clear felling valley, what to charge?

[Mark James]

How does a person gain experience of quoting something a little different to their norm? By going out and having a bash at it, maybe asking for a little help from his peers? Isnt that why we are on this forum? Until a couple of weeks ago, I hadnt dealt with a particular aspect of this job, let alone worked out costings for various unknowns to me. Did I walk away and leave it to someone with prior knowledge? No, I agonised over every detail for many hours, made a multitude of calls, and tried to back-up my plans, and luckily it worked out (sort of!)

So maybe, just maybe, it would be helpful to share now and again, instead of a put-down.

 

Well put, I asked a pricing question once and all he'll broke lose.

Seems to be the touchiest of subjects on arbtalk.

 

 

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[David Goss]

 

Then times it by 3 because you will of missed half of it out because you wont know about the other things until you are a broken man at the end of the job:lol:

 

now there is some good advice:thumbup1:

maybe 3 times is a bit much but you never know:001_rolleyes:

[Sam Thompson]

Thats a lot of timber! Harvester, better tracked if it is that bad. Good luck, if you need a hand cutter let me know

[Joy Yeomans]

does it need skylining, is it a real pig of a slope? are you able to forward out resonably well? theres alot to consider and unfortunately you sometimes make blunders with pricing before you get it right, 500 acres is a hell of a lot, is it all good diametre stuff? theres alot of things to consider so check and go over it again a few times before you give in your price - stacking areas, access etc, distance to mills/end user/customer, price off customer etc, harvesting problems

sorry cant be more specific but without looking couldnt help on prices

joy

[Joy Yeomans]

now there is some good advice:thumbup1:

maybe 3 times is a bit much but you never know:001_rolleyes:

 

i think 3 times is a bit much, as i know a hell of alot of forestry contractors looking for work at the moment, so its getting more cutthroat and tight on prices - you dont want to loose it, but you dont want to be too low that you dont cover yourself

good luck

joy

[PhilBeech]

Get other suitably experienced contractors to prive the job for you and sub it out if you win it! Simples.

[Quickthorn]

hi all,

I have been asked if i can clear fell 500 acres of larch (predominantly). The ground is too steep for heavy machiones over most of the area and i will need to winch all of the timber to a suitable place on the site. I have never before quoted a felling job of my own and dont have a clue what to quote. please help.

would also be interested on your views as to how long it will take and how many people i should take on and any advice.

regards

jack

 

Is it FC? Any idea how much per ha, or how old the crop is?

 

Don't take this the wrong way, but I think this size of job is a bit big to be your first one of this type to quote for. You might be able to scale up from what you've done before, but a small error x 500 acres = massive loss.

 

I'm speaking as someone who's done a bit of work for a contractor who had very little experience of anything forestry and took on a few jobs beyond his capability. Let's just say it ended in tears on more than one occasion. Not nice to see.

[RichardT]

We've just had c.25 acres of Sitka, Norway and a bit of Lodgepole clearfelled here, maybe 30% on slopes, we've had a mid range harvester and forwarder on site for weeks, including weather breaks, with up to 3 hand fellers for the nasty stuff. The contractor has been doing this for 25 years and he's going to be about 10% out on estimated yield. Tricky business. 500 acres is a very big job.

[Mesterh]

Would I be way off the mark if I thought that sounded like a £1/2 million squid job!

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

Er, since when has "500 acres been a hell of a lot of timber" ?!!! Not until the stocking density is determined that's when!!! There could be 10 trees per acre in which case the volume of timber is bugger all. That's the first thing you need to establish - the volume (m3) of timber in the whole job. Metreage is easier to deal with than tonnage due to less fluctuations.

 

Rates for motormanaul harvesting should be between £9-15/metre; lots of variables to bear in mind.

 

Assume you have 200 hectares (~500 acres) and a standing volume of 500m3 per hectare; you can work out the figures from there with the £/metre vaying with slope, hairyness of trees etc.

 

Forwarding / winching should start at around £5/metre respectively.

 

FWIW conversion factor for Jap Larch tons to m3 is 1.20 (freshly felled).

 

hi all,

I have been asked if i can clear fell 500 acres of larch (predominantly). The ground is too steep for heavy machiones over most of the area and i will need to winch all of the timber to a suitable place on the site. I have never before quoted a felling job of my own and dont have a clue what to quote. please help.

would also be interested on your views as to how long it will take and how many people i should take on and any advice.

regards

jack

 

Most likely you will have FC deadlines if the stuff is diseased (P.Ram?) so you will need a gang to be cutting ahead of that.

 

No, I agonised over every detail for many hours, made a multitude of calls, and tried to back-up my plans, and luckily it worked out

 

Loose a lot of sleep too but totally right there Andy.

 

WOW!!!! Thats a lot of timber!!!!!!

 

I'm not sure there will be many on here have quoted a job of that size!!!!!!!!!! I know I haven't!!!!!!!!!

 

You can charge £200-400 for removing a 30cm dbh, 60' larch in a garden. Once in the woods, that becomes £5

 

He says to "fell", no mention of extraction, haulage, marketing - that's usually someone elses problem.

Edited June 20, 2011 by TimberCutterDartmoor