Northeast Forest Products Equipment Ogling Expo

802climber

TreeHouser
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Nov 1, 2013
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Vermont
It's still going on today, but we pretty much got the idea yesterday. Basically a really loud trip to the zoo. They had just about everything except a walking harvester. That whole tree chipper makes 1050HP at 2100 RPM.

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I wonder if I could get CEUs for attending? :D
 
Nice!
We have the annual national one in a week and a half.
Always a fun day.
 
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I don't think they wanted to pay the fuel bill to run that big one. They were demo-ing a "smaller" version, also a ground shaking beast.
 
I don't think there are many U.S. loggers that could afford any of that equipment. We just aren't paid enough. Wheras, in Canada many of the contractors are running new or late model equipment. What are we doing wrong?
 
A lot, or just a few? Yes, our market here tends to lag in the Rockies. Canadian Industry Mags. Show just about every contractor running new or almost new. I only know of one contractor in this part of the state that has bought a new piece of equipment in recent years and he is the largest operator in this half of a large state. he bought a Cat 527 only because it was the last one left. But your point is well taken, I am not aware of the economics in areas far away in the U.S. If there are guys in P.A. buying new stuff that is encouraging for all of us in the wood business.
 
Not boat loads of brand new iron, but enough to show that markets have stabilized around here.
 
Pat, last summer when I saw all that pine beetle infestation in the Ponderosa pine in the Black Hills, I thought there would be all kinds of work.
 
Holmen I guess it gets complicated in our country. The enviornmentalists(not all bad) sue just about every timber sale on F.S. lands and make a living doing it. That is a big part of the problem. One of the other issues is that we have lost most of our mills, at least in this area. So there is little competition. Currently we are hauling logs 200 miles to market. The freight takes up 50% of the gross money. Then you have to pay for everything else with what is left over. I know that I couldn't support a family with kids going to school etc. I wouldn't want to do anything else though, it is all I know (not much!) Some of the third gen. loggers do though, with equipment that has been paid for along the years. Is the forest industry subsidized in your neck of the woods? Maybe contractors get help with financing etc.?
 
I've been out of logging since the early '90s and haven't kept in touch since. Squisher would know more about the Canadian subsidises. When 90% of our lumber was going into the states the Canadian producers paid tariffs in the billions of $ for years for nothing. The World high courts ruled the U.S. had to pay most of it back under the Free trade act, but that never happened , haha.

But I do know the local paper / lumber mill was paying under $50 cord for private stump to dump wood in '95.
Contractors today are hauling B trains of softwood chips to our paper mill on the average most times of a 600 mile or more round trip. Diesel is close to $6 gallon.
 
Thanks. The chip market is different than the log market. It sounds like it is similar to your area. We are only paying $10-$30 a ton for saw logs now. Amazing that costs have gone up so much that it is still a difficult situation. One of the biggest issues is that the oil patches have sucked all the labor and trucking out of our industry here. If you can't get the wood to the mill it is game over. We can't compete with the wages, no way.
 
To make a go here it's seven axle trucks for long logs and eight axle for shorts. I don't know of any actual subsidies. I think you mentioned before that you figured it was subsidized because crown land was logged? The Timber forest licenses don't seem to be subsidized to me at all, the government regulates and oversees management but in the end they get revenue from logging into the coffers, not the other way around.
 
Yeah I remember 20 years ago when I was cutting and selling firewood from crown [government ] owned timber. I had to buy a timber permit for about $25 a cord and the conservation officers had to inspect and approve the site before cutting started.
Good cash grab for the government because if the timber is not cut ....it will be lost to fire eventually.
 
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