Stumpage price data was obtained by a mail survey to all known professional consulting foresters operating in Indiana. Reported prices are for sealed bid timber sales only, (not negotiated sales) between a motivated timber seller and a licensed Indiana timber buyer. The data represents approximately 10 to 15 percent of the total volume of stumpage purchased during the period from August 15, 2003 to February 15, 2004 period. 1/ The results of this stumpage price survey are not meant as a guarantee that amounts offered for your timber will reflect the range in prices reported in this survey. The results simply provide an additional source of information to gauge market conditions. The sealed bid timber sale process is for trees marked by a professional forester. The species, number of trees and volume in a sealed bid sale are determined prior to the notice of sale. A notice is sent to licensed timber buyers who then offer a price for said trees at a predetermined time and place. Under conditions determined in the bid notice, the owner then accepts or rejects the bids. Upon acceptance of the bids by the owner and fee paid, the owner then conveys the right to cut the advertised trees to the purchaser. This is frequently referred to as a lump sum sale. This report reflects "spot market" prices, not the average price paid by timber buyers. The bidding process used by consultants "spots" the maximum amount any buyer is willing to pay for a particular lot of timber at a particular time and place, not the average price paid for timber. High bids frequently reflect an urgent need for timber because of special orders for lumber or veneer, low log inventories at the buyer's mill, poor logging conditions due to wet weather, or other special conditions. Hardwood lumber is sold in a highly competitive commodity market. Competition comes from mills within the state, region, and hardwood lumber producers in the Lake States, Northeast, South, and Southeastern production areas. This market competition means that the cost of stumpage in other producing regions determines in part the amount Indiana mills and loggers can pay for stumpage. If all timber were sold on a bid basis the spot market would no longer exist and the average of the highest bid price offered would be lower than now observed. This explanation isn't meant to deter you from seeking the best available price. It's meant to explain the apparent discrepancy between the two price reporting systems.

1/ This estimate was based on an annual harvest of 353 million board feet of sawlogs in 1995 and an unpublished survey of sealed bid timber sales by professional foresters. Source: Indiana's Timber Industry - An Assessment of Timber Product Output and Use, 1995. Resource Bulletin NC-193 haves U.S. Forest Service

SEALED BID PRICES

The prices reported are broken into three sale types: high quality, average quality and low quality. A high quality sale is one where more that 50 percent of the volume is number 2 or better grade red oak, white oak, sugar maple, white ash, black cherry, or black walnut. The average sale is considered one that is not a low or high quality sale.

The low quality sale has more than 70 percent of the volume in number 3 grade or is cottonwood, beech, hickory, elm, sycamore, hackberry, pin oak, aspen, black gum, black locust, honey locust, catalpa or sweet gum. A total of 214 sales were reported for this six-month period. Figure 1 shows the number of sealed bids offered by sale type. A total of 1052 bids were received for the 214 sales. The figure also reflects what foresters have been suggesting, higher quality timber offered for sale increases buyer interest and the number of bids offered. The average number of bids offered per sale was 4.9 for this period. Seventeen sales were completed by negotiation after the seller rejected all initial bids. A total Doyle stumpage volume of 15,785,463 was sold during this period Figure 2. The average volume per sale was 80,870 bd. ft. for high quality, 67,035 bd. ft. for average quality and 83,001 bd. ft. for low quality. Value by sale is reported in Figure 3. Total timber value sold was $7,968,737.69. Average sale value by type was $52,657, $29,035 and $21,119 respectively. Average price by sale type is reported in Figure 4. The price reported is per 1000 board feet (MBF) of standing timber. To obtain a price per board foot, divide the price by 1000. An average price of $502.00 per thousand (MBF) is also the same as 50.2 cents per board foot. The average price reported for all sales and type was 56.0 cents per board foot stumpage. Price ranges by sale type are reported in Figures 5-7.

Also below is the statistical summary for all three-sale types. The comment section following is offered to our readers by the consulting foresters who participated in this survey. � Strong demand for high quality black walnut and large diameter black cherry � Demand is high for red and black oak, sugar maple and cherry. � Stumpage markets were firm to higher during 2003. The fall of '03 showed an increase in prices for all grades and species with average increase of about 10-20% on most bids. � I feel that the market has been good. If I allow a longer payment schedule the results are better because money is tight. Timber sales heavy to white, black and red oak seem to generate good interest.

(All comments are provided by participating consulting foresters. They do not represent the opinions of the Woodland Steward Institute or the Woodland Steward Newsletter.)

The following list of consulting foresters has provided the data and comments for this article.

Wakeland Forestry Consultants - Bruce Wakeland, ACF,