Joy Yeomans

query please ash, how big is you woodland?

ahhhhh - is fuel sustainable at £1.37 a litre for derv and now red quoted at 72p a litre, heating oil now at similar prices, running a truck aint going to be easy, yet alone all the machines, calor gas has gone up again and our coal man tells me hes on summer prices which are higher than before christmas as theres been two prices hikes in the last 6 months for coal.

i would inpart agree, that £120 is not a cost alternative for customers, but this is where my points comes in that i have said many times - we need to start introducing to customers mixed loads and /or softwoods this will enable the prices to stay at an affordable level for the customer to continue to use wood as the alternative and better fuel, hardwoods are becoming increasingly hard to get hold of price wise and there is only so much wood to thin, i can see that in next year if we continue to persue these quantities the market will dry up for another 5 years until stocks grow and replenish to require further thinnings etc. as for another comment i read not long ago, re; using uneconmical harvestable hardwood which will come into being economic to get out, i cant see this happening, as the owner will still want a high price for their standing timber and the market will not cover costs of skyline etc for firewood prices. you are spoilt with free wood, a luxury which is sure to dry up, our prices this year shall have to be at least £85 per cube for hardwood and try to promote mixed or softwoods loads at very competative prices to push these, as costs of running harvesting tackle and mens wages as fellers need paying, we in forestry have to pay for the timber not as in tree surgery where it is a sideline, and the costs to justify your said £120 are quite easy to see when the firewood merchant has to buy in at £50 to £60 per tonne delivered, most wood only gives 1 cube per tonne or at best 1.5m3, with processing costs labour and delivery ontop - well i leave the maths to you. joy

hia firewoodman, when were working on woodland rides with public access through forestry commission land we put up laods of signs they supply to us with danger dont climb on timber stacks onthem, it stops them climbing on them ,but doesnt stop them nicking thewood !

i will probably sound a complete idiot, but is the chestnut seasoned or not, if green do you have to cut your lengths longer to allow for drying/shrinking? looks loveley ace, just the job. joy

have you tried a friend of ours, ian earl over at melbourne tree services? he's pretty much local to you i'd of thought and i know he was after a climber on a sub contract basis, you never know he may be looking to take on staff? just a thought joy

our browns is a good splitter for rings at the moment we are using a friends oxdale on trial as using two to get some rings split and impressed at the power of it for the money, he only paid i think about 450 for it new thats hydraulic tractor powered.

with drinkers you will be suprised how much water hens drink per day, that size youve got in the pen for 2 hens will need water changing and refilling daily, as very often the bottom can be swilled out but it gets contaminated with poo and feathers etc, as hens arent bothered where they go, same with food, to eliminate boredom try feeding layers pellets adhoc in during the day and mixed corn by hand broadcast in the afternoon, as corn can fill them up without giving a balanced diet, also at this time of year hang bows of nettles from the pen and brussell sticks etc from string helps give them something to peck at. joy p.s. good looking chuck house if i wanted to be a knowitall which im not! use the term hens and not chickens, as hens are the birds and chickens is the meat that you eat from them - just being an arse there!

dave you devil that made me laugh out loud !

i like it:thumbup:

Firewood production machinery demo'd in their own woodyard at Claywood, a heads up to us firewood guys to improve techniques and machinery, worth a visit to see whats new? i believe you have to register to visit , just to give them some idea of numbers, register through their website for free Fuelwood Home - manufacturers, distributors and suppliers of forestry and firewood machinery, and i imagine they will again have free refreshments with a donation to their charity as they did last year. May 20th /21st Friday/Saturday at Claywood, Beausale, worth a day out? joy

why not go and see some inovative machinery being trialed and working in near as normal working conditions as you can get by visiting the Fuelwood Open days, they held one last year and they were very good showing differnt set ups and decks etc to minimise handling their next open days to register visit the Fuelwood Home - manufacturers, distributors and suppliers of forestry and firewood machinery and they are held near to Beusale,Claywood on the 20th and 21st May, free to visit just register that your coming i believe refreshments on site.

