Pine Trees In Georiga

[Dublin ohio]

(because your trees are naturally occurring and not of the same age/consistency),

I know squat about timber valuation. But from the aerial photo in the op. It does not look like the trees in the photo are naturally occurring. Resemble crop rows that follow the contour of the land. But I could be mistaken.

 

[techbiker]

I know squat about timber valuation. But from the aerial photo in the op. It does not look like the trees in the photo are naturally occurring. Resemble crop rows that follow the contour of the land. But I could be mistaken.

People and companies own land for the main purpose of farming timber. I bet his pines were planted.

OP, I would be happy you own enough to easily justify the equipment costs. I own ~2.5 contiguous acres of hardwoods such as post oaks. Most are small and do not appear to be useful as timber so the cost to thin will be much greater than any timber value.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

sometimes have to drill pilot hole just to keep nails from bending.

Nothing compared to oak. But for really hard try bois d'arc aka Osage Orange, hedge apple, etc. Get hard as brick and will spark a chainsaw and ruin the chain in no time. Carpenters use cheapest wood. Yellow pine is reserved for long spans, places where you need a lot of strength. When working for land development I saw carpenter substitute fir trimmed with cedar for specs calling for oak or yellow pine beam. The next day the frame buckled and engineering (us) were blamed until the head engineer pointed out the blueprints clearly stated no substitutions. The builders got fired on the spot. It happened to be the VP's house which I found amusing....not that I mentioned that. He was VP over construction.

 

[Dublin ohio]

.

He was VP over construction

Ouch!

 

[JTip]

Stick to appraising real estate, you don't have a clue about timber...

You are absolutely right Rex, forgive me.

I have paired sales data showing $500/acre contributory value for select hardwood harvests, but that's in my market. Side by side parcels, one harvested, one not, and the owner (on a phone interview) disclosed the harvest value. We affect larger parcels for projects, so wooded/vacant/farm/timbered/recreational are amenities that are given consideration for value when we acquire land. Unfortunately that data is several states away and is meaningless to the op's area.

Our farm was harvested (85 acres) back in the late 90's (prior to our ownership), so the data is too old to support any conclusion. This was also a select cut for hardwoods, no pine involved.

We should defer to Terrell's sage suggestion of a timber cruise and not speculate on a child's future education based on assessment photos and a CR's out of state minimal timber value experience.

 

[Mr Rex]

FWIW, I had about 20 acres of pines cut last year. They were at 1st thinning age but after consulting with a forester who pointed out a recurring genetic defect in the stand of planted pines I decided to clear cut. Net to me was +/-$1500 per acre. My mom had 50 acres in one stand and 40 in another thinned (2nd thinning) and netted roughly the same per acre and the real money is still standing.

 

[Mr Rex]

You are absolutely right Rex, forgive me.

I have paired sales data showing $500/acre contributory value for select hardwood harvests, but that's in my market. Side by side parcels, one harvested, one not, and the owner (on a phone interview) disclosed the harvest value. We affect larger parcels for projects, so wooded/vacant/farm/timbered/recreational are amenities that are given consideration for value when we acquire land. Unfortunately that data is several states away and is meaningless to the op's area.

Our farm was harvested (85 acres) back in the late 90's (prior to our ownership), so the data is too old to support any conclusion. This was also a select cut for hardwoods, no pine involved.

We should defer to Terrell's sage suggestion of a timber cruise and not speculate on a child's future education based on assessment photos and a CR's out of state minimal timber value experience.

The OP is not looking for contributory value, he wants to know how much the wood will bring. They are not the same thing. Cut over is ugly and trees are pretty, so selling cut over land is the lowest the land value will ever be, immature timber land is next, then mature timber land, and open crop land has the highest value. At least in my market, although I have seen some hunt clubs from larger metro areas go out in the boonies and pay more for large cut over farms than open crop land as deer and turkey thrive in cut over/immature timber stands, but these sales are outliers. Rich folks paying to play on the weekends.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

The first AR appraiser to lose his license did so by valuing timberland on a land form using a flawed cruise. Here when timberland is involved better check with licensed forester and foresters are explicitly licensed as appraisers in AR and must comply with USPAP when valuing timberland. A woodlot however, is not timber. There is a standard definition.

 

[Mark K]

A professional forester can give you a good answer. Cruise it, value it discount as immature.

This is the only way to have a reasonably accurate idea of value.

Get a timber appraisal from a consulting forester and he can give you some ideas how to improve or maximize your $$ by doing some timber stand improvement work. The work my consulting forester I work with on a large wooded tract (1,000 ac.) for our hunt club has paid for his services many times over following his advice.

 

[Mr Rex]

The first AR appraiser to lose his license did so by valuing timberland on a land form using a flawed cruise. Here when timberland is involved better check with licensed forester and foresters are explicitly licensed as appraisers in AR and must comply with USPAP when valuing timberland. A woodlot however, is not timber. There is a standard definition.

I always have a forester involved and typically recommend the client go ahead and have a formal timber cruise if there is any substantial timber value present. The last one that I did had about 35 acres of mixed mature hardwoods and 70 acres of former pine forest that had been cut over 15 years ago and allowed to "grow back" into 15 years worth of trash trees and spindly pines that desperately needed manual thinning after mechanically removing a large percentage of the growth. The cost of bringing the 70 acres back to a "managed" state was going to eat into any profits from the hardwoods so in the end it was best for them $ wise to cut the hardwoods, pocket the money and sell the whole tract as is after removing the valuable timber. It was interesting to look at the various scenarios.