Before I even get to my question, I need to say that I know not every Walnut log is valuable, I do not need to see the "Highly Valuable Black Walnut Tree" video, I should get my logs milled and dry them and sell them, and what I have is probably worthless etc.... Has anyone sold to Missouri Walnut Company in Neosho before? The reason I ask is that they are about an hour away from me and I'm curious as to what they base their buying prices on. Is it by weight and/or grade? What's minimum lengths and diameters? Do they buy anything other than BW? I plan to transport the logs myself. Just trying to explore other avenues in selling BW. I have sold logs on Craigslist, I've also had some milled. I have many BW that I plan to harvest soon due to flooding, wind, and dying trees. And yes, I have attempted to contact them myself, but can't seem to get through to anyone. I sent them an email this morning as well. I'd sure appreciate if there's anyone that can share their experience with them or even other sawmills.
We have a quarterly "Timber Price Report" that Ohio State University Extension office publishes to give an idea of pricing. Not sure if this is something offered in your area or not? https://woodlandstewards.osu.edu/sites/woodlands/files/imce/sawmill/January 2017 REV TPR.pdf Are these saw logs or veneer? If you have good veneer, you need a buyer who exports to get top $. Many are unaware that our hardwoods bring very good money overseas. Is there a State Consulting Forester available to you? I'm sure they could give you some good advice on selling in your area. I suggest going to a State Forester if you do not already have a working relationship with a private Forester in your area to get unbiased information as he will have no skin in the game. An inventory and board foot estimation would be good info to have ready at hand in any case. Don't need fancy gear to measure...a piece of rope works. Boardfoot calculators are available online. Log Volume Calculator at WOODWEB
Should be bought in Boardfeet. Doyle scale is popular here. You can estimate by using a rope to measure circumference at chest height. Divide that by 3.14 for diameter and estimate the length of log/logs in a tree, then plug that info into the boardfootage calculator I posted above. It would be adventageous for you to have an estimate of total board footage you plan to sell for comparing mill tallies and have an idea of what return to expect. Board foot - Wikipedia
I'm familiar with calculating BF, actually use an app called TimberTracker. But I've read that some mills pay based on scale weight. Is that uncommon?
They use doyal scale. As you probably know the recent flooding was bad up here. Might have them understaffed at the moment? I'll try to find to find my contacts # when I get in tonight.
Finally got ahold of a log buyer. Wasn't the friendliest dude I've ever talked to. Said if a log takes 2-3 people to wrap their arms around it might be worth messing with. I'm no mathematician, but that's a 5 foot plus diameter tree. I'm taking my logs to D&D Hardwoods in Seneca. They were much easier to deal with.
Sadly the log business is a volume business and it seems the guy does not want to bother with smaller sized loggers. I was probably the one that sent you down the path of thinking they might pay by weight, that is just for pulpwood and biomass (hog fuel). Logs are always by the board foot, but being in Maine, and being surrounded by Canada which is where most of our good sawlogs go, our scale here is International Log Rule. I feel your pain anyway. I tried dealing with a guy for Cedar Logs, but he has yet to return any of my calls though I am not sure why. I could swamp him with good cedar logs right now. Oh well, his loss...
