Nebraska Farmer Logo

Farmstead Forest: Portable sawmills can offer landowners a viable way to use storm- or insect-damaged trees.

Curt Arens, Editor, Nebraska Farmer

July 27, 2022

2 Min Read
Lumber
SAW IT UP: Portable sawmills offer a budget-friendly way to mill storm-, disease- or insect-damaged trees into valuable lumber. Curt Arens

Producers who have woodlands or trees in general around their property periodically deal with downed limbs, storm- or insect-damaged trees, or taking down dead trees.

If that’s the case, a portable sawmill may offer a way to create value from those downed or diseased trees, besides firewood or making a big brush pile.

Such mills became popular in the late 1800s, because they provided a way to bring the mill to the timber harvest area. Those early “one-man” or “one-farmer” sawmills were often steam-powered and could be dismantled from the site and moved to another.

That isn’t exactly “portable” with ease. Today’s portable mills move easily on trailers, and can be pulled behind a truck to another location and set up for work in a short time period.

Portable mill

If a landowner is thinning eastern red cedar trees or other invasive trees from woodlands or pastures, the mobility part of the portable sawmill is valuable, because it is often more costly to move timber to the mill than to move the mill to the timber.

Owning a small sawmill also puts operations in the hands of the landowner, rather than waiting for a custom order to be completed by another sawmill. While there are common expenses involved in operating a mill — including labor, replacement parts and repairs, routine maintenance, fuel and lubricants, insurance, and transportation — these are not uncommon expenses for farmers to incur on any of the equipment they already own.

Related:How to evaluate hail-damaged trees

Cutting the waste of potentially valuable wood products is perhaps one of the greatest advantages of the portable mill, because of the storm, insect and disease damage witnessed in recent years around the country.

Mills that are small and mobile offer an easier way to cut downed and dead timber into usable lumber, and to save those damaged logs of valuable size from the burn pile. For woodworkers who value specialty wood products, a small mill offers the ability to mill out these unique timber products closer to where they are cut.

Extra income

While many farmers purchase portable mills because they have had a large storm event and have a lot of downed timber to work through, or they want to expand a woodworking hobby and save expense by producing their own lumber, they can often make extra income by custom-milling small orders on the side.

In many areas, woodworkers and small landowners with woodlands are looking for custom milling, so owning such a mill could provide additional part-time or even full-time income.

Learn more about owning a portable sawmill for your own property by contacting your state forest service agency.

About the Author(s)

Curt Arens

Editor, Nebraska Farmer

Curt Arens began writing about Nebraska’s farm families when he was in high school. Before joining Farm Progress as a field editor in April 2010, he had worked as a freelance farm writer for 27 years, first for newspapers and then for farm magazines, including Nebraska Farmer.

His real full-time career, however, during that same period was farming his family’s fourth generation land in northeast Nebraska. He also operated his Christmas tree farm and grew black oil sunflowers for wild birdseed. Curt continues to raise corn, soybeans and alfalfa and runs a cow-calf herd.

Curt and his wife Donna have four children, Lauren, Taylor, Zachary and Benjamin. They are active in their church and St. Rose School in Crofton, where Donna teaches and their children attend classes.

Previously, the 1986 University of Nebraska animal science graduate wrote a weekly rural life column, developed a farm radio program and wrote books about farm direct marketing and farmers markets. He received media honors from the Nebraska Forest Service, Center for Rural Affairs and Northeast Nebraska Experimental Farm Association.

He wrote about the spiritual side of farming in his 2008 book, “Down to Earth: Celebrating a Blessed Life on the Land,” garnering a Catholic Press Association award.

Subscribe to receive top agriculture news
Be informed daily with these free e-newsletters

You May Also Like