MT. PLEASANT, Iowa — When Robert "Bob"
Batey started his sawmill business in 1987, he had a handset Frick mill and a five-man
crew.
Little did he know that in a mere 13 years Batey Sawmill would become
one of America’s largest producers of soft maple lumber.
He did know when he started his mill, however, that he would need great
people, the best logs available, and the right machinery in order to be successful. His
approach paid off, and Bob still emphasizes these factors today as Batey Sawmill continues
to expand and prosper.
Batey Sawmill is located in Mt. Pleasant in southeast Iowa, a region of
flat lands with some slightly rolling terrain. Bob described Mt. Pleasant as "a nice
place to live, exceptionally clean with good churches and schools and a good place to
raise a family." Mt. Pleasant, a town of about 8,000 is the home of the Midwest Old
Threshers Reunion, which is held every Labor Day Weekend and is exceeded in attendance
only by the Iowa State Fair. The community also supports operations for Blue Bird Midwest
School Bus Co. (one of the largest school bus factories in the world), Pioneer and Cargill
seed companies, a Motorola two-way radio plant, a plastics company named Lomont,
Heatilator Co. (a leading manufacturer of prefabricated fireplaces), Hon (a maker of metal
office furniture), Nypro (a manufacturer of parts for writing pens), Ceco Building
Systems, and Goodyear. There also are three large direct mail businesses, a Wal-Mart
distribution center, and Iowa Wesleyan College, which is America’s oldest college
west of the Mississippi River. The competition for employees is "fierce," Bob
said, and local industries are finding it more difficult to hire new employees.
Some would argue that Mt. Pleasant is not a good location for a sawmill
because of the competition for labor; some may even say it is terrible. But Bob says,
"If you get handed a lemon, make lemonade."
That’s what Bob has done. He has assembled what he considers to be
the finest group of employees one could ever hope for both in the mill and in the woods.
Although he is a strong proponent of having the right machinery, Bob also believes you
must have the right people and reward them well. In the course of being interviewed for TimberLine,
Bob said, "I want every loyal employee mentioned in this article. They are the reason
for our success!"
A successful sawmill operation starts in the woods, said
Bob, company vice president. His son, Gary, a stockholder who also holds the company title
of vice president, directs timber purchasing, barging, and logging operations. Gary
personally purchases over 10 million board feet of standing timber a year. Most mills
would hire several people to do the work that Gary does, noted Bob, who credited him with
doing an outstanding job. Eric Nielson, a forester, recently joined Batey Sawmill to
assist Gary in several special projects.
The vast majority of logs — 80% to 90% — is soft maple, with
an average diameter of 17 to 18 inches. Other species sawn at the mill include walnut, red
oak, and white oak. The mill buys the tracts.
Two independent logging contractors, Cecil Scranton and Claude Siedel,
keep the mill supplied with logs. Nearly three-fourths of the logs are harvested by
Cecil’s crew of eight men, and Claude and his son account for a large portion of the
remainder. Cecil recently invested in a John Deere grapple cut-up system that has boosted
production.
Most logging is done in bottom lands and swamp lands along the
Mississippi River. Logging in these areas would be very difficult and perhaps impractical
for many contractors. However, most logging crews do not have Bob inventing, designing and
building machinery for them. Bob and his company designed and built a flotation-type
prehauler and a barge to meet head-on the challenges of logging the lowlands in an
environmentally responsible way. The prehauler uses flotation tires to reduce disturbance
to the forest floor. The equipment and logging methods conserve natural resources, which
pleases the landowners, and also enable the contractors to produce large volumes of logs.
The prehauler is a very practical machine that can transport a full
truck-load of logs out of low lands. It has proven itself very productive and profitable
for Batey Sawmill. In fact, a few years ago a major logging equipment manufacturer showed
an interest in building and marketing a machine based on Bob’s concept.
