Woodland Management, Firewood, Charcoal - Business Plan

[Ty Unnos]

Hi All

 

I am trying to write a business plan.

 

The plan is to do practical small scale woodland management for local land owners / farmers / conservation groups.

 

I am hoping to get paid for some work but will also be extracting wood to be sold as firewood and the small stuff would be converted to charcoal.

 

I need to be able to justify capital spend on a small tractor, winch, trailer and log splitter.

 

I also need to be able provide myself with a wage. I will principally be working on my own but will bring in extra bodies when required.

 

I am trying to work out how much wood I need to fell / extract / process and sell as firewood / charcoal to be viable.

 

To start with I am forecasting selling 1000 bags of charcoal with a profit of £3 per bag. So £3000.

 

I know this is all a bit 'how long is a piece of string' but just need some rough figures.

 

How much hardwood can I expect to fell / extract in a week? Presuming two cutters and a tractor.

 

If I sell hardwood at roadside I get £30 per tonne right?

 

What about firewood sold in bulk. If I split / stack and season how much will I get selling bulk to another firewood business?

 

What about firewood delivered to the public? How much do the public pay for a tonne?

 

What about costs.

 

Does anyone have rough figures for costs of felling / extraction?

 

How about cost of processing firewood? And delivering?

 

What else have I missed?

 

Cheers

[Ty Unnos]

Hi all.

 

I have been doing a bit of digging...

 

Green cord wood at Roadside £30 - £40 per tonne

 

Seasoned firewood delivered £60 - £70 per m3

 

1.5 - 2.5 m3 of seasoned loose logs from 1 tonne of green cord wood depending on species / moisture etc.

 

So if we take an average of 2 m3 per tonne:

 

20 m3 from 10 tonnes.

 

Every 10 tonnes of wood = £1200 of firewood @ £60 per m3 (gross)

 

Do these numbers make sense?

 

So how much wood can I expect to fell in a day?

[Brushcutter]

How much hardwood can you fell in a week?

That depends on the site conditions type of trees etc. The main factor is how good a cutter you are. A newbie may only fell a few tonnes a day a pro could be felling 15-20t. Pay could be anything from 50-150 a day per cutter.

 

If I sell hardwood at roadside I get £30 per tonne right

You charge what it cost to get it there plus a bit for profit. If you have to fell by hand winch it off a slope forwarder it to a stacking area a mile away then you won't make any money.

 

What about costs.

Insurance both employers and public liability

Vehicle insurance 4x4 and tractor

Small tool insurance

admin costs

marketing costs

Staffing cost.

maintenance costs

running costs

oh the list goes on.

 

Does anyone have rough figures for costs of felling / extraction?

Felling depends on if you want to pay day rate or tonnage. Day rate can be from 50-150 depending on who you employ. Extraction can cost from £8-30 a tonne. lots of vairables in extraction, site, kit, experence.

 

Have you tried contacting business link for some help putting a business plan together?

[northumbriaforestry]

This is exactly what I do, I'd be happy to answer some questions for you if it helped?

Cheers,

[armybloke]

Felling licence consideration. Conservation area/TPOs. Don't forget the legal side of things in you plan.......

[slack ma girdle]

I would stick with m3, as this is constant. Tons are fine if you have either a weigh bridge or axels with built in scales.

I am selective thinning hardwood i reckon on about 60-70 trees a da y(that equals approx 12 m3), as most trees will be a pig to get on the deck.

With the mighty Nuffield i am pulling out about 15 m3 a day and cutting to 12 ' lenghts.

With the forwarder i can manage about 9 loads a day (about 5 m3 per load) to road side.

Hope this helps

[Chris Sheppard]

I would stick with m3, as this is constant. Tons are fine if you have either a weigh bridge or axels with built in scales.

I am selective thinning hardwood i reckon on about 60-70 trees a da y(that equals approx 12 m3), as most trees will be a pig to get on the deck.

With the mighty Nuffield i am pulling out about 15 m3 a day and cutting to 12 ' lenghts.

With the forwarder i can manage about 9 loads a day (about 5 m3 per load) to road side.

Hope this helps

 

I'm always a bit intrigued by using m3 when dealing with small roundwood - do you measure each stick or go by stack volume? Surely it could be flawed slightly as potentially two different drivers could stack the same load of timber but end up with two different sized stacks (if that makes sense?).

[slack ma girdle]

I'm always a bit intrigued by using m3 when dealing with small roundwood - do you measure each stick or go by stack volume? Surely it could be flawed slightly as potentially two different drivers could stack the same load of timber but end up with two different sized stacks (if that makes sense?).

 

Every method has its flaws. I measure when the timber is stacked, and work it back from there. And as it is only me that is doing the measuring there can only be one answer.

The main reason that i use m3 is that it is a constant, and does not change as the moisure content changes. It also gives me an advantage when selling in the woods as i can say with some certancy how much is in a stack and how much i want form it.

What works for one does not always work from another.