So what's going to happen to the firewood market?

[Alycidon]

7 hours ago, Big J said:

I'm being told that £50-55 a tonne is presently the going rate in East Devon for roadside hardwood. That's almost low grade milling butt money.

Its around £70 a ton road side for good hardwood cord in the East Midlands.     

 

A

[richardwale]

Until responsible people acknowledge that soft wood is perfectly acceptable to burn  domestically, then your concerns about hardwood costs will keep this forum busy.

[spuddog0507]

2 hours ago, westphalian said:

Well softwood HAS to go up as well??

 

Well it has,soft wood prices have never been as good as they are now for years, £43 tonne R/S for softwood chip, bent shity twisty stuff and wood that is rotten on the outside this would of been left behind in recent years but now there is a demand for it and it seems to have a decent value, 3,7 mtr spruce sawlogs again R/S £65 tonne 3 years ago they where £28 tonne R/S and chip was £24 tonne delivered in, I for one just find enough hardwood for my own log customers but just recently have secured a few small hardwood clear fell and thinning jobs from 80 - 200 tonne so if hardwood firewood is £60 - £70 tonne R/S i might just make a few quid for a change,

[westphalian]

Are you pissed? Couldn’t understand a word

[westphalian]

I know I am. In Herefordshire on the cider [emoji6]

 

[spuddog0507]

Well got some interesting news today, while having a conversation with one of the forest managers from one of the UK,s major forestry companys he said that them and a few other big forestry companys are going to drive the price of timber up for biomass as every load of chip is spoken for before felling liecence is applied for he all so said this will all so applie to saw logs and fencing matierals its not here yet but 18 months 2 years it will be and they will be taking smaller trees to suit the biomass market like 15 - 20 year old = smaller machines and lower costs for harvesting , and this applies to both hardwood and softwood and they are all so doing some growth trials with euquliptess and some strains of popular, so if you have a bit of room and can stock pile a bit of timber it may pay dividends,

Edited September 5, 2018 by spuddog0507
wrong sprlling

[Stere]

Did any of thoose willow  biomass schemes ever get planted on a large commercial scale and being economically viable etc....

 

 

 

 

 

[Alycidon]

On 04/09/2018 at 09:52, richardwale said:

It's odd, but I have a lot of customers who like the knarly, twisted bits, dense wood that burns for ages. It's so true about the fussy ones, blimey it's going to be totally ruined in seconds and you care what it looks like! I certainly don't loose any sleep if one log is more attractive than the other but wouldn't dream of telling them that sometimes I stick 2 pins in their face....

My customer was a guy from the city who had never ordered wood before so you have to cut him a bit of slack.  He thought the new house he bought was equipped with a gas stove.  Alas no gas in that village.

 

A

[spuddog0507]

40 minutes ago, Stere said:

Did any of thoose willow  biomass schemes ever get planted on a large commercial scale and being economically viable etc....

 

 

 

 

 

hi i was working in the north of the lake district recently and while driving on A66 from penrith to keswick there is a big section of willow planted along there and there is a large section of willow just north of penrith J40 on M6 dont know if its a viable venture but somthing has to change as we wont have any timber left if things keep going the way they are.

[drinksloe]

Planted quite a bit of willow round me mibee 10+?ish years ago, only 2 fields left now in the whole area. All ripped up and reploughed, it actually ploughs out better than i thought it would, thought u'd get far more regen coming back

Money just not in it.

For years there was a field right next to the boimass power station so close the harvester could of fired the end riggs strainght into the station grounds from its spout, but all that chip was taken 70 miles away to be stored for a year before being hualed back. Just bonkers.

When that  plant was built was meant to be powered entirely by locally grown willow and waste wood of harvesting sites, no willow left locally and soon realised brash and stumps are just a waste of time in SW scotland the costs of extrcating/hualing them plus washing before chipping was massive.

The carbon/desiel footprint would be massive

 

The whole boimass industry (like most other green energies) is a sham and a complete white elephant. Subsidies are keeping it going and generally governments/civil servants make a complete arse of them.

With the commercial RHI tarriffs u have folk buring every scrap of wood to heat empty sheds so using up all these trees that have been lying for years,

Is there not a big boimass plant down south that imports al its chip from canada/usa?

Coupled with all this imported fiirewood, from an sustainable environmental perspective its just crazy really