Firewood armegeddan

[Marko]

Just had a look and just these two biomass boilers will use 1m tonnes of wood per annum. Yes 1 million tonnes.

 

It will be difficult enough fighting over the scraps these guys miss but it might be even harder to find someone to transport it.

[Mark Bolam]

Yet the £100/Transit load are still among us, year after year....

 

 

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[eggsarascal]

Yet the £100/Transit load are still among us, year after year....

 

 

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Is that a ton?

[Mark Bolam]

I can make it a ton after enough Stella....

 

 

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[Ashes_Firewood]

I agree have come accross this so often,sadly this is a typical attitude encountered all over UK. As a firewood producer and realising the pressure on us to obtain this dwindling resource I am angry/sad to see so much waste eg: from arb arisings I see in the green waste centres that will go in landfill, windblow left to rot or burn on farmland after recent storms, FC harvesting sites the harvester has been through leaving huge amounts of perfectly good logging material etc. etc. Dont get me on the foreign imported stuff!!!

 

There's a plantation near me that was felled around 12 months ago and they've left at a guess a forwarding trailer load of softwood sat stacked up by the track. I'm guessing it's because it's not worth sending a lorry to pick that amount up.

 

And another just up the road where there are decent lumps of wood that are presumably the off cuts from when the tree's been cut to whatever lengths. Sometimes see people carry odd bits out by hand as I'm driving past

[Brett]

perhaps if it was illegal to chip anything over 2" we might not have a problem?

 

you sir.... need a slap.

[StephF]

you sir.... need a slap.

 

I dont like any wood to be chipped over 2" if I can help it, not popular when we are working flat out!!

[Tom D]

The maths on this issue are the problem.

Last week we were paid 5.5k to clear a load of trees from a motorway embankment. we produced around 90 cube of chip and 20 odd tons of cord. It was all hardwood and was perfect processor size, small diameter straight and clean. We gave the wood away to a nearby estate on the condition that they took the chip. For us to have transported the chip away was more effort and time and therefore money than giving away £800 of wood. If I had had the option of burning the lot I would have just to get rid of it..

 

The fact is that we make far more money cutting the trees than we do on the firewood.

Also it is usually far better to sell the firewood to a log seller than to split it yourself, I can get £45 a ton roadside for hardwood, and at that price i'd far rather sell it that way than attempt to make a profit splitting and selling it. We get plenty of wood from the small jobs where its not economical to sell wholesale.

 

The problem is on road side and site work, I don't get paid until the site is clear, so when I do a deal with a firewood guy to get rid of the timber and then he drags his feet in getting the stuff lifted it causes no end of hassle. I have had my fingers seriously burned this way on several occasions. Hence I will get rid of the timber in what ever way is easiest.

 

The future of UK firewood is staring you in the face, SOFTWOOD…. you guys will pay crazy money for a lorry load of oversized knotty twisty hardwood that is very labour intensive to process. Yet a lory load of pulpwood will be half the price and will process in 1/4 of the time. Work out your labour costs and you will see that you will make far more £££ selling softwood even though it sells at half the price...

 

Whats that you say? " no one will buy softwood!" then its time you educated them….

Edited March 4, 2014 by Tom D

[Welshwoodsman]

The maths on this issue are the problem.

Last week we were paid 5.5k to clear a load of trees from a motorway embankment. we produced around 90 cube of chip and 20 odd tons of cord. It was all hardwood and was perfect processor size, small diameter straight and clean. We gave the wood away to a nearby estate on the condition that they took the chip. For us to have transported the chip away was more effort and time and therefore money than giving away £800 of wood. If I had had the option of burning the lot I would have just to get rid of it..

 

The fact is that we make far more money cutting the trees than we do on the firewood.

Also it is usually far better to sell the firewood to a log seller than to split it yourself, I can get £45 a ton roadside for hardwood, and at that price i'd far rather sell it that way than attempt to make a profit splitting and selling it. We get plenty of wood from the small jobs where its not economical to sell wholesale.

 

The problem is on road side and site work, I don't get paid until the site is clear, so when I do a deal with a firewood guy to get rid of the timber and then he drags his feet in getting the stuff lifted it causes no end of hassle. I have had my fingers seriously burned this way on several occasions. Hence I will get rid of the timber in what ever way is easiest.

 

The future of UK firewood is staring you in the face, SOFTWOOD…. you guys will pay crazy money for a lorry load of oversized knotty twisty hardwood that is very labour intensive to process. Yet a lory load of pulpwood will be half the price and will process in 1/4 of the time. Work out your labour costs and you will see that you will make far more £££ selling softwood even though it sells at half the price...

 

Whats that you say? " no one will buy softwood!" then its time you educated them….

 

Lovely. I like it, as i am sitting on at least 10000cu m of softwood, that is just waiting to be felled, once access is available, i am rubbing my hands with glee at that suggestion. Its true of course, all the best stoves come from scandinavia and they all burn softwood, as does switzerland, and austria most of the time, that is how they get those lovely tidy wood stacks under the eaves of their chalets.

Anyone want softwood in abergavenny then. Access a nightmare, offroad driving skills definitely an advantage, all trees growing far too close together, 7o years old, and at least 89 ft high. Some over 4 ft across at the bottom. I like that suggestion very much

[SamWhiting12]

Lovely. I like it, as i am sitting on at least 10000cu m of softwood, that is just waiting to be felled, once access is available, i am rubbing my hands with glee at that suggestion. Its true of course, all the best stoves come from scandinavia and they all burn softwood, as does switzerland, and austria most of the time, that is how they get those lovely tidy wood stacks under the eaves of their chalets.

Anyone want softwood in abergavenny then. Access a nightmare, offroad driving skills definitely an advantage, all trees growing far too close together, 7o years old, and at least 89 ft high. Some over 4 ft across at the bottom. I like that suggestion very much

 

Yes I would be interested, Ill send you a PM.