muldonach

Whilst taking the comments that this woodland is an SSSI on board, if the above is a general provision then we are truly living in a world gone mad.

You are following your clients instructions and getting paid for it which makes you his agent or servant - as such he will be responsible for your actions - provided you follow his instructions of course, do you have a written scope of work? It would appear to be very much in your interest to have someone with you on a full time basis and they should be a party to all conversations with your client, the lady in question and anyone else who comes along, that person should not be a relative. You should also check carefully, preferably with a witness, that the field is stockproof at any time you leave it, your client may be able to assist by providing gates etc. I would keep a diary and take notes of all events, conversations etc as soon after they occur as practicable, a camera in the vehicle would also be useful to have around. You might wish to consider calling the local press and telling them you are not getting much interest out of the RSPCA - but perhaps mention that to your client first? Alternatively perhaps an acquaintance of yours could decide to call the RSPCA and assuming they meet a similar lack of interest take matters up with the press independently as it were:wink: I would discuss matters with your client and let him know that you are not 100% comfortable with your present pig-in-the-middle position and try to get something from him or his lawyers to reassure you. At the end of the day it is his land and his hedge, there should be a contract between him and the lady which puts the onus on one or the other to maintain the boundaries as stockproof (normally the grazier) and as long as you take reasonable steps to keep the hedge stockproof I would think you would be in good shape. Cheers mac (who has no legal training whatever)

It does not make me cry but it annoys me to an extent - there is a "reserve" near us which I am told operates a similar policy i.e. nothing gets sold and everything stays as "habitat". Thing is these folks are then holding out their hands for grant money and donations! There is surely a middle road - keep the non marketable stuff & whatever else you need & sell what you can. We certainly keep all lop and top, leave standing deadwood if possible otherwise deadwood is shortwooded and piled - we do not leave good timber to rot - that is not what it was grown for! Cheers mac

Just a small point as well on VAT - you are advertising a rate of 5% - that is only valid if the purchaser is going to use the wood themselves to heat their own house. If they are going to sell it on or use it to heat a business then the VAT rate is 20% Good luck with your venture but I think you will struggle to get £50 per tonne collected. Whereabouts are you - your firewood prices look pretty optimistic too - we are gettin £60 per cube for seasoned hardwoods and a local guy is doing large scale (for here) fire wood with seasoned softwood at £33 per cube collected Cheers mac

If it has no compression then I think you have answered your own question - I think you need to strip and examine - unless it is still under warranty in which case get it back to supplier.

Nice to see somebody's year getting off to a good start - sounds like an excellent result for you - presume you will not be dithering as to whether or not to take the rest of it? Cheers mac

Let me know if you need any more! our mills offer £40-50 delivered in so if you get a market at that rate it would be interesting indeed. Cheers mac

relax - its a wind up! Thats a 4wd concept mini Land Rover my @rse

A 12 tonne trailer has a volume of 15cube - you will be lucky to get 50% of that occupied by timber - even if, as nick suggests it is cut to fit. Still even £20 per cube delivered will wash its face - just make sure it is well filled.

+1 - put it over a bridge - we did with ours and use a ballpark of 0.5t per cu metre Cheers mac

You have a number of possibilities for income generation Your local softwood mills will be able to give you a price on larch sawlogs and strainers, given the small area of larch available you are probably better talking to small local mills rather than a big outfit. The mills would normally have some idea of contractors who would be able to fell and extract for you Oak and ash thinnings should find a ready market as firewood or possibly sawlogs depending on size and quantities available. I would have a talk with your local FC office - ours are pretty pro-active and will offer advice on grants, harvesting possibilities etc, and some of the local timber users, the more people you talk to the better chance somebody will come up with a plan or idea that suits you. I would think carefully before selling the woodland off although I am led to believe that there is a good market in small amenity woods - somebody like John Clegg or Bidwells would be able to give you a market valuation. Cheers mac

Only a choochter would worry about the girl's muscles!

I think there is guidance on this in the "Forest Mensuration" handbook but I am offshore at the moment - maybe someone else can help. It really can vary a lot depending on how twisty the timber is and how neatly it is stacked. The trailer in the avatar can go over a weighbridge with as little as 4t poorly stowed or as much as 6t neatly built - all cut to the same length and out of the same stack. Cheers mac

Sounds a little optimistic to me at least. I presume it will be as limbs although you don't say so? unless it is very straight and cut to lenght you will have considerable broken stowage and be lucky to fill 50% of the trailer with wood. If you are buyin by weight put the first load over a weighbridge, if by volume measure the stack. Cheers mac

Hedges are good because they offer shelter to domestic stock and habitat to wildlife. We rejuvenate them bu cutting back and fencing to protect the regrowth, hopefully able to lay in a few years time Cheers mac

Improve the drainage in your lawn or garden, apply a good dose of lime at max 2t/acre, apply a high nitrogen fertiliser in spring / early summer and cut the damn things regularly. Digging is a waste of time, herbicide is expensive and needs a weed-wiper if you want to target the chemical, neither treats the root cause of the rashes:blushing: If you are looking for high quality thatch we have a few acres of norfolk reed you could try:thumbup1: - but you will need a good pair of wellies!

