I'm not in the timber business, but I thought I had heard that some mills (SPI, PALCO?) thought they had figured out the board feet or whatever they do by simply weighing the load. I've seen some ugly looking logs rolling down the road lately bound for SPI in Lincoln and wondered if that was in response to this new development or what. Seems like there would have to be other rules or else everyone would start bringing in all sorts of garbage if it paid the same as nice straight logs. Birken
Scale By Weight............ Alot of timber companies are doing the scale by weight thing. Here in Humboldt County several of the companies scale by weight. The Scaling Bureau will physically scale 1 in 10 or 1 in 5 loads. If the timber changes significantly in one part of the setting, or if they run into some residual old growth, they will physically check scale several loads to get the weight to scale numbers correct........ One big advantage for the logger and trucker is it reduces or eliminates the logjam of trucks at the mill waiting to be scaled. Used to be we had trucks that were sitting at the mill for 45 minutes to an hour and a half.Trucks when you need them, it makes a big difference on the landing.
Weigh scaling is the norm here...very rare to do a full scale on a load of wood. Basically each type of load (OSB/pulp/lumber) is assigned a population and depending upon the amount of wood coming in random samples are taken to come up with a conversion of X kg sound wood/ton of wood delivered. The defect numbers are accounted for and matched against the forest growth projects and used to help update forest inventories...so even nasty logs get accounted for. Dues and payment is based upon sound wood only in most contracts I know of. Constant scaling occurs but there tends to be very small flucuations after a logging season from the previous year. I've also seen weigh scaling used with high value logs where each log was given a barcode stapled to the end of the log...when the truck went over the scale sensors would read the bar codes and then basically they could track species mix and/or purchase source accurately. Worked well but labour intensive with the staples and only worked with 8 foot logs...only ever saw it at one mill.
Around here, all forest products are bought by the ton, not the board foot. It really makes sense for pulpwood and OSB mills, since that is used by the ton. Sawlogs are by the ton here also. 20 years ago, I made a living cutting cypress and specialty hardwoods w/ an old 00 ***** circle mill. I scaled all my sawlogs, and bought them by the bd/ft. I felt like it made the figuring easier, since I sold my lumber by the bd/ft. Also, I couldn't afford truck scales.
Define "ugly looking". Most of the logs you see on their way to Lincoln come from SPI's own land. Since most of their harvesting is clear cut you're likely to see an ugly log now and then. The mill has the ability to utilize more of the log instead of wasting it or leaving it in the woods. Stuff that would have been culled for defect years ago is now sent to the mill. "Ugly" might be how the log looks on the outside but they cut some pretty lumber out of them. What isn't cut for lumber is chipped and burned in the bio-mass plant to generate electricity or sold to other bio-mass plants or pulp mills. If you were to spend a day watching the loads of logs roll into the mill during the peak of the season you'd see many many more loads of good logs than "ugly looking" ones. Think of logs like you think of women...it's what's inside that counts. If you want to see truly ugly loads of logs, hang around Oroville and watch the loads of oak going to the firewood processor there. Now there are some ugly loads. They kind of resemble a gigantic game of pick-up-sticks. Make good firewood, though.
I mean logs that are very bent, not straight at all, some have a very big pistol butt included on them, others that are hollow and rotted in the middle. I guess the mills are getting into cutting that stuff. When I worked construction I thought it was amazing how just about every 2x4 I picked up was cut from the center of a log. Must be small stuff, although most of the logs that I see around here (Grass Valley) are still pretty good size. Birken