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WALNUT TREE BUYERS? Top Notch buyer, IA sale 150-ish trees

Sligh1

Sligh1

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Staff member
Hey Guys, I am about to mark some trees the second the season is over. I'm pretty conservative with my markings, only taking stuff that's prime. I am fully capable & knowledgeable about a sale & I'll be handling all. I am LIKELY going to put a minimum at about 19" on my trees. I am guessing I'll have AROUND 150 walnut trees to sell. Could easily be more. I'll have a list of DBH's and log quantities, etc. Will have spectrum from simple saw logs to veneer trees. I want healthy competition to be put to use and get bids from several folks BUT only high quality, competitive, honest bidders. I have a fairly standard logging contract. do you folks have any recommendations of some folks to contact to bid? Central IA within about 45 mins of Des Moines.

I do have about (TOTAL GUESS HERE) 300-400 other trees that I will LIKELY do as a separate sale- hickory, oak, cottonwood, junk trees, etc- I know that market is crap right now, unless there's some niche out there or something I haven't kept up on. Pry wait til this market comes back unless someone really paid really well for those. Figure I'll make life easy & put up my marketable stuff only- walnuts.

Again, I'll have all this marked by about the end of January- I am going in and slamming all this out while marking the 100 acres of TSI I'll be doing as well. Will have completed very soon.

Shoot me a PM if you have someone you suggest or you're an excellent buyer/logger and interested- please include email address if possible. I can later email all details on sale, location, details, logs, etc. Thanks

(or skipsligh at hotmail.com)
 
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Whenever I have sold walnut trees, I sell the junk trees with the good ones to get them out and let the younger straight trees take over for the next cutting down the road, otherwise nobody will come to cut just the junk trees.
 
6x6 said:
Whenever I have sold walnut trees, I sell the junk trees with the good ones to get them out and let the younger straight trees take over for the next cutting down the road, otherwise nobody will come to cut just the junk trees.
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Absolutely! Totally agree. I'll have plenty of very nice trees. No question I'll have a good amount of very desirable trees with some regular type logs as well. Very little "junk"

*oh, I see what you're saying... Sell the 300-400 junk trees with the walnuts. I had great success mixing those 2 together many years ago BUT I'm almost thinking with this market- I will have to give those trees away as loggers just look at them as a hassle. If prices go back with economy, there could be 20, 30-40k in junk (and when I say junk, really I just mean anything that's not walnut cause market is so bad on those). I want them gone because it will make hunting better BUT I know later they'll be worth more and I'll have plenty of cover & sunlight after I free up most the good stuff. And, if a junk tree is crowding out a nice quality tree, I'll kill a few of those. Ya, maybe I need to give some more thought to logging out the upland stuff though. time for a little research and perfect timing with a link Letemgo sent me on log prices- which I need to get up to speed on.
 
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I was told by a friend a few weeks ago that they were getting $.66 per board foot for cherry and even more for walnut and oak from RiverCity Hardwoods in Muscatine(extreme eastern iowa though). I have no idea if that's good or not, but maybe it would help give a ballpark figure on something.
 
Interesting thread it will be great to hear different perspectives on this harvest. I would keep this sale just walnut but take all of merchantable size,the good with the bad. With volume of that size you should get the attention of bigger buyers. I assume you are looking for bids as stumpage which is standing timber. I am starting a similar project with about half that many trees. in the past i have sold on shares,lump sum for marked standing trees and cut and skidded myself and taken bids on the landing . interesting game for sure keep us posted. I only work on my own land as a hobby. good luck
 
I'd get 2 bids, one for walnuts only and one for everything together. That way you get a good idea of what they are paying for the "junk".

Save me some walnut seeds off the very best trees you have :D
 
letemgrow said:
I'd get 2 bids, one for walnuts only and one for everything together. That way you get a good idea of what they are paying for the "junk".

Save me some walnut seeds off the very best trees you have :D
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Now that I've thought about what you all said, I think that's what I'm gonna do.... I'll probably mark the walnuts in Blue & then do the upland stuff in yellow. I'd be happy to sell all together BUT if I feel I'm giving them away, I'll just hold off a few years on the upland stuff. Great ideas!
 
Sligh1 said:
Now that I've thought about what you all said, I think that's what I'm gonna do.... I'll probably mark the walnuts in Blue & then do the upland stuff in yellow. I'd be happy to sell all together BUT if I feel I'm giving them away, I'll just hold off a few years on the upland stuff. Great ideas!
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If you can Skip, post pics of the best walnuts, worst walnuts, which are veneer, their DBH and any other important facts for us all to learn from. :way:
 
letemgrow said:
I'd get 2 bids, one for walnuts only and one for everything together. That way you get a good idea of what they are paying for the "junk".

Save me some walnut seeds off the very best trees you have :D
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I agree get two bids,in Minnesota a local guy pays well for cottonwood for pallets. Might be a pallet wood buyer in your area?

When you say junk oak, are you referring to oak that need to be taken out?
 
Ahh, a thread involving my line of work. Love it........

Anyway, it appears as if you are at least somewhat educated in this topic as you are talking about many of the things you should be thinking about when having a timber sale, such as a contract, multiple bids, marking the trees that are for sale and so on. Timber sales can be quite overwhelming for folks that have never conducted one.

