Price for standing larch

[Malus]

@Squaredy thanks, they're some good points.

 

@Muddy42 no public liability issues really but I'm sure fences will eventually start to get flattened. Trouble is I can afford to buy the whole forest!! As for firewood, well the neighbours used to supply my dad with all of his so they've probably got plenty. I did consider part payment in milled boards etc but probably not worth the hassle for such a small amount.

 

@openspaceman8" seems awfully small as a sawlog. I guess you might just get a 6x6" post out of it? By "£10/m3 on out turn" do you mean you would buy the timber for that price or charge that price to fell and extract? When I winched out the Douglas last year the forester told me the main contractor would charge him £10/ton to extract to roadside which sounded quite low to me, but I don't know anything.

 

If the dead larch is no good I can likely just fell a couple of the live trees and leave the dead ones standing. 

 

Trouble with offering £200 for the lot is that it's not exactly appealing for the hassle involved etc etc 

 

Thanks for all the help, has given me some things to think about.

 

 

@[email protected]

[gdh]

If it's easy to get to I would offer £30 standing for hand felled softwood. Worth remembering that 50% of small trees will be chip wood anyway so £50 roadside.

 

Phytophara licence is free (or was) but is a lot of work with records, clearing up bark and other regulations. I think a lot ignore it anyway if the wood hasn't got a notice on it.

 

Personally I would want 12inch minimum at base for milling.

 

If you are felling yourself make sure you get an agreement on what's being done with brash and stumps and how small you'll cut down to. It's easy to fall out over the little details.

 

Edit: people will fell and extra for £10 a ton but that's large scale harvester work.

Edited August 9, 2023 by gdh

[openspaceman]

9 hours ago, Malus said:

@openspaceman8" seems awfully small as a sawlog. I guess you might just get a 6x6" post out of it? By "£10/m3 on out turn" do you mean you would buy the timber for that price or charge that price to fell and extract? When I winched out the Douglas last year the forester told me the main contractor would charge him £10/ton to extract to roadside which sounded quite low to me, but I don't know anything.

The mills I was supplying 30 years ago would be mostly cutting fencing and things like pallet boards, most building material was imported. The best bits would make posts and arris rails with slats coming from side boards. Smaller diameter bars would also produce slats and these would go down to 6" under bark. The rest down to 2" or 3" would go for pulp or chip but these would seldom cover their cost of harvesting.

 

By £10/m3 on out turn I meant I would pay for the sawlogs that left the site but would take the smaller wood for free, not pay up front on a standing measure. There is a catch here for the unwary land owner and I have had to clear up the mess where a contractor had agreed a high price for the thinning on out turn but only ripped out the sawlogs leaving a tangle of un debranched lengths of 8" tops as a tangled mess .

[Muddy42]

If it helps you, a neighbor in Scotland just sold about half an acre of mixed standing woodland with diseased larch.  With re-fencing costs it was net zero in total, but the threat of falling trees was sorted. Tricky access and steep bank next to a main road. Lots of hand-felling required.  The buyer recovered 50:50 firewood and poor quality mill wood. Both timber markets may be better in England, but you get the picture.

[trigger_andy]

Im paying £50 a ton delivered for larch in 3m lengths. That sawlogs, genuine sawlogs. 
 

To pay anything over £20 a ton standing seems like madness and certainly not worth the effort. 
 

The standing dead ironically might be worth the most. Log cabin builders love it due to the shrinkage having already taken place.

[Vedhoggar]

Bought a similar small parcel of larch standing last December and paid £20/m3 standing, would be prepared to offer up to £23/m3 standing this year but not more. 

[Malus]

Ok great. I've not had time to get up there and have a proper look but will make time over the next week or two. The way I see it is that they probably won't see it as worthwhile unless there's a reasonable amount of cash in it for them, which is fair enough. So I'll see what's what in the woods and see what they think. 

 

How do people source and buy in saw logs? Does anyone do it on a small scale? @trigger_andy would that be £50/ton for a rigid wagon? 

[Squaredy]

10 hours ago, Malus said:

How do people source and buy in saw logs? Does anyone do it on a small scale? @trigger_andy would that be £50/ton for a rigid wagon? 

I would say the key is to get contacts in small forestry firms, or even timber hauliers.  Unless you mean you want to buy less than a full lorry load at a time, in which case you will have to try and find a different type of forestry worker.

 

One of my contacts is a guy who does forestry in the winter and fencing in the summer.  He has a tractor and timber trailer so can deliver loads up to about ten tons.  I get way better value buying direct from larger outfits, but that will always be 25 tons at a time.

 

 I used to get a few loads from a guy called Eddie trading as Valley Timber who was based near cross hands.  It might be worth trying to track him down.

[Malus]

9 hours ago, Squaredy said:

I would say the key is to get contacts in small forestry firms, or even timber hauliers.  Unless you mean you want to buy less than a full lorry load at a time, in which case you will have to try and find a different type of forestry worker.

 

One of my contacts is a guy who does forestry in the winter and fencing in the summer.  He has a tractor and timber trailer so can deliver loads up to about ten tons.  I get way better value buying direct from larger outfits, but that will always be 25 tons at a time.

 

 I used to get a few loads from a guy called Eddie trading as Valley Timber who was based near cross hands.  It might be worth trying to track him down.

Thanks mate that's really helpful, I'll have a look for him. I'm not far from Crosshands at all. Tbh access to my yard is too tight/steep for a wagon so a tractor and trailer would be ideal. On my grandad's farm access isn't great but space can be made for a wagon to turn around if I spent a day or two moving mountains of rusty crap that have accumulated. 

 

As @trigger_andy says a wagon load of nice saw logs @ £50/t (presumably + vat?) does sound quite appealing. 

[trigger_andy]

5 minutes ago, Malus said:

Thanks mate that's really helpful, I'll have a look for him. I'm not far from Crosshands at all. Tbh access to my yard is too tight/steep for a wagon so a tractor and trailer would be ideal. On my grandad's farm access isn't great but space can be made for a wagon to turn around if I spent a day or two moving mountains of rusty crap that have accumulated. 

 

As @trigger_andy says a wagon load of nice saw logs @ £50/t (presumably + vat?) does sound quite appealing. 

I’m paying that for a 5t bogie load with no vat added. I made a mistake though, it’s £60 not £50 A ton. 😬 if it was a regular arctic load it would be £50. 
 

Cash obviously.