Sawtimber is the most important category of Mississippi forest products and accounts for nearly two-thirds of the annual harvest value. Both pine and hardwood species are harvested each year, but the pine sawlog harvest volume is usually more than twice that of hardwood. Sawtimber or sawlogs are defined as trees large enough to be cut into lumber. Log specifications are regional and vary between pine and hardwood. Most mills have log specifications based on the type of equipment being used in their particular mill.
Several industries purchase sawlogs using exact specifications for special products.
Some of these will be discussed in a later section. Sawtimber is usually measured in board feet. Board feet is used as a measure because the aim of lumber manufacturing is to produce rectangular lumber from cylindrical logs. Board feet gives an estimate of how much lumber a certain size log will yield. Log rules are used to estimate the lumber volume in logs.