Low impact forestry services in Devon and the South West

[Mick Dempsey]

Good luck J. 

[Big J]

Can't wait to get down to the South West. I've lived in Scotland for almost all my adult life and it's time for a change. 

 

As soon as I have the machine and get it out onto site, I'll have a better idea of productivity and capability. My first job is extraction of 120 tonnes of spruce which has been felled by chainsaw course candidates, but is in a stand too tight for anything else to access. 

[arboriculturist]

Being the devils advocate here - you may just thank me one day or prove me wrong.

 

I am sure you have done your homework, as that is an expensive piece of kit. I would have spent a lot of time on researching demand in the South West for that machine as it's a totally different playing field down this way. 

 

Steep, terrible access for lorries and I know blokes who have been in the business for years who are struggling. 

 

Limited woodlands with suitable trees, even less plantation Hardwood and few trees not like in your neck of the woods.

 

Not sure how long it would take to fill an 8 wheeler and drag, hand felling and then extracting to  roadside. Many places there is no roadside.

 

I see endless toil for very little return - I am a 100% positive person but not in this case.

 

Anyway, all the best if you plan to invest.

 

Milling timber would be 100% my focus, that's where the margins are. 

 

 

[Big J]

11 minutes ago, arboriculturist said:

Being the devils advocate here - you may just thank me one day or prove me wrong.

 

I am sure you have done your homework, as that is an expensive piece of kit. I would have spent a lot of time on researching demand in the South West for that machine as it's a totally different playing field down this way. 

 

Steep, terrible access for lorries and I know blokes who have been in the business for years who are struggling. 

 

Limited woodlands with suitable trees, even less plantation Hardwood and few trees not like in your neck of the woods.

 

Not sure how long it would take to fill an 8 wheeler and drag, hand felling and then extracting to  roadside. Many places there is no roadside.

 

I see endless toil for very little return - I am a 100% positive person but not in this case.

 

Anyway, all the best if you plan to invest.

 

Milling timber would be 100% my focus, that's where the margins are. 

 

 

It's good to get the other side of the coin, as up to now I've only had positive feedback. I am cautious about the move, but the versatility of the machine means that I can turn my hand a wide variety of different jobs and not just work in forestry.

 

These machines can work on tremendously steep with the aid of bands, but I would avoid steep slope work. On fairly reasonable terrain with an average extraction distance extracting reasonable size timber (say 3.7s at an average of 25cm diameter), 40 tonne a day is about the limit. 25-30t is more typical (I'm told). The Alstor operator who used to follow us around (very skilled operator, but lesser machine) did a few 50 tonne days.

 

My plan is to principally focus on standing sales, and work other jobs around those. If you give a land owner the option of having their woodland thinned sensitively and still pay a competitive rate, then I can't see them favouring more traditional (using heavier machines) forestry practices. 

 

I'm hoping just to carve a niche, and I'm pretty confident that I can.

[Matthew Storrs]

6 minutes ago, arboriculturist said:

Being the devils advocate here - you may just thank me one day or prove me wrong.

 

I am sure you have done your homework, as that is an expensive piece of kit. I would have spent a lot of time on researching demand in the South West for that machine as it's a totally different playing field down this way. 

 

Steep, terrible access for lorries and I know blokes who have been in the business for years who are struggling. 

 

Limited woodlands with suitable trees, even less plantation Hardwood and few trees not like in your neck of the woods.

 

Not sure how long it would take to fill an 8 wheeler and drag, hand felling and then extracting to  roadside. Many places there is no roadside.

 

I see endless toil for very little return - I am a 100% positive person but not in this case.

 

Anyway, all the best if you plan to invest.

 

Milling timber would be 100% my focus, that's where the margins are. 

 

 

Firstly J welcome to sunny (cough cough) Devon! I was more or less going to say the same thing- truly don’t want to be negative, but I’d say woodland/forest work is pretty scarce in Devon, being an agricultural area- forestry commision aside- it’s largly poor pockets of land deemed unfit for agricultural production/livestock that seems to be getting utilised with emphasis on amenity woodland as opposed to timber production, so expect the competition to be pretty savage as a result. However It sounds like you have a good buisness acumen and I’m sure you will make it work for you in one way or another.

Like I say I hope that doesn’t come across as too negative and I expect you have done a great deal of research anyway, so hopefully you can tell me I don’t know want I’m talking about (which is probably true!).

 

Best of luck and look forwards to hearing updates / pics of machine in operation down ‘ere.

 Thanks 

 

[arboriculturist]

17 minutes ago, Big J said:

It's good to get the other side of the coin, as up to now I've only had positive feedback. I am cautious about the move, but the versatility of the machine means that I can turn my hand a wide variety of different jobs and not just work in forestry.

 

These machines can work on tremendously steep with the aid of bands, but I would avoid steep slope work. On fairly reasonable terrain with an average extraction distance extracting reasonable size timber (say 3.7s at an average of 25cm diameter), 40 tonne a day is about the limit. 25-30t is more typical (I'm told). The Alstor operator who used to follow us around (very skilled operator, but lesser machine) did a few 50 tonne days.

 

My plan is to principally focus on standing sales, and work other jobs around those. If you give a land owner the option of having their woodland thinned sensitively and still pay a competitive rate, then I can't see them favouring more traditional (using heavier machines) forestry practices. 

 

I'm hoping just to carve a niche, and I'm pretty confident that I can.

It's great to see innovation and enthusiasm combined - it can be a winning combination.

 

If you can get decent processor Hardwood and softwood roadside I would love to buy from you - send up 8 wheeler and drag, BACS transfer - Perfect.

 

Feel free to make contact as soon as you have timber harvested and heading to suitable roadside access.

[Big J]

The beauty of a machine that small is that it is able make productive incredibly small blocks of woodland. It could be as little as one or two loads from as little as an acre stand. 

 

Equally, the volume of woodland owned or controlled by charitable trusts is proportionally higher than in our neck of the woods, and a sensitive approach is highly valued in that sector. 

 

I wandered around an amenity woodland near Street in Somerset that had been recently thinned and the extraction had been with a delicate machine as the tracks were minimal. If you give the land owner the option of such a low impact approach, they'll always go for it, especially as the machine is fairly productive and would have no issues chucking 500-700kg sticks around all day every day. 

 

But I do appreciate the candour. I am realistic that I'm not going to have 5 days a week for the machine initially, but I'm confident that demand for it will eventually outstrip supply

[shillo]

1 hour ago, devon TWiG said:

Welcome to Devon Big J !!    I have recently seen a job that some horse loggers have done that your machine would have been far better and far, far , more productive than  .... I can see potential for more than  just tree  jobs with that bit of kit ...

the horse loggers have been working near me lately. Nice guys. My little boys love watching them, probably not the most productive but its a job for the woodland trust, lots of money and good publicity!

 

[Stubby]

TCD ( you remember him ! ) is continually complaining that there is sooooo much rain he cant get on site . If you contacted him he might have done a strait swap ! . Good luck anyway bud .

[Matthew Storrs]

25 minutes ago, Stubby said:

TCD ( you remember him ! ) is continually complaining that there is sooooo much rain he cant get on site . If you contacted him he might have done a strait swap ! . Good luck anyway bud .

It is flipping wet here most of the time, but then I’m on top of Dartmoor which is a different ball game compared to East Devon. 2000mm+ of Rain, compared to Teignmouth in south devon which has 800mm.

 

my sister lives in North east England and gets 5-600!