Timber price per ton vs per MBF: how the units differ

A timber price per ton is dollars per ton of log weight, while a price per MBF is dollars per thousand board feet, a log-rule estimate of the lumber in the logs. The two units measure wood differently, and the tons in an MBF move with species, log size and moisture, so a per-ton rate converts to a per-MBF rate only with a factor built for that same timber.

This guide covers the weight unit against the volume units. Board feet against cubic feet, and the Scribner rule behind them, are in What is an MBF?.

How a per-ton sale is measured and paid

Montana DNRC sells this way, and its sale documents spell out the mechanics. The Stryker notice and prospectus says the sale “is being sold based on the gross weight of all species,” that the “Minimum price and bid price are on a per ton basis,” and that “A weight ticket from a certified scale is required for each load hauled.” DNRC's timber sale contract (the sample posted with its Case for Potomac sale) adds the paperwork: a numbered load ticket goes on the driver's-side bunk log of every load, each weight ticket must come from a State of Montana certified scale and show gross, tare and net weight, and the state values what was removed from “the total gross weight of material hauled.”

The tonnage in a sale notice is an estimate. DNRC's prospectus warns that “actual delivered weight may vary, resulting in an overrun or under-run of the estimated tonnage.” The buyer commits to a rate per ton and the bill follows the scale. When this site shows a total for a Montana sale, it is the bid rate times the estimated tons, the way DNRC's own bid summary adds it up.

How a per-MBF sale is measured and paid

Board feet come from cruising the standing trees or from scaling the logs with a log rule, and the contract decides which one sets the bill. Washington DNR's Next Regeneration sale packet is a lump-sum sale: the purchaser “agrees to pay the total, lump sum contract price,” and the price is not affected by “the amount or volume of forest products actually cut or removed.” The per-MBF price this site shows for a lump-sum sale is the bid divided by the cruised volume.

A scale sale pays by the unit as the logs are measured, and one sale can use both units. Washington DNR's Ten Fir Sorts notice lists each log sort in MBF and in tons, gives the unit of measure as “MBF Scale/Tonnage Scale,” and says “All tonnage loads will be weighed and all mbf loads will be scaled at State approved locations.”

Which agencies on this site sell by the ton

• Montana DNRC. Every sale on the Northwestern, Central and Southwestern Land Office pages is priced per ton, trust-land and Good Neighbor Authority sales alike. DNRC's bid summaries typically print the estimated tons, the per-ton minimum, a tons-per-MBF conversion factor and the equivalent MBF.
• Idaho Department of Lands. IDL sells some sales by the ton. Its Happy Trails GNA Ton notice offered “an estimated 29,667 tons” at an average minimum bid of “$20.07 per TON.”
• Washington DNR. Washington sells mostly by the MBF, with a few exceptions. The bidding record for Coal Train, auctioned August 26, 2026, lists the bid method as “Scale / Ton,” an estimated 30,655 tons and a high bid of $18.86 per ton.

Why timber is sold by weight

Oregon State University Extension's guide Measuring Timber Products Harvested from Your Woodland (EC 1127, revised 2009) says weight is used “particularly when you sell logs that are small, expensive to measure, uniform in diameter, taper, and length, and that are low in value,” and that small conifer logs and pulp logs were increasingly sold by weight. A board-foot rule works from each log's small-end diameter and length, while a truck scale weighs the whole load at once. Selling small logs by weight also removes the board-foot undercount of “long, tapering logs,” in OSU's words.

The US South prices much of its pine by the ton. Mississippi State University Extension writes that “High-production pine sawmills have changed to weight scaling and buy timber by the ton (2,000 pounds),” while high-grade and specialty mills often still pay per MBF on the Doyle rule (MSU publication P2244). North Carolina State Extension publishes its state's average stumpage prices in dollars per ton (2026 price report).

Why there is no fixed tons-per-MBF number

A ton is a weight and an MBF is a volume estimate, so the bridge between them moves with anything that changes either one. OSU lists species (wood density), log size, moisture content and the share of sapwood, which “has more moisture and thus is heavier,” and calls its own factors “generalizations only.”

Log size shows the effect plainly, because a board-foot rule credits a small log with fewer board feet per cubic foot of wood. Working from OSU's tables (0.028 tons per cubic foot for Douglas-fir, 253 cubic feet per westside Scribner MBF for a 10-inch log and 166 for a 20-inch log), a 10-inch Douglas-fir log comes to about 7.1 tons per MBF and a 20-inch log to about 4.6. Washington DNR's Ten Fir Sorts notice shows the same pattern: 5.8 tons per MBF for its 5-to-19-inch Douglas-fir sort and 5 for its 20-inch-and-up Douglas-fir sort.

Across the 50 DNRC bid summaries behind this site's Montana pages that print a factor, it runs from 4.97 tons per MBF (Butcher Blowdown Timber Permit, August 20, 2026) to 11.71 (Badger Pass Timber Permit, June 18, 2026), with 47 of the 50 between 5.11 and 7.88.

Weight also changes after felling. DNRC's contract lets the state add up to 15% to the net weight of logs delivered more than 30 days after felling, to cover “loss in weight due to delay.” And a factor belongs to its log rule. Mississippi State's southern pine table is built on the Doyle rule, which the publication says “greatly underestimates lumber volume in smaller DBH trees,” and it runs from 14.0 tons per MBF at a 10-inch average DBH down to 4.4 at 36 inches.

Worked example: Stryker, sold October 6, 2026

Stryker is a DNRC trust-land sale on the Stillwater Unit of the Northwestern Land Office: about 2,828 tons of mixed conifer sawlogs, “primarily Douglas-fir and Western larch,” with one price for every species. Stoken Logging Inc. was the only bidder, at $23.50 per ton against a $20.69 minimum (DNRC bid summary).

• Bid value: 2,828 tons × $23.50 = $66,458.00, the winning bid shown on the board.
• Minimum: 2,828 tons × $20.69 = $58,511.32. The bid ran $66,458.00 ÷ $58,511.32 = 1.136 times the minimum, a 13.6% premium that the board rounds to +14%.
• DNRC's cruise: 2,828 estimated tons over 546 net MBF (Scribner, 5.6-inch top), a factor of 5.18 tons per MBF.
• Translated on that cruise: $66,458 ÷ 546 = $121.72 per net MBF.

The last line is a translation for this one tract, not a price anyone paid. The buyer pays $23.50 for each ton that crosses the scale, so if the logs weigh more or less than the cruise predicted, the total moves and the rate does not. Even inside Stryker the factor is not one number: DNRC cruised the Douglas-fir at 1,624 tons over 298 MBF (5.45 tons per MBF), the western larch at 1,072 tons over 227 MBF (4.72), and the lodgepole pine, at 8.5 inches average DBH and 40 logs per MBF, at 113 tons over 17 MBF (6.65).

How Stumpage keeps the units apart

This site never blends dollars per MBF, dollars per CCF and dollars per ton. The Montana pages are per-ton series throughout, like the Northwestern Land Office chart above. On the Washington region pages, a sale sold by the ton, like Coal Train on the Northwest Region page, is counted on its own and kept out of the per-MBF average. The board labels every price with its unit, gives per-ton volume its own column in the month-by-month table, and ranks sales across units only by premium over minimum, which is a ratio and carries no unit.

To move between board feet and cubic feet instead of weight, use the MBF to CCF converter.