya in Fort Wayne. I've noticed around here if someone wants something for tops, they end up rotting where they lay. Most guys just want the tops cleaned-up and are glad to see them put to use. Also depends on how easy they are to get to?

My brother recently had a guy that said he could cut and split and keep 1/3 of the wood. My brother said "no thanks" and the wood is still sitting there. Funny thing is the owner is in no physical shape to cut and split any of it...and so it goes.....

 

[freemind]

Well like allready stated, this guy started off wanting 25 a load if you cut it yourself, or 75 if he cut it.

Told him there was no way I would pay that.

I would be willing to pay a few dollars a top, or cut on a share with him. It is his wood afterall. I have yet to look over the situation, so that will be the deal maker or breaker.

Wood is selling for about 50-60 a load, split and seasoned. There is alot off labor getting it from tops, to home or a customer.

He offered to "help" get it out of the woods, but not for free. He wanted paid for every little thing he did, and was quite open about it. I assumed he had a tractor to drag them out with, but who knows.

If this guy turns out to think his wood is gold, I am sure it will end up rotting where it lays. I am not about to lose money on the deal to do him a favor.

 

[Butch(OH)]

Another thing about tops is they are in general a lot more work to get into firewood because your precentage of knots and small rounds is lots higher, that of course varies with the species and cutter. I worked with tops once and they beat nothing is about as good as it gets from my mouth. Maybe I am a firewood snob?

 

[Slick]

I called a guy locally who was selling some 2-3 year old oak tops around here...he wanted 50 bucks a pickup load...and I had to go cut it myself?? I told him I could almost get it delivered for that and not have to cut it myself..he claimed to have tons of people who wanted them...still see the add in the paper though so I'm not so sure I believe that...