How does anyone make money extracting cordwood?

[doobin]

Two friends and I have a bit of a weekend project going- we're felling chestnut coppice for firewood. Setup is KISS- two cutters going like the clappers and me on the digger just about keeping up stacking the timber and throwing the brash onto piles.

 

I hear chestnut can be bought roadside for £20/ton. Now, assuming I have 180 tons in 0.9 hectares (best case scenario I think?), that is worth £3600. Loose £900 for forwarding at £5/ton (fair price?) and you have 2700. Allow fifteen days to clear it (reasonable estimate? Or are we too slow?) and you're making £180/day. For three blokes and a digger!

 

How the hell do you make money extracting cordwood for a living? I'll make money on it as firewood, but I was just wondering?

 

Oh, almost forgot. Loose another £500 for the timber also!

[ashman]

Two friends and I have a bit of a weekend project going- we're felling chestnut coppice for firewood. Setup is KISS- two cutters going like the clappers and me on the digger just about keeping up stacking the timber and throwing the brash onto piles.

 

I hear chestnut can be bought roadside for £20/ton. Now, assuming I have 180 tons in 0.9 hectares (best case scenario I think?), that is worth £3600. Loose £900 for forwarding at £5/ton (fair price?) and you have 2700. Allow fifteen days to clear it (reasonable estimate? Or are we too slow?) and you're making £180/day. For three blokes and a digger!

 

How the hell do you make money extracting cordwood for a living? I'll make money on it as firewood, but I was just wondering?

 

Oh, almost forgot. Loose another £500 for the timber also!

 

 

 

15 days to clear just over 2 acres sounds a long while to me. what size timber is it ?

[doobin]

15 days to clear just over 2 acres sounds a long while to me. what size timber is it ?

 

Most about 10" at the base. Some bigger, some smaller. It's 26 year old chestnut coppice.

 

Could you do it in six days with three blokes and a digger? That's how quick you'd need to go to make £450/day, which would be the bare minimum of profitability.

[dave fox]

i sympathise with you and your pradicament, i have 5000 apple trees to grub up over a period of time (not as short a time line as 6 days) but as with coppicing wood alot of handling and messing around, we prune the tree then tidy all the brush from around the row then log it (and collect the logs) then fell the trunk then grub it then push the brush up into heaps then burn the brush and roots, my point is that wheather it be coppice or in my case from an orhard its not as clear cut and fell as with the woodland guys , i was asked why the price of my wood was higher than "normal hard wood" prices :its because you do a little bit more work, for the same product. imo:001_rolleyes:

[slack ma girdle]

The slowest part of any forestry is always the extraction to track side. I think you need to re-think the extraction part, and how to speed up the process. Is there any other equipment that you can lay your grubby mits on (pref for free or a trade) that would help.

Other things to think of are felling direction i.e. felling down hill and letting gravity help, or felling towards the track so that you have less distance to extract.

Are you cutting to a spacific size, if so mark the trees while you are snedding them so that you can cut and stack quickly track side.

Keep records so that you can work out costs and time taken for all stages of the work, this will help to work out the slowest and therefore the most expensive part of the process. You can then try and think of ways of speeding it up.

Finnally do not be afraid of charging more per m3 to cover your costs, particularly if you have a good product.

 

Good luck

[Andy Collins]

Dave Fox, I had a similar size orchard to clear last year. I found the quickest, most cost effective way was to strip the branches and throw them into windrows as I went, leaving the main trunk standing. Then clear the branches with a loader to fire. Then fell butts and chuck them straight on a following trailer as you go. Get in a sawbench to log them later. I then had a D9 with a rootplough.come in to clear the roots. It took me 3 days in total. Messing about logging as you go is unproductive and tiring.

[Darren187]

This is pretty much what I do with my spare time from August to Feb-March each year, although I mainly work alone. I would love to do it full time but on my own it's just a side line. Although the extra few K a year pays for new ppe/tools, fuel, insurance etc.

 

The other trouble is that an acre of woodland is never the same. You also take end processing into consideration, will you be cutting by hand or with heavy machinery, if the wood is large 10" or larger this will take longer to process than stuff that's <10". And access will always be different, and should possibly be considered first! (no point paying for an acre of wood and then end up losing days/weeks on extraction or even the possibility of not being able to reach the cut wood cause of bad weather!)

 

I do make money but like I say, it's a side line. I have worked for several people in the past, who do this on a larger scale. One packed up a few years ago because he got greedy and lazy. The other guy has made a fair amount of money by keeping his costs low and sticking to a few basic rules (but even this guy has other work during the year, because it's not very profitable at his scale, and again its a seasonal job).

[Frankie Lawrence]

I think your problem could be extraction itself!!

 

Chesnut is a very valuable prodcut and you can make some serious monney on it. you just have to be smart. You should make your own products from it and almost every bit of chesnut can make you monney no matter how big or how small.

 

If niether you or your friends know anything about chestnut products get friendly with oother local woodcutters who know a thing or to about chesnut production offer free labour for them to teach you a thing or to.

 

Im not saying its easy to make me monney but it can be done. You may have to be realistic about a few things: If your making your own products you wont realy need a digger so that takes away that cost the only extraction you made need is a trailer to get your products out, you will cut your timber then it will be a while until you actually get any monney from it as you will have to produce it then wait for a buyer and 9 times out of 10 the buyer pays later than you would like.

 

But the profit (when you get it) is a much bigger margin than selling it at roadside.

 

I allways think the golden rule of forestry is not to work hard but work smart.

 

good luck

[Cracker]

I think your problem could be extraction itself!!

 

Chesnut is a very valuable prodcut and you can make some serious monney on it. you just have to be smart. You should make your own products from it and almost every bit of chesnut can make you monney no matter how big or how small.

 

If niether you or your friends know anything about chestnut products get friendly with oother local woodcutters who know a thing or to about chesnut production offer free labour for them to teach you a thing or to.

 

Im not saying its easy to make me monney but it can be done. You may have to be realistic about a few things: If your making your own products you wont realy need a digger so that takes away that cost the only extraction you made need is a trailer to get your products out, you will cut your timber then it will be a while until you actually get any monney from it as you will have to produce it then wait for a buyer and 9 times out of 10 the buyer pays later than you would like.

 

But the profit (when you get it) is a much bigger margin than selling it at roadside.

 

I allways think the golden rule of forestry is not to work hard but work smart.

 

good luck

 

Very true. This is pretty much what I do these days. I can turn a small oak or chestnut butt into gates I can sell for £1000. Planking the same piece wouldn't yield much.

 

 

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I made nine pairs like this last year, all to order and paid in advance, as well as benches, fencing and smaller gates. Anyone reading this can make this stuff. It's not rocket science and saves on gym membership:biggrin:

[harvey b davison]

Very true. This is pretty much what I do these days. I can turn a small oak or chestnut butt into gates I can sell for £1000. Planking the same piece wouldn't yield much.

 

 

I made nine pairs like this last year, all to order and paid in advance, as well as benches, fencing and smaller gates. Anyone reading this can make this stuff. It's not rocket science and saves on gym membership:biggrin:

 

I like the look of those gates very much, well done, briiliant idea, but (and this may be a daft question), what type of ironmongry do you use, ie hinges, as there doesnt seem anywhere to fit the large tee hinge or hook and bands normally associated with these type of gates. Look well made tho.