The barge allows the loggers to load wood, transport it, and unload it
in as little as 2 feet of water. Powered by a diesel engine and equipped with a Hood
knuckleboom loader, the barge will convey 18,000 board feet of logs in only 4 feet of
water and up to 9,000 in just 2 feet. It has proven invaluable in keeping a steady flow of
soft maple logs going to the sawmill.
All hauling is done with the company’s eight Mac
road tractors. (Lumber products are shipped by contract carriers.) The Macs "make a
good woods truck due to the fact that they sit up high, have air-ride suspension and good
fuel economy," said Bob. Batey Sawmill also built five four-bunk, spread-axle log
trailers; each is equipped with an on-board scale which were built by Batey Sawmill.
Sawdust and mulch are hauled in three Keith walking floor trailers. Bob
likes them because the drivers do not have to wait to get unloaded. A few minutes after
engaging the walking floor, the trailer is emptied and the driver is back on the road.
"Keith live floor trailers have definitely been very profitable for our mill,"
said Bob.
Bob and his talented crew have built a lot of the mill’s
machinery. In fact, Batey Ltd Sawmill has an almost complete in-house machine shop and the
talent to use it.
(Bob’s son, Tim, is also very mechanically inclined. Tim is the
owner of Blockbuster Inc., which builds firewood processing machines. Blockbuster, located
less than a mile from Batey Sawmill, is known for its line of rugged, productive, firewood
processing machinery.)
At the yard of Batey Sawmill, another machine designed and built by Bob
and company employees works like a charm. Bob calls the machine the ‘yard dog;’
it is a Hood knuckleboom loader mounted on a garbage truck. The yard dog does all the log
handling, and, according to Bob, it "does a great job." It loads, unloads, sorts
and hauls up to 3,000 board feet of logs per load, all from the loader seat.
Bob is a firm believer in Hood loaders. For his particular needs, Hood
has proven to do a good job of handling Batey Sawmill’s knuckleboom tasks. In
addition to the Hood loaders on the barge and the yard dog, Batey Sawmill has five other
Hood loaders in service in the woods or at the mill.
Loading of lumber and byproducts is handled by three four-wheel-drive
articulated loaders — Case models 18 and 20 and a Timberjack 8,000-pound loader. Bob
described all three machines as "very productive, requiring minimal
maintenance."
Batey Sawmill is located on 25 acres and is a very clean,
neat, and efficient operation.
The most impressive area is the main sawmill building. If you were to
describe it in as few words as possible, they would be "very fast and very
efficient."
The yard dog places all logs on the in-feed deck of the HMC debarker.
(White oak and walnut veneer logs are sorted out and sold to various veneer buyers.) The
HMC is old, but it still performs well every day. Bob would recommend the HMC rosserhead
debarker to any sawmill. "They are very rugged and very productive and definitely
built to last," he said.
After debarking, logs go to a Corley Special 30 head-block carriage
retrofitted with a patented machine on each of the three head-blocks called a TurboTurner.
Completing the line are a Corley chain log turner, a 60-inch solid tooth head saw with a
30-inch top saw, a Helle two-saw vertical edger, a shop-built hydraulic drive, and a
McDonough 54-inch vertical linebar resaw.
Bob and his crew are very selective when they buy machinery. He spoke
highly of Corley’s quality. "Corley quality, service, and parts availability are
excellent," he said. Batey Sawmill uses a solid tooth circular head saw because
customers like the smooth bandsaw-type finish it leaves on the lumber. It also provides
better sawing feed speed. The top saw comes in handy for sawing many of the huge, prime
soft maple logs with swelled butts. Speaking of the two-saw Helle vertical edger, Bob
said, "You can’t beat ’em."
The McDonough vertical linebar resaw is "a real workhorse,"
said Bob, who recognizes McDonough’s leadership as a supplier of band headrigs and
band resaws. Batey Sawmill’s production doubled overnight after the 54-inch McDonough
was installed.
