Cherry Timber Prices

[scesnick]

I have a few very nice chreey trees i was thinking of selling to the lumber yard. Anyone out there know the going rate of cherry right now?

 

[beenthere]

The market for cherry lumber is very low now. Suggest waiting to cut any cherry trees until the market improves.

You will of course need to have the trees sawn into logs, then the logs into lumber, the lumber dried and surfaced before the lumber yard is likely to be interested in some of the better grades of the cherry lumber. That is if you meant selling to the lumber yard.

Talk to a local forester to learn what is happening "on the ground" in MD.

 

[Gordon Gould]

In VT and NY area it is about $450 to $500 per MBF ( Thousand Board Feet )delivered to the mill for number 1 logs with 3 clear faces and 12" minimum top at least 8' long.
I agree with BeenThere. You could pick a better time than now.

 

[Gods Country]

Yup I'd wait.
Cherry around here is way down too.

 

[scesnick]

Thanks for the info. looks like I will be waiting a while.

 

[forgeblast]

Nice thing about waiting is that they will be worth more when you do sell them.
We are getting about a 1/2'' of growth per year on our cherries, 2 years ago a neighbor cut a bunch of his, he was getting around 500 a log, (the guys cutting it did a nasty barber chair on the one, it must have been 3' high...made me glad to wait). The forester I had out said to open some canopy and just let them grow another 5-10 years before thinking about logging them. I figure i can wait until the little one is ready for college.

 

[300UGUY]

Unless you have a local mill that will buy them, it is pretty much firewood. We have a lot of cherry trees, I've cut a few and hauled them to a sawmill about 20 miles away. It cost more than it's worth to get them milled. Around here, unless you are talking 10 acres or more of trees, timber buyer's aren't interested. And to hire somebody with a portable mill means paying $500 or more minimum for them to show up. I am going to cut several down this year, they do make pretty good firewood.

 

[scesnick]

Unless you have a local mill that will buy them, it is pretty much firewood. We have a lot of cherry trees, I've cut a few and hauled them to a sawmill about 20 miles away. It cost more than it's worth to get them milled. Around here, unless you are talking 10 acres or more of trees, timber buyer's aren't interested. And to hire somebody with a portable mill means paying $500 or more minimum for them to show up. I am going to cut several down this year, they do make pretty good firewood.

I sold a few about 5 years ago. I simply cut them down cut them in 8'6" lengths and loaded them in my dump trailer. The mill was more than happy to take them and if I recall we made somewhere around $800 a tree depending on if they were considered "veneer" quality of not.
The reason I asked my original question of todays value is because I plan on cutting a few more but the mill I used last time burnt down ( go figure) and I wasn't going to bother finding another mill if the price was low.

 

[dmccarty]

Check out your state's extension service to see if they track timber prices. Years ago the NC the extension service had a phone number that would tell you the price of timber for the last quarter for different areas in the state. It was only split into pine and hardwoods though. I think they now have a website to provide the last quarter sale prices.

I checked the prices a few years ago and the prices were down about 50% from when we sold timber.

Later,
Dan

 

[beenthere]

Unless you have a local mill that will buy them, it is pretty much firewood. We have a lot of cherry trees, I've cut a few and hauled them to a sawmill about 20 miles away. It cost more than it's worth to get them milled. Around here, unless you are talking 10 acres or more of trees, timber buyer's aren't interested. And to hire somebody with a portable mill means paying $500 or more minimum for them to show up. I am going to cut several down this year, they do make pretty good firewood.

Your numbers don't add up too well. :confused3:
But maybe you are talking orchard cherry trees, and not black cherry that is a fair different tree. Or low-grade black cherry, such as we have in WI.

Portable mill owners will come to a job for less than that minimum, from my experience.

 

[sixdogs]

How have retail prices held up?

 

[300UGUY]

Your numbers don't add up too well. :confused3:
But maybe you are talking orchard cherry trees, and not black cherry that is a fair different tree. Or low-grade black cherry, such as we have in WI.

Portable mill owners will come to a job for less than that minimum, from my experience.

