Forest 360 (formerly Forest Owner Marketing Services) takes on everything forestry, from land assessment and planting to harvest. It has about 50 harvest contractors working across the North Island, Musson said, and harvests 1.3 million tonnes of wood a year.
When prices drop it scales back production - while keeping returns to forest owners acceptable and keeping jobs going for staff.
That can be done by capping production. A contractor has a volume target for the month, and stops cutting when it is reached. The team might harvest five loads a day instead of 10, or work from Monday to Thursday.
Some forestry businesses have moved loggers to thinning and planting temporarily, but Musson said Forestry 360 hasn't had to do that.
Blinkhorne & Carroll establishes forest up until the trees reach 13 years. It is "snowed under" with planting jobs and has taken on four former loggers to do planting, owner Patrick Carroll said.
"People have been moving around the country where there are shortages and top-ups of contracts."
Those suffering from the price drop will be smaller contractors that log smaller farm woodlots rather than large corporate forests. Woodlot owners, mainly farmers, tend to cancel contracts and wait until the prices rise before harvesting.
Over the past five years health and safety requirements have caused many contractors to mechanise, buying expensive equipment such as million dollar haulers. Sometimes banks will require interest-only repayments from them for a while, but those people with heavy debt and no work will be suffering.
Some may be part-timers, who can turn to other seasonal work. Others may have just set up, have no buffer and no capital, and need to keep using their expensive equipment.
"You will find lots of that in Whanganui. I haven't heard of anyone going bankrupt but there's certainly pressure on contractors," Younger said.
Some of the price fluctuation could be avoided if log export companies agreed to pay a set price - but Musson said that's unlikely.
"A lot of people will not take that, because they would rather have the higher return."
Lower prices mean harder times, but overall the Government's One Billion Trees policy has been a shot in the arm for forestry. Forest 360 has planted 2.5 million trees this year - mainly pine.
"For us it's still pretty exciting times. Forestry is a very sustainable industry with good career opportunities out there for people, in both management and contracting," Musson said.
WHY THE DROP IN PRICE?
+ Oversupply. New Zealand production increased in past five years
+ China the main buyer, with logs sitting on wharves
+ Effect of the China-United States trade war
+ Warming climate in Europe and Canada increased insect pests eating forest trees
+ Trees there harvested early, while still worth something
+ China extended railway into Europe, making it cheaper and easier to get logs from there