When it comes to specifically walnut, I HIGHLY recommend you read this article, as it explains the ins and outs of walnut, and hopefully gives people an appreciation for making sure that you are actually maximizing you profits on the trees you are going to sell.

http://www.iowadnr.gov/portals/idnr/uploads/forestry/walnut_economics.pdf

There are not many places that you can invest your money and get 7-9% return, and on a fast growing good quality walnut, it can often be as much as 12-15%!

Addressing the selling the junk with the good stuff, that has a couple of different meanings. Lumping a lot of junk miscellaneous hardwoods (oak, elm, hickory, cottonwood, etc.....) will often times drag down the value of your walnut. This is largely due to the fact that the people that deal with high quality walnut have zero interest in screwing around with the other species. A high percentage of our best quality walnut is shipped over seas to be sliced for veneer. On the other hand, lumping some junk walnut in with the good stuff is a great way to sell the lower quality walnut trees.

The market has been really good for walnut for the last few years, while the market for everything else is quite poor. I am currently telling folks that unless they have a reason other than making money, they should not sell their better quality "other stuff" (non walnut). What has driven the walnut market so high the last few years has been a strong demand for the poor quality walnut. The good stuff will always bring a good price, but lately the poor stuff has also brought a really good price.

Finally, give a call to your local district forester. They are in tune with local markets and will be able to give you some names of loggers that would be interested in what you have. Also, with walnut it is in your best interest to get as many bids as possible. For good quality stuff it is not uncommon for companies to travel from 100's of miles away to bid.

Here is the forester contact info. Everything they do is pretty much free of charge. Give them a call and even schedule a time to get them to come out and take a look at your woods and answer any questions you have. Especially with walnut, foresters always like seeing good walnut!

http://www.iowadnr.gov/Environment/...ownerAssistance/DistrictForesterContacts.aspx

PM me if you have any other questions!
 
Hey JW_Wildfire...I just wanted to say "nice post" even though I did not originate the question, I found your info interesting and helpful. Although I am not planning a timber sale at this time, I may in the future, so I appreciated the input.

Also, several others chimed in with good input, Letemgrow, 6x6 and others. It is just nice to see a helpful, constructive post so I wanted to compliment that. We need more of those and fewer of the argumentative kind. :grin:
 
Daver said:
We need more of those and fewer of the argumentative kind. :grin:
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Thanks and I definitely agree. It is easy to get caught up in the back and forth of some of the more controversial threads. Its nice to get back to helping each other out every once in a while. I have gleaned a lot of good stuff on here and the least I can do is give back a little of my expertise (trees)!
 
I have been talking to a couple guys about marketing my walnut and that has helped me alot in understanding the process. I just don't know enough about it to do on my own. I like the idea of having the timber put out for bid all across the state and having no obligation to sell. I feel there is a smaller chance i will get screwed on it. I will know more in a couple weeks when I start walking it with these guys to get an idea of what I got. I already had the state forester walk it and they were really helpful in turning me on to people that could help make the sale.
 
there must be a buyer working my area. i've seen TONS of walnut logs coming out of quite a few timbers around here
 
Several years ago we sold 40 walnut trees. I contacted our local DNR Forester and they handled everything for us - at no charge. The local DNR Forester marked the trees, recorded tree information and location, sent out the bids to bonded timber buyers, made sure we had 100% of our money before our logger started his saws and made sure everything went smooth.

It was a fantastic experience. I would highly recommend talking to your local DNR Forester.
 
Daver said:
Hey JW_Wildfire...I just wanted to say "nice post" even though I did not originate the question, I found your info interesting and helpful. Although I am not planning a timber sale at this time, I may in the future, so I appreciated the input.

Also, several others chimed in with good input, Letemgrow, 6x6 and others. It is just nice to see a helpful, constructive post so I wanted to compliment that. We need more of those and fewer of the argumentative kind. :grin:
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I couldn't agree more! I started cutting and marketing "Nut" trees back in the late 70"s and all the info is spot on, especally the first link.....the forester made recomendations similar to those made by my silvicuture professor.
Skip, I have marketed most of my "junk" timber including low grade walnuts, which has created the openings I need, but have left the quality timber which now has the opportunity to put on incredible growth. This would be known as the long range plan which could end up benefitting my children which is fine. The only problem I see on the horizon is the introduction of Thousand Cankers Disease which is now in CO,MO,KY, and PA. This disease has the potential to do to walnuts what Dutch Elm Disease and Chestnut Blight did to the elms and chestnuts respectively.
Hope this helps any and all who want to harvest. Remember, develop a plan, hire a forester, solicit as many bids as possible, have a tight contract,( with insurance)and watch the loggers like you would watch your toddlers.
Good Luck...you can pm me for more info.
 
River City Hardwoods did a cut on our property and I would not recommend them at any price. PM me if you have any questions.
 
JW- that's great! I love the info and article!!! I am confident I know enough & have enough sales I've done BUT that's why I'm here- I want to keep taking in as much information as I can. I did have state forester out to get my TSI application going and we both were on the same page with the walnuts. Even the experts have differing opinions on things and all you folks are greatly appreciated and very helpful!!! I will give River City a call or email as well. I actually marked some stuff today on opposite side of my farm than I'm hunting. I'll get some pics later. Thanks to all, I've read every post & others appreciate it too.
 
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