Firewood For a living

[Shic]

Gents.

 

I would be very grateful for any advice. I have recently moved abroad and have just done renovating our house and am now looking around for a way to earn a living. We have about 12 acres of land with lots of hedging, including around 30 huge ash trees. I would love to make a living from selling the wood for firewood. Unfortunately 25 years in the military has not given me all the skills or knowledge I require....

 

I have a small tractor and a chainsaw and have used them both extensively over the past year.

 

Some basic questions I have are...

 

What equipment is it worth investing in?

 

What courses are worth going on?

 

What is the best way of managing the land and trees we have ie planting etc

 

The market here seems good everyone we know has a woodburner and people have expressed an interest when we have tested the water

 

We would need to make around £8000 per year is this feasible with our land ?

I would be very grateful for any advice you think would be helpful

 

Cheers in Advance

[Arran Woodfuels]

moved abroad

 

A lot of what you ask about would depend where you are abroad (Norway or Namibia?)

 

To plant trees now for firewood harvesting, no problem if you have 20 years to wait.

 

Doubt if you could clear £8,000 pa (in the UK) with even 12 acres of dense, mature woodland.

 

Have you thought about rearing pigs instead?

[Shic]

France close to the pyrenees, no not realy thought about pigs..

[firewoodman]

good luck with that mate but dont rely on it.

 

use the wood to fuel your own home and find something easier with more profit........B+B????

 

any good skiing close by???

[MattyF]

Or you could go all out and buy a processor and buy in timber and store it in a barn once cut but that would cost a lot to set up....in the uk you can get grants for 40% of buildings and machinary if your setting up a fire wood buisness dont know if the eu or who ever will do the same for carbon nuteral fuels in france.. might be worth looking in too.

[BARNSLEY BOB]

Or you could go all out and buy a processor and buy in timber and store it in a barn once cut but that would cost a lot to set up....in the uk you can get grants for 40% of buildings and machinary if your setting up a fire wood buisness dont know if the eu or who ever will do the same for carbon nuteral fuels in france.. might be worth looking in too.

 

 

where and from whome is funding available.????

[carver]

where and from whome is funding available.????

 

I would like to know that too!!

[Marko]

I am sure there are more avenues to explore but thiis might be a useful starting point http://www.carbonneutralfuel.com/documents/wm_biofuel_capital_grant_workshop_09.pdf

[Arran Woodfuels]

a useful starting point

 

Not for you Carver, that's for sassanaichs. Teuchters should go here:

 

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Rural/SRDP/RuralPriorities/HowItWorks

[Shic]

Thanks for the replies,

 

I think my plan was going along the lines of start very slow ie me chainsaw and tractor selling to people we have met, see how it develops and if there is a market, and if it is going ok then look at buying wood in. Had not thought yet about a processor are they expensive?

 

We have a huge wooden barn on site that was originally used for drying sheets of tobacco, so it fits the bill for drying logs perfectly. If we try to use what we have to start and see how it goes from there.

 

Thanks again for the advice so far, please keep it coming !