How many are left?

[Brushcutter]

I have hammered into them that we can make as bigger saving with forwarding and extraction if timber is well presented.

 

Good on you Charlie. It's in one ear and out the other with my lot:thumbdown:

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

The FC always take the cheapest price on all DP contracts and then wonder why they get a crap job..

 

There is true alright; DP indeed.

 

I have hammered into them that we can make as bigger saving with forwarding and extraction if timber is well presented...

 

...those logs at the back of the larch photo are 3.7's dragged into heaps for the forwarder... I think these type of lads are going to become more and more valuable as difficult sites come into a productive phase and harvesters cant get on the ground for extraction. I a recent talk with a harvesting manager for FC Wales their biggest issue over the next 5 years is going to be a lack of decent handcutters and specialist extraction equipment for working steep terrain.

 

Presentation for extraction was always drilled and drilled into us. Makes life flippin hard hand stacking larch 3.7s on a steep slope and out of the rack! Best to just fell em, winch and convert at the top or landing - miles easier for the cutter (or winch to harvester of course). Try getting a decent volume down when it's hairy sticks going into sawlog; steep, slippery and has to be hand stacked...

[Stu]

i started hand cutting 2 years ago, i love the work itself felling trees is the best, but i hate the job if that makes sense, thats why ive started looking for other work now, cba with hand cutting any longer really.

The contractor said something to me the other day which sums it up, basically said to me i need to cut more timber to pay for the finance on his machinery, but when it comes to me getting payed more it dosn't happen

[combined tree services]

There is true alright; DP indeed.

 

 

 

Presentation for extraction was always drilled and drilled into us. Makes life flippin hard hand stacking larch 3.7s on a steep slope and out of the rack! Best to just fell em, winch and convert at the top or landing - miles easier for the cutter (or winch to harvester of course). Try getting a decent volume down when it's hairy sticks going into sawlog; steep, slippery and has to be hand stacked...

 

that sure is what hard work is all about !!!!

[combined tree services]

i started hand cutting 2 years ago, i love the work itself felling trees is the best, but i hate the job if that makes sense, thats why ive started looking for other work now, cba with hand cutting any longer really.

The contractor said something to me the other day which sums it up, basically said to me i need to cut more timber to pay for the finance on his machinery, but when it comes to me getting payed more it dosn't happen

 

Dont be put off from working in the woods , often it is the case that the employer will put himself before his staff , you must be doing well if your paying the finance on his kit !!! lets be honest if the kit was being worked properly it would pay for its self !!!!

[Chris Sheppard]

We do a bt of a mixture of work through the year but from Feb to August usually we are out in the woods more than not. On the whole we get the sites that harvesters either couldn't work or wouldn't be worth bringing in due to the volumes.

 

We get a good variety of stuff from first thin small diameter firewood to oversize stag topped pines and everything in between.

 

Price wise, I think the best way is to cut out as many middlemen as possible, everyone taking a cut is meaning the guys actually doing the work are getting less and less.

 

The demand for firewood and biomass has helped a lot the last couple of years, though it's also pushed standing prices up a bit too.

 

We always emphasise that the cheaper someone wants the job doing for, the more mess there will be left behind.

 

I think there's an awful lot of younger arb guys who think that felling in the woods is easy - they are wrong. Simples

 

Yes, Forestry and Arb both involve chainsaws and trees, but on the whole that's about it for similarities.

 

Yes, getting the trees on the floor may be fairly straight forward, but doing it quickly and efficiently and presenting it tidily, and on more valuable stems, getting them down without smashing/tearing them, are things some people will never get there head round.

 

More often that not, they'll start to tire and start taking shortcuts - leaving the undersides with branches on, guessing lenghts, leaving toes on, stumps getting higher, timber thrown onto stacks, etc - it can't work like that.

 

I know I'm never going to make arb money in the woods, but I'm happy doing what I do, earn enough to keep moving forward and get to have an odd rest day doing arb jobs

[elfinwood saws]

Just set a 19 yr old on as a hand cutter he will be joining a team of 5 other hand cutters, so our team ranges from 19 to 51 yrs old. We tried using a harvester but went back to hand cutters as we can work on 2/3 woodlands at a time. Also using hand cutters provides more employment, we are in an area of very high unemployment.

[combined tree services]

Just set a 19 yr old on as a hand cutter he will be joining a team of 5 other hand cutters, so our team ranges from 19 to 51 yrs old. We tried using a harvester but went back to hand cutters as we can work on 2/3 woodlands at a time. Also using hand cutters provides more employment, we are in an area of very high unemployment.

 

Good on you , if only there were a few more employers like you around . some pictures of your chaps at work and the work sites would be great . Cheers Dave

[N1ck]

I've just finished working for a team that included a 75 year old hand cutter who is still going strong. What he didn't know probably wasn't worth knowing. I would have liked to spend longer working with him as there was so much to learn.

 

The days of hand cutters in production forestry are dead. That said there is still a need for them to clear the way for the harvester, to do the edge trees, to work the low-impact sites and small woods, but these are not jobs that should be paid on tonnage.

 

In terms of earning a decent wage, I agree with some of the comments on here that good cutters should not be prepared to work for the almost feudal levels of pay that some accept. A good cutter with their own saw, PPE, fuel etc. should be getting £100 a day, no matter where they are in the country. They'll burn at least £10 a day in fuel/chain oil and probably £10 in diesel getting to and from the job, £10 for an evening meal if working away from home, take out a bit more for tax/insurance/bar/chains/wear & tear, doesn't leave much.

 

Still the best job in the world though - but then I'm not being paid on tonnage!

[StephF]

After looking at 'Rebel commando's' post, comercial Forestry is a pretty cut throat world on pricing now,

FC often dont have enough contracters to tender for work,because the paper work is a nightmare and puts many off who used to do the work,H&S requirements and demand for so much certification is off the graph, and the prices put in on contracts are often unrealistic, are the workers getting paid any wages all? a sad state of affairs. I dont know how anyone running big machines makes a penny nowadays.