Mesquite Log Prices?

[AJ]

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can help me out on this, maybe someone in south or central Texas?

I had a guy call me recently about buying some mesquite logs from some land they were clearing, and I'm not sure what to offer as far as pricing. 

I've sawn quite a bit of mesquite, but never had to buy the logs.  I told him this, and asked if he had sold any elsewhere, and he said yes.  He said they paid $200/cord for smaller stuff, up to about 15" diameter, and paid $300/cord for larger logs.

He said a cord was 4500 pounds, which would only take 4 or 5 logs if they were on the larger side.  This seems a bit expensive to me, so I wanted to see if I could find anything to compare it to.  Also, without scales, how do you know when it's 4500 pounds?  Take their word for it?

A lot of the mesquite I've sawn has been pretty low quality, and I'd be hard pressed to pay this much for the logs, saw it on a manual mill, and turn a profit on it. 

Thanks for any help,

Andy

[SwampDonkey]

It's related to black locust and Kentucky Coffee Tree as a sub family. Green black locust is 58lb/cu feet, solid wood. Sugar maple up here in New Brunswick averages 5500 lbs/cord green, that's from averaging several loads of wood over the scales. But, it's difficult to relate volume with air spaces to a weight. There is no possible way it can be exact. Every region has an agreed upon standard. Specific gravity of locust is 1 point higher than green sugar maple (0.66 vs 0.56), so it is denser and heavier. 4500 lbs is used for green spruce here, and balsam is heavier green.

I wouldn't say the guy is shorting you unless you find out some figures from your local mills. But, it seems light. Even green aspen here is 4800 lbs/cord.

[treecyclers]

Mesquite weighs 9# per boardfoot green, and 7 dry.
4500 pounds would theoretically yield 500 boardfeet, making your cost $.40/ft.
Last I knew, a cord was 4x4x8, and mesquite just doesn't grow straight.
I would definitely use a doyle scale or something of that nature to scale the logs, or make an offer by the truckload.
Mesquite SELLS RETAIL for the prices he's quoted you in firewood form.
The most I have ever offered for Screwbean mesquite was $0.15 per boardfootin log form.
It's murderous on blades and tooling, but brings a hefty price in the marketplace.
Superdave

[Phorester]

Since you don't have scales to weigh it, I'd buy it by the cord.  You should be able to find a scale chart that allows you to estimate cords based on the diameter and height of each tree. 

The scale I have is for estimating pulpwood volume and it estimates the cubic foot volume of each tree.  You then estimate the number of cords from your total cubic foot volume, using 128 cu.ft. per cord (4' x 4' x 8').  Example:  a 10" tree that has 4 5-foot bolts has 7.66 cu. ft.  Dividing that by 128 gives you .06 cords for that tree.  The 128 is the pure mathmatical result, here we usually drop that to 90 cubic feet of solid wood which allows for the air space between logs in a stacked cord.

If you can't find such a scale there, email me your mailing address from my profile and I will mail you one.

[Ron Wenrich]

Or you could use a calculator that we have over on the Timberbuyer.net site.  We have them to estimate the cubic foot volume of a log that's measured at mid point:

http://www.forestryforum.com/cubic_foot_calculator.htm

or you can measure bolts of standing trees in either 4, 5 of 8' lengths.  You can get results in cords, cubic feet, cubic meters, tons (hardwood or softwood) or metric tons.  Not really that specie specific:

http://www.timberbuyer.net/pulp.htm

[AJ]

Thanks for all your responses.

I'm going to see what he's selling as a cord's worth, then double check that with a Doyle scale.  At least then I can figure out how much yield I should get.  It's easier for me to put a price per bf on it, then figure in sawing costs to see if I can turn a profit.

Mesquite varies in quality so much, I'll probably try a small amount to see what I can expect, then go from there.

Thanks again,
 Andy

[gary]

I just paid $2.00 for about 3lbs. of mesquite chips.