The mill has unusually high production and does it consistently with
noticeably little ‘slamming’ while turning logs and cants on the carriage. In
seven and a half hours of actual sawing time, production averages around 30,000 board feet
daily when sawing soft maple in up to 20/4 thicknesses.
When recently sawing 8 1/2-foot white oak tie logs, production reached
28,500 board feet per shift — 9,000 board feet of ties and the remainder in 4/4 side
lumber. The mill did not run the resaw because the tie logs have very little grade. When
asked how they did it, Bob replied, "With TurboTurners and our sawyer, Ben
Peiffer."
The three TurboTurners from D.Y. Manufacturing were added earlier this
year. The mill previously had ‘old style’ carriage-mounted turners that worked
well, and Bob was pleased with their performance. When asked why he bought TurboTurners,
Bob was eager to explain why.
"When I originally talked to the salesman at D.Y.
Manufacturing about TurboTurners, they told me that TurboTurners would reduce
‘slamming’ from turning logs on my carriage by about 80 percent. The company
said that fiber tear from turning logs and cants would be practically eliminated at my
mill, and that maintenance on my carriage and chain turner would be greatly reduced. The
salesman said the average mill that installs TurboTurners is increasing production by 10
to 20 percent with an average payback in three to six months.
"Quite frankly, I didn’t believe the claims. I thought they
were simply ‘too good to be true.’
"It was obvious after observing the TurboTurners that their claims
were correct. After replacing my old style carriage-mounted log turners, I’ve
increased my production by 10 percent. My payback was under 13 weeks! It’s absolutely
the best buy I’ve ever made on any piece of machinery, without a doubt."
TurboTurners are patented because they are different from other
carriage-mounted turners, such as underhooks, underdogs, cant flippers, and others. They
do not ‘throw’ logs and cants away from the carriage knees like other turners. A
sawyer can turn logs and cants ‘on the fly’ as soon as the head saw is cleared
on the carriage return; he can spend more time sawing and much less time turning. Another
benefit of TurboTurners is that they virtually eliminate defacing. TurboTurners will turn
small logs, knotty rough logs, logs with sweep, and logs and cants to 30 inches.
"TurboTurners will turn the biggest or smallest log or cant you
saw and will do it without hesitation as soon as you clear the saw," said Bob.
"It’s really fast and efficient."
"I would buy TurboTurners again, even if I knew I would not get
any production increase, because TurboTurners have made my sawyer’s job so much
easier and have eliminated most of the wear and tear on my carriage and my chain
turner."
"Any competent sawyer can learn to use TurboTurners
very fast," said Bob. "I am convinced. I also think TurboTurners would really
shine when training a new sawyer because they are so much easier for a sawyer than having
to wrestle logs all day with a bar or chain log turner."
The mill’s lumber flows to an 80-foot green chain with an
unusually large number of separations. This enables the company to fill every order to
exact customer specifications for green and kiln dried orders.
Bob’s daughter, Sally Johnson, a stockholder who holds the company
title of secretary-treasurer, oversees sales of lumber and all byproducts. "Sally
does an outstanding job and has developed excellent relations with all of our
customers," said Bob. "She is a super salesperson. I really appreciate the job
Sally does for our company."
Sawdust is sold for horse bedding, and bark is ground into mulch in a
Haybuster Tub Grinder, which Bob called an "excellent machine that grinds bark into a
highly saleable product for our mulch customers." Waste wood goes through a 48-inch
Fulghum chipper and is sold for boiler fuel.
A Wood-Mizer LT40HD sawmill is used for all walnut. It was retrofitted
with cradle turners that doubled its daily production to 3,000 board feet. Three workers
saw walnut on the Wood-Mizer. Overrun on the Wood-Mizer is "impressive"
according to Bob, and easily pays for sawing costs.
The filing room is equipped with an Armstrong circle saw grinder and an
Armstrong roller for the mill’s 60-inch solid tooth head saws. A Hanchett leveling
bench is used for the 8-inch bands of the McDonough linebar resaw. A Hanchett knife
grinder is "older than dirt but works like new," said Bob, and is used for
sharpening chipper knives. Hanchett quality is "impressive," he added.
