Pricing Coppicing...help please

[Husqvarna King]

My former farm employer has many large areas of woodland, that consist of mainly Hornbeam, Field Maple, with a few Oaks and Elm. He has been offered a grant from the council to coppice three of these woodlands. For this winter an area of 75m by 75m (1.4 Acres approx) of each woodland is to be done, coppicing the Hornbeam, Field Maple and felling the dead. Also the larger woodland has a lot of deer activity, the council specification says to "Coppard" the trees there (this means fell them at 6ft), with the deer not being able to eat the new shoots in the spring. (never heard of this before) The problem is that these woodlands have not been touched for about 80-100 years so they are in a mess and the trees are large! All brushwood will be made into heaps and burnt and i will be allowed to use a telehandler and muck grab to make fire heaps about every 3-4 days. The wood will be cut to 3ft lengths and stacked in rows around the woodland. I can take as much wood as i like (farmer wants some too)... But i was just wanting ideas as to what to charge, I was thinking £220 - £250 per day for 2 men, including saws, fuel etc with it taking roughly just over a week to do 1.4 Acres, so about 4 weeks for the lot...

What do you all think?

[plippy]

hi Husqvarna King

i coppiced some woodland for a local estate near me, we charged £100 a day but they wer selling the ash on to customers of theirs and they didnt bothr with a grant, but if your guys are pretty fast then what ya asking for is reasonable, also if the woodlands is that old the forestry commission may say not to cut the maidens because of the wildlife.

 

set ya price high, all he can do is knock ya down to wot ya after

 

farmers love a bit of haggling

[Husqvarna King]

hi Husqvarna King

i coppiced some woodland for a local estate near me, we charged £100 a day but they wer selling the ash on to customers of theirs and they didnt bothr with a grant, but if your guys are pretty fast then what ya asking for is reasonable, also if the woodlands is that old the forestry commission may say not to cut the maidens because of the wildlife.

 

set ya price high, all he can do is knock ya down to wot ya after

 

farmers love a bit of haggling

 

Thanks for your help, yeah thats what i was thinking, the wood would be difficult to extract for myself, so will only really take a few tons, so not worth much to me. Yeah i will have a look at the trees tomorrow, he has to send my quote off on monday so i have to get a price in quick

[plippy]

ive been coppicing 35 year old hornbeam and they are well heavy and a nightmare to burn the brash this time of year, hope there is no crop fields nearby, as my patch ive had to halt burning cos it just takes the wrong gust of wind and away it goes, but yours sounds well old so good luck moving it cos they are gona be big and really hard to sell at that size

[Husqvarna King]

ive been coppicing 35 year old hornbeam and they are well heavy and a nightmare to burn the brash this time of year, hope there is no crop fields nearby, as my patch ive had to halt burning cos it just takes the wrong gust of wind and away it goes, but yours sounds well old so good luck moving it cos they are gona be big and really hard to sell at that size

Yeah like i said i will probably leave most of the wood there...more looking forward to having the 660/395 at head height felling them!!

[plippy]

sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet lol

[Charlieh]

the above head felling is where having a full wrap handles comes into its own

[Buzz]

Your pricing and timing sound pretty much spot on to me without seeing the site.

 

Moving a telehandler around those coppiced stools though would be a complete nightmare. I'd consider using a small excavator with a re-handling or timber grab if you can source one.

[Husqvarna King]

Your pricing and timing sound pretty much spot on to me without seeing the site.

 

Moving a telehandler around those coppiced stools though would be a complete nightmare. I'd consider using a small excavator with a re-handling or timber grab if you can source one.

 

Yeah I totally agree about the telehandler, although i know the farmer wouldnt have a timber grab etc, if i make small brash piles in accessable areas i was hoping that i could just grab the piles up and make less, then burn them, used to be quite handy on a teleporter in my day:001_smile:

[tommer9]

Your pricing and timing sound pretty much spot on to me without seeing the site.

 

Moving a telehandler around those coppiced stools though would be a complete nightmare. I'd consider using a small excavator with a re-handling or timber grab if you can source one.

 

Yeah, the ize of telehandler that would be man enough for the job could become a PITA.

 

 

BTW what kind of deer have you in that area, as most native deer would easily reach that height standing on their hindlegs, and cant muntjack climb trees anyway??