Attn: Wood Processors

Boy.

You got the barn, so dry is paid for.

I don't think you could recoup the energy cost to run the fans. Nor do I think your fans will make it dry all that much faster than sun and wind.. which are free.

BUT.. you got lots of covered space with easy access. Probably have some tractors too. If you could build a business up selling honest easily verified cribs or pallets of wood that are DRY... you might have a business.

buying log length, and getting people to pay a premium.. I think you've got two strikes against you.

good luck with it. How's the market for simple low turnover storage in your area? Boats, Cars, RVs? Easy money and no outlay of cash.

just an idea.

JP

mellow said:

Are any of you guys getting that kind of pricing for truly seasoned wood?
I would have to buy wood by the grapple load as we do not have enough oak on the farm to support the volume, is this a deal breaker?

Click to expand...

Truly seasoned wood won't go for much more $$ than what is now sold as seasoned wood.
There have not been many rich wood cutter/fire wood processors.
The problem is even after yo deliver a cord of fire wood, it takes work to get the wood to the stove, load the stove , empty the stove ect...
So most are not going to pay much for the actual work that is takes to get the wood to the split stage.
Best I've seen is guys who purchase large tracts of land to cut the trees & they sell the good wood to mills & the junk wood to fire wood processors in log length.
The other is the chippers who sell to pellet mills.
Not saying it can't be done, but any added overhead brings down the profit.

I dont think the mass market for firewood understands the value of seasoned wood. Being 50% higher cost than the market is going to make this tough to work. IMHO

I was looking at some of the firewood processors on Youtube last week, man those things are slick .... and PRICEY !! I know of a guy here who buys log length truck loads for about $68/cord. He pays a guy about $15/cord to cut it to length and then he splits it and piles it himself. He sells it for $60/face cord, so he's making about $37/face cord. He has some cost for gas and maintenance on his splitter, and of course his time involved. Probably clears about $35/face cord. He sold about 200 face cord last year and he ran out early last fall. So he made a profit of about $7K cash.

Folks won't pay anymore for dry wood

mellow, good for you for thinking and trying to come up with a use for that barn. However, it is difficult to make any profit selling firewood because it is so labor intensive. The equipment costs are also not low and you won't get any higher price for good seasoned wood than you will selling it green. That is sad but a fact with wood selling. Even if you made that $37 "profit" from a face cord of wood, consider how much time will be spent producing that wood and on top of that, you have to buy your wood. Conclusion is that it would be nice but extremely difficult to make any profit even without using those fans and the fans would not dry the wood any faster than Mother Nature.

In watching the youtube videos, it looks like a lot of people have made their own firewood processors, but I have to believe the guys that buy and operate the bigger commercial units are selling the firewood and making money doing it? These things run anywhere from $20K to $80K and even higher. thats a big investment to make if you're not sure you can recoup your costs and make a profit?

If i had to pay $300 a cord, I wouldnt burn wood.

Wood goes for more than $300 here, but I think the points above are valid.

People buy what they are told is seasoned.
I don't think you'll be speeding up seasoning in the barn.
The market for "premium" wood seems to be kiln-dried wood, which offers some advantages.

best i could see is get a way to package it and sell it in small packages to a company like walmart where they will buy a lot from you but sell it for lots of money to people at stores for a convenience.

like 25lbs of wood for 10.00 type deal for the guy that builds a fire for his wife to drink wine by. It would be easy for them to get a semi in and out of your place and you could load it with a tractor on pallets.

Couldn't you make more money by renting storage space in the buildings?

gg

How about using the firewood processor in a different way. Advertise to cut and split peoples firewood for like $30/cord. Most of those units will cut/split at least 1 cord/hr. ?

Pat

If you put firewood outside gas stations and convenience stores and charged $10-15 a short-stack you may make your money back. Otherwise I would try to grow mushrooms in the old coops.

BTW, you know why those chicken coops have two doors doncha?

If they had four they would be a sedan.

JP11 said:

Boy.

You got the barn, so dry is paid for.

I don't think you could recoup the energy cost to run the fans. Nor do I think your fans will make it dry all that much faster than sun and wind.. which are free.