does everyone out there think that just cause someones been producing logs for 10 years+ they havent changed how they do it, how they market them , how they store, sell etc - were not dinosaurs stuck with axes , alot of us have invested in machinery, improved production etc business is all about change, moving with trends, improving and striving to improve product and production service etc but theres only so much that can be done to production and selling of firewood imo we work closely with our friends at fuelwood and have always trialled new machinery/working ways, we were one of the first to trial the vented bulk bags and started with the barrow bags, we were selling firewood in the days when you couldnt give it away, when the housewife was more onto gas than wood, kindling green had a thread of very similar content not long ago, berating the improvements in production of his kindling etc, when it came down to it his improved technology sounded like all hed done was put his kindlett next to the pile of wood to feed in - again just my opinion but some on heres threads do come across very condiscending and we are not all moaning about no money in firewood, my answers were given to the thread of why when you get into this game your money soon gets eaten up by improvements to the service etc and costs involved im sure ill get more answers for this reply now joy

trying to teach us to sell firewood mate ive had a moisture meter for 4 years the kiln dried and toffs comment was a direct answer to the original post that cheap cord your looking for is blowing in the wind - hence thats why you wont sell alot and you dont have to cause youve got a business selling stoves teaching your mother to suck eggs:sneaky2: our prices shall definatley be a big hike up from last year and no doubt we shall have some will go elsewhere, i just hope that our product stands out as it always does as a quality product, but sometimes as i say if your on a limited income/budget price rules and the customer will shop around for the cheapest, ive seen it happen i had a chap today stop and ask for discounted logs - he livesin our village, hes never bought off us before, but now wants a cheap load cause he thinks its summer prices - this is what were up against and hes a director of a large plc co. its the stove sellers that promote myths in peoples minds who install these stoves about kiln dried wood and hardwood only, to enable the firewood industry to continue i really think we should be promoting softwood and mixed loads which are perfectly acceptable if at the correct moisture content, thus enabling hardwood prices to level out and softwoods can meet some demand and give a good return on a perfectly acceptable commodity for woodland owners and foresters joy. lets hope your not storing birch for the next two years:lol: or you could be coming back to a pile of rot

never had this problem ? i would imagine look to your chain and bar maintenance - faulty bar?

why do you think we should charge the toff more than the pauper? the toff white collar man usually more difficult to get the money out of in my opinion than the poorer blue collar worker who does recognise hard work and effort and pays on time the asked price with out quibble or barter, most have the opinion of buying kiln dried which takes us foresters mostly out of this market, as its an extra cost in the process that we cant push to, our investment to get logs to the customer is unseen mostly, and we dont plead poverty put profits are tight, we are in recession - people naturally look to the best price for their fuel bills, be it gas electric or wood, we are in a very busy area for competition, we hope to give a value for money product with added value of stacking service, out of hours deliverys to meet customers needs, kindling offered with products, different size of log offered, different types of product offered etc, i dont quite know what you mean with 10% more input for 100% yeild ? we constantly battle against the 2nd job loggers , whether they be treemen or firemen who sell logs, its like all industries i would imagine at the moment customer loyalty is fickle if money is tight, but we do offer a quality service and hope customers will remember that. but i would just reiterate to you that the guys who are firewood men 100% and not doing it for beer money, NEED that sale, its no good holding onto logs if your need to be selling and thats what youve geared up for over the last 8 months thinking our time will come, when lads need a weekly wage and the mortgage needs paying on time and the derv bill wants paying, its all well and good wanting £150m3 and getting 2 sales, but those two sales wont come back to you til theyve burnt it and youve gone and lost the 10 calls who rang up and said your £50 more than your competitor - hes moving wood and your not, you need to price to move and try and keep the profit which is all well and good but when derv keeps going up your profit from the last season starts shrinking even more for the next season when felling costs seem to increase over night and hardwood is even more difficult to find some times this business is too difficult. we fell all our own timber and dont use arb arisings, so our costs have to be covered from the last seasons profits, our hardwood contracts this year have gone up by 25% our softwood contract has gone up by 20% and that is just standing timber price not counting other direct costs i hope this rant goes to give you some idea that we arent all moaning over little things, and that when we say times are difficult - they are in many ways joy

