Start Low Cost Higher Profit Margin Logging Business

How to start a low cost higher profit margin logging business. Much of the logging I have done on my property has been with low cost equipment. I started logging this property with a 1976 Ford F150 as a log skidder. It worked well for many years before I brought the tractor to this property with the Farmi logging winch. On my channel I do a lot of log yarding with the tractor and pickup trucks. Lately this logging has mostly been for my Woodmizer LT15 sawmill. In this video I try to explain how I used to do logging to put the logs on the log truck and send them to the commercial mills.
You can support the channel through Patreon at / wilsonforestlands
Items I Use
USA Made Smart Wool Socks
www.camelcitymill.com/WILSONF...
Wuben Head Lamps Flashlights
www.wubenlight.com/?ref=Da5xW...
ITEHIL Water Purifier
itehil.com/?ref=PjV3o6VyXpIwIj
$40 Off Discount Code: Michael40
TopTes Moisture Meter
amzn.to/3QHnURv
You can apply the discount code 59ORXNSE to get 10% off.
Chainsaw Files for Square Filing
amzn.to/3uMjeSg
Spencer Log Tape
amzn.to/431roD2
RODE Wireless Go II Microphone
amzn.to/3OZ8HKb
RODE Lavalier Mic
amzn.to/3OTBeRC
Anchorseal Original
amzn.to/49PI1nq
If you buy anything through these links, I will receive a small commission.

[@matthewward631]

I make it a point to never miss one of your videos. Why? Y’all gots a COMMON SENSE approach to life! I have a small firewood business. Never dreamed of getting rich off it, but my log collection system is all low impact. I started with just a pick up, saw and splitter. Ropes , chains and a cant hook got my logs out. Of course eventually minor success ate at my brain (and as my body deteriorates) and I made my massive expansion…. Bought a 25 year old tractor (paid cash). I’m still producing firewood, the woods look as good or better when I leave and I’m perfectly happy with my life. Doesn’t get any better than that!

[@privera26]

Do you get compliments that you're funny? Thank you. I'm enjoying your smart comments & dry humor 😁. Pls keep it up 😆

[@richardabernathy6242]

I love that 76 Ford

[@saltrock9642]

Wilson is a dang genius. “Hi deer!” I first thought a lady was walking up.

[@ronsilva516]

Speaking words of wisdom running a small operation

[@jackdawg4579]

Another good reason for starting up a business in the lean times is the availability of good cheap equipment because of all those businesses that over extended themselves, going broke.

[@oli7480]

This is a great channel because it is clean, down to earth, informative, and just plain enjoyable to watch. Please share with us the exercise routine you use to stay in shape, :)

[@user-kr5nh6pw4x]

Moses was one who didn't do well with speaking. So he had Aaron do his public talking. What eventually Moses had to speak so he can represent God. You get very good descriptions on what you are trying to relay and I truly appreciate the fact that you get tongue-tied. People always say hey will do like the Egyptians built the Egyptians didn't build crap the enslaved the Israelites because the Egyptians were afraid of their rapid production . The God chose Moses to be the one to leave them out of Israel even though he had with someone say a speech impediment. Thank you for your videos they are so inspiring to me. Learning something that I may never do that I did always want to do.

[@mikeparker556]

Thanks!

[@kaceesavage]

I’m very much looking forward to this series. This video has a lot of great information.

[@tomjensen618]

Wilson"s comedy show! Lol.

[@edrose8358]

Excellent video Michael. Forestry management intrigues me, not mass forest harvesting. Thank you for pointing out the importance of a person loving what they do. My observation is that it's vital to being successful.

[@kenbrown2808]

I grew up with a family of low impact loggers who took the low cost part a step further. their yarder only had 1 horsepower. they also let somebody else do all the work of owning the forest and paying the timber taxes. they did end up buying their own loader, though. even back then, self loaders were a bit scarce.

[@lucasdog1]

Sounds like you are warming up to debate the Vice President here 0:18

[@StoneGoat]

Two questions What about small trailers with grapple arms to provide winching and loading? Seems like it would combine your MF and flat bed to one machine into the woods. Also if no demand for lumber but have trees to pull out of the harvest. What about just milling the log to 4 sides and stacking a bunch of large say 12x12 stock to be air drying while waiting for lumber prices to rise then cutting the square timber to meet demand?

[@forestwolf60]

Just for reference sake, here in the eastern Piedmont of NC, it costs around $10K for a logger to set up the logging deck (or landing). Most of our loggers won't cut a tract that's less than 30 acres, unless it has some extremely valuable timber and/or adjacent to a tract that they're logging.

