We are looking at land, hopefully 40 acres. Much of the land we are looking at is heavily timbered. I would like at least 15 acres that is clear for pasture and yard. I have no idea what it costs to clear timber. We are within 45min to 1 hour of a large city.
I just did some investigation of this recently (via google, not by talking to the people who do the clearing–so keep that in mind!) and kept seeing $5k/acre.
Off set, of course, if you have trees people actually WANT for lumber.
Read this first - there are many variables.
http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/465/465-341/465-341.html
It pays to wait until you can find ready made pasture.
What kind of timber? It may be valuable if its pine or hardwood. Check to see if there are any timber buyers in your area. You would still have to clean up after they harvested the timber but you would get money to pay for it.
Never cleared heavy timber but have cleared heavy brush. It is neither a cheap nor a simple process. It leaves an incredible amount of “detrius” that must be dealt with.
We also sold timber using a “highgrade” process where trees under a certain size are not taken. This also creates a huge amount of dead vegetation that must be dealt with.
Then there’s the stumps. Don’t even ask about the stumps!
OK, I know you’re going to ask. What we did, and it works, is take a chainsaw and cut a 1" slab off the stump. Then put in back on and use a single nail to hold it in place. In about three years the stump will be rotten enough to be pushed over with a tractor bucket. It does leave a hole as the roots rot but it’s not as bad as trying to pull them You can also rent or hire a “stump grinder” to take them down to ground level. They will rot, if more slowly, and can also leave holes to bee dealt with.
The short answer from my perspective: Don’t. Buy land already cleared.
G.
I bought some land a yr. or so ago - had it cleared - stumped. for 4 acres it came to &8,000. ( we own the land next to it so we have pasture). then we had it graded again, drilled seed and then it rained all Winter and the seed didn’t take as well as it should plus we had run off so had to buy lots of silt fences. So we will have to drill see again this Fall and hope that it comes out. I really agree with the person who said - look for some land that is already in pasture! Our logger said that pine isn’t selling well.
If you do buy land and log it I hope you can do it in the Fall because if you do it after Feb. the birds are laying eggs and then they will hatch - baby bird murder! Not to mention all the wildlife living in the woods. we kept a part of the land untouched and it is by a creek so that wildlife can live there - we also kept some trees in the pasture. But if I didn’t already own pasture it would have been a real pain in the neck - it always takes much longer than you think to establish pasture !
Root balls need to come out or you will be dealing with hazards as they rot.
In my area, you can have a timber cruiser come take a look. If there is value in the wood, you can have it logged, I’ve been told there is 50K on my relatively small piece. Alternately, I can have it parked out and trade timber for the cleaning up process… so it would cost me nothing to do that and I’d be able to retain some trees.
I have a lot of pole trees which are apparently valuable (or were when I had the guys out)
In my area, you can have a timber cruiser come take a look. If there is value in the wood, you can have it logged, I’ve been told there is 50K on my relatively small piece. Alternately, I can have it parked out and trade timber for the cleaning up process… so it would cost me nothing to do that and I’d be able to retain some trees.
I have a lot of pole trees which are apparently valuable (or were when I had the guys out)
I just paid $1500 an acre in Aiken SC. Had 3.5 acres of mixed hardwood and pine to clear. That was clearing, stump removal, burning two HUGE burn piles, then dragging, harrow, smooth out to be ready for planting. We wanted to sprig costal Bermuda, but the clearing guy took his time and went two months over. We put out common Bermuda seed and Millet as cover about two weeks ago and it’s coming up well now since we lucked out with weather.
Picking up small sticks, pulling some roots runners, and keeping on top of the small sapling things and weeds that want to come up will be an ongoing thing. Also it’s on a bit of a down slope and even with swells in the land there has been some wash out after a fierce storm. It’s a long process and the little cleanup stuff will be ongoing for years I’m sure. Also will need to be on the lookout for holes that may open up.
There’s going to be so much variability in the answers here, I don’t know how useful they can be. I think you’d be better off calling around in your area and inquiring of those that actually do this kind of work. The type of trees and the terrain and location are going to be huge factors. If the $1,500/acre for SC (posted above) held true here in the NW, I’d have a whole new pasture! But when we last got a quote to do the same in a treed area above my current pasture, I think it was in the $4K/acre range. I bet just calling around and describing what you are looking at doing will get at least some round number estimates that will be more useful than anything posted here.
We had 8-10? acres logged years ago and were paid 20K. And then there were the huge piles of left over stumps and unsellable trees to deal with. A local wood products company would haul it away for $25K. :no: We waited, found a guy with a dump truck who would haul it all to his property for 10K. I would not recommend stump grinding…they will rot, implode, and later make holes everywhere.
You may also have to factor in building a logging road for logging trucks to access all those trees. We did.
In retrospect, we wish we would have left a few more trees, or groups of treed areas. A few of the remaining trees have come down in storms.
I would not buy heavily wooded : keep looking.
Select the easiest property to move onto / least renovation.
You’ll be glad you did.
[QUOTE=CindyCRNA;8739681]
We are looking at land, hopefully 40 acres. Much of the land we are looking at is heavily timbered. I would like at least 15 acres that is clear for pasture and yard. I have no idea what it costs to clear timber. We are within 45min to 1 hour of a large city.[/QUOTE]
This depends greatly on the accessibility of the acreage and the value of the timber. Hardwoods are generally worth some money especially if the woods have grown without human intermingling (people tend to leave pieces of metal in tree trunks that lowers the timber value)
Now if the timber is not heavy wood and loaded with brush and saplings you’ll pay a lot more since that stuff is just going to get cut, collected, and chipped.
Last but not least, consider the stumps. Stumps generally have no cash value and will cost you significant money to be fully removed.
David
Not to hijack, but what do people do with the trees they remove? I’m thinking about doing the same thing, on about two acres that were planted about 8’ apart in forest deferral years ago. Have been told the pine variety growing there isn’t valuable. I could burn it, but that seems like a HUGE burn pile that could sterilize the ground. I just want it gone…
Cleared about 100 acres last year in Alabama. About $1600 an acre. They cut the wood and dug up the stumps. The wood was burned and the stumps buried in low areas. I had a logger come in but the income was little and he made a mess. I did not remove the hardwoods so the pines brought little income. The cedars were valuable however.
It is now in corn. Very happy with the result but expensive.
Hurricane Opal hit in 1995. The previous owner cleared my land when she took down all the trees. He buried all the stumps. (He is a timber merchant) The earth still opens up and makes big dangerous holes. 21 years and it doesn’t look like it’s going to end any time soon. I dumped a tractor in one of the holes !
BTDT
Getting the timber out is the easy part! As others have said, it’s what comes after that is the PITA. If you live in an area where they do alot of logging, you might be able to work a deal with a logger to have the timber cut and hauled away. Depending on the timber market, your location, etc. etc. they might not charge you, but you won’t get any $$ for the trees either. Maybe you can bargain for some clearing after the trees are removed, again depending. But don’t expect them to come back once they’ve taken the trees!
Good luck!
