What would you pay for standing birch?

[bingoben]

Hello everyone,

I've been offered some standing timber. It's mostly Birch with a small amount of Ash and Hazle. Access is pretty good, but they want all the understorey clearing and brash in piles or wind rows. There's probably 40 ton ish, but that is quite a rough guess. What would you expect to pay/be paid?

[Highland Forestry]

Hello everyone,

I've been offered some standing timber. It's mostly Birch with a small amount of Ash and Hazle. Access is pretty good, but they want all the understorey clearing and brash in piles or wind rows. There's probably 40 ton ish, but that is quite a rough guess. What would you expect to pay/be paid?

 

You have to take a roadside price that you are confident you could sell it for and then work back from there taking your costs off like extraction and cutting, any other work like understory clearing, then take your profit margin off and then you are left with your standing sale price.

[bob]

This i dont get

I charge money to take trees down:confused1:

But suppose firewood buyers have different ethos

[Chris Sheppard]

This i dont get

I charge money to take trees down:confused1:

 

That's one of the differences between Arb and Forestry

 

What sort of sizes is it Ben?

[armchairarborist]

i had a similar job a couple of years ago, i charged them 15 days labour and sold the firewood too. pay for it?? why?

[Chris Sheppard]

i had a similar job a couple of years ago, i charged them 15 days labour and sold the firewood too. pay for it?? why?

 

Because it's a crop - planted to make money. Maybe if Forestry was called "Tree Farming" it would make a bit more sense?

 

Admittedly firewood never used to be considered worth anything and in the past a token amount might have been offered per tonne but now it's a commodity and is over double the cost roadside than it was 2-3 years ago.

[john burgess]

I haven't bought standing birch but chestnut £225 per acre for good ash and oak £14 per cubic metre and I have just bought hundred 50 m³ of mixed hardwoods standing for five pounds a cubic metre

[Brushcutter]

£5 a m3 standing would be my starting point. I think you'd be easly able to get 30 quid roadside. Depending on your costs and kit you could offer higher.

[Highland Forestry]

£5 per ton on out-turn is always a good starting point

[bingoben]

That's one of the differences between Arb and Forestry

 

What sort of sizes is it Ben?

 

Hi Chris,

Happy New Year!

 

It's good processor size 8-12".

 

The other difference between arb and forestry is that if (very unlikely obviously) the tree goes the wrong way, there aren't any greenhouses/cars etc to wreck.