Charlieh

try a&b services spare parts for Forestry Machinery in Scotland & UK, Harvester, Skyline, Timbermaster Husqvarna,Waratah

I have one, its great you can get stuff out through narrow trees and mine will pull out a couple of small birch trunks out 8"dbh 25ft long without it even knowing that there is anything on the back, with very little impact. its good with bigger lmps as well 20" dia logs for my alaskan in 12ft lenghts are not a problem. What i will say is try and skid the timber out in as long a pole as possible as mine doesnt like stuff under 8ft as it doesnt sit in the bunk well enough to grip properly. I saw that it looked a really good design especially with the fold down spades for skidding stuff to the arch if your working on sloping ground

i have only had the pro's and I will probably buy the same when i replace these (they were like slippers out of the box), very comfortable and ideal for in deep mud or watery sites as they are very tall (which was my main criteria) and supportive.

The alpine wouldnt be eligable anyway, the winch would although you would have to demonstrate your working in woodland requiring winch extraction, and the woodland must have a management plan, if you dont have eligable woodlands with a mgmt plan you will require a letter from your local FC office Hope this is of some use, the paperwork isnt that hard and depending on your area there are organisations out there that will work through it with you on your behalf

I have been sent these by FERA, and show typical progess of the disease. The disease spreads up from ground level so is normally first seen at ground level.

I run a 560xpg not had any probs with it running an 18" bar and 8pin drive sprocket, It feels nicely balanced with a 15 or 18" not sure I would want a bigger bar on a 60cc saw for regular use though. Im not a great fan of the stihls in this size though so I may be biased

very nice pics. I have spent a fair bit of time on those older deeres including 4020's and 5020's they are unbelivably powerful

HUSQVARNA 365H the Russians have all sorts of wierd kit! it would be handy for coppicing save having to keep bending over

I am aware of one site where this has been confirmed and the nursery came out very quickly and removed all the supplied ash trees this was up on the North Herts/Essex border, the main worry now is that they were planted following a thinning in a mature ash woodland, so there is a chance in the 2months they were in they could have transfered it into the wider woodland.

sounds like your describing a stalpen jack, but they are designed for felling not moving?

It might be worth him joining the small woods association, and giving them a ring as they may have someone locally that could come out for a look.

The recommended disinfectant is Propellar for footware/tools etc (its basically industrial meths), the suppliers are: Evans Chemical Supplies, 18B Barncoose Industrial Estate Redruth Cornwall TR15 3RX. Tel. 01209 213643 This is one of the two that im aware of that FC/FERA deam of being capable of killing the spores

get a big stihl strimmer, FS400 or bigger (FS550 ideally) and fit a mulching blade to it like this it will take you a matter of an hour or two tops to do a 30mtrx30mtr block of brambles with this, they are great and will take out small tree regen upto about thumb sized easily Spot treat any regen with some thing suitable either round up or something specific, as mentioned it will be growing from a fairly small number of plants so regen shouldnt take much controlling.

Paul, fair enough we are going to have to differ on this, after all its a forum and its for discusssion. You may have a well managed shoot and have raptor problems, but as i said on all the sites i have ever had any dealings with there have been significant subtle improvements that could be made to help prevent raptors preying on game species. I'm sorry if my post seemed patronising to you, it wasnt meant to be that way. I would prefer if however you didnt propose to know what shooting experince i have or what my knowledge of the countryside is at all in any way shape or form as having never knowingly met. Again though sorry for any offence you may have take from my post, its not a dig a keepers as i have been there myself for a couple of years (i will certainly take you up on the offer if i get down your neck of the woods, as i always like to look around other shoots )

to coin a phrase There are "Lies, damned lies, and statistics" having done my degree and MSc thesis on game management and effects on species of conservation interest, we could all be give the same raw data about buzzards, but by using different interpretation and statistics we could all come up with an answer that suits us, to be fair the money in DEFRA's tender for this means its going to be a really small scale trail as you simply can do the ground work required for a detailed study on that budget IMHO, unless you use it fund a couple of PhD's with it then you may get some impartial but decent data. Im really supprised that they have done this for buzzards before DEFRA have done research on sparrowhawks which has been regarded as in issue for the last 15+years, although most of this sparrowhark research has already been done by the likes of GWCT. I think this comes on the back of some serious lobbying by the NGO bigwigs but certainly on the ground in eastern England I used to keeper on buzzards didnt even surface on the radar as being an issue. Hopefully sensible decisions are made, as having worked for various bodies including the local joint raptor study group the last thing the conservation sector in the country needs is more material to cause arguments, what is really required is compromise on all sides, I have worked with very co-operative keepers on the moors, and some that are very wary, likewise I have also had dealings with Raptor groups that wont actually work with people in the conservation sector. Until a compromise be reached the stalemate will continue. FTR I shoot have done all my life and I have yet to see a well managed proper shoot with a decent keeper that has an issue with raptors. the first thing i look for on the farm land is what state the environment is in, as if its being managed well for nature then game normally does ok, so good hedges are a must, if you butcher hedges every year then your going to have raptor predation as you removing a significant amout of cover and movement corridors for the wildlife. Even little things like consideration of where to site release pens, if you make a big opening in the woodland and then sit a pen full of 400ready meals in it with an abundance of perching points around it your going to have issues. I have found a lot of so called keepers now dont want to put the leg work in, dont even get me started on red-legs on grouse moors I had convinced myself i wasnt going to get drawn into this as well