dont cast a clout til may is out - dont take your coat off til all the may blossom (hawthorn) is finished

no but it helps if its all together , ours is spread over a 7 mile away - and doesnt matter if its forestry or arb, if the trees arent grown on the land you need planning to process them,

if you have a registered holding of 12.5 acres + the government decided that you could make a living off 12.5 acres minimum thus classing you as a fulltime farmer or having a proper farm as opposted to smallholding, we are a smallholding as all our land is not connected and some is rented. the 12.5 acres i believe was set as this could support an intensive farming practice such as eggproduction or pig set up. this then could enable the owner/farmer to put in planning for biulding of a dwelling to enable farmer/farmworker to oversee animal husbandry etc. and so live on site as the farming practice would justify 24hr monitoring

we had an agricultural smallholding and have had to have full change of use for the part which is the timber yard, it can cost for planning application about £300, if you need someone to work on your behalf etc as we did and submit plans and draw up what needs doing it could cost about another £400, all in all it cost us about£1k but were legal now and can do what we want. if you can prove you ve been their 10 years with no complaints that can make the process easier. - as storage of timber does not constitute agricultural use as it would not be a crop grown or harvested from said land, get planning and then your covered.

hi there apbell, if you have any other contacts in future with regard to getting rid of timber , please bear us in mind, we can collect or could help collecting off you by offering our services of fastrac and timbercrane for free for the timber to enable you to fell in large chunks and save you time in ringing it up - thanks joy

alot of trees around here are definately suffering from lack of water, seeing it in yews and saw it yesterday in a large cedar of lebanon., with the high winds we are getting and new leaf growth coming into trees i reckon also alot of oaks will be shedding limbs to save themselves as well. i think your yew will be ok, they are extremely resiliant and can never really be killed off , try and lighten the trees load so it saves its strength, can you simpatheticly take off some branches to help it, or just leave it when the rains come and you can bet your bottom dollar were into summer soon so wet weather it will recover. joy

hubby was carting some timber back across the local reservoir and on top of the bund where walkers were,there were huge swarms of black insects with people really batting them away and dogs running everywhere out from the swarms, could these have been mayfly? this happened last week, around good friday

well, this is a good thread, and something weve often gone over many times over the years, from now on in if your employing someone, if you pay peanuts you get monkeys and you will see that your profit dwindles and your repairs increase - UNLESS - you can find some good lads or lasses, which are few and far between, as the best are already self employed who can work and do repairs as they go if need be, look after the kit as if it was their own and work from the time they get in the yard til the time they finish - and past if required. keep guards on machinery, keep staff trained up, insurances paid up, pay men a decent wage, and more firewood men just doing it for pin money out there, and see how your profit margins hold up. joe public doesnt want to know that our insurances costs are 3k with cs30/31 for our young lad just costing £750 and having a week off paid to do it, and repairs to machinery in the thous., with hubby off with stress and yet they still want logs for £80m3 and we struggle to get that sometimes. finding sales/work then goes to a very urgent requirement to pay wages/bills/mortgage - if i were you dave just stick to small scale unless you are getting big, employ someone on a casual basis who is perhaps semi retired, but if this is only a sideline to you you could put someone on full time and sitback and let them run it if you dont need to . just my two penneth joy

we could hear the thunder , chilling out up our farm, then saw in the sky a big anvil cloud forming, must have been towards leicester way that you had it and only a few miles away in staffordshire we kept the sun shining