What Do You Believe Is The Cost For 1 Cord Of Firewood ?

[lknchoppers]

For you fellows that produce firewood on a large scale (100+ Full Cords), what is your estimated cost to produce 1 cord of firewood. If you include fuel, equipment usage, wood processor or splitters, paid labor, cost of cord wood if you buy it also included?

 

[user 122190]

Around here N.W. Montana, $125 to $150 a cord depending on the wood. My folks in Calif. say it is $400 a cord. IMO, the price of a cord is the market price, not gas/equipment/labor/etc. A chainsaw in Calif vs. in Montana, gas in Calif. vs. Montana, is not wildly different enough to explain the price difference in one place compared to another. It's all about what people are willing to pay.

 

[chucker]

factoring all cost's, $50.00 a cord more then covers it from forest to home piled/stacked..... probably enough change left coming through town to stop and have a McDonald's happy meal?

 

[KiwiBro]

Subscribing.
There are so many variables I suspect it would be difficult to narrow down the categories of expenses making up the production costs.
Even with the same people, same gear, the cost can vary wildly on many variables, such as wood, time of the year, location (if that changes and not buying in cordwood to a fixed location), etc. I've gear set up for very small trees/logs, and then other gear for medium sized logs and am missing gear to handle large logs.

At least if focussing on cordwood logs and a fixed location, it might be easier to form a consensus on the costs.
In that scenario, it'll be interesting to see how the costs vary with differing processing machinery. I mean, say you were feeding a cordking 20-30 model, knocking out 5 cords per hour, with a skidsteer to support the processor and two people (one for each machine). What does that work out per cord compared to a single operator bucking and splitting with a chainsaw and timberwolf or supersplit and a conveyor?

But then, the actual production and machinery/labour needed is just one part of the cost of a cord of firewood. Maintaining that gear, depreciation, electric or dinosaur, the land and building or lease costs, loading the wood for deliveries, delivery vehicles, someone manning the phones and dotting i's and crossing t's, etc.

How long is a piece of string?

 

[unclemoustache]

I sold 1o cords of silver maple at $180 a cord, and calculated the time I put into it. Came out to $35/hour. Didn't factor in fuel, though.

Saws and tools are used for other purposes as well, so I don't know how to factor that in.

 

[Jere39]

There are so many variables in a P&L analysis on firewood that it will be interesting to see any answers you get from high end processors.
On the far other end of the scale, I cut trees on my own property from among the dead Red Oak (I think Oak Wilt will keep me in new trees to cut for the rest of my life here), I skid with a home made log arch, pulled by a 14 year old ATV that also gets used for some recreational riding, or a JD tractor that also gets used for a long list of other chores around here. I split by hand (straight grained Red Oak makes even tired old guys look like Paul Bunyan), and sell from my stacks priced to incentivize customer pick-up rather than delivery. My annual sales amount to between 12 and 16 cord. And like more than a few folks that post on this board, I enjoy having nice saws (plural). Over the past 6 years I have managed to break even, plowing my meager revenue back into the little business by buying the ATV, a couple saws, a grapple for the tractor, fuel, oil, the welding to make my arch, a new pair of chaps, a new helmet, even a nice pair of boots.

That doesn't include any consideration of my time, but none is necessary. I love the time I spend in the woods, and believe I prove it every year by doing this work for free.

 

[lknchoppers]

Interesting, thanks for the insight.

 

[Wickets]

This past winter being my first with a wood stove, I am brand new to cutting, splitting and stacking wood. All I will say is this: Whatever you gents get for a cord of wood, you deserve every last cent of it and then some

 

[lknchoppers]

A couple piles I have been working on.

 

[jrider]

View attachment 506178

A couple piles I have been working on.

Looking good but I would compact your piles more so you can fit more wood in that space. Also, if you are looking to sell and avoid stacking (which I avoid) that wood has to get out in the open sun and wind.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Funny how the OP asked about large operations but we are getting stories of 5-10 cords annually.

I move about 500 cords a year. My costs are in the $150-175/cord area not counting my time. Costs quite a bit to keep heavy equipment running. I sell on average about 10 cords a week

 

[Guswhit]

$150.00 to $175.00 seems kind of high, although I'm not going to get into a discussion on costs of such large equipment like you have. I just have no knowledge of those kinds of costs. I'd be interested to see what JRIDER has for costs, it seems he does somewhere in the 100-125 cord a year in sales. Sounds like he is doing everything by himself from his posts. Pretty curious of what he figures it costs him being a 1 man show. I personally switched over to just bundles a couple of years ago, bought a super split and then have tried to come up with a good number to use for the splitter replacement when figuring my costs. I wasn't really sure what to use, so I settled on 200 cord through the splitter and I would maybe have to do some serious replacement of parts. I have been setting aside $15.00 a cord for this replacement number(although I have only had a roller bearing and a bad float in the carb). sounds like I am putting away to much for that rainy day, but you never know. I also figure that the bare minimum I want to clear after fuel, saw expense and insurance is $50.00/hour.(I have no transportation cost involved). I am not doing it for my main income, I only do it to pay for my vehicle/home insurance, property taxes and a family vacation every year, so probably not what you want to compare costs to, but thought I would throw it out there.

 

[KiwiBro]

Funny how the OP asked about large operations but we are getting stories of 5-10 cords annually.

I move about 500 cords a year. My costs are in the $150-175/cord area not counting my time. Costs quite a bit to keep heavy equipment running. I sell on average about 10 cords a week

Thanks. Can you break those costs down please and advise what gear you use to achieve that, etc? I believe that is the sort of info the OP is angling for.