ah thats fine then, I would be interested to know as well. I know areas i have used it i have had no regrowth of brambles or knotweed 2years on! I have been told about it translocating upto 25mtrs and killing mature trees, so I am very wary of using it now. If im using it on knotweed i make sure that i prevent any overspray or drift.

er just moniter the shrubs and bushes in close proximity as it can translocate through the soil, I avoid using tordon close to any trees or shrubs you dont want to loose, and in your photos it looks like there are some bushes that you have sprayed up to.

i thought it was to hold Tony's ash tray

what was interesting at a talk i attended on wednesday was the asian longhorn beetle was imported in packing crates, in a yard owned by a firm who closed down two years ago, something like 40 trees had been felled in the local area as a precaution and of these 24 had asian longhorn larvae in them! bearing in mind they have a 2year lavael stage, it raises the question about how long they had been there and if they could have been imported elsewhere. The chestnut blight that has recently been reported were both on chestnuts bought from the same nursery as specific nut producing varieties, which had been imported from over seas! we have these things coming in on a daily basis and FC/FERA are really asking for people in our profession to learn the basic identification features of these pests and diseases. Im not to worried about my woodland, as the rhodie was marked for removal anyway, and the younger larch plantation next door was cleared last summer so that should have reduced the risk to some extent.

FERA have just launched some videos for professionals about Phytophthora ramorum [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDN7eQann2k]Phytophthora - Stop the spread - YouTube[/ame] This is a bigger issue than I think it has been give credit for across a lot of the UK, there is the known sites where compulsory felling has taken place, but I wasnt aware of how common its was in sites with rhodie in it. It turns out there are known cases within a few of my woodlands and others that I manage. As a result I have FERA/FC coming out to test the rhodie in my woodland but as I am within the distance of a comnfirmed case that means I should be removing the rhodie anyway, fingers crossed the larch crop its under is ok. I would ask anyone up the west coast or in west midlands/north west to be aware of the diesase and familiarise yourself with its symptoms Forestry Commission - Pests and Diseases - phytophthora ramorum There is lots of advice and info out there and even if you have a small suspicion you should contact your local FC woodland office or FERA to seek further advice. The resources being deployed to this by FC currently are staggering with all the at risk areas being flown by helicopter with FC/FERA staff on board to idetify blocks of larch and noting any dieback for a follow up visit. Also finally comes biosecurity, this is a key part of the battle against this, as from now on our kit including things like tractors and mini forwarders will be steam cleaned and disinfected between sites including using alchol disinfectant on kit like boots and saws if you have potentially been on a site that could be a disease reservoir. I know this isnt always practical but I think we should be making an effort to try and prevent the spead of the diseases such as this. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/phytophthoraprotocol30apr2010.pdf/$FILE/phytophthoraprotocol30apr2010.pdf

two versions orange are older and 46cc silver are newer and 50cc

Nice set up Iain, how do you think the alpine will compare on trailer to the vimek unit? Looks like a handy grab on the front loader as well

Really one of my mates got cymag poisoning, i dont think he would agree, he was critical for a couple of weeks. Phostoxin is far far safer than cymag

I would say you are far to cheap at that for all that kit and two cutters, what sort of contingencys are you building into your day rate for kit break downs etc as on those margins if you get a puncture or break a winch cable your going to have a loss making week. The other thing is are you sure there is the work out there, a friend has a bcs with winch on it and it hasnt moved since mid Jan. Also how are you transporting the equipment around and are you charging a milage rate for this as if you have to move the kit 40miles away you will find this is a big chunk of fuel to move that rig on a big ifor. Im not trying to be negative by I just suspect you need to look at your figures before you sell yourself short and end up without any income

Anyone else on here currently got any felling license apps in on SSSI/SAC/RAMSAR sites? had two of mine today emailed back that as part of the new EWGS procedures I now have to fill in an extra four pages of paper work (baring in mind the felling licence app is 1page) for NE/FC consulation on the works. Im not happy as NE had already said they were happy with the proposals oh well more paperwork to do.