hand cutters rates tonnage/day rate

[AlexB]

On the whole, the increase in roadside prices have just pushed the standing prices up. One of the main problems as I see it is there are too many middlemen wanting a cut.

 

In an ideal world, the Contractor would deal with everything from the management plan to the selling to the producer. When it works like that, everyone does a bit better out of it and aren't lining an agents' pocket

 

Quite right, the last hand cutting work I did was split between.

 

Land owner

 

Smith gore

 

Tilhill

 

Contractor (scooping off his £1/2t) extraction £6t

 

Cutter £8-10t depending on product.

 

 

That's a lot of people for (£40t road side)

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

hi thanks to you all who replied with info on rates,i have a good solid foundation to work on now,the hardwood thining is approx 30 yr old and average 10-15" all striat with very little canopy as they where originally planted a 3-31/2 ft apart and the softwood is clearfell approx 10 yr old 6-10" bothe on fairly flat ground, i was thinking in the region of 12 - 15 tonne per day per man. thanks again for the replys.

 

Reduce that by 8-10 / tonne unless hand stacking everything. 30 x half metre (or 1/3 t) sticks doesn't take a lot of bother. £225, wow, where are you working?!

 

Maybe the reason why there are no good cutters anymore is that agents and estates still expect guys to work for £100 a day less costs. With the price of petrol and diesel, insurance & PPE going up it is getting harder and harder to make a living no matter how good a cutter you are.

 

I appreciate that new hand cutters have to learn their trade and should expect to get less while they are new, but the other problem we have down south is estates that have not kept up their maintenance programmes and still expect commercial piece rates for cutting when there has been no thinning, cleaning, ride swipping, brashing, cutting fire breaks etc. Commercial piece rates are for commercial production felling, not for maintaining neglected pheasant cover. For that they can pay day rate.

 

If enough good contractors insisted on a minimum rate for hand cutting and at the same time invested time and money training a new generation of cutters we might be in a situation where there was a pool of good forestry workers making a decent living.

 

Maybe if land owners didn't pay so much to agents . . . but don't get me started on that!

 

agents

 

Good post

 

I'm moving to Somerset to work for Jon!

 

 

On the whole, the increase in roadside prices have just pushed the standing prices up. One of the main problems as I see it is there are too many middlemen wanting a cut.

 

In an ideal world, the Contractor would deal with everything from the management plan to the selling to the producer. When it works like that, everyone does a bit better out of it and aren't lining an agents' pocket

 

100% ditto.

 

Quite right, the last hand cutting work I did was split between.

 

Land owner

 

Smith gore

 

Tilhill

 

Contractor (scooping off his £1/2t) extraction £6t

 

Cutter £8-10t depending on product.

 

 

That's a lot of people for (£40t road side)

 

Lol, exactly same here; owner - smiths gore - tilhill...

[spuddog0507]

Thanks again to all who replied, some good points pointed out, some of you may think it strange that the hardwood stand i mentioned was planted at 3-31/2 ft apart rows are about 6ft but i can stand there with my arms out and nearly get a hand round a tree on either side of me,trees i would estimate at 45ft + very straight and hardly any canopy on them it looks a fairly easy job to me (been on a lot worse) thanks again.