Low impact forestry services in Devon and the South West

[ESS]

2 minutes ago, The avantgardener said:

I would consider them to be good rates compared to the norm in my parts, if J was closer I would  certainly be in his cutting gang.

Hmm, day rates mixed in with piece has never been ideal. I worked Sussex and Kent for many years and tbh apart from hardwood pulp, rates in the South East were generally higher than what we were used to.In more recent years I have only felled /extracted large hardwood in that area and found the rates good enough for us to do well, travel from the north and lodge.

As I said in an earlier post , there is a massive fight between marketing companies to buy timber and feed supply chain quotas, sadly that has had a knock on affect on harvesting rates, particularly in main stream work.

I have sites to look at in Kent in the not too distant future and will be needing cutters for some of the work.

[Big J]

1 minute ago, ESS said:

Hmm, day rates mixed in with piece has never been ideal. I worked Sussex and Kent for many years and tbh apart from hardwood pulp, rates in the South East were generally higher than what we were used to.In more recent years I have only felled /extracted large hardwood in that area and found the rates good enough for us to do well, travel from the north and lodge.

As I said in an earlier post , there is a massive fight between marketing companies to buy timber and feed supply chain quotas, sadly that has had a knock on affect on harvesting rates, particularly in main stream work.

I have sites to look at in Kent in the not too distant future and will be needing cutters for some of the work.

The big companies aren't offering enough for harvesting, IMO. I was asked to look at a DF thinning job on a banking where they were offering £28/t to cut and extract on 0.6m cube trees. It's not enough, and I wouldn't make enough once the cutters have been paid. 

 

 

[ESS]

2 minutes ago, Big J said:

The big companies aren't offering enough for harvesting, IMO. I was asked to look at a DF thinning job on a banking where they were offering £28/t to cut and extract on 0.6m cube trees. It's not enough, and I wouldn't make enough once the cutters have been paid. 

 

 

I couldn't comment about that site without seeing it,but I could understand with handcut it would be a problem, unless conversion was through a processor after winching if that's what it needed, obviously winching is double extraction costs.

In general terms in mainstream harvesting it sounds an attractive rate , and certainly if it was a site we could work with the T winch I would have a stab at it, or if we could harvest it with an  8 legger , 60 t a day average would be making money.

£28/t is skyline rate. 

You are right in general that they don't offer enough money, but its easy to see why. Harvesting managers don't work for contractors, they have directors and landowners to answer to. As far as a landowner is concerned you can only sell it once , so sell it right.

If you are able to keep busy with sites away from mainstream then that's all good, obviously one of the problems you have is terrain in your area, and the limitations of not having purpose built machines for working these sites adds cost.

In most areas timber has been grown on land that is worth bugger all for anything else, particularly conifer, and by its very nature is difficult to access.

 

 

[The avantgardener]

19 minutes ago, ESS said:

Hmm, day rates mixed in with piece has never been ideal. I worked Sussex and Kent for many years and tbh apart from hardwood pulp, rates in the South East were generally higher than what we were used to.In more recent years I have only felled /extracted large hardwood in that area and found the rates good enough for us to do well, travel from the north and lodge.

As I said in an earlier post , there is a massive fight between marketing companies to buy timber and feed supply chain quotas, sadly that has had a knock on affect on harvesting rates, particularly in main stream work.

I have sites to look at in Kent in the not too distant future and will be needing cutters for some of the work.

DM me nearer the time if you are looking into cutting in Kent if you want, I know another very experienced cutter that works alongside me on a regular basis also.

[ESS]

1 minute ago, The avantgardener said:

DM me nearer the time if you are looking into cutting in Kent if you want, I know another very experienced cutter that works alongside me on a regular basis also.

Will do, thanks. It should happen in the course of this summer.

[Big J]

2 minutes ago, ESS said:

I couldn't comment about that site without seeing it,but I could understand with handcut it would be a problem, unless conversion was through a processor after winching if that's what it needed, obviously winching is double extraction costs.

In general terms in mainstream harvesting it sounds an attractive rate , and certainly if it was a site we could work with the T winch I would have a stab at it, or if we could harvest it with an  8 legger , 60 t a day average would be making money.

£28/t is skyline rate. 

You are right in general that they don't offer enough money, but its easy to see why. Harvesting managers don't work for contractors, they have directors and landowners to answer to. As far as a landowner is concerned you can only sell it once , so sell it right.

If you are able to keep busy with sites away from mainstream then that's all good, obviously one of the problems you have is terrain in your area, and the limitations of not having purpose built machines for working these sites adds cost.

In most areas timber has been grown on land that is worth bugger all for anything else, particularly conifer, and by its very nature is difficult to access.

 

 

The site is too small for it to be economical for larger machines to be transported to site. 300 cube, or thereabouts. 

 

 

[ESS]

25 minutes ago, Big J said:

The site is too small for it to be economical for larger machines to be transported to site. 300 cube, or thereabouts. 

 

 

Yes, well it may be there a while then, unless they can tag it in with something else close by. 

I could see a tractor mounted processor fitting into your operation to cut cost down for winch work ? Knocking trees over is relatively cheap, its the conversion that costs money, particularly alongside winching.

[Big J]

1 minute ago, ESS said:

Yes, well it may be there a while then, unless they can tag it in with something else close by. 

I could see a tractor mounted processor fitting into your operation to cut cost down for winch work ? Knocking trees over is relatively cheap, its the conversion that costs money, particularly alongside winching.

I have one of these already:

 

 

 

It's a bit faster than the demo video would suggest and it's great for chipwood. Don't get to use it as much as I'd like. 

[ESS]

4 minutes ago, Big J said:

I have one of these already:

 

 

 

It's a bit faster than the demo video would suggest and it's great for chipwood. Don't get to use it as much as I'd like. 

How much are they out of interest ? Value could be added  to produce with the ability of cutting stakes which are in constant short supply, but are an absolute ballache to handcut .Winched timber off a bank is a nightmare for conversion, unless mechanised.

You tube Jarc crac dual.

 

[Big J]

Just now, ESS said:

How much are they out of interest ? Value could be added  to produce with the ability of cutting stakes which are in constant short supply, but are an absolute ballache to handcut .Winched timber off a bank is a nightmare for conversion, unless mechanised.

You tube Jarc crac dual.

 

£23k. Handles trees up to about 35cm, but in order to winch something that size into the head, you need a bit of a gravity assist. It won't winch it up a hill. 

 

I bought it with a lot of contracting work in southern Scotland in mind, but found loads of work down here that was mostly hardwood, so it's only done about 20hrs so far. Have a whole load of pine I could do with it later in autumn though