O/T -- Walnut timber sales-update

I posted the other day for help when a guy called me out of the blue with interest on cutting some walnut on our farm. When he called with prices, I politely declined and said that I liked them too much for that price (and I wanted to get some help from the DNR first). Amazingly, he called back yesterday and the price he offered went up 30%. Maybe if I wait a few more weeks it'll be up to where I want!!

I would check around a good bit before I would sell. Mother nature a few years ago gave me no choice since see threw a few tornado's at us so it was sell them or let them rot. The guy that got them left a mess which is still a problem but not all that bad or a problem. Be sure if you do sell to get things on paper other wise the guy is likely to forget things to the better for him self
Hobby farm

If it's any consulation, tornado damaged trees probably weren't any good for board harvest. It breaks them up inside and are usually only good for firewood. You know how they fell.

do your homework before you take an offer. depending on the size of the trees, the stumps can also be verry valuable as a source of "burl" walnut for use in gunstocks. on a big tree the stump may be worth more than the tree.

Many dig the stumps and leave the topp mess for you and cut the H out of you pasture or timber with the tracked or skidder vehicles. Have the state forester in you are give you some help. Kind of nice to watch the wlanuts grow. Really need the bucks or are you getting ready to sell land?

I like the trees too much to sell them, unless someone tells me that there are ones that will be going into to decline from here on out. Might as well sell them then instead of letting them go bad. One reason I bought the place is because it had a some bigger trees on it. Plus the tillable ground is pretty good. In the bottom part, I just redid the finger system on the septic and decided to dig a "test" hole to see if I hit gravel/sand. Went 8'+ and it was nice dark silty topsoil looking stuff. Back in the field around my house, it's sticky nasty clay 1' down! In the fall at the place with the good soil, I pulled two 1200 bushel trailers of corn out of one of fields that is around 10 acres. I don't know if I'll ever see that again. Hope so. Thanks for your guys' help on the trees, never sold any before.

Cousin did that. What a mess. The guy harvested only the large trees he said he'd harvest. He knocked down all the others, left the limbs everywhere, and created ruts many feet deep on the land.

Heck of a nice deal!

Most of what I had was still real good. Most just got pulled out of the ground and knocked down. I did in fact make a couple grand off what the guy cut but boy the mess he left

I've seen a couble places that have harvested the timber.And they do leave a mess.

Some woods, if the tree died and stood for a while, it leaves a really cool marking in them along the grain. It's called "spalting" if I remember right, and spalted wood goes for even more $$$$. TRouble is, unless you're selling the finished product, you'll never know it's spalted.

We cut down an oak tree on our cousin's farm to be cut up and turned into trim for our rental house, and some of the wood was spalted. It's a shame it went into the rental house, but it's some really beautiful wood.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Whatever you do, contact a qualified forester before you sell anything. The timber business is so full of dishonest people you need all the help you can get. There's honest timber buyers, but there's enough of the other kind too.
Get a written contract, insist on getting paid when the tree is cut. I would also look at having the logging done with horses. The do a lot less damage to the woods. Careful logging is the difference between logging again in 15 years or logging again in 35 years. It is very much in your interest to have the least possible damage done to your woods by the logger, sometimes worth more than top dollar for the timber now.
Just my opinion, I have seen a lot of both kinds of work. The woods I am cleaning up now has more trees ruined by logging than the logger took. A real shame!!
Paul

You are right about tornado downed trees. many are whipped. Some people call Whip a crack that goes up the tree from the center of the log and out from twisting, but it is acually when one of the rings inside break loose from the one next to it from bending. Some trees like yellow tulip are suceptable to it where the darker center part meets the whiter part. I got lucky though. Dad had a funnel cloud that was low and small at that point take down a bunch of trees in his woods. White oak 4 ft dia and red oak 2.5 dia,several Cherry 3ft dia, 2 Ash 3ft dia, Hickory 3ft dia and Hard maple 1.5 dia and one of the nicest big Sasafrass I ever saw 2 1/2 ft dia and no black stains or hollows. Woods was dense and one large hicory broke off at a bad spot 6 ft up from the ground but in a ravine and the top took the rest of the trees down like dominos all in a narrow row, None were whipped. I had to untangle that mess and had the logs sawn into boards at 4/4ths (1 inch). All came out beautiful! Nice straight grain and no knots. By the way, I have that lumber for sale! Guy at the saw mill said he had never seen such nice wood go through his mill. Not far down the road they had a real mess as the funnel cloud gained a bunch of strengh and by the time it went South of Spencer IN it was at F4 Level and wiped out every tree in its path, still a lot of visible damage and it was back around 2001- 2002.

What the local loggers and saw millers have been saying around here is the market is in the toilet like everything else. I would let them sit and get fatter. If one dies, then cut it and have it sawn into lumber and sit on it if you can store it. A few weeks back nice hardwoods were bringing about the same as junk wood for pallets was last summer.