Well you know I have to admit that although I can remember watching my grandad and some of the old boys thatching ricks when we still used binders and threshing mills I had a bit of a problem taking notes:- I had not actually learned to write at that time:blushing: So while I think you are right that you will need a sub frame - I will have to hope that there is someone more knowledgeable than me on the subject to offer detailed advice. Cheers mac

I dont have much experience of the Netherlands other than the area between Rotterdam and Amsterdam but most of the field divisions I have noted have been wide deep ditches in pretty flat ground, there may be plain posts and wire between them but I have not noticed it. That ground is not similar to much of the UK and certainly not similar to my little patch. We have had one wire incident caused by a cow getting tangled in a plain wire and ending up in a ditch. It ended up with a dead cow. Not seeking to be contentious but we are not in the business of putting stock at needless risk. We use barbed wire because we see it as the best tool for the job we need to do. Cheers mac

Cut some rashes and thatch 'em - ticks every box - plentiful, natural, sustainable, recyclable:confused1:free (if you have the right ground you may even get a grant for cutting them!) Sorted or what jimmy??

Well for a first post it was worth waiting on - dummy is most certainly oot!! Cosmiccrofter - don't come back as a trout!

Is Sulphate of Ammonia not a straight nitrogen fertiliser? I seem to recall reading somewhere that applying round-up at a higher than normal concentration is effective on briars but obviously you need to force or chop a pathway first before you can walk along with the sprayer. Still once you opened a pathway it would keep things open. We had a similar problem but regular use of the tractor and now a once a month pass with a quad mower keeps things clear and we have nothing like the slope you have. Don't even think about goats unless you have a good rifle Pigs would do the job I believe but would clear everything else as well - and probably do that first! I assume you have fences? If you put sheep in they will not leave a bramble leaf they can reach - they love 'em - but you would need to wait till after they are sheared before you put them in. Get yourself a hook and work away at it a little and often Cheers mac

We put barb as the top strand to stop cattle from rubbing on it, any unprotected post particularly strainers is rapidly adopted as a scratching post and will not last long under such treatment. I claim no vast experience but wire injuries around here result from slack wire or occasionally some half daft beast jumping (normally within 10 yards of an open gate!). It does wind me up when people leave old fences in and discard rolls and lengths of wire in hedge bottoms etc. Hedges - sorry but useless in terms of stockproofing and nowadays of decorative / wildlife value only. There is no hedge in the shire that does not have a fence or drystone dyke to back it up that I am aware of. I am not disputing that they can be made stockproof but they cannot be maintained stockproof on a sensible timescale without regular hand maintenance, sheep in particular will happily eat the bottom out of them. We have rejuvenated old hedges as part of RSS in the past and it a condition that they are fitted with a stockproof fence on both sides. Our standard fence consists of 800mm mesh with the large mesh at the bottom so the pheasants etc can get through but charlie cannot and two strands of barb, one stapled at the top of the mesh and one 6 inches higher. We dont put any gap between the mesh and the first barb so that any animal jumping and putting a foot through does not twist the hoof between the two strands and hang the beast by the back leg - normally a roe. It costs £6.60 per metre to supply and erect a good tight fence in these parts, and we have not had a wire injury caused by a tight wire in the last 10 years so it would take a bit of persuasion to convince me that we are doing much wrong! Cheers mac

Quite right and fully agree - I would not put actual figures up either but an indication of the health of the business and the way it is headed would be essential in considering its value. e.g. there is mention of I think 200 customers if that is the same as or more than it was last year it denotes a healthy business, if it is half of what it was last year then it is a different matter altogether. In days gone past we have looked at other businesses and it is reasonably common to see a comment like:- "Sales up 10% year on year over last 3 years, gross profit margin 8% (steady over last 3 years". Cheers mac

What is it you are actually proposing to sell? You have listed a series of individual assets which I am sure with a little research you could put an individual and cumulative value on. What you do not mention is the business as a whole - is turnover / profit margin / customer base growing or shrinking over the last 3 years? Sorry if I am being dense but are you looking to sell a going concern or are you looking to shut up shop and break the business up? Cheers mac

The resulting development project (coded Romulus) produced the 300Tdi engine. Although externally very similar to the Discovery/Range Rover version of its predecessor, 208 changes were made. These included modifications to the block, cylinder head, fuel injector system and ancillary systems. The crankshaft, pistons and connecting rods were significantly altered over the 200Tdi.[69] The most obvious external changes were the fitting of a rubber acoustic cover over the engine to reduce noise and the change to a single serpentine belt to drive the ancillaries instead of the multiple V-belts of the older engines. From Wikipedia Cheers mac