Marketing Your Timber: The Bidding Process

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Timber marketing is one of the most important steps in good forest management. Marketing can remove unhealthy and inferior trees. Financially mature trees can be sold to encourage regeneration and is the primary opportunity to profit from years of caring for a forest.

Because landowners sell timber infrequently, they often do not have specialized knowledge about logging, timber estimation, utilization standards, or local markets. This lack of marketing knowledge can be costly to landowners because it decreases the price paid for timber. Also, bad marketing decisions today can leave an unmanageable, poor-quality stand of timber for future efforts.

A good marketing plan helps you approach selling timber in a businesslike manner. In preparation, there are many important questions, including these:

• How should I sell my timber?
• Do I need professional forestry assistance?
• Are my trees ready to sell?
• How much timber and what products do I have?
• What is its value?
• Who will buy my timber?

Marketing allows the landowner to discuss their views on the timber sale before it is finalized.

Don’t let selling timber become a disappointing experience. Seek professional assistance to properly market and bid or negotiate a timber sale. Create and use a good marketing plan for timber sales to meet forest management goals and objectives and receive a fair price for timber.

You can also contact state Extension specialists or your local Extension office for answers to specific questions.

Publication 1620 (POD-04-26)

Revised by A. Brady Self, PhD, Extension Professor, Forestry; from an earlier version by Stephen Dicke, PhD, Extension Professor (retired), Central Mississippi Research and Extension Center; Deborah Gaddis, Extension Professor (retired); Winston Savelle; and Bob Daniels.