RichardT

I run a Goldoni and before that had a Kubota L2850. Pretty comparable, I'd say. Italian paintwork maybe a bit more variable. Mechanically solid enough. I've seen tiny alpines in Italy with 5k+ hours on them.

Which ferry did you have in mind?

Lovely part of the world, good luck with the move. If you're kicking your heels while getting paid work sorted, I understand that the local Community Forest (Kilfinan, seems quite active & was successful with a FC community land purchase a while ago) has a shedload of windblow to sort out, may be worth following up for contacts & brownie points.....also look out for a chap called David Blair, eccentric but very interesting type who lives in the middle of his own oak woods in a rather splendid self-felled/milled/designed/built roundhouse.

"This is the current forerunner, although not available via a UK supplier yet." The Oxen is now imported by Artcom Tradebridge. There's a Czech knockoff too if you're up for the personal import malarkey: http://www.engineeringblatna.cz/pdf/prospekt.pdf

I see that Artcom seem to have dropped the Iron Horse in favour of this: Artcom Tradebridge Ltd No idea on prices.

My main workhorse, definitely compact by mainstream standards but with decent 70hp grunt:

Cute, but this one already has forestry guarding in place, and Mog style portals: Very Rare Haflinger buggy LSV desert SAS steyr puch vehicle | eBay

I posted in speculative mode, partly on the strength of a pub discussion over the w/e about farm tenancies. Obviously I know what I've taken out of the place over the years in standing timber, stock rearing, unrelated business &c, and I know roughly what it's worth in terms of land and residential values, but the $64k question of what someone else might make of it is a bit 'how long is a piece of string'-ish. Same issue applies to say a shop with flat above, or an ag holding, but in both of those cases there are plenty of available comparisons. For houses with associated woodland less so, at least in this country. A compartment map says what's there, but only to a limited extent what can be done with it. Firewood? Cabins? Hosting satanic rituals? Disposing of the evidence from gangland hits? As I say, just thinking aloud about the feasibility of letting home + woodland as an alternative to the default option of getting Cleggs on the case.

Other ideas to pursue and increasing symptoms of (late) middle age mean that we’re probably going to move out of the holding we’ve built up from scratch over the last decade. In short, the place comprises 170-odd acres of FSC commercial softwood at most ages from recent clearfell and young regen birch/spruce to final thinning, with a good track network and good road access, roughly equidistant from Edinburgh and Newcastle and 3m from pubs/shop/school &c. There’s a house (timber built, wood-fired), useful steading, a few acres of grass, substantial areas of heavy duty livestock fencing, quarry and off-grid power from PV , small wind turbine and genset. It’s a registered holding. Selling up outright is the obvious route, but forestry land remains a good long term bet and more importantly we still really like the place and would like to retain a voice in its future, so we want to explore letting as well. The place is definitely not your mainstream country-cottage-with-a-paddock, so I thought the tree-focused community hereabouts might have some useful or cautionary views on the idea. Dreamers and flakes would love the place, but in an ideal world what I think it needs is someone with the intention to actively work the Wood while living here and the skills, possibly the kit (and definitely a fully functioning back etc.) to do it., eg people involved with other arb/firewood/forestry activities. A partnership of some kind might also be a possibility. Purely exploratory at this stage, and I’ve not thought through how it might work contractually, but I’d be interested in any views on whether/how the idea is worth pursuing and whether this Perfect Tenant is a figment of my imagination…. Any thoughts?

YouTube offers an almost limitless library of Zetors being brutally abused in forestry work. Most of the machines look older than the drivers, so they must be capable of taking a fair bit of punishment.

Fair enough, I was thinking of Martin as source of appropriate contacts (which I know for a fact he has, but he's a discreet sort of bloke). Apart from Commission-sponsored test projects, I know of two places using wild boar explicitly as a management tool, one on a small Perthshire estate and one in Shropshire farm woodlands. If your contact dead-ends let me know.

Oops, missed this: "predominantly large black crossed with saddleback, with a dash of Gloucester old spot" Big buggers then.

"He now lives in his woods in a caravan with his free range pigs." Been there..... Good luck to him, hard to get the margin for outdoor pigs these days, people are used to concentration camp prices. No piggy pics on the website, what breeds does he keep?

They're not easily offended, most don't even read English.

"I'm gonna guess & say he means when they need managing (IE culling)" Quite possibly, but I and every other woodland owner I know has to manage/cull deer, but I rarely hear the term 'infestation' in that context. I'd suggest getting in touch with Martin Goulding. Wild Boar in Britain

What's your working definition of 'infested' then?

Chinese imports: Home Page

RAMROD TASKMASTER 1150 BOBCAT | eBay

There are a couple of Italian makers of tiny crawler tractors, here's an eg off Fleabay.it, I've seen the same thing branded differently elsewhere (MIRA?). Micro Trattore Cingolato AXO Diesel Cingoli Trattorino | eBay

My old 900 had the same bracket, the James Jones ROPS/guarding frame was fixed to that and to each chassis rail just behind front wheels, presumably 3pt mounted to allow for chassis flex. You can just see the forward-pointing arms here, I'll upload a higher res snap if its of any use. http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/members/richardt-albums-misc-picture1906-dsc01155.jpg

Haven't got clue 1 about Valmets, but if you're thinking of shifting the BCS please let me know.... Might be worth talking to Kevin Cowe locally, he's run a few.

Here's what you need: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32Hid0gC4dQ&feature=related]2cv 4x4 montee impossible morvan 2010 2.MPG - YouTube[/ame]

To be fair the early Japanese and Korean imports - whatever the label on the bonnet - were built for paddy fields and imported for grounds and garden work. Hence comically weak front axles, etc. That's one of the reasons I like Italian small tractors, they're designed to survive being driven by Italians.

Given unlimited funds my compact tractor of choice would be a bi-directional articulated alpine of around 50hp, with lift and pto at both ends, a quick attach loader at the back and oversized forestry tyres. Sadly funds are not unlimited.

FYI, Igland 3601 at H&H Broughton auction, tomorrow Tue 30/8 1pm.