Future Firewood Demand Optimism?

[Billhook]

10 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

Quite right! 
 

I think this winter will be the first time we’ll see genuine shortages across the board for energy and food. 
 

With the huge increases in the cost of diesel and fertiliser I imagine crops will be smaller but more expensive than previous. 

Been nice and sunny recently but I can see the dark clouds of a perfect storm brewing in the distance.  And a full blown rail strike to hamper the supplies of fuel and food

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, Billhook said:

As a farmer and potential seller of firewood I have had a lifetime of people telling me what the price of wheat, barley, oilseed, potatoes, timber and many other things are.

I’m looking forward to to the time when these things are in such short supply that I am able to name my price.

That'll be next year then  if farmers decide to plant break crops of  legumes because they cannot afford nitram

[Stere]

Regnerative farming seems the current buzz word but its sounds just like old fashioned mixed farming.

[devon TWiG]

3 hours ago, trigger_andy said:

Quite right! 
 

I think this winter will be the first time we’ll see genuine shortages across the board for energy and food. 
 

With the huge increases in the cost of diesel and fertiliser I imagine crops will be smaller but more expensive than previous. 

I was at a farm yesterday near  Exeter and they just combined their crop and yield was down mostly due to drought , livestock farmers are in a worse situation due to lack of grass ....another told me that chips will be shorter this year because spuds were small !!😆

[neiln]

3 hours ago, Billhook said:

Been nice and sunny recently but I can see the dark clouds of a perfect storm brewing in the distance.  And a full blown rail strike to hamper the supplies of fuel and food

its definitely the 70s all over again. kate bush at number 1, general strikes, double digit inflation and the real threat of nuclear armageddon with Russia and NATO toe to toe.  power cuts and a really harsh winter will complete the feel.  I just hope Spurs continue their decent form ....they were awful for most of the 70s!

[openspaceman]

12 minutes ago, devon TWiG said:

I was at a farm yesterday near  Exeter and they just combined their crop and yield was down mostly due to drought , livestock farmers are in a worse situation due to lack of grass ....another told me that chips will be shorter this year because spuds were small !!😆

I've just returned with a few oak logs from the one that fell into a crop of rye now the combine had been through, I don't know what the yield was but there was no grass for the cattle, the neighbouring common had dying ling and a couple of mature scots pine, though these were likely previously damaged by wildfires years back.

 

I did get given 2kg of rye, now just have to figure out how to grind it good enough to make some loaves.

[neiln]

2 hours ago, openspaceman said:

That'll be next year then  if farmers decide to plant break crops of  legumes because they cannot afford nitram

i was visiting family at ormskirk this week and one day the smell was strong of pigs muck spreading on the nearby fields.  i didnt think that was common practice these days, or is it just i've not been in the country at the right/wrong time for a while?

[openspaceman]

1 minute ago, neiln said:

i was visiting family at ormskirk this week and one day the smell was strong of pigs muck spreading on the nearby fields.  i didnt think that was common practice these days, or is it just i've not been in the country at the right/wrong time for a while?

Round here they seem to inject human waste rather than spread, not seen any pig farms locally for a long time.

[difflock]

I think I remember a Scottish Woodlands wheeze, where they got well paid to take tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of  sewage cake or sludge away, and "utilized" it by burying in BIG DEEP trenches to fertilize the conifers that they were for planting.

Or such was the story in the local community, who, again, from recall, put a stop to this scheme.

It sounded more like a "I have a cunning plan, let's dig a hole and bury it" to me, but hey!

What do I know.

P.S. 

I do not recall how far they were drawing it, or how,  away from the County road.

 

Edited July 30, 2022 by difflock

[Billhook]

On 28/07/2022 at 10:26, neiln said:

 Energy cap prices have risen by 12% last October, 54% last march, predicted to rise 78% this October and then further in January. That's 309% October to October. Most users were on deals well below the cap but with supplier firms going bust and fixed price deals ending, most users are now on the cap so factor that rise in too and users will have seen 350-400% rise in the cost of gas and electric with more to come.  While log producers haven't seen cost increases of anything like that you have seen cost increases and like everyone a cost of living increase of 10 ish %

I'm suggesting a rise in the cost of logs 150% less than that for gas and electricity is fair as log producers have had very low margins and profit, deserve more, costs up so need more, and energy costs all round are up, but balancing against price gouging by a much lower increase than elsewhere in the energy sector.  Log producers are not charities after all so profit is not a duty word, they deserve to earn a living too.  Although I could make an exception for some 😉

I see in the paper today that the energy price cap for April 2023 is £6,069.00

Our fuel and electricity costs are all going up to process the wood so at some point this will have to be passed on to the customer.  I think that we need to come up with an Arbtalk figure for the cost of a ton of hard/ soft wood, the labour cost / hour, the machinery depreciation, the fuel and electric power to convert it into dry  firewood, office work and taxes, and work out a sensible profit margin.  This will make us all find out that we are working for nothing!