Sitka thinnings for logs

[david lawrence]

Hi

a neighbour has a small Sitka shelter wood

 

he intends to thin it or have it thinned

 

i run a small gasifying boiler and as it's less than two miles away

am interested in doing a labour for wood swap

 

he is going on a farm woodland scheme and intends to do things by the book

so timber will have paper work for rhi

 

 what do I need to know?

 

also how much would it be worth stAnding.   if anything  ?

 

when prices are quoted on here by the tonne is that actually weighted

or calculated from the volume

 

Any  tips appreciated before I go for a better look

 

thanks

 

david

 

 

 

 

[Stubby]

Stock up on a good resin remover  

[bilke_user]

17 minutes ago, Stubby said:

Stock up on a good resin remover  

Hot water and soap. Sitka sap is no bother to come off

I sell mostly spruce as firewood and if it is fresh cut it weights in at about a third more than dead standing stuff. On a 20t load of dry stuff I normally get between 65 and 75 90x90x90 bags full

If your pal is going to get a contractor in with a harvester and forwarder it will likely cost him between £16/ton and £20/ton  to get it at roadside

If it's first thinning sized stuff you'll be looking at cutting about 6t/day by chainsaw then figure out how you're going to get it to roadside.  In all honesty you'd be better off buying the stuff off the lad at a fair price at roadside, unless you don't value your labour too much.   I know lads who are happy to take a couple of weeks off their day jobs and almost kill themselves to stock up with "free firewood".  I don't see the attraction of that, but do see that some, who don't do any real physical work day in day out, can get a bit of satisfaction from doing a couple of weeks hard labour for themselves.

[StephF]

I think the days of those prices has long gone...Sitka has been sold at £50-60 tonne STANDING, in last few weeks, in north UK.(£35 at roadside last 3-4 years) the reason is the Bio mass power stations, they are now paying £50tonne and need 7  waggon loads a day at Cramlington power station from within a 50 mile radius, other buyers can't compete so a crazy price war commencing. Gone are the days of cheap softwood here in NE, and probably all the forests as well over next 10 years as no one has been doing any serious planting. Are other parts of UK affected? 

[Big J]

1 hour ago, StephF said:

I think the days of those prices has long gone...Sitka has been sold at £50-60 tonne STANDING, in last few weeks, in north UK.(£35 at roadside last 3-4 years) the reason is the Bio mass power stations, they are now paying £50tonne and need 7  waggon loads a day at Cramlington power station from within a 50 mile radius, other buyers can't compete so a crazy price war commencing. Gone are the days of cheap softwood here in NE, and probably all the forests as well over next 10 years as no one has been doing any serious planting. Are other parts of UK affected? 

I wonder when the cash for ash scandal will hit the UK government (as it took down the Northern Irish Assembly). 

 

Totally unsustainable to be paying companies to burn timber on an industrial scale in a country that has as little as the UK.

[arboriculturist]

That is what has caused UK timber prices to rise for Firewood retailers and other Timber products - it was bound to happen -  it will soon be survival of the fittest.

[StephF]

23 minutes ago, Big J said:

I wonder when the cash for ash scandal will hit the UK government (as it took down the Northern Irish Assembly). 

 

Totally unsustainable to be paying companies to burn timber on an industrial scale in a country that has as little as the UK.

Yes, I agree, I would like to know who was responsible for coming up with crazy unsustainable policies that pay people to burn wood to make electricity in a country that was not geared up for sustainably producing the timber required!

[arboriculturist]

Paying people under the RHI scheme to burn wood  - to dry wood  - to burn  - to dry wood to sell ! This is also crazy unsustainable, but that's another story 

 

Start offering people something for nothing - generally their always going to take it, that's human nature good or bad !

Edited March 17, 2018 by arboriculturist

[Woodwanter]

1 hour ago, Big J said:

I wonder when the cash for ash scandal will hit the UK government (as it took down the Northern Irish Assembly). 

 

Totally unsustainable to be paying companies to burn timber on an industrial scale in a country that has as little as the UK.

Whilst I don't disagree , the situation is NI was different. They had no Tier 2 meaning they had no back stop and could literally burn non stop.

 

the tier 2 here will make it un economical or break even, at best, for most systems. This alters the finance a lot 

 

the RHI was dreamed up by Chris hulmn, the disgraced mp caught up in the purgery scandal with his wife. Rumour has it he has large shares in a large N American timber firm. The uk now has many boiler hooked on high quality wood chip which I imagine will soon be supplied by imported timber once the remains British woods are felled / thinned out.

[StephF]

I'm not going to name anyone but a company that supplies woodchip said to me recently they are 1,000's tonnes short for next year when I asked if they had a couple of hundred tonnes to sell!!