Dry kiln capacity soon will be at 70,000 board feet. A new shop-built
45,000 board feet kiln will compliment the 25,000 board feet Converta dry kiln. A
Williamson and Davies boiler heated with a sawdust gasifier provides steam to the dry
kilns and heat to the shop and planer buildings.
Batey Sawmill also has two buildings for storing green and kiln dried
lumber, a 2,000-square-foot office, a machine shop and maintenance building, a building
for planer operations, and a building that houses the employee break room.
Bob credits his wife, Iola, with much of his success. "She is
definitely the better half of our marriage," he said. "Her strong business sense
is a contributing factor to Batey Sawmill’s success." The Bateys enjoy working
with local community events and spending time with their children and grandchildren. In
their spare time, they enjoy fishing and flying a Cessna 172.
Bob is known as an inventor and a forward thinker. He
enjoys working with the men at the machine shop on new ideas that will make the mill more
efficient. In the future, he wants to continue the focus on improving overall operating
efficiency.
Bob and Gary also would like to help Cecil, their main logger, to
acquire a Timco feller-buncher next year to compliment his John Deere grapple cut-up
system. They have studied the feller-bunchers on the market and are very impressed with
the results that loggers are achieving with Timco feller-bunchers, which Gary called a
" ‘hoss’ of a machine."
When asked about his biggest challenge, Bob said it was finding and
keeping productive people.
The reason for Batey Sawmill’s success is the innovation of its
management and employees, said Bob. "We are willing to do things other mills
won’t do to please the landowner and our lumber customers."
Bob and Iola singled out three employees who have served the company
for many years: Melodee Yaley, who manages the office, and Mike Taylor and Leroy Coleman,
who helped to design and build the sawmill.
Batey Sawmill is well equipped with the right machinery and the right
people to meet the challenges it faces in the future and to remain one America’s top
producers of soft maple lumber.
MT. PLEASANT, Iowa — When Robert "Bob"
Batey started his sawmill business in 1987, he had a handset Frick mill and a five-man
crew.
Little did he know that in a mere 13 years Batey Sawmill would become
one of America’s largest producers of soft maple lumber.
He did know when he started his mill, however, that he would need great
people, the best logs available, and the right machinery in order to be successful. His
approach paid off, and Bob still emphasizes these factors today as Batey Sawmill continues
to expand and prosper.
Batey Sawmill is located in Mt. Pleasant in southeast Iowa, a region of
flat lands with some slightly rolling terrain. Bob described Mt. Pleasant as "a nice
place to live, exceptionally clean with good churches and schools and a good place to
raise a family." Mt. Pleasant, a town of about 8,000 is the home of the Midwest Old
Threshers Reunion, which is held every Labor Day Weekend and is exceeded in attendance
only by the Iowa State Fair. The community also supports operations for Blue Bird Midwest
School Bus Co. (one of the largest school bus factories in the world), Pioneer and Cargill
seed companies, a Motorola two-way radio plant, a plastics company named Lomont,
Heatilator Co. (a leading manufacturer of prefabricated fireplaces), Hon (a maker of metal
office furniture), Nypro (a manufacturer of parts for writing pens), Ceco Building
Systems, and Goodyear. There also are three large direct mail businesses, a Wal-Mart
distribution center, and Iowa Wesleyan College, which is America’s oldest college
west of the Mississippi River. The competition for employees is "fierce," Bob
said, and local industries are finding it more difficult to hire new employees.
Some would argue that Mt. Pleasant is not a good location for a sawmill
because of the competition for labor; some may even say it is terrible. But Bob says,
"If you get handed a lemon, make lemonade."
That’s what Bob has done. He has assembled what he considers to be
the finest group of employees one could ever hope for both in the mill and in the woods.
