There's a pole place in Goodwater, up in Coosa Cty.. or at least there was one a year or so ago. 'Transmission' poles are big poles.. I'm not sure what the specs are on the poles they buy there.

I used to buy timber years ago in central AL (still am a forester) and timber prices fell in '08 when the rest of the economy tanked. Some of it rebounded, but pine logs haven't and are worth on the stump roughly half of what it was back pre '08. If the housing market is down, then there is no great need for pine lumber and plywood. If the consumer isn't buying a ton of lumber and plywood, then the mills don't need so much of it, so prices offered for the raw materials go down.

Location will also drive the prices, because different mills in different geographic locations have different delivered prices. That's why it's crazy for landowners to hear about what hardwood logs are bringing in north AL, and expect to get the same prices in Greenville. You can't haul the wood 200-300 miles to higher delivered prices without eating the extra money in freight, and the logger's not going to tie up his truck for a haul that lasts 6 or 8 hours, and only move one load a day.

Jarod: I'm still working some with a timber company, and the prices you quoted are in the ballpark for what central AL prices are typically doing these days. You did about as good as you could with them on those products.

Yes it will be every bit of that maybe more. You then have to pour lime and fert to it which will be a lot after pines been there. Then years of lower productivity til it gets back right. Not a cheap move at all

We will never have the timber prices we had back in the early 2000s, ever. UNLESS, we have a hurricane come inland like back in mid 90s and put a lot of timber on ground. IMO.

Too many mill are gone or changed output product. Poles are still king in my area delivered to Cahaba. Mileage kills the stumpage price. Too many mills right now are on quota and no end in sight.

Once upon a time, a family might have a good stand of pine say 30-35 years old and look at clear cut for retirement. Not any more. All of the CRP pine plantations locally have flooded the market with pulpwood. What was a good program at one time for land reclamation, is actually devaluing per acre prices for pine. If there is a $2000-$3000/acre clear cut of pines locally it is just about all poles and RARE.

I still consult people that want a fmv on their timber. What I tell them what it is worth after the cruise, they think "WTH"?

Plus all these 2004 hurricane IVAN (planted 2005) aged plantations are just starting to hit the market. Tens of thousands of acres down here. There will be a pine PW glut for a few years thus low prices. We had just thinned about 700 acres and they got wiped out and had to be replanted. That will make you sick. It happened everywhere down here.

This would work well for clearing smaller machine planted plantations in sandy ground...

A hurricane would flood the market even more and the stumpage prices would drop like a lead sinker, you would have a hard time getting anybody to cut your timber. Your pole prices would be gone for years with the wind shake if the trees survived the hurricane.
The biggest negative in timber prices we have had in NW Fl and south Alabama was when the Koch brothers bought Alabama River, Stone Container in Brewton and the GP mill at Cedar Springs, Georgia. They set the prices and everybody else fell in line with their pricing. Why should they pay a higher price for pulpwood delivered when they are on tight quota and getting all they want.
South Alabama hardwood logs don't have the quality the furniture makers want and the south Alabama veneer is basically just a filler layer in hardwood veneer. They don't even want the south Alabama white oak for whiskey barrels.
About all the mills are full and on quota, don't look for delivered prices to get better for a long time. Another problem is that the loggers are going out of business, starved out by tight quota, higher equipment expenses, higher fuel and other petroleum product prices and labor among other expensive problems.
The longleaf I was speaking about is a 400 acre plantation. The owner can lease a couple of big excavators and put a stump puller head on them and pop a lot of stumps out in a day.

Yep, that would be the perfect storm - no pun intended. It would KILL the wood market here.

Timbercruiser brings up the biggest problem with the wood business - a very few companies now control the market and will pay as little as they can. The price of lumber has gone up some, but timber continues down because we don't have a free market any longer.

I don't see a solution coming.

BTW, if pines we're planted in rows it is possible to farm between the stumps. By the third year they will fall apart and can be easily removed from the field. That would be the cheap way to put a pine plantation back into farm land.

Hard wood prices aren't down in our area.

I don't understand why anyone would sell hardwood saw logs by the ton. I understand why mills buy that way, could work great if you're buying.

We don't have any choice. It's sell by the ton or forget about cutting it. All the power is in the hands of a very few big Mills.

It isn't getting better. What you are seeing is just way this is going to go.

You either got a short memory, attention span or weren't farming... but - We got pushed out of farming economically and you and I both will eventually get pushed out of Timber economically. They pushed us out within one generation. I was driving a tractor at age 12 and by 26 I was working in an office building.

That's the way this is going to go. "Free Market" is just an Alias for Corporate America.

You better find another way to make a living if you are a small owner. I've been through this once already.

Anyone need a rusty old Combine?