Comparative economic analysis of two management options for loblolly pine timber plantations
1998
Biblis, E.J. | Carino, H. | Teeter, L.
Southern yellow pines constitute approximately 50 percent of all forests in the southern United States. In a few years, more than 50 percent of the softwood timber requirements of wood products mills in the southern United States will come from pine plantations consisting primarily of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.). Intensive management of such plantations has resulted in very impressive growth rates for the first 8 to 12 years. These plantations are often harvested at age 20 for pulpwood. Alternatively, plantations can be managed to produce quality sawtimber at around age 50. This paper presents the results of a case study involving a comparative economic analysis of these two management options for loblolly pine plantations. The comparison was made based on the land expectation value (LEV) for each management regime using current market prices and different levels of real discount rates. The results indicate that, if the expected rate of return (real) on investment is less than 7 percent, managing a given planation timber stand similar to the one studied for sawtimber production leased on a 5-year rotation is clearly more economically desirable than managing the same stand for pulpwood production based on a 2-year rotation in fact, if the price of sawtimber is at least $450 per thousand board feet (Doyle) and pulpwood is priced at $35 per cord, the superiority of the sawtimber management option still holds at discount rates of 7 and 8 percent. Evidently, the pulpwood option becomes more attractive at higher discount rates and/or at relatively lower prices for sawtimber and higher prices for pulpwood.
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