Lack of hardwood

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

I bid on some clean larch standing recently; went for £25/m3 standing; national trust bought it! Or was the seller bluffing?

[Coximus]

Exactally - One farmer who has a 12acre shelter belt woodland in the same area, said much the same - I could pay upfront in one go for maybe 10+ tons or so, but dont have cash flow for more - he can thin out almost 200 tons on his current felling licence - Hes sat on offers of £22 standing he claims, I offer £30 if I can take 25, and pay for 10 now, and the 15 when I take them over summer........ Nope, he wants the ease of one single buyer, one check, someone good for the money! and someone taking all 200 tons in one go, BACs next week, what more could you want really, no mess, no stress?

 

 

That's probably one of the main reasons for the shortage, if I could sell all my firewood to one person for a cut down price it makes my job a lot easier, unfortunately.

[SamWhiting12]

This is why we should create an arbtalk firewood syndicate. Have a large number of companies to allow us to bid on large quantities/stands for harvesting for wood and then distribute the wood to who wants it/whoever has paid in for it.

 

It would probably take a lot of work to create, and even then it probably wont work very well!

[Joy Yeomans]

theres no new planting on any significant scale all the thinning has been done so in ten years there will be no timber all the softwood is going biomass to powerstations all the firewood men are chasing what little hardwood is about this will dry up. the job i think will be dead in 15 years

 

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[muldonach]

With the grants on softwood they get more to extract it. If you strangle the market for hardwood the price stays high win win. but not for the small log guys.

 

What grants are you referring to Steve?

[renewablejohn]

theres no new planting on any significant scale all the thinning has been done so in ten years there will be no timber all the softwood is going biomass to powerstations all the firewood men are chasing what little hardwood is about this will dry up. the job i think will be dead in 15 years

 

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Problem is you can no longer find the cheap land to plant.

[gensetsteve]

What grants are you referring to Steve?

 

The power station boys were getting 50% of the cost of the wood they burnt. So they could afford to double the rate. We have made kindling for years from down grade rejects from timber mills but last few years anything dry has been snapped up by the biomass boys. Now the subsidies have dried up its a bit easier for us.

[ArthurBottlesworth]

All those 'posh' boys have spent £3k putting in a woodburner

They will try chopping up a few wet logs with a cheap chainsaw and splitting axe and lose interest

Then you'll get the sales ........at premium prices ........if you ask them