Could you make a living?

[sjs5060]

If you happen to be given 40 acres of woodland for free, had a felling license for some and thinning license for the rest. Could have whatever equipment you want to harvest/process the timber would it be possible to make a living from it?

What would you do and why?

The area of woodland is about a third pine trees with the remainder small hardwoods with some bigger oaks dotted around.

 

Just planning my early retirement

 

Cheers, Ste

[Bird]

How have you been given the land ?

[the village idiot]

I would think a lot would depend on what you are calling a living. Would you have a mortgage to pay? Are you creative ie. can you make value added items or are you just thinking firewood?

[sjs5060]

Bird it's part of a plot of land were another 'hands off' enterprise covers the rent.

 

Mr idiot I'm not creative in the sense that I'd be good at carving but can turn my hand to things. I'd consider anything, do fancy a go at milling tho.

 

Ste

[Bird]

Milling seems good for oaks, the Hardwoods furniture buyers would certainly buy it, firewood, chippings, cut your own, loads of possibilities !

[the village idiot]

To be honest I think I personally would struggle to make a living off 40 acres, but on the plus side, I am an idiot!

It would really come down to what you needed to earn. I have a mortgage to pay and a financially crippling sweetie habit. I do make a living but have 200 acres to play with.

I keep things very simple and only produce firewood and charcoal in any quantity. If you think outside the box a bit and have good marketing skills you can add a lot more value to wood. One example would be Swedish candles. Each of your pine trees could fetch upwards of £150 as candles and maybe £30 as firewood. Things like wood turning blanks and sawn timber go for good money relative to their size. They take a lot more ingenuity to sell though than firewood.

 

If your financial security would depend on the woodland alone I would advise serious caution. If not then I can guarantee you will have an absolute blast.

[Johnpl315]

40 acres would only be any good if you got arty craft. If you started felling purely for timber the lot would be down in no time and you would be broke.

If you had hazel coppice you could cut two acres a year and have a 7 year rotation and if you made hurdles that could keep you busy all year round indefinitly.

If you had sweet chestnut coppice you could cut every 20 years, if you had 40 acres that means you could cut 2 acres a year indefinitly.

Softwood if only really profitable with big machinery. There is not much potential for an individual to add value to it, as to increase the value it needs milling, kiln drying, pressure treating and grading.

Milling oak has better prospects but I personal have milled a few big trees now and barely manage to balance the books. Our oak is poorer quality and more expensive than imported oak.

I would love to own a wood but no chance I would commit to trying to make a living out of 40 acres!

[Haironyourchest]

Get or build yourself yourself a slick website and advertise "Artisanal Firewood" at £200 a log. Handcrafted, lovingly cured by master craftsmen etc. Its the latest thing in wood products. Best start now before everyone gets into the racket....

[Brett]

'what ever kit...'

 

clear fell area under license, use timber to build a coffee shop, car park and kiddies adventure/play area, create walks with 'interesting features', make sure its all 'organic' and 'rustic'.

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

40 acres is nowhere near enough to yield timber sustainably from which you could make a "living" assuming a living is upwards of £1k/month.