 

[WoodTick007]

Have any of you people ever considered working with an accountant /CPA? Or developing a solid business plan? Just tossing it out their? Something to noodle over.

 

[cantoo]

Guswhit, if you want to make $50 per hour after those expenses how many cord per hour can you do on your own. This mean from standing tree to either back of customers truck or on their property. Seeing as you sell bundles I assume your per cord income is much higher than bulk cords. I don't sell much wood but am planning to get into a type of bundle sales soon. I don't pay for my wood but I have expenses to get it such as tractor, buckets, splitters, conveyors, dump trailer, logwagons, saws, fuel and oil. I also already have a business so there will be taxes for the wood sales too. Some of the day to day expenses will be written off as I build the business but for now my Accountant says the tractor etc are for personal use so no write off yet. I say bullcrap but I did get audited and I lost so no write off for now.

 

[jrider]

Well since I've been called out here guess I have to chime in from a financial standpoint (JK about being called out haha). I have kept close track of my numbers at times in the past but only casually kept track in the recent years. At one farm where I was cutting, splitting and piling on site, I had about $25 a cord invested in fuel for saw, tractor, splitter and maintenance. That was the exception though because being able to cut, split and leave wood on site was a one time thing. The rest of what I do is run out of my moms farm. I have cut "free" wood and hauled there to split and pile up till delivery time. That's cheaper but requires more labor, more fuel, and is harder on the body. In the last few years, I have paid (various amounts) for logs to be delivered to the farm and then process on site. This is quicker, uses less fuel and is easier on the body but eats more into total profit. Last year I was paying about $50-$65 per cord for the wood and had invested another $20-$25 per cord processing for a total of $70-$90 per cord. I sold oak for $220 and mixed for $200. I could process a cord in about 4 hours this way. I do hire local teens to help split at times and although this reduces the bottom line, I spend around an hour or so cutting a cord. I pay them $10 an hour to split and they can generally split a cord in 3-4 hours. In that situation, a cord of processed wood ends up costing me around $100-$110 but I only spend an hour on it.
Most recently, I got hooked up with a tree guy who started charging me $125 for 2.5-3 cord loads of logs. It's easy in and easy out, dump when you want. Guess he has liked the ease of it because he now dumps 8-10 loads and may ask for a few hundred bucks.
Sorry for being so long winded but there are just so many factors to consider there is no easy answer. One thing I can tell you though is my sweat is pretty valuable.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

There is no universal answer to this question. This past season in Southern California was a very extreme sellers market. I was offered many times as much as $1000 for a cord of Pine. Normal is $225 Pine $425 Oak. A few months ago I asked several members how much they sold their wood for. I was not at all surprised by the answers I received. Mostly I have worked in BC Canada, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Northern and Southern California. Where wood is pretty plentiful it sells for as little as $ 125 a cord to Southern Cal where it sells for about double. Hard numbers say minimum cost is $130 to $200 for softwood. Double for hardwood. Very few people just sell firewood. I harvested Walnut for a few years with some one that I just happen to run into. I sold the smaller rounds for firewood and he sold the trunks for furniture including gun stocks. He of course made more than double. In those years I did not have to carry all the production costs, but hauled it 500 miles so received top dollar. So if you calculated transportation cost it will change dramatically. I worked with a guy who sold on average 6500 cords of Oak a year. His costs as of five years ago was $ 360 a cord and sold for $390. Now it is at least $50 a cord more. Now because of regulations he does not work any more. I made more than $50,000 that last year in six months, but the extra money only seemed to pay my bills. I delivered and stacked for the large dealer and did not have much production cost for me. Then of course when we found real nice Oak logs we sold them as saw logs. So some Profit does not have any thing to do with the firewood production. Thanks

 

[unclemoustache]

Funny how the OP asked about large operations but we are getting stories of 5-10 cords annually.

Sorry. Some of us just wanted to stick our oar in anyway.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Thanks. Can you break those costs down please and advise what gear you use to achieve that, etc? I believe that is the sort of info the OP is angling for.

Trees are cut with a feller buncher, skidded to a landing, delimbed with a stroke delimber and hauled to the shop. Then put on a processor and loaded into a dumptruck.

Costs... for starters, the timber sale. Insurance, equipment upkeep, fuel, etc, etc, etc, etc.

I just sell firewood. Even with "only" doing that I'm almost always at least 2-3 weeks out on orders.

 

[muddstopper]

Sorry. Some of us just wanted to stick our oar in anyway.

I hear you Uncle. I am going to put my two cents in too, and I dont even sell wood.

From a business point of view, looking in instead of looking out. Cost are subjective regardless of where you are located. I have found many business owners dont factor in all cost and therefore either dont survive, or just skimp by. Having owned and operated a business myself, I know all to well how easy it is to overlook some of the cost of doing business. What seems as a minor expense, can become major if it continues to be a repeat expense. I have been told by potential competitors that they could under cut my priceing and take away my customers because their overhead was less than what mine is. They already own a truck, a saw or some other piece of equipment so therefore they wouldnt have to buy anything or make any payments and could sell lower since they didnt have anything to pay fore. And that plan works out for them for a while, until they have to put a set of tires on their truck, or replace the truck because its worn out. Thats when they find out they havnt been covering their true cost of doing business. You can have someone give you a truck, a saw and what ever other kind of equipment you need to run your business, but if you are not figureing in replacement cost off all that equipment into your pricing, its only a matter of time until you are no longer in business. One major breakdown that you havent planned or prepared for and suddenly your cash flow has reversed itself and your taking money out of your pocket just to stay in business. The 6 P's of business will bite you in the rear every time. Piss Poor Planning, = Piss Poor Performance