Maybe it's just that Michigan is pretty well depressed. The cherry around here is called chokecherry, it has a real pretty color and grain. But ya gotta have buyers, and those are pretty rare these days. I have a neighbor that just cut 3 of them down, all 3 30 inches or more in diameter, and straight. The trees were cut to put in a new septic field. The tree service guy cut them up for firewood. He also cut up a huge oak, over 125 years old. I asked the guy about it, but he said that folks ask him all the time about getting some wood, but they want it real cheap.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Maybe it's just that Michigan is pretty well depressed. The cherry around here is called chokecherry, it has a real pretty color and grain. But ya gotta have buyers, and those are pretty rare these days. I have a neighbor that just cut 3 of them down, all 3 30 inches or more in diameter, and straight. The trees were cut to put in a new septic field. The tree service guy cut them up for firewood. He also cut up a huge oak, over 125 years old. I asked the guy about it, but he said that folks ask him all the time about getting some wood, but they want it real cheap.

Choke Cherry must be a local name because the real choke cherry only gets to about 5" or 6" in diameter and less than 20' tall.

Tree guys arn't set up to handle or market saw logs - they make their money cutting hazard or unwanted residential trees. The mills I know won't take back yard trees anyway because of the high risk of finding iron in them from the old tire swing, fence, or whatever. If they can get trees from a wood lot why risk it with residential trees.

 

[beenthere]

Maybe it's just that Michigan is pretty well depressed. The cherry around here is called chokecherry, it has a real pretty color and grain. But ya gotta have buyers, and those are pretty rare these days. I have a neighbor that just cut 3 of them down, all 3 30 inches or more in diameter, and straight. The trees were cut to put in a new septic field. The tree service guy cut them up for firewood. He also cut up a huge oak, over 125 years old. I asked the guy about it, but he said that folks ask him all the time about getting some wood, but they want it real cheap.

As Gordon said, the choke cherry is not a tree for lumber. It is a different species from the lumber tree, black cherry. Firewood is best for chokecherry. Might find someone to use a few pieces for some wood turning, or some novelty items from the sawn wood.
Sorry to say.

 

[dmccarty]

Tree guys arn't set up to handle or market saw logs - they make their money cutting hazard or unwanted residential trees. The mills I know won't take back yard trees anyway because of the high risk of finding iron in them from the old tire swing, fence, or whatever. If they can get trees from a wood lot why risk it with residential trees.

I have heard that tree services will not sell logs and the mills will not take them. I have seen this happen as well.

But....

Some of the tree guys in my area DO sell to the mills. When we lived in the city a tree service cut down a neighbors pine trees and the service cut those trees up on their own mill. Those pine trees were sold when pine was up to $400 per MBF and the trees were big. A big part of the money on that job was in the logs. It took then 4-5 days to take out the trees on the small lot.

When the land for our house was cleared, the marketable logs went to a local mill. The same mill we sold timber too. Pretty sure a neighbor did the same when the tree service took down a bunch of trees.

Later,
Dan

 

[Gordon Gould]

I have heard that tree services will not sell logs and the mills will not take them. I have seen this happen as well.

But....

Some of the tree guys in my area DO sell to the mills. When we lived in the city a tree service cut down a neighbors pine trees and the service cut those trees up on their own mill. Those pine trees were sold when pine was up to $400 per MBF and the trees were big. A big part of the money on that job was in the logs. It took then 4-5 days to take out the trees on the small lot.

When the land for our house was cleared, the marketable logs went to a local mill. The same mill we sold timber too. Pretty sure a neighbor did the same when the tree service took down a bunch of trees.

Later,
Dan

I agree - there can be alot of overlap in what tree workers do. I was just trying to explain why a tree service guy might not be interested in a couple cherries and an oak. A whole building lot full of good trees is a different thing. As you said there can be some money there if the market is right and a mill is within range to make trucking affordable.

 

[forester2]

If you sold cherry 5 years a go for $800 delivered to the mill it was either very poor quality or you got hosed. 5 years ago we were seeing $1500-2000 per MBF on the stump. Currently 800-1100.

 

[beenthere]

There is a lot of difference in the quality of black cherry that will affect the prices.

 

[schoolsout]

worse comes to worst, black cherry is great to smoke meat with

Love some pig over coals of cherry wood

 

[jbos333]

I hope the black cherry market improves soon in Western NY. I have been sitting on 60 acres +/- of it fo a while.......hopefully within the next 2-5 yrs. By then, I will have quite a few at 24" dbh or so....

Also lots of good size hard maple...maybe the baseball bat market will improve....

If not, I figure at worst I can get some good BTU's in the woodburner!