Comparison of stumpage valuation methods for procuring wood used in linerboard production

Strategies for the procurement of pulpwood are most often derived for each species of interest. An application of residual valuation, an indirect approach to stumpage valuation, is demonstrated that accounts for differing yields of chip, pulp, linerboard, and by-products and for differing harvesting, transportation, and processing costs as tree and plantation characteristics are varied. Data collected from 130 trees were used to explore product recovery and operational relationships between plantation, tree, wood, wood chip, pulp, and paper properties. Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) trees varying in size from 5 to 13 inches diameter at breast height grown in 14-, 19-, 23-, and 29-year-old plantations in north-central Arkansas were used in the study. Use of residual values to estimate stumpage value demonstrates that trees processed into linerboard are not a fungible commodity and that procurement strategies based on product yields should be employed. The use of residual values suggests strategies for pricing stumpage for pulp and linerboard products that concentrate on the purchase of trees with higher pulp and linerboard yields rather than higher volume or green weight yield.