Harvesting

[luftwaffe]

Hi all, first post here, Having spent all my working life as a contractor in commercial forestry, felling, skidding, forwarding, mainly on the steep slopes here in wales i was wondering has any others converted from manual harvesting to mechanised harvesting? to me the costs involved don't add up to run a profitable setup due to high overheads and low working rates, this is my basic calculations.

 

500 tonnes produced per week at £6.50 per tonne = £3250

 

running costs

 

1 £500 per week depreciation on £160.000 outlay on used harvester and forwarder

 

2, wages for 1 driver £400 per week

 

3, fuel £1000 per week ?

 

4, working costs, eg oils, repairs, accountant fees, insurances, van,spare parts, etc etc, £800

 

total £2700

 

Profit of £550 per week

 

That is less than what i'm earning now "on the saw" . Is there something i'm missing as the profits seem pretty poor to me for the investment, time, work, and alround hassle involved in the job, what do you guys out there think?

[treequip]

Hi all, first post here, Having spent all my working life as a contractor in commercial forestry, felling, skidding, forwarding, mainly on the steep slopes here in wales i was wondering has any others converted from manual harvesting to mechanised harvesting? to me the costs involved don't add up to run a profitable setup due to high overheads and low working rates, this is my basic calculations.

 

500 tonnes produced per week at £6.50 per tonne = £3250

 

running costs

 

1 £500 per week depreciation on £160.000 outlay on used harvester and forwarder

 

2, wages for 1 driver £400 per week

 

3, fuel £1000 per week ?

 

4, working costs, eg oils, repairs, accountant fees, insurances, van,spare parts, etc etc, £800

 

total £2700

 

Profit of £550 per week

 

That is less than what i'm earning now "on the saw" . Is there something i'm missing as the profits seem pretty poor to me for the investment, time, work, and alround hassle involved in the job, what do you guys out there think?

 

You are probably right,,,,,, the market is bombed out.

[Quickthorn]

Hi all, first post here, Having spent all my working life as a contractor in commercial forestry, felling, skidding, forwarding, mainly on the steep slopes here in wales i was wondering has any others converted from manual harvesting to mechanised harvesting? to me the costs involved don't add up to run a profitable setup due to high overheads and low working rates, this is my basic calculations.

 

500 tonnes produced per week at £6.50 per tonne = £3250

 

running costs

 

1 £500 per week depreciation on £160.000 outlay on used harvester and forwarder

 

2, wages for 1 driver £400 per week

 

3, fuel £1000 per week ?

 

4, working costs, eg oils, repairs, accountant fees, insurances, van,spare parts, etc etc, £800

 

total £2700

 

Profit of £550 per week

 

That is less than what i'm earning now "on the saw" . Is there something i'm missing as the profits seem pretty poor to me for the investment, time, work, and alround hassle involved in the job, what do you guys out there think?

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

I'm not sure if you're missing anything. We're on opposite sides of the country, but one thing seems the same: the going rate seems to be set by people who can't do their sums.

[luftwaffe]

Thanks, It seems to me that the contractors are their own worst enemy, because of the huge cost of the machinery on finance they will take on work at any price to service the bank loans, which in turn plays right into the hands of the mills, i guess its the fear factor of having no work which means bancrupcy, god £6.50 my old man was having £ 12 30-40 years ago. and they call it progress.

[cosworth]

Hi there you say manual harvesting?what do you use to sned, stroke processor? if so how much slower than a proper harvester is it?

[luftwaffe]

Hi All the sneding is done by hand with the saw, 3 of us doing 5-6 artic loads per week in 0.22m tree size, all on a steep hillside. cheers.

[TRADITIONAL LOGGERS]

At least in Wales most woodlands have a road at the bottom of a slope for loading. In Derbyshire often have to haul up the slopes.

 

There was a branch removal/cross logging tool which worked from a tractor to use on thinnings that was produced in Finland and I will check if still made.

[taz]

Hi All the sneding is done by hand with the saw, 3 of us doing 5-6 artic loads per week in 0.22m tree size, all on a steep hillside. cheers.

 

to only produce 500 tons per week at £6.50 a ton you need to sack your drivers and get some proper operators . if i was working for £6.50 a ton that means the job would be good enough to produce a 1000 tons + per week . to only be able to produce 500 a week then i would expect the rate to be £12 + per ton.

 

fuel costs are high

wages to low

the site we are on at the mo is short extraction is working out at 70% log and we are getting £9

Edited November 16, 2011 by taz

[luftwaffe]

Yes i know what you mean, but i'm looking on the low side, anything above that is a bonus, i'm talking of an average don't forget.

[woodworm]

Yes i know what you mean, but i'm looking on the low side, anything above that is a bonus, i'm talking of an average don't forget.

 

Personally, I don't think ANY of the figures you are working with are average. The drivers wages are way too low, the production is less than half what it needs to be, and the rate for the job is also way too low. You need to be earning at least £1600/day with a harvester + forwarder. Stick with the chainsaw fella!