Although he is a strong proponent of having the right machinery, Bob also believes you
must have the right people and reward them well. In the course of being interviewed for TimberLine,
Bob said, "I want every loyal employee mentioned in this article. They are the reason
for our success!"
A successful sawmill operation starts in the woods, said
Bob, company vice president. His son, Gary, a stockholder who also holds the company title
of vice president, directs timber purchasing, barging, and logging operations. Gary
personally purchases over 10 million board feet of standing timber a year. Most mills
would hire several people to do the work that Gary does, noted Bob, who credited him with
doing an outstanding job. Eric Nielson, a forester, recently joined Batey Sawmill to
assist Gary in several special projects.
The vast majority of logs — 80% to 90% — is soft maple, with
an average diameter of 17 to 18 inches. Other species sawn at the mill include walnut, red
oak, and white oak. The mill buys the tracts.
Two independent logging contractors, Cecil Scranton and Claude Siedel,
keep the mill supplied with logs. Nearly three-fourths of the logs are harvested by
Cecil’s crew of eight men, and Claude and his son account for a large portion of the
remainder. Cecil recently invested in a John Deere grapple cut-up system that has boosted
production.
Most logging is done in bottom lands and swamp lands along the
Mississippi River. Logging in these areas would be very difficult and perhaps impractical
for many contractors. However, most logging crews do not have Bob inventing, designing and
building machinery for them. Bob and his company designed and built a flotation-type
prehauler and a barge to meet head-on the challenges of logging the lowlands in an
environmentally responsible way. The prehauler uses flotation tires to reduce disturbance
to the forest floor. The equipment and logging methods conserve natural resources, which
pleases the landowners, and also enable the contractors to produce large volumes of logs.
The prehauler is a very practical machine that can transport a full
truck-load of logs out of low lands. It has proven itself very productive and profitable
for Batey Sawmill. In fact, a few years ago a major logging equipment manufacturer showed
an interest in building and marketing a machine based on Bob’s concept.
The barge allows the loggers to load wood, transport it, and unload it
in as little as 2 feet of water. Powered by a diesel engine and equipped with a Hood
knuckleboom loader, the barge will convey 18,000 board feet of logs in only 4 feet of
water and up to 9,000 in just 2 feet. It has proven invaluable in keeping a steady flow of
soft maple logs going to the sawmill.
All hauling is done with the company’s eight Mac
road tractors. (Lumber products are shipped by contract carriers.) The Macs "make a
good woods truck due to the fact that they sit up high, have air-ride suspension and good
fuel economy," said Bob. Batey Sawmill also built five four-bunk, spread-axle log
trailers; each is equipped with an on-board scale which were built by Batey Sawmill.
Sawdust and mulch are hauled in three Keith walking floor trailers. Bob
likes them because the drivers do not have to wait to get unloaded. A few minutes after
engaging the walking floor, the trailer is emptied and the driver is back on the road.
"Keith live floor trailers have definitely been very profitable for our mill,"
said Bob.
Bob and his talented crew have built a lot of the mill’s
machinery. In fact, Batey Ltd Sawmill has an almost complete in-house machine shop and the
talent to use it.
(Bob’s son, Tim, is also very mechanically inclined. Tim is the
owner of Blockbuster Inc., which builds firewood processing machines. Blockbuster, located
less than a mile from Batey Sawmill, is known for its line of rugged, productive, firewood
processing machinery.)
At the yard of Batey Sawmill, another machine designed and built by Bob
and company employees works like a charm. Bob calls the machine the ‘yard dog;’
it is a Hood knuckleboom loader mounted on a garbage truck. The yard dog does all the log
handling, and, according to Bob, it "does a great job." It loads, unloads, sorts
and hauls up to 3,000 board feet of logs per load, all from the loader seat.
Bob is a firm believer in Hood loaders. For his particular needs, Hood
has proven to do a good job of handling Batey Sawmill’s knuckleboom tasks. In
addition to the Hood loaders on the barge and the yard dog, Batey Sawmill has five other
Hood loaders in service in the woods or at the mill.