[@beerbuzz62]

Another awesome video, thanks and keep em coming

[@jimmylightning7918]

I really appreciate you Michael, thanks for your time and effort making these videos for us all!

[@Andrew-sanders]

If all I had to cut was pine or oak would be setting at the house at these prices. But red cedar still paying fair can gross 3k pretty easy with nothing but a 4-wheeler and small log trailer just working tell noon every day

[@edwinlikeshistractor8521]

Great philosophy yet again. This applied to my small medical practice and worked out well.

[@davefran01]

Damn !!!!! Michael would you please run for President 🤣

[@ironmule]

Great video, exactly right.

[@KerryFitz-Gerald-y5i]

Thank you for this video I have an ag lease that requires about 30 acres to be logged and turned into a field. I have used horses and a tractor to salvage much of the timber on our property. I watch your channel first because it is very relevant to what I’m doing but also I enjoy your presentations and ironic humour. This maybe the best one so far. I practice a similar system. Using low over head is the trick to both small farming and logging operations. Thank you and keep up the good work👍

[@lesahanners5057]

The logging business has always had its ups and downs. No one but the big outfits have ever made money at it and plenty of them went bust back in the day. If it wasn't fires it was floods or some other disaster, not a single one of my family ever made a dime off of it, but it was so in their blood they didn't quit 'til old age or infirmity made them. I was talking to my mom about her family today about how her grandpa lived in a skid house way up in a camp for North Bend Timber Co., and didn't come home for months. He was the fireman who fired up the steam yarders so he had to be their first as it took upwards of two hours to get all the machines fired up. We had a good chat about it. She is 88 but remembered it like it was yesterday. Her response to me talking about her grandpa was to say, "Well he came out of the woods just often enough to get her grandma in the family way, cause she had over 12 kids." Of all of them my grandpa was the only one born in a town, all the others were born in logging camps. I guess having said all that, all I really wanted to say is how much I enjoy your video's. Your sense of humor is so fun, it really reminds me of all the times my family would get together to chew the fat, and all the guys would start telling yarns about their loggin days. It takes a man with true grit to be a logger and that's no joke.

[@coolftp]

Since I've been watching your channel, every week I dream of being a logger on the West Coast, harvesting logs in a quiet forest and then taking them to the sawmill. Maybe 1-2 transports a day.

[@marcsimard2723]

Have a seat with a cold beer The feeling will pass…

[@442olds7]

Big Foot love those berries ...

[@Twobrothersoutdoors]

Pretty sure its called a log loader here on the east coast. I have heard the term log picker. Inflation? Stop! I heard our Top senior citizen say the economy is booming 🙄

[@RavensRidgeNC]

Back in the before times, in North Bend WA, the spotted owl controversy made the logging industry contract and change - clear cutting old growth was gone, so businesses pivoted to pulling windfalls, pulling sinkers from old mill ponds, chainsaw milling in the hills, then helo carrying the square cants to a landing, where they were loaded into containers and shipped overseas - all sorts of changes from what 'was' to what 'is'. A lot of the companies failed, they weren't set up with the right equipment - gone were the tower companies that were focused on full-on logging sides - while the self-loaders and small operators were already in a position to work the new cherry picking style the industry had become. Here I am gettin' all nostalgic again, lol

[@lesahanners5057]

My family were loggers in the Snoqualmie Valley from the 1920s onward. We left in 1973. I sure miss the big old cedar stumps we kids used to play on in the woods on our place near Cedar Falls. Such great memories. Both my grandpa's worked for North Bend Timber Company and my step dad for Snoqualmie Falls Lumber company. They all started work in their teens and did all kinds of jobs. My step dad used to climb, trim, and rig the spar poles and so did my paternal grandpa. My grandma had a picture of him standing in his cork boots way up on top of this spar pole he had just cut. I remember looking at it and thinking he was plain crazy.

[@bobmartin6055]

Very wise!

[@ScarletKnightmare]

This was fantastic, thank you so much

[@hobbyfarmer62]

You are a very fiscally smart businessman especially times like now when lumber prices are dropping at a steady rate. And I think that areas like PNW their is a growing niche for small scale low impact logging to be done. And your correct most logging firms don't want to even talk to you about a cutting of less than 30+ acres and don't even mention selective cutting. And this is very good advice for say someone who bought a section of timber land and want to clear an area for a home or farming space.

[@tttco]

I bought a old d6 for my logging business (in north Idaho) for 1500 cash. I also have a older Linkbelt log loader. Both of those machines were bought with cash cheap because I bought them broke down and fixed them. Sure they are not nice and perfect. But they can sit idle if I don’t have any logging jobs lined up (as of now currently)….. I do have a self loading log truck however that I am making payments on and it constantly needs to be hauling logs…..