BUT.. you got lots of covered space with easy access. Probably have some tractors too. If you could build a business up selling honest easily verified cribs or pallets of wood that are DRY... you might have a business.

buying log length, and getting people to pay a premium.. I think you've got two strikes against you.

good luck with it. How's the market for simple low turnover storage in your area? Boats, Cars, RVs? Easy money and no outlay of cash.

just an idea.

JP

Click to expand...

Package your wood in attractive bundles including kindling in the size that would give a few hours burn time in a fireplace. Then find a supermarket or supermarket chain that will sell it to city folks and you will get over a $1000.00 a cord. When in the big city, I have seen those bundles selling in $10.00 to $15.00 range. Depending on the time of year, they are called fireplace or campfire bundles.

cptoneleg said:

Folks won't pay anymore for dry wood

Click to expand...

Why should they pay extra, everything advertised on CL is "seasoned" ;-)

Ken

Mellow
I live not far from you on the Eastern Shore, and know exactly the type of poultry operation you've got. Any reason why you are getting out of the chicken business? I know those contract growers can have a pretty tough go of it, but it seems like with your overhead investment, you'd want to keep growing 'em. Hope you weren't one of the Allen Foods growers that got the short end of the stick.

A friend of mine told me he wanted to get into the firewood business and asked for my advice. I told him that, basically, everyone with a few acres of timber, a landscaping business, or in the tree service business was trying to sell firewood. Where I live in Queen Anne's, you can't drive down the road without seeing a sheet of plywood messily spray-painted withe FIREWOOD $200/cord. The problem (as others have illustrated) is that the price is static, regardless of the quality of the wood. I will say this, it appears as though (in my neck of the woods) the firewood supply far outstrips firewood demand. Particularly after a hurricane (Irene) comes through and essentially creates tons and tons of free firewood for the taking. I don't think the casual firewood seller understands that a cord of wood is worth what people are willing to pay, and that isn't always $200. So for someone who, like yourself, was going to try and become a professional firewood seller (for lack of a better term), you would have to corner the economy of scale, and produce enough (cheaply enough) that you could sell your product cheaper than the guy on the corner who has a stack of "seasoned" wood he is calling a "cord" in his front yard.

But I do think come April, this area is going to see a huge reduction in the going price of firewood.

Have you thought about growing flowers in there? I know, you are probably laughing at the idea. But it's a big business in the DelMarVa region.

It works on the same concept as growing chickens. The buyer drops off all the stuff needed to grow annuals for the DC/Balt market. You grow the flowers over the winter. The company drops by in early spring and picks up the flowers. They then sell the flowers at Home Depot and Lowes. You restart the process in summer growing mums for the fall.

Search out Bell Nursery in Burtonsville, MD. From what I remember, their website explains the whole process. They even arrange loans for you to build greenhouses. Though you may be able to use your existing structure.

I'm not sure in your area but in lots of places any fire wood that is moved outside of a small area of growing needs to be kiln dried and certified because of pests. I know the local backyard guy does sell it but a commersial guy would be quick to be looked at by the powers to be. Something to check out before going to big.
leaddog

I would not run any fans i dont think it will pay. I would if your worried about folks helping themselves put it in the Houses though.
Get a semi load of logs once and cut and split it and make note of all yours costs and the time envolved and try and gauge the market.
Offer green wood and truly seasoned wood out of your personal stash in the add. With the truly seasoned bringing a premium. This
Will allow you to gauge your demand for it (once you sell all you can let go just remove the seasoned clause in the add) and allow you
to track expenses before getting to deep into it. If you dont sell it you will just be a few more years ahead on your supply!!

MarylandGuy said:

Have you thought about growing flowers in there? I know, you are probably laughing at the idea. But it's a big business in the DelMarVa region.

It works on the same concept as growing chickens. The buyer drops off all the stuff needed to grow annuals for the DC/Balt market. You grow the flowers over the winter. The company drops by in early spring and picks up the flowers. They then sell the flowers at Home Depot and Lowes. You restart the process in summer growing mums for the fall.

Search out Bell Nursery in Burtonsville, MD. From what I remember, their website explains the whole process. They even arrange loans for you to build greenhouses. Though you may be able to use your existing structure.

Click to expand...

Firewood is the most basic commodity. The commodity biz is a deadloss unless you're so big, you control the market. If you can't make money growing chickens, you sure as hell wont make money with firewood. There's zero cost to entry....every hill billy redneck can come into your market and undercut you all day long.