Selling spruce and fir

Can a person sell spruce and fir logs and a regular homeowner. I have to thin my woods of them and it seems such a waste to drop them and leave them. Plus it's messy.

I don't care if it's a low profit hight workload deal, but wouldn't mind making a few bucks.

I'm in Maine so not sure how to go about it

 

I don't think you can sell the regular homeowner, but perhaps the wood . Seriously - will depend on quality and quantity of the logs. Stop by a local mill and talk with them - you'll find out soon enough whether there is any value in the timber and if a mill is willing to take the logs. Transportation taken care of? Cheers!

 

If ye cant sell it, why not burn it with some hardwood.

 

I have a bunch also here which my son cut down. I called couple people about them and answer for the most part is it not worth us picking them up and heaven forbid they be like fence line or yard trees then even less able to find a buyer as they scared of nails. I hauled 3 wagon loads home and now have approx 8-10 cords cut and in a pile drying for the wood stove. I figured cut split and burn it before it rots away

 

Im not a Maine—ah but I have to agree with just letting the wood go for low cost and perhaps large orders. No bundles. Face cords.

 

If saw mills aren't interested, would it be worth it to think about renting/borrowing/purchasing a little mill rig of your own? Even if it's not a particularly desirable species, I've got to think Maine has a healthy market for live-edge slabs, local rough cut lumber, etc.

I'm sure ten guys who know more than me will come say why it wouldn't work, but it sounds good from my layman's chair.

 

MaineMtnMan, in N.Y. I can haul spruce and fir to a local log yard in 12'/14'/16' footers and they will unload me. They will take logs down to 5" on the the small end. There are a few small sawmill guys in the area who will also buy logs and Amish all have sawmills around my area and also buy logs. You might do better if you can find someone with a sawmill who would either buy your logs or cut on shares say 50/50, I've done that in the past if I needed lumber

 

Wood is a volume business, so it depends how much Spruce and Fir that you have. You have to have at least a truckload, which for a "wheeler" is 10 cord.

But a person also has to be able to get the wood out in the lengths required. From the photos I have seen so far, it does not look like big wood so it seems you are talking pulp or studwood here. Today 8 feet is the minimal length IF it goes to Verso paper in Jay. If it is going to another mill, it has to be tree length, or 24 feet. Any "top" has to be at least 12 feet long, and at least 4 inches in diameter. If you use a double stack log loader trailer, then it has to be cut too 20 feet with a 4 inch minimum top.

If it is big enough for logs, it has to be in 8 feet, 6 inches long, 12 feet, 6 inches long, 14 feet, 6 inches long, or 16 feet, six inches long; the 6 inch extra called trim. If you haul to a log yard, they list taking 8 foot logs, but seldom actually do...they want 12, 14 and 16's only. They also might say a minimum 7 inch top, but in reality will not accept anything below 10 inches. Keep in mind too, these are measurements taken on the SMALL END, and INSIDE the bark. They also do not want any rot, shake or double-crook. Crook they will take, but not more than 2 inches in the total sweep. And obviously no crotches included. They also do not want wood that was cut over 2 weeks before...they want fresh cut wood.

Wood has to be brought out to a road where a truck can get it, typically with a log loader. This will be the price you are given, listed as X-amount "Roadside". Typically this time of year roads are already posted, so unless the road is on a major state highway, it has to be below freezing before the wood can be hauled.

No paper mill takes wood from a landowner. They do not even buy the wood from truck drivers. Typically they deal with wood brokers who know various truckers who go out and get the wood from loggers. That is because a paper mill needs a staggering amount of wood, so they must have a funnel effect to get enough wood to feed their mill. They rely on wood brokers bringing in enough wood for their needs. Everyone takes money off the top so it is a sickening amount when it trickles down to the logger/landowner. But most of the time, the trucker has "tickets" where they can take the occasional load from a landowner/logger. Right now, softwood pulp is moving so slow, that getting a ticket for spruce and fir is about like finding a hens tooth balancing on a unicorn's horn.

Log yards, also called concentration yards...do however take wood from landowners, and are located all over the State. ED Bessey, Somerset Log yard and Kennebec Log Yards are just three of many...

 

Thanks for the information. Sounds like it won't be feasible to sell to Mills. Maybe a log yard. I don't have much beyond a pick up truck to haul with.

I've burned spruce in my sugar shack and it didn't seem worth the time to cut. Burned poorly IMO

 

I burn it in my wood stove and it burns Hot and not much charcoal clean ash left over.

 

I have burned a lot of it this year. My trucker would not haul the 8 foot logs to the Log Yard, and I was NOT leaving it to rot in the woods. So it sat piled up all summer and dried well, then in the house for a stint, then into the stove. It works well mixed with other hardwood.

It has been a strange heating season for us though. We have spread our heat needs out over wood/coal/propane so we have not burned a lot of any particular type of heating source.

 

I'll give it another try next winter I guess

 

I use primarily white spruce for my heat. Having lived in Maine I can tell you there is a difference I the same species. Here the growth rings are tight. I have 6-10 rings in a 1/4 inch cross section. I don’t remember the rings in most species being that tight. It’s btu’s don’t let them go to waste. If there green trees you will need to properly dry the wood. When you put a piece on a good coal bed if it don’t fire in 20 seconds the wood is still with moisture. Here on the west side of the continent we don’t have the hardwood of the rest of the country. If I had a reasonable option I would chose hard over soft wood. I have learned soft wood will keep you warm.

I have read on the subject of btus and it makes sense that regardless of species, wood by weight has the same btus. I have a little white birch and I would say that spruce is half the weight for the same size round. When using spruce I burn twice as much than if it was birch. That is for a 24 hour period.

For me to harvest whit birch it is at least five fold more difficult. My spruce is standing dead and can go stump to stove vs the live white birch that needs 3 years to dry.

If you can’t find a buyer then burn it. If I was in your shoes I would ring the trees let them stand for a few years then cut and process.

 

I never burned softwood in the stove til I joined the club. Since then, I have been burning Pine, Spruce and Hemlock mixed in with my hardwood with good results. I'd use it to take pressure of my hardwood stacks.

 

I am burning a lot of Spruce now, but honestly over the years we have burned a lot of hemlock. That burns a lot hotter, and lasts longer, and a few weeks ago when I talked with a person who operates a non-profit firewood group for the poor, he said they would gladly take hemlock from donating landowners, then mix it in with the hardwood as they gave it out to the poor just to stretch their limited resources of hardwood.

I would give the guy a bunch, but right now the mechanical logging contractor is on my farm and chipping everything, including stuff I left behind from my own logging over the years, so I don't have much left over to give away. But that is the point, get them to clean it up so this can be fields.

 

My stacks are easily 90% spruce, I have no problems heating with it.

 

Any campgrounds, seasonal cabins, or people who like campfires around? You could try splitting it and selling it in bundles.

 

Well you've all talked me into bucking it up and extending my piles. I'm trying to put up 2 years worth of wood this year so that will speed it up

 

If you have it, cut it, split it, stack it....burn it.

Sent from my SM-T280 using Tapatalk