Short term future on firewood

argus66 said:

NO IT IS NOT JUST NEW JERSEY THIS IS NATION WIDE! MORE PEOPLE MORE DEVLOPMENT MORE CARS MORE POLLUTION EVEN BY U... MY 2ND HOUSE IN THE ADIRONDACKS USED TO HAVE 1 NEIGHBOR 1 MILE AWAY NOW I HAVE 6 ALL ON A NEW ST. BUILT IN THE LAST 2 YRS. WITH 3 OTHER HOUSES BEING BUILT.

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You sound like you are ranting and shouting against development. Maybe if we all stayed with just one house, there would be less development ;-)

Actually development is NOT nationwide. I have a 1917 topo map of our township. There are less houses and roads today than there were 90 years ago.

As for firewood prices going up, a cord of hardwood is about two tons. Pellets are $200-250 PER TON in most areas of the country. Many pellet burners feel they are saving a lot of money over their other alternatives. Firewood sounds like a real deal, even if you have to buy it. If one is willing to get out and do some work, it can be a lot cheaper, maybe even free except for the "sweat of your brow". BTW, there are more trees in the eastern U.S. today than there were 150 years ago.

Ken
southern Ohio

there are definatly pockets of areas that are becoming more developed, however, lucky for me in the adirondack park there is density requirements that must be me. Some areas of the park have high density areas where you may only need 1.5 acres to build on etc. In my particular neck of the woods you need 8.5 acres

Strange,

I know a guy who sells firewood during the off season for his tree business. He charges $185.00 a cord for mixed hardwoods and $225.00 for all oak & sells out every winter. BUT his wood really is cut, split & SEASONED, so maybe that's why he gets what he does.

And this is in a area where the ash borer is killing trees buy the thousands.

I'll grant he sells most of his wood to folks in town/city nearby.

Some slimeball last fall stole 2 cords in one night from him. Now that is low, like punks stealing gas.

So he's had to go to the cost of putting up a fence around his wood storage area.

OK I'll jump in and see if I get spit on. Just another example..... In the north we have miles and acres and hectares and lots ect ect ... Standing dead and laying dead is all game here as long as you obtain a permit. Which is free. What is required is a saw , a way to transport and to get of off your lazy a__ and get it.
As far as the eye can see a person can go and get what he wants. Still oil is over 1.20 a litre so pine/poplar the least most respected wood on this site is now $210 a cord. Its all relative. Here wood is readily available so I get off my a__. Iam not 40 yet so I have no excuse. Cudos and praise to you older gentlemen 55 and on that still process your own wood. But if you cant or dont want to than pass the buck on to the other working stiffs that still need to make a profit after
covering there costs @ whatever they are paying for oil, milk or whatever ect...Im headin outa town in the am to put in some pipe other people cant do to feed my family. I dont do it for free. If I get too busy outa town and dont make it back to process this year than I might have to spred my income around so others
can survive also. Cheers
:coolsmile:

I am new to this site, but enjoy cutting my own firewood - all of which is obtained freely. Neighbors love having a young guy offer to cut fallen oak trees and the like out of their fencelines. That said, looking over the time and input costs of felling a tree, bucking it up, loading it into the Dodge, unloading it at home, splitting it to size, stacking it to season, reloading it into said Dodge, driving it say 40 miles round trip, unloading it for a customer...Yeah, I wouldn't do it for less than 150 bucks profit, so figuring 50 bucks for fuel, chains/sharpening, and chiropractor bills - I wouldn't take less than $200/cord of hardwood, and $250 sounds a bit more reasonable.

Just my 2cents...

I really have to stop bringing in more wood. I have at least 25 cord, maybe 30 and a hell of a lot of processing to do. It is hard work, good honest work. For those who sell, the rule of selling is to sell it for as much as you can get whatever "it" is. When heating oil is $3.50 a gallon, wood even at $300 a cord still looks pretty good. I figure that's heat at about 1/2 the cost of heating oil! I don't see many wood guys living in mansions and driving Porsches. If they have an opportunity to earn more for their hard work they should. They still aren't going to get rich, comfortable perhaps but not rich. If rising wood costs and wood guys making a better living bothers you than get off your butts, start scrounging or harvesting and stop complaining, (and you'll see how much work it is). For all of us with access to free wood, scrounged or harvested, and the stamina and will to go get it, we should be thankful. A bit of Yankee self-reliance is a good thing, heck you don't even have to be a Yankee!

Around here on craigslist, free wood all the time. One person has about 2 - 3 cords of pine already cut in his yard, giving it away, but everyone wants hardwood. I have two tree companies that will bring me wood free whenever I want, they just want to get rid of it. My goal this year is to get about 10-12 cords cut, spllit and stacked and be set for the next few years.

Had to put in my 2cents worth but free wood IS NOT free how long does it take for you to buck and load a cord of wood? Now that it's home how long will it take you unload and split your new cord? How long did it take to drive to the wood and back? How much would you make in your chosen profession for the amount of time you have just invested in getting your free wood cut delivered and split? Ok how much money in gas for your truck saw and splitter did you use(not to mention wear and tear)?
Damn I'd quit chasing my own wood I'm losing money cept I do enjoy it and it does get me back in shape after a winter inside and the wife doesn't know I spend a good part of the day fishing after I get the truck loaded up.

downeast said:

sonnyinbc said:

At the risk of sounding rep,rep,rep,rep, repetitious. When you see it advertised in your local paper,specially if the price is really good-Jump On It. Expect it to be green,never seasoned. Another hint, if you offer to buy more than one cord csd, you can usually get the price reduced somewhat further. Stock up boys, the prices are going up, they have to along with the price of fuel.

