The farmer and my son in law work in a large warehouse for the U. About 2 days a week farmer shows up for work in his truck pulling a dump trailer full of wood. Farmer just charges delivery from the parking lot. He only sells in full cords and he does not stack. He has no problems at all getting the $560. All hardwood and “garunyteed” dry because farmer has time and a large concrete barnyard with no cattle to dry his wood.
Have you looked into what trucking would cost yet? That would be where I start. Also, does it HAVE to be for several years? I'm sure that's what the guy wants but he may be happy finding anyone to take the logs from this year.
I guess you'd have to crunch the numbers to see, but I'd think that since OP has a rig already, just sell that trailer and buy a log hauler/crane trailer...DIY it...might not pencil out though, dunno
tractor is impractical for this situation. Not to say a guy couldn’t trade it all off and get what works.
He’s got a fleet of semis already to be able to haul it… I’ll find out the transportation cost on Friday, but since the wood cost is $0.00… pretty sure it will be dirt cheap compared to cord cost. I’m trying to do everything I can to get out of trucking entirely so for me, it’s just beneficial to pay for it. I don’t want to log, which I likely will to cut the logs to length. He’ll use his excavator to load the logs onto his side dumps to transport to my place. At no more than 5-12 miles, it’s not far. all I want to do is focus on selling firewood.
My luck I’d make the investment and the log guy would get sick or go out of business. Might want to figure costs as if you were paying for the logs?
Even if I limit my sales… I could put up a LOT a of wood quickly to just ride the rocking chair and drink shine. Making the occasional deliveries.
It all sounds good but before making the capital investment for equipment how do you know the "free" wood will continue to be free? Or available at all for the matter.
Texts / conversation since the original discussion is showing this stuff is mainly ash. This county got hit hard. So it will be restricted for movement unless it’s heat treated. so is it really a good “find”…???
certainly keep an eye on things. Not sure what Minnesota regs are. Here in Ct they banned wood to within county lines. Then they rescinded that when they realized you can’t stop EAB.
Used to be the mn dnr had you register and certify the wood. That is not anymore. But they still talk about heat treated wood for transportation and USDA certification…
Second upside is it will be dry enough to sell as "seasoned" pretty quick. You will have happy customers.
I don't know when the bugs killed his trees but if he's only bringing Ash I'm sure the quality of the logs he will be bringing will gradually degrade. On the other hand if he's hauling it I'd think the transportation risk would be on him. How does anyone really know where the wood you are selling came from.
Seems you can’t move it out of the infected counties. Anywhere inside seems open game. Question then becomes where you are and how far you expect to sell it. Links provide a map of counties for EAB and another link for some moth. It’s my understanding if the tree is dead the EAB are long gone already. You’d also need to question the integrity of these logs. I see no reason this guy wouldn’t deliver any quantity you want. What’s his other options? Pay dumping fees? Minnesota - Don't Move Firewood
Finally got to the cutting today. for the semi to haul it over, it’s $250/ truckload. At least for now. I started cutting around 8 am today and figured I’d fill the trailer up first and then start stacking on the side. Figured I was going back for lunch, may as well bring a load with me at lunch and supper times. seems those are the only two full loads I had all day and then started making a third tonight. nice having the skid steer and a grapple as it makes moving this stuff Childs play. this is actually just one tree. I had to limb it and used the grapple to get all the trash out of my way. 22’ log I bucked into three pieces at the 16” mark at 7’ and 8’ areas. Digging my way back to these was probably more hassle than it was worth. Again, had to limb it all out etc and then hauled it out with the grapple in 12’ lengths. At least there’s three sections I got off it. 28”x12’ cottonwood log. Brought it back to take two 6”x 12’ slabs out of the middle to make a bucking table. Buck a bunch of wood up, run it through the splitter and up a conveyor into a bin is my plans for now. Bins should hold 6-8 cord depending how big I make them. what is hauled over so far today. The load on the right and half of what’s on the left is just one tree. Seems someone else went into the site last year already and cherry picked out what they wanted. What’s mostly left is huge cottonwoods. batteries were dead on the drone or I’d have taken better video. Faster than walking the site. any way I look at it, there’s two other sites for me to get wood from as well as this one this summer.
