small scale timber extraction costs

[Chris Sheppard]

My mate just bought #1 of very few genuine MF forestry spec 390's off my old boss in Gloucestershire. Tis a very sweet tractor with roffmount FMV etc. Now earning money as it had sat for some time. Serious wonga tho; don't need anything like that for yard duties...

 

Got any pics of it Jon? Bet it's a grand little thing.

[doobin]

And I bet it's not a patch on an International...

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

Got any pics of it Jon? Bet it's a grand little thing.

 

Oooh will have a little try - sneaky paparazi job

[treedweller]

You would be hard pushed to do 50 m3 per day with an alstor or an alpine unless you where moving it a spitting distance i'd say. Be better off with a county or a decent tractor and a 4/5 tonne winch/blade setup. But skidding is messy, dirty on timber. A 6t timber trailer behind a decent 4wd tractor will get most places. In my opinion and i know i'll get shot down as i usually do!! alstor's and alpines are for sssi and sensitive areas when the price to do the job is heavily subsidised in order to preserve the ecology and is not down to production and profit margins. Like someone has already pointed out smaller dosn't mean cheaper.

[Chris Sheppard]

In my opinion and i know i'll get shot down as i usually do!! alstor's and alpines are for sssi and sensitive areas when the price to do the job is heavily subsidised in order to preserve the ecology and is not down to production and profit margins.

 

Yes and no IMO. I think it's more about the right tool on the right site.

 

I used to run a mid sized alpine alongside my old County and it worked well. Even now, we still run small machinery, and usually on standing sales so there's no subsidies involved.

 

If we feel we need a bigger machine in then we get one in.

[treedweller]

Yes and no IMO. I think it's more about the right tool on the right site.

 

I used to run a mid sized alpine alongside my old County and it worked well. Even now, we still run small machinery, and usually on standing sales so there's no subsidies involved.

 

If we feel we need a bigger machine in then we get one in.

 

I understand what your saying Chris. Out of interest on a site where you would use small equipment do you work off day rate or £/tonne extracted and what's the most you have extracted with the alpine in a day and how far was it to landing/roadside.

[slack ma girdle]

And I bet it's not a patch on an International...

 

Or a mighty Nuffield.

[treedave]

TreeAb,

The Alstor near me goes out man & machine for £300 per day. My Alpine and trailer goes out for a bit less, especially for longer contracts ie less transport days to work days.

 

For those that think that Alstors/Alpines can only work on grant money, I'd like to see you get a county or tractor/trailer rig up some of the sub 2m wide access routes I've had to use. That said, they'll never shift the volume per hr that a big rig will shift, but they don't need the roads/ reinstatement either.

 

Horses for courses.

 

 

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[treedweller]

nice wee tractor; wish I could find one like that...

 

I'll sell you one only it would cost about a fifth of it's value to ship all tway down theer!

[Chris Sheppard]

I understand what your saying Chris. Out of interest on a site where you would use small equipment do you work off day rate or £/tonne extracted and what's the most you have extracted with the alpine in a day and how far was it to landing/roadside.

 

On the whole it's on our own jobs where it's been bought standing so it's based on tonnage.

 

Do get some jobs on day rate from time to time but not often.

 

Best I've managed so far with our current tractor and trailer (30 something hp Kubota and 4T Weimer trailer) was 26 loads forwarded out in a 12 hour day, with some of it at the far end of the site being the thick end of a kilometer round trip to the stack. That was exception rather than the norm though, typically it's more like 10-12 loads in a normal 8hr day but depends on what spec, how it's been presented and the terrain.

 

Typically we'd get around 2.5T of 3.7m Hardwood firewood to a load and 3T of 3.7m Softwood sawlogs, though the 26 load day was a bit of a selection of lengths so probably nearer 2T per load.

 

I don't know what the best I ever managed to skid with the alpine was as most of the time I'd pull them as I felled them as I was on my own a fair bit, though recently we were getting around 20/25T per day skidded out with the little landini (28hp) in small (typically 12" dbh and 30/40ft) sycamore thinnings. The tractor was pulling them 5 at a time butt first, uphill no prob and we would have been able to get more out per snig if we'd had more sliders. Even doubling up where we could it still played with them. One end of the site they were going aub 100m, by the time we'd got to the other end more like 3-400m.

 

That site was quite wet in the end and even after three days or so of skidding out of the same gateway, we'd barely left a mark on the ground, wereas a bigger machine would have left quite notable wheelings and also needed wider racks putting in to get in/out in the first place.