Loading of lumber and byproducts is handled by three four-wheel-drive
articulated loaders — Case models 18 and 20 and a Timberjack 8,000-pound loader. Bob
described all three machines as "very productive, requiring minimal
maintenance."
Batey Sawmill is located on 25 acres and is a very clean,
neat, and efficient operation.
The most impressive area is the main sawmill building. If you were to
describe it in as few words as possible, they would be "very fast and very
efficient."
The yard dog places all logs on the in-feed deck of the HMC debarker.
(White oak and walnut veneer logs are sorted out and sold to various veneer buyers.) The
HMC is old, but it still performs well every day. Bob would recommend the HMC rosserhead
debarker to any sawmill. "They are very rugged and very productive and definitely
built to last," he said.
After debarking, logs go to a Corley Special 30 head-block carriage
retrofitted with a patented machine on each of the three head-blocks called a TurboTurner.
Completing the line are a Corley chain log turner, a 60-inch solid tooth head saw with a
30-inch top saw, a Helle two-saw vertical edger, a shop-built hydraulic drive, and a
McDonough 54-inch vertical linebar resaw.
Bob and his crew are very selective when they buy machinery. He spoke
highly of Corley’s quality. "Corley quality, service, and parts availability are
excellent," he said. Batey Sawmill uses a solid tooth circular head saw because
customers like the smooth bandsaw-type finish it leaves on the lumber. It also provides
better sawing feed speed. The top saw comes in handy for sawing many of the huge, prime
soft maple logs with swelled butts. Speaking of the two-saw Helle vertical edger, Bob
said, "You can’t beat ’em."
The McDonough vertical linebar resaw is "a real workhorse,"
said Bob, who recognizes McDonough’s leadership as a supplier of band headrigs and
band resaws. Batey Sawmill’s production doubled overnight after the 54-inch McDonough
was installed.
The mill has unusually high production and does it consistently with
noticeably little ‘slamming’ while turning logs and cants on the carriage. In
seven and a half hours of actual sawing time, production averages around 30,000 board feet
daily when sawing soft maple in up to 20/4 thicknesses.
When recently sawing 8 1/2-foot white oak tie logs, production reached
28,500 board feet per shift — 9,000 board feet of ties and the remainder in 4/4 side
lumber. The mill did not run the resaw because the tie logs have very little grade. When
asked how they did it, Bob replied, "With TurboTurners and our sawyer, Ben
Peiffer."
The three TurboTurners from D.Y. Manufacturing were added earlier this
year. The mill previously had ‘old style’ carriage-mounted turners that worked
well, and Bob was pleased with their performance. When asked why he bought TurboTurners,
Bob was eager to explain why.
"When I originally talked to the salesman at D.Y.
Manufacturing about TurboTurners, they told me that TurboTurners would reduce
‘slamming’ from turning logs on my carriage by about 80 percent. The company
said that fiber tear from turning logs and cants would be practically eliminated at my
mill, and that maintenance on my carriage and chain turner would be greatly reduced. The
salesman said the average mill that installs TurboTurners is increasing production by 10
to 20 percent with an average payback in three to six months.
"Quite frankly, I didn’t believe the claims. I thought they
were simply ‘too good to be true.’
"It was obvious after observing the TurboTurners that their claims
were correct. After replacing my old style carriage-mounted log turners, I’ve
increased my production by 10 percent. My payback was under 13 weeks! It’s absolutely
the best buy I’ve ever made on any piece of machinery, without a doubt."
TurboTurners are patented because they are different from other
carriage-mounted turners, such as underhooks, underdogs, cant flippers, and others. They
do not ‘throw’ logs and cants away from the carriage knees like other turners. A
sawyer can turn logs and cants ‘on the fly’ as soon as the head saw is cleared
on the carriage return; he can spend more time sawing and much less time turning. Another
benefit of TurboTurners is that they virtually eliminate defacing. TurboTurners will turn
small logs, knotty rough logs, logs with sweep, and logs and cants to 30 inches.
