Marko

Saw this wonderful video and thought of this thread.... [ame= ] [/ame]

Was there a reason you can share for making the change?

Not sure what you are disagreeing with... are the lads in the Range Rover Sports all running terribly inefficient businesses? or did they also recognise that a decent profit can only be had through running a tight ship?

Hopefully not derailing but just offering an observation which may or may not apply to firewood as it hasn't got the supermarket pressures.... Automated large scale glasshouse plant production was a very early adopter of RHI as they previously burnt gas in huge quantities. The pioneers did it themselves (raising capital from the bank themselves or, more frequently, in deals with pension funds who loved the zero risk fixed return model). Stobarts got in on the act and the next phase of installations were extremely innovative partnerships; sharing out the RHI between the glasshouse producer and chip supplier. All good. But even a few years on (and before the break even point) the industry has already absorbed RHI inputs into the model, so it is now an essential subsidy to plant production i.e. you cannot compete in the market without RHI. Just as a 99p burger is only possible by susbsidising grain production, a dozen pansies at Tescos for 99p that is only possible because of RHI. Does it matter? At least it was an application that actually stopped gas being burnt but it is not the golden goose that they thought it would be 6 years ago.

Yep. Cut them off as soon as the leaves drop for a crop or wait until Late Feb/March and cut them for propagation... i.e. stick them in the ground.

A new black maul plant needs about 3 annual cuts before reaching its productive potential. They don't like wind and soil types can also dramatically alter productivity.

I don't think they can be that bothered about who they sell to when "with FREE "How to pick cylinder locks" guide" is in one of the bundles.

Animals will intuitively avoid Ragwort when grazing. It might look a mess but the animals are quite adept at working around the plants even in an infestation. However, in a meadow or any other field used for gathering hay/haylage the ragwort is effectively dried, baled and force fed to livestock. They do not have the same opportunity to avoid ingesting it as they do roaming about in a field and the cumulative effect of the toxins can quickly become a problem.

£20 / tree sounds a bit steep if you are keeping the firewood. At this time of year oak will season faster than you can chuck it in a ton bag.

Late spring

Above works well if you collect the cuttings. If you don't, the flower can still set seed even when severed. My thoughts would be to mow & collect asap and spot weed with Grazon in a knapsack any regrowth which will kill the ragwort but not the grass. If you use roundup you will kill the grass and the resulting bare patch will be populated with more weeds in the blink of an eye.

Unless things have changed recently the smaller Kuhn flails are bought in and stickered italian mowers despite dealer assurances that they made everything themselves. The flail I had delivered had noticeably poor build quality and it failed in the first half acre due to significantly misaligned drive belt pulleys. Moral of the story is that the name isn't everything. You need to see it and check for yourself.

Am liking the tipping loop. Not seen that before.

Will the landlord want a chunk of land subject to business rates? It's a lot harder to get it back to agricultural than the other way around as the council are loosing revenue.

Me too.

and drying.

If anyone is serious, I know a man who has a brand new shavings machine (ex demo machine with approx 200hrs on) which is designed for commercial production (tonnes per day) with variable chip thickness for pet shop contracts etc. For sale at £30k (£45k new).

You just have to laugh.

According to my maths that means you got around £18 an hour for your time. Which sounds OK to me!

Hydraulics. It possibly switches the pump from the 3 point to a tipping circuit

If you are buying it in at the 'going rate' then the only saving to be made is the element of profit that you would have paid to your local 'professional' log dealer and that is only the case if you can cut, split, stack, store, season and move them as efficiently as they do (which is unlikely). Don't kid yourself you can save money unless you consider your own time to be worthless. If you have not yet purchased any kit then the cheapest option would be an artic of Latvia's finest - they are not bothered whether it is going to a dealer or end user. However, there is great satisfaction in the whole process of preparing your own firewood and it can potentially justify quite a few toys that might not otherwise be allowed. So good luck to you and enjoy yourself!

I needed the same done and found it easier to find a 360 than a hiab. I think it was only a 12 ton but it did the move safely and easily. I have a set of (non loler) chains for a 20ft container if you need to borrow them (PR4 6 area).

1m then seasoned. Sold as billets or sawn up for logs as required

Me too. Sorry I missed you.

Suitably insured would be a better question to ask