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NO
At the risk of being rep correct: most firewood dealers HAVE to be honest: "seasoned" is seasoned; green is green. Learn the difference between green and just wet. It's a tough enough business not to have nickel and dimers chiseling pennies from a stone.
Milk is $5/ gallon; do you ask for it at $3. ? Petrol ? RAM ? Hanes u-pants ?

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This is my first year burning at my new home and predictably I ran out mid winter (I've lived with woodstoves, fireplaces...even a Franklin stove my whole life though). Got a "cord" delivered (even though its illegal in MA to advertise wood by the cord) of what I was told was seasoned wood. That means not green, but possibly wet. This stuff was so freshly cut I swear it was still warm where the chainsaw ran through the logs. Luckily it was mostly ash so I was able to get some good heat out of it quickly, but it was in now way wet wood...it was seriously green...2-3 months later the last of it just barely hisses because I've been drying it in my basement all this time.

Oh, and I do occasionally buy RAM in volume like that and when I do, you cna bet I get the vendor on the phone to negotiate the price. Totally different commodity though, probably not the best comparison.

Well, I don’t know about other places, but around here, firewood is quickly becoming a commodity. Prices have increased this year, from $150 split cord to $170 split cord, and triaxle loads are pushing $600-$650, up $100-$150 from a year ago.

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Wish I could get a cord delivered for $170. Thats 2005/2006 pricing. Cheapest I could get around here was $210, some places are running upwards of $250+ for a cord of "seasoned", split delivered to your driveway.

i called around today for prices and one guy said 195 for green and he was going up to 200-225 this year....

The price of wood is sure higher in the more congested areas. I can get a face cord cut and split and maybe even seasoned for 50-60 bucks.
At that price I think it is more than I want to pay for it at this time. Someday maybe when I can't cut my own either in the woods or at home
from a truckload delivery.

A friend and I just cut 6 face cords of dead oak in a couple of hours. It is from a 20 dollar wood permit from the state.
He lives near the harvest point so we take his tractor and trailer for getting it in. The trailer holds about 3 face cords and
we got two trailer loads. Plenty for an after work effort. We are splitting it and cutting together. I will probably get two more
trailer loads for each. He has the permit and will cut all summer but I don't think I will. All has to be split and stacked yet, with
my pile also loaded onto a trailer and taken home to stack.

Not easy and I can certainly see why those that have to make a living doing this should get what they do. I wouldn't do this
for a living but think it is worth it for my own burning as the savings over propane are great.

Transportation fuel and maintaince costs along with labor will keep driving the cost of wood up. I don't think there will be any end to it.

I am 62 so the exercise is a bonus for me. Love being in the woods.

Carl said:

the exercise is a bonus for me. Love being in the woods.

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And that's why I process my own wood. To me, it's better than free because there was a time when I
paid for a health club membership.

What surprises me is that where I live the price is going up, even though the Emerald Ash Borer is killing Ash trees left & right. I read a article just a few days ago saying that those bugs cutting a swath through Mi Ash tree population. 30 MILLION dead or dieing Ash trees according to this report, and that is just MI.

I'm seeing dead trees, dead a while to, as the bark is falling off & limbs are starting to drop out. This on a well paved divided 2 lane highway with a fair amount of traffic. Huge old ash trees, yet no ones cut them down for the farmer in question. Problem may well be that a lot of guys cutting wood for their own use don't have a big enough saw for this job. I know that 3 of these trees would keep my 460 working hard. Still surprising though to me.

I wonder just how fast the price will go up once the ash trees are all gone in another 7-8 years in my area. At least I'm pretty sure they'll last that long.

Outdoorsman said:

What surprises me is that where I live the price is going up, even though the Emerald Ash Borer is killing Ash trees left & right. I read a article just a few days ago saying that those bugs cutting a swath through Mi Ash tree population. 30 MILLION dead or dieing Ash trees according to this report, and that is just MI.

I'm seeing dead trees, dead a while to, as the bark is falling off & limbs are starting to drop out. This on a well paved divided 2 lane highway with a fair amount of traffic. Huge old ash trees, yet no ones cut them down for the farmer in question. Problem may well be that a lot of guys cutting wood for their own use don't have a big enough saw for this job. I know that 3 of these trees would keep my 460 working hard. Still surprising though to me.

I wonder just how fast the price will go up once the ash trees are all gone in another 7-8 years in my area. At least I'm pretty sure they'll last that long.

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I suspect that the price of firewood is NOT closely related to the raw product (trees) but to labor costs and transportation costs, which are going up. On a per hour basis selling firewood is not a very productive endeavor unless someone is also paying to have the trees taken down.. For big size trees, expensive equipment is required to handle them. I just saw a "firewood processor" listed at $20,000. That takes a LOT of cords to pay for from what's left after paying labor costs. How much does a logging truck with loader cost?

If the trees are at the point where branches are falling off, then cutting them down becomes a high risk safety issue.


How long ago did the emerald ash borer hit your area? The nearest published location is about 60 miles away from here. I wonder how long it will be until our trees are in the condition your trees are in. We have a lot of ash trees here on the farm and the really big trees are mostly ash. I dread the day when our trees make a mess of our farm.

I'm planning on concentrating on cutting ash trees for our firewood in the future although it's hard to do since they are some of the best looking trees we have.

BTW, the state forest 60 miles east of us has something attacking and killing the white oak trees.

Ken