March 2024
SLAYDEN, Tenn. – Michael Shannon Jarman grew up logging with mules, and as an adult worked with his dad skidding with dozers. When he started his own company, Jarman Logging, in the late ’90s, he grew interested in modern mechanized techniques after attending industry trade shows. Recognizing the potential advantages and gains in efficiency and productivity, Jarman progressively worked towards buying all new machinery from Cat, Barko, Deere and now Tigercat. Having recently downsized from four crews to one, Jarman has passed the logging legacy on to his sons, McClain Watkins and Clayton Yates.
Inside This Issue
COVER: Multigenerational Jarman Family Stands Out In Tennessee
SLAYDEN, Tennessee – It wasn’t so very long ago when Michael Shannon Jarman, 53, fielded four separate crews under the banner of his company, Jarman Logging, Inc. These days, though, he’s streamlined his operations by downsizing to just one crew, a business decision he made mainly in response to a lack of available quality labor as well as to more limited market capacity.
Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
SOUTHERN STUMPIN': Crime and Punishment
While I was working on pulling together news items and other material for this issue, I received an email from the Decorative Hardwoods Assn. I scanned it briefly when a particular headline caught my attention.
Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
FROM THE BACKWOODS PEW: Master of the Mast
“Avast ye scallywags, hoist the mainsail, there be a blow acomin’!” The sailors scampered around the deck, awash in the raging mist of the foaming sea.
Excerpted from Trees, Traps, and Truth, Bradley Antill, author
INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP
- Walter Jarck Pioneered Mechanized Logging
- Wallingford’s Will Distribute HSP Gripen
- Alabama Funds TIMBER Projects
- XACTT Distributes Bigfoot CTI Systems
- Deere Names Tubb VP Worldwide Forestry
- Equipment Innovator Paul Bell Dies At 66
- Mississippi Sets Record Harvest
MACHINES-SUPPLIES-TECHNOLOGY
- Tigercat Mulching Head
- Tigercat Steep Slope Machine
Like Father…
Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
SLAYDEN, Tennessee – It wasn’t so very long ago when Michael Shannon Jarman, 53, fielded four separate crews under the banner of his company, Jarman Logging, Inc. These days, though, he’s streamlined his operations by downsizing to just one crew, a business decision he made mainly in response to a lack of available quality labor as well as to more limited market capacity.
The downsizing took place in stages over a few years. By the fall of 2023, Jarman was down to two crews. Over the second crew he had one of his sons, McClain Watkins, serving as foreman. Last October, Jarman and Watkins mutually agreed it was time for the younger man to step out on his own. Jarman sold the equipment from that crew to his son and Watkins, 24, formed his own company, Jarman and Son Logging, LLC (see related feature, page 14).
Jarman Logging, Inc. and Jarman and Son Logging, LLC, are separate entities, both on paper and in effect, but they haven’t cut ties entirely. The family remains close, and they still help each other out when they can. For instance, when Southern Loggin’ Times visited in early February, Watkins and his employee, Gavin Elliot, spent the morning running machines on Jarman Logging’s job site before heading over to the Jarman and Son job some 30 miles away.
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