Harvest Walnut

[torogmc81]

looking for input, ballpark prices, advice, etc. from anyone that has knowledge of harvesting mature walnut trees in pasture.

Hoping to start a discussion so i can take the best plan of action for making a little extra money.

Do's and don'ts, best approach with buyers, which steps to do yourself, etc etc

Thanks in advance

 

[kenny thomas]

I think you are in Ky so very first thing is to contact KY Division of Forestry got free assistance.
Walnut is selling very well this fall even though it is a little early in the season. But get started and ask for the free help.
Get an ironclad contract with whoever you sell to.
As far as prices there is a huge difference from a common log worth maybe .80 a board ft to a good veneer log bringing $5 a board ft. It's all in the quality.

 

[jltrent]

As KT says above, and he works for the forestry department, it is all about quality. You can see a large log truck load of pretty good logs worth $1200-$2000 or a truck load worth $10000+ of veneering logs. Good veneering logs are few and far between. If you can get 2/3 s face you can get good money, especially on large White Oak.

 

[sstterry]

I thought this was going to be about selling Walnuts. Have you ever tried to get a pound of nuts from Black Walnuts (which is what we have around here). It would take half a day.

PS...Listen to Kenny, he knows what he is talking about.

 

[M & P]

Around here (Central Missouri) you cut the trees buck them up and lay them in a row.
The walnut buyers will come out scale them and give you a total price.
They will pay you on the spot if you accept their offer.
As others have mentioned there is a huge price spread on walnuts.
As with most things volume matters if you have fewer than one truckload it will be hard to get anybody to come out.

Of course your area may do things differently.

 

[kenny thomas]

Around here (Central Missouri) you cut the trees buck them up and lay them in a row.
The walnut buyers will come out scale them and give you a total price.
They will pay you on the spot if you accept their offer.
As others have mentioned there is a huge price spread on walnuts.
As with most things volume matters if you have fewer than one truckload it will be hard to get anybody to come out.

Of course your area may do things differently.

Some done that way here but most people have no idea who to call. We have buyers come here from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. The common person has no idea who those people are. Again no matter what state your local Forester can assist you with it.

 

[M & P]

Around here (Central Missouri) you cut the trees buck them up and lay them in a row.
The walnut buyers will come out scale them and give you a total price.
They will pay you on the spot if you accept their offer.
As others have mentioned there is a huge price spread on walnuts.
As with most things volume matters if you have fewer than one truckload it will be hard to get anybody to come out.

Of course your area may do things differently.

Some done that way here but most people have no idea who to call. We have buyers come here from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. The common person has no idea who those people are. Again no matter what state your local Forester can assist you with it.

I agree the local Forester can probably help you more than anybody.

 

[TexasBred]

I thought this was going to be about selling Walnuts. Have you ever tried to get a pound of nuts from Black Walnuts (which is what we have around here). It would take half a day.

PS...Listen to Kenny, he knows what he is talking about.

ssttrry had a board member over on the Dairy thread swear his grandmother could crush one in her bare hand. Seems she had this gorilla grip from squeezing cow tits for so many years.

 

[sstterry]

I thought this was going to be about selling Walnuts. Have you ever tried to get a pound of nuts from Black Walnuts (which is what we have around here). It would take half a day.

PS...Listen to Kenny, he knows what he is talking about.

ssttrry had a board member over on the Dairy thread swear his grandmother could crush one in her bare hand. Seems she had this gorilla grip from squeezing cow tits for so many years.

I have never seen anythink like that! We used to drive over them with the truck to hull them. It then took a hammer or a vice to break them!

 

[Lucky_P]

Don't know that it's gospel, but I've read - in more than one place - that open-grown walnuts in pasture settings often have hollows that make them much less valuable - if not worthless, plus, they often branch much lower than trees in a high stem-density forest setting, so fewer clean log lengths.

I've got some improved nut-variety BWs that have thin shells - they'd crush to smithereens if you ran over them with the car in the gravel driveway, but even the thinnest, I can't imagine someone cracking with their bare hand - even if they had two to crush against one another.

I've got grafts of two 'figured-grained' BW clones, "Lamb's Curly" and "Christofersen B-22", planted next to one another. Been planting seednuts from the two, hoping that at some point in the future, there'll be some valuable curly/figured-grained walnut lumber coming off this place that maybe my grandchilren will profit from.