Timber Sale Offer Checker — Is the Logger's Offer Fair?

A logger offered you a price for your timber. Is it low?

List your logs (or your forester's cruise), put your own price per MBF on each species, and enter the offer. You get the board feet under Doyle, Scribner and International rules, the value at your prices, the price per MBF the offer works out to, and how much a consulting forester has to raise the price to pay for themselves.

Calculated in this browser tab. No account, no upload. Prices are yours: the tool contains no market data, and the example prices are made up.

1. Your logs

One line per group: species, small-end diameter (inches), length (feet), number of logs Your price per MBF (thousand board feet), one line per species: species, price

2. The offer

Offer ($)

The offer is a

Log rule the offer uses

Consulting forester fee (% of sale)

Paste your logs and prices or load the example, then click Check the offer.

Result

The same logs under each rule

Rule	Board feet	Value at your prices

By species (offer's rule)

Species	Logs	Board feet	Your $/MBF	Value

The rules, and what they leave out

Doyle = (D − 4)² × length ÷ 16. International 1/4-inch sums 4-foot sections with 1/2 inch of taper each. Scribner uses a common formula fit to the printed table, so it can differ from a scale ticket by a few board feet per log.
Value = board feet ÷ 1,000 × your price for that species. Species without a price count as $0 and are listed.
Ratio compares the offer with the International value at your prices, the closest to true volume. Under 75% is flagged as a question to ask, not a verdict.
Forester break-even = fee ÷ (1 − fee): the price rise competitive bids must deliver.
Not modelled: defect and cull deductions, the cost of roads and skidding, who pays for them, the tops and pulpwood, regeneration, taxes, contract terms and local rules.

Common questions

How do I know if a logger's timber offer is fair?

Get the logs or trees measured, put your own current price per thousand board feet (MBF) on each species, and compare the offer with the total. This tool does that arithmetic under three log rules and shows what share of that value the offer is. A low ratio is a reason to ask questions and get more bids, not proof of anything.

Why does the log rule matter?

Doyle counts far fewer board feet than International 1/4-inch on small logs, so the same logs scale to different volumes. A price per MBF only means something with the rule it was quoted under. The tool shows your logs under each rule so you can compare like with like.

Is a consulting forester worth the fee?

It depends on the fee and on how much competitive bidding raises the price. At a fee of f percent of the sale, the forester pays for itself when bids come in more than f/(1−f) above the offer you already have. The tool calculates that break-even uplift for your fee.

Where do the prices come from?

From you. The tool contains no market data. Use recent sale reports from your state forestry agency, a forester, or bids you have received. The example prices are made up.

Is my data uploaded?

No. Everything is calculated in your browser tab and nothing is sent anywhere. There are no accounts.

Is this forestry, legal or tax advice?

No. It is arithmetic on numbers you enter. Boards-foot formulas are standard approximations of the printed log-rule tables; the Scribner value in particular is a formula fit. A contract, a harvest plan, and the tax treatment of timber income need a qualified forester, attorney or tax professional.