What to do?

[ddd]

OK, I got my $.02 worth from this group.  I originally was
interested in finding out the investment potential of timber
and got the following type of responses:

1. Buy land that already has an established young group of
trees.  Grow from there.

2. Setting up from scratch (clear-cut) will take a
tremendously long time, unless using some aggressive
management and using genetically enhanced seed.

3. Instead of growing for timber, grow for pulp - quicker
turn around to market, low return, but get into the next
cycle quicker.

4. Cottonwood trees are quick growers, good for pulp.

5. Cottonwood also decomposes quickly - fostering a side
income potential from mushrooms.

6. Someone in India has a big pulp mill and is going to
dominate the world pulp market (?)

Well, I've sure gotten a lot of feedback from my original
question.  With the way today's market is behaving, land is
looking more and more attractive.



On Mon, 31 Aug 1998 07:38:35 GMT, larryc at teleport.com (Larry
Caldwell) wrote:

>In article <1998082723190300.TAA09146 at ladder01.news.aol.com>, 
>susan112 at aol.com says...
>
>> The mushrooming business sounds great, but I have heard of a downside from a
>> guy locally who tried to grow shittake outside on oak logs as a business.  He
>> said the seasonal nature of the crops nearly did him in as he could not get a
>> buyer for just a couple crops a year. The buyers he encountered wanted so much
>> a week, every week, guaranteed or no deal.
>
>This may be a real problem if there is no wild mushroom market in your 
>area.  In the PNW, mushroom buyers aggressively comb the woods when 
>mushrooms are in season, and literally thousands of pickers sell to them.  
>The annual wild mushroom crop is worth millions of dollars.  The USFS 
>sells commerical picking permits for entry to federal forests, and sets 
>up special camps just for the pickers.
>
>A happy side effect is that almost all supermarkets will stock several 
>varieties of mushrooms when they are in season.  I have bought oyster 
>mushrooms, shiitake, chanterelles and morels at Safeway and Albertsons in 
>addition to the normal agaricus bisporus that is commonly cultivated.  
>PNW consumers are getting pretty sophisticated about a variety of 
>mushrooms.
>
>> He ended up constructing a building in which he could control tempurature and
>> humidity, a very expensive building.  Now he has year-long consistent
>> production and a viable business.   He said that sticking with it and  getting
>> to that point was very difficult for him and he felt that the people promoting
>> shittake failed him by not pointing out the downsides.
>
>If you want to sell to grocery jobbers, you are pretty much stuck going 
>into industrial production like that.  Wild mushroom buyers will take 
>what you have when you have it.  If there is none in your immediate area, 
>you might think about shipping crates by next-day UPS.  Mushrooms are 
>quite durable, and will take some shipping.  There is certainly enough 
>money in the transaction to make shipping worthwhile.  Most wild 
>mushrooms are exported, and end up in the European or Asian market 
>anyway.
>
>> What would be the potential downside of the cottonwood venture for the
>> landowner I know who might be interested?  
>
>I certainly wouldn't recommend spending big bucks right off the bat.  If 
>he has the cottonwood, and has the time to log cabin bolts, and maybe 
>enough water to moisten them once in a while, he can grow nice shipments 
>of pleurotus or shiitake on a seasonal basis.  There IS a market out 
>there.  Mushrooms can be surprisingly easy to grow, but industrial 
>production requires heavy investments in time and facilities.  There is 
>no reason a small outdoor operation can't be profitable almost 
>immediately with next to no startup investment.  
>
>-- Larry

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