Selling hardwood= fencing cost?

[greybeard]

first off welcome to BYH. i hope this new life adventure is all you want it to be. another view on the trees, years ago I worked for a forester in wv. he and his partner use to buy rural farm land in the state, log the timber and sell the farm at a profit. he made money both ways. might not hurt to check with someone about what the timber is worth before you decide.

Oh by all means yes--he would want an independent timber appraisal done first. They'll walk the property, use their instruments to measure the height of the usable part of the trees, (a good one doesn't have to use the device--they've done it for years) girth, condition and health, add up the tonnage or board feet of each kind and give the land owner a pretty close estimate of what his timber is worth...AT the mill--unless the landowner just makes a deal to sell the entire tract at lump sum--then he doesn't worry about tonnage or board feet.

Here, you can get a rough idea what an acreage's timber is worth by looking at the county appraisal district's taxes for any given property. It will have the property's total appraisal value, as well as an ag value and a timber value. It isn't very precise, but will get ya in the ballpark.

 

[Pastor Dave]

Wow!! I guess that place would be out of the question then. Maybe we can buy a mill, not!!

Thank you all for your input!! I guess it was just wishful thinking.

My Grandpa's farm in Indiana was not big, but of course it also had been his grandfather's before his, and I'm not sure whose it was before that, but it was always in the family until my Dad's and aunt's generation.
It was only around 360 acres or so. It may have started as a section. It was covered in hardwood forest as was much of Indiana. Forests and swamps and briar patches. The clearing was done before Grandpa got the farm. The house and barns with all the outbuildings were milled on site from native hardwood. Indiana history says most clearing was done and piles were burned if not used for structures needed right then. The lumber business hadn't geared up at that time 1816-1830's or so. Of course it was hard, tedious work done by tough men and their oxen or horses. The fields would begin as small substantive fields for the family and more clearing would be done each year until you drive through Indiana and see large areas of open fields with some stands of trees here and there. Yes, the central part of the state was prairie. Northern and Southern were forested and some remain today. My Grandpa started with abt 120 acres of the original parcel and only 66 when he passed on. He had a dairy operation and the cattle ran the woods. There were open fields he tilled and grew corn or soy beans.
What I'm saying is, if you want to do the work to open up the land, it is very hard as others on here have attested to.
You could do it if you don't try to open it all up at once. You could open some and clear a little as you go. You could clear it all at once too if you want to do a lot of hard work or hire it out. Or, look for a parcel that is established or a little more open.

 

[Lereg]

Thank you for the replies, but it seems like far too much work and time to get everything set up so we'd be able to use the land the way we want to. It think we'll have to find a more set up place to save us some major headaches.