Making a profit from woodland?

[twmarriott]

Thanks for your comments.

 

In your opinion what is the minimum size of mixed woodland needed to be a commercially viable stand alone business?

 

At around £5k per acre it seems expensive compared to other businesses, but I guess the tax sheltering and land price bubble is accounting for that.

 

well thats a difficult one, but to pay for one person semi skilled or better, you need to bring in around 25-30k just to pay their wages plus machinery kit depresiation etc, going on a friends fathers estate in scotland they reconed around 200 acres per person in the woods, would just about brake even, now admittedly if your in marketing then you may be able to skew it by producing somthing high end. nichy but either way when you get to turn round/ cost of kit and felling densities its not practical, thats why theyre offering grants as theres no money in it on its own, likewise the grants aren't enough to pay for stuff, just an insentive to encourage, if folks were making lots of money out of grants then they'd be stopped or altered as the money would run out too quick.

[Nature]

Procrastinated?!

 

Yep!

[woodland dweller]

Better to loose it than rush in and make mistakes, their is more than one wood for sale.

[billythegoat]

Some very good advise offered Nature, and sorry you lost out on the wood you wanted to buy.

I am sure something else will come up.

I have some Ancient Woodland which I manage myself.For the size that you are looking at and the mixed species, it would be possible to make a return on it as long as we all think outside the box, ie allow the woodland to be multifunctional, and treat it as a fully working woodland.

Would be happy to talk to you if you PM me with contact details.

Best of luck.

[Nature]

Some very good advise offered Nature, and sorry you lost out on the wood you wanted to buy.

I am sure something else will come up.

 

Yes, there has been great advice that I am very grateful for. This is a great forum.

 

Would be happy to talk to you if you PM me with contact details.

Best of luck.

 

Thanks for your kind offer. If another opportunity presents itself soon I'll take you up on it.

[Stevenjrg]

Best way would be fund someone with experience and invest in couple machines to get best profit out of it