Branch logging as an alternative to chipping in a forestry setting

[Big J]

8 minutes ago, AHPP said:

Within conventional commercial forestry thinking (fell something, make it into a product, move it, sell it, next site, repeat), I think it's probably a non-starter. Everyone I've talked to about it and everyone I've seen talking about it on forums etc have failed to sell it easily enough for their liking. I'm sure there's a market but I don't know what it is and neither does anyone else (anyone who'll admit it anyway).

 

They're not nice machines to use. They're a massive fag with leaves. They're still a pretty big fag with twigs and the idea of pulling out early is as bad an idea as when you were eighteen. The stuff doesn't dry well but the surface area means it gasses like fuck when you get it going. Unless you only load small amounts, you need high tech burning equipment to recirculate and reburn gas, air etc or it smokes like a bastard.

 

I'd do it if I could use it myself, probably burnt in the sort of thing your neighbour has, or charcoal it and that's a conversation in itself (lots of processing and marketing required).

 

I imagine that if you have to ask (i.e. you haven't worked out one of the very niche ways of working with one yourself), your life will be easier and better if you just chip and move on. A massive shame. I've been really wanting it to work and trying to think of ways to make it work for years. I've not given up but I know the odds are still well against it.

You are probably right. Maybe too much faff, but I just hate the waste. 

 

I've emailed a very knowledgeable forester in north east Scotland whose estate had invested in one a few years ago. He wasn't entirely convinced about it a few years ago when I last spoke to him about it, but I was wondering if the market had moved on since then.

 

I'm keeping an open mind and am happy to be persuaded either way.

[AHPP]

Anything can be done and it comes down to whether you want to spend lots of time forcing it to work or spend the same time doing other things. I think it basically depends on your approach to being a pioneer or just copying what people who are already making money are doing. I'm a shit businessman so I'd probably force it to work just so I could laugh at all the wealthier and more successful people who didn't bother trying.

Edited September 8, 2018 by AHPP

[AHPP]

Report back on your correspondence with the very knowledgeable forester in north east Scotland please.

[Big J]

Just now, AHPP said:

Report back on your correspondence with the very knowledgeable forester in north east Scotland please.

I will do. He manages a very large estate with outstanding forestry practices. 

[Woodworks]

1 hour ago, Big J said:

I very much like the idea of branch loggers, but not snedding the branches out. If they can't be fed if (mostly) whole, it's going to be too time consuming to be viable. 

 

 

This is what our little branch logger could handle. You get much bigger machines than this one though 

 

[Conor Wright]

The principle of the branch logger is great, low energy input, high speed, low running costs due to it being such a simple cost.. have owned a couple, ironically I just sold the second one today, first one logged acres of overgrown biomass willow quite successfully, before being sold on.. second one I used on hardwood takedowns.. selling the arisings was always the trickiest bit (had nothing to do with marketing the willow, just cut logger it and go home) My take was to put it out as an environmentally safer alternative to coal in domestic burners.. the type that burn coal slack, peat, waste wood, dried goat shit or whatever you choose.. had no problem offloading it cheap.. cheap was the key. 30quid a ton bag.. treat it like coal, dump it in the corner and shovel it in as required.. not easy to convince people about it though.. Will buy another one in time, just had to free up some cash money and they seem easily traded, another sign there is a market out there. It is a small market, but rising fuel costs and dwindling wood supplies are making these machines viable. My two cents for big J, take a chance on it, It will be cheaper to fabricate to your forwarder than a full on chipper and there will always be some fool like meself looking to buy something like that!

[monkeybusiness]

38 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

This is what our little branch logger could handle. You get much bigger machines than this one though 

 

Did you sell the bags on or use yourself? 

[monkeybusiness]

1 hour ago, Big J said:

 

Maybe I ought to go back to the idea of a chipper mounted onto the bed of the forwarder which I crane feed. Probably a lot quicker than branch logging, albeit it's then only a cost as I have no product to sell. 

 

The bed of the forwarder could carry a fairly substantial chipper (provided you could drive under it and lower it onto it - the crane wouldn't lift anything larger than about 750kg) and being self powered, it would make short work of the brash if it was crane fed.

 

I think you’d probably be quicker hand-feeding any chipper that only has 44hp tbh - crane feeding only really works efficiently on big machines IME. 

[Big J]

4 minutes ago, monkeybusiness said:

I think you’d probably be quicker hand-feeding any chipper that only has 44hp tbh - crane feeding only really works efficiently on big machines IME. 

I was also thinking about having an independently powered chipper. So 44bhp for the forwarder and more than that for the chipper.

[scbk]

They do seem keen on the "branch logger" type machines in eastern europe, so they must be doing something useful with the stuff.

 

 

Maybe the answer is to bag it all up and send it on a backload to Lithuania from a lorry importing kiln dried firewood to UK

Edited September 8, 2018 by scbk