"TurboTurners will turn the biggest or smallest log or cant you
saw and will do it without hesitation as soon as you clear the saw," said Bob.
"It’s really fast and efficient."
"I would buy TurboTurners again, even if I knew I would not get
any production increase, because TurboTurners have made my sawyer’s job so much
easier and have eliminated most of the wear and tear on my carriage and my chain
turner."
"Any competent sawyer can learn to use TurboTurners
very fast," said Bob. "I am convinced. I also think TurboTurners would really
shine when training a new sawyer because they are so much easier for a sawyer than having
to wrestle logs all day with a bar or chain log turner."
The mill’s lumber flows to an 80-foot green chain with an
unusually large number of separations. This enables the company to fill every order to
exact customer specifications for green and kiln dried orders.
Bob’s daughter, Sally Johnson, a stockholder who holds the company
title of secretary-treasurer, oversees sales of lumber and all byproducts. "Sally
does an outstanding job and has developed excellent relations with all of our
customers," said Bob. "She is a super salesperson. I really appreciate the job
Sally does for our company."
Sawdust is sold for horse bedding, and bark is ground into mulch in a
Haybuster Tub Grinder, which Bob called an "excellent machine that grinds bark into a
highly saleable product for our mulch customers." Waste wood goes through a 48-inch
Fulghum chipper and is sold for boiler fuel.
A Wood-Mizer LT40HD sawmill is used for all walnut. It was retrofitted
with cradle turners that doubled its daily production to 3,000 board feet. Three workers
saw walnut on the Wood-Mizer. Overrun on the Wood-Mizer is "impressive"
according to Bob, and easily pays for sawing costs.
The filing room is equipped with an Armstrong circle saw grinder and an
Armstrong roller for the mill’s 60-inch solid tooth head saws. A Hanchett leveling
bench is used for the 8-inch bands of the McDonough linebar resaw. A Hanchett knife
grinder is "older than dirt but works like new," said Bob, and is used for
sharpening chipper knives. Hanchett quality is "impressive," he added.
Dry kiln capacity soon will be at 70,000 board feet. A new shop-built
45,000 board feet kiln will compliment the 25,000 board feet Converta dry kiln. A
Williamson and Davies boiler heated with a sawdust gasifier provides steam to the dry
kilns and heat to the shop and planer buildings.
Batey Sawmill also has two buildings for storing green and kiln dried
lumber, a 2,000-square-foot office, a machine shop and maintenance building, a building
for planer operations, and a building that houses the employee break room.
Bob credits his wife, Iola, with much of his success. "She is
definitely the better half of our marriage," he said. "Her strong business sense
is a contributing factor to Batey Sawmill’s success." The Bateys enjoy working
with local community events and spending time with their children and grandchildren. In
their spare time, they enjoy fishing and flying a Cessna 172.
Bob is known as an inventor and a forward thinker. He
enjoys working with the men at the machine shop on new ideas that will make the mill more
efficient. In the future, he wants to continue the focus on improving overall operating
efficiency.
Bob and Gary also would like to help Cecil, their main logger, to
acquire a Timco feller-buncher next year to compliment his John Deere grapple cut-up
system. They have studied the feller-bunchers on the market and are very impressed with
the results that loggers are achieving with Timco feller-bunchers, which Gary called a
" ‘hoss’ of a machine."
When asked about his biggest challenge, Bob said it was finding and
keeping productive people.
The reason for Batey Sawmill’s success is the innovation of its
management and employees, said Bob. "We are willing to do things other mills
won’t do to please the landowner and our lumber customers."
Bob and Iola singled out three employees who have served the company
for many years: Melodee Yaley, who manages the office, and Mike Taylor and Leroy Coleman,
who helped to design and build the sawmill.
Batey Sawmill is well equipped with the right machinery and the right
people to meet the challenges it faces in the future and to remain one America’s top
producers of soft maple lumber.