[@Ruger41mag]

You Sir must have been working for the Department of Redundancy Department .....

[@danbarrette9888]

I use a Ford 2120 and a tracked Takeuchi tl140.

[@bobbrooks266]

Really been enjoying your videos. Timber prices are poor over here as well. Looking forward to seeing more. Regards to the family from across the pond

[@tttco]

You mentioned that there is not a lot of self loaders. I am 33 years old. That is why I could justify buying a self loaders with payments. There are not enough self loader trucks around.

[@HubertofLiege]

Go find Buzz Martin’s “used log truck” first

[@ElectricDanielBoone]

Bravo for your low impact logging practices on your land Mr. Wilson! Your next big purchase going to be a self-loader?

[@mgdubya27]

Yep

[@HubertofLiege]

Prices in the nineties were at all time highs due to a thriving export market and bans on state exported timber creating an artificial shortage. It wasn’t until the end of the decade when the Japanese economy went into recession and then ours that prices dropped down to the current $700+- / mbf.

[@willbass2869]

Logging with bulldozer...pickups? Pfft....! Horse logging is the way (edit: for small acreage) Ask Lynn Miller in Bend Oregon, editor/publisher of "Small Farmers Journal"

[@lewishamilton9577]

Low impact..how about a couple of dutchies 🐴 🌲🌳for timber extraction. Horse logging appears to be making a comeback.

[@HubertofLiege]

More ground pressure in those hooves than a track machine, just looks good

[@lewishamilton9577]

@@HubertofLiege As a machine operator of 20 years and having seen the difference between the two, I beg to differ. The amount of tearing up a 4/5/7+ tonnes worth of skidder or equivalent (10/14 + tonnes of forwarder, unloaded) can do in a single afternoon is far greater than of a couple draft horse . Not all just about the pressure in the foot. But rather the environment as a whole. "Just looks good". Each to his own, its a matter of personal perspective and preference I guess.

[@wildandliving1925]

If your not going to log your property what if you did your neighbors. Thin it out make a few videos see what the lean times actually pay

[@Darfur64]

I've been seeing self loading trucks for sale here in the East. We have a big driver shortage and the prices aren't great. Weather's been bad for logging as well the last few years.

[@HAUSS81]

Haha he is hilarious.

[@eamonnmckeown6770]

Multiple redundancies can actually be a good strategy. lol.

[@DrDjones]

Less and less loggers in NW GA :(

[@joshlower1]

I'll be there don't worry

[@johnadkins2476]

Where I’m from in West Virginia all the local loggers call the loader a cherry picker

[@EINNHOJ100]

Hi you live in a dream world the logs pulled with your pickup is digging up more dirt then any machine. The forest industry has machines that has small impact on forest floor. You should have been born in the day when they used oxen and horse teams

[@Mikkel584]

Lol what are you on about, how is a 2 ton truck more damaging to the forest floor than a 10 ton machine😂

[@EINNHOJ100]

@@Mikkel584 special made tracks for the machine get in time with the times

[@Mikkel584]

@@EINNHOJ100 Yeah right, how often do you see a skidder with tracks. Even if they have tracks they still rip wetspots etc. Where im from skidders are not used, it’s replaced with log-forwarders that made «trenches» from the tires some feet deep in the forest behind where i live.

[@EINNHOJ100]

@@Mikkel584 At 1.35 in the video the logs being pulled in the video are acting like a plowing disk behind a tractor what a waste of energy and time

[@EINNHOJ100]

@@Mikkel584 BULL THEY WOULD BE STUCK AND UNABLE TO MOVE IF THAT DEEP IN MUD

[@VIVA4EVER2001]

My advice would be sell the tractor & buy a horse ! cheap to run, low impact and someone to talk too when your working in the forest.

[@joshlower1]

Horse would cost far more to run then the tractor

[@HubertofLiege]

Times get tough you can eat the horse

[@johnhaddon7709]

I'm a logger in N W CT PRICES SUCK my skidded is parked behind the house working on a dairy farm MAGA 2024

[@RiverRidge27]

Grand Theft Auto 6 will ruin this country. It will be the most addictive video game ever released to date.

[@Darfur64]

I've been seeing self loading trucks for sale here in the East. We have a big driver shortage and the prices aren't great. Weather's been bad for logging as well the last few years.

[@HubertofLiege]

All across the nation, five dollar fuel and Covid shutdown killed us