A national profile of the U.S. hardwood sawmill industry

A nationwide survey of the hardwood sawmill industry was conducted in the fall of 1999. The objectives of the survey were to generate a current demographic profile of the hardwood sawmill industry and identify the preferred information sources for the hardwood sawmill industry. These objectives were chosen because timely information was not available for the hardwood sawmill industry. The survey consisted of a mail questionnaire that was sent to over 2,000 hardwood sawmills. The results from the mail survey found that the average yearly lumber production was 7.6 million board feet per sawmill. The most common type of scanning and optimizing technology, headrig optimization, was only in use by 27 percent of the responding mills. Advanced scanning and optimizing technology such as edger-optimizers and trimmer-optimizers were only in use by 10 percent and 5 percent of the respondents, respectively. Regarding information sources, plant visits and peer conversations were rated the highest, and the Internet was rated last. Overall, the use of advanced technology within the hardwood sawmill was not common, production was a key issue, and hardwood sawmillers preferred hands-on or personal interaction for their information needs.

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