Low impact forestry services in Devon and the South West

[ESS]

2 minutes ago, spuddog0507 said:

sorry but i would say that part of the deal is between me and the land owner,

Not disputing that, but the roadside value of logs that people are quoting is far from a gross margin figure.

Standing spruce is making in excess of £60t now, so your return looks quite low.

[ESS]

3 hours ago, spuddog0507 said:

we have been getting £58 tonne for spruce sawlogs R/S 450mm >200mm and with Js timber being DF he should be on a bit more than £58 tonne , chip/pulp wood is £45 tonne R/S, cant say anymore,

Chip is making more than that r/s in your area too.

[Big J]

It's only been two machines running side by side for about 25% of the time. Mostly just the tractor. The first day was a write off as he got to speed on the machine. Beyond that, he's only done a total of 4 days, one of which I was in, and one of which I was cutting.

 

Cutting costs are about £8-9/t. I have very good cutters that I pay very well. 

 

Sawlog is going out for the most part at £69/t roadside, chip £42 and naturally, the deal that I have with the landowner is confidential.

 

Little hiccup today as one of the tyres popped off the forwarding trailer whilst turning. That'll be about £50 to pop it back on, but that's the only unexpected cost so far. We'll be done and extracted by Wednesday next week, and it'll have been 800t in 2.5 weeks. Another 80 tonne away today.

[ESS]

Oh ok, in a previous post you stated 380t production, in 8 days ? I worked it out on 7.that would have averaged 54t/day.

 

 

[Khriss]

1 hour ago, ESS said:

Oh ok, in a previous post you stated 380t production, in 8 days ? I worked it out on 7.that would have averaged 54t/day.

 

 

A career in Accountancy is assured fr you my son ! however , forestry has huge variables day to day that I am not astonished so many company's ignore it as an earner. There are several ways to do that job J is on and I would  be pushed to come up with better rates or output. K

[ESS]

1 minute ago, Khriss said:

A career in Accountancy is assured fr you my son ! however , forestry has huge variables day to day that I am not astonished so many company's ignore it as an earner. There are several ways to do that job J is on and I would  be pushed to come up with better rates or output. K

Yes, I know about the variables , I have been in the industry 45 years. Gojng from the photos the job could have been done by mechanical harvester, £10-£12/t production costs .

[Big J]

56 minutes ago, ESS said:

Yes, I know about the variables , I have been in the industry 45 years. Gojng from the photos the job could have been done by mechanical harvester, £10-£12/t production costs .

That is true, but the ground impact would have been higher. Using the combination of the little forwarder and tractor means that the tractor is generally sticking to the tracks and the forwarder mops up inbetween. I was one of four forestry companies that was invited to tender (all the others much bigger than myself, with harvesters in their armoury) and I was by far the cheapest. I'm very happy with what I'm earning, the cutters are on very good rates and the land owner is seeing an excellent return. 

[ESS]

7 minutes ago, Big J said:

That is true, but the ground impact would have been higher. Using the combination of the little forwarder and tractor means that the tractor is generally sticking to the tracks and the forwarder mops up inbetween. I was one of four forestry companies that was invited to tender (all the others much bigger than myself, with harvesters in their armoury) and I was by far the cheapest. I'm very happy with what I'm earning, the cutters are on very good rates and the land owner is seeing an excellent return. 

What do you mean by cheapest,wasnt it a standing sale you bid on? Yes, you stated recently you were paying cutters £200 for a 10 hour day? That's ok for the area , but not what would be considered a very good rate.Good cutters in that size /quality of timber would cut 25t in 8 hours, I would put £9/t on hand cutting that.

[Big J]

Just now, ESS said:

What do you mean by cheapest,wasnt it a standing sale you bid on? Yes, you stated recently you were paying cutters £200 for a 10 hour day? That's ok for the area , but not what would be considered a very good rate.Good cutters in that size /quality of timber would cut 25t in 8 hours, I would put £9/t on hand cutting that.

We work 07:15 to 17:00 with lunch and breaks, so they are effectively working just under 9hrs. The two fast cutters (who are on day rate) are doing around 30t/day and the trainee is on production rate and isn't anywhere near that. There are perks beyond the day rate. I know that there are some that pay more, but not that I've heard of locally. I prefer to work on day rate as I can't be bothered to try to work out who has cut what and I also prefer a slightly slower, tidier work rate than one where the timber is banged over quickly to maximise return.

[ESS]

1 minute ago, Big J said:

We work 07:15 to 17:00 with lunch and breaks, so they are effectively working just under 9hrs. The two fast cutters (who are on day rate) are doing around 30t/day and the trainee is on production rate and isn't anywhere near that. There are perks beyond the day rate. I know that there are some that pay more, but not that I've heard of locally. I prefer to work on day rate as I can't be bothered to try to work out who has cut what and I also prefer a slightly slower, tidier work rate than one where the timber is banged over quickly to maximise return.

So how is your cutting costing £8-9t as stated earlier?