Big J

We've got a fair amount of work in South Devon over winter and with it being an area we've not worked in up to now, I'm lacking subcontractors in that area. I have a couple of months worth of nice work on National Trust ground, thinning young conifer (motor manual felling, with mechanical processing) followed by thinning middle aged oak and beech. The work is around Ashburton. I am looking for a seriously competent and experienced forestry worker. No need for tickets beyond the basic chainsaw tickets and first aid, but they need to be hardworking and able to work without constant supervision. Very good day rates.

I'm not going to get embroiled in the last few pages of contributions as I haven't the time, but all I'll say is that I've been in Sweden for the past week and Christ it's nice to be somewhere that is largely normal. Not looking forward to returning to the poorly judged action, ill considered reaction situation we have in the UK. The Swedes are proud of taking personal responsibility to keep their distance, wash their hands and avoid personal contact. They are experiencing the start of a second wave too, but the case rate increase is far slower and is yet to exceed their spring peak. In the UK, ours is already 4-5 times higher. I don't dispute that the disease is dangerous for certain demographics, nor dispute the need for social distancing measures. What I challenge is this enforced extreme restriction of social liberty. I obviously accept that the Swedes are much more sensible that the Brits but are we that stupid that we couldn't have made something similar work here? The Exchequer is paying out over £40,000,000,000 a month in Corona virus support presently and the eventual cost of that to the taxpayer will result in poverty that will cause far greater suffering than covid 19 ever could

I've had elm from Huntingdon before. Funnily enough, it's got it's own subspecies (Huntingdon Elm). Lovely stuff - fairly wide pale sap band and very dark heartwood. If you have a bunch of them, it would be worth taking them to Helmdon Sawmills in Northamptonshire, as they'll mill them in very little time, charge you very little to do so, you'll lose less to saw kerf than chainsaw milling it, and selling a couple of logs (once sawn) will easily pay for all the haulage and milling costs. That is where I took the elm from Huntingdon, which was probably 5-6 years ago.

That is awful. You have my condolences.

Rather unfortunate acronym from the German government ?

And the first time around, compliance was better assured due to the weather improving. I cannot see how anyone is going to be expected to spent the entire winter sat inside their own homes, by themselves. There comes a point where you have to weigh the risk to life against the quality of life within extreme control measures. For the young, the risk to health is minimal, but the implications to quality of life are extreme. Even for the elderly, many would choose to take the risk themselves rather than be confined to barracks. The value of a life is not measured by it's length, rather by it's quality. For many people, especially those close to the end of their lives anyway, they'd choose to spend it with the people they love, doing the things they want to do, even if there was a risk.

As regards Lockdown, it makes no sense to try it again. It cost the country an absolute fortune, the number of lives it saved is debatable, and the excess deaths causes as a byproduct of it (missed cancer screenings, people too scared to attend A and E etc) probably exceed the number of deaths directly caused by covid. Given that it didn't work the first time, repeating it and hoping for a different result is the very definition of insanity.

On your first point, the issue is that at present, the policy on covid is almost exclusively determined by executive decree. Parliamentary scrutiny has been entirely sidelined. Given the numerous U-turns, cockups and embarrassments, is such great power weilded by so few really the best course? On your second point, yes, the majority of people are idiots, but mandating adherence to ill-conceived and often illogical restrictions on our personal liberty plainly isn't working. We have the highest case rate in Europe. To contextualise the situation, our present infection rate is 25 times higher than it's lowest point in summer. Sweden's has increased 3 fold. Our present infection rate is 2.5 times worse than our April peak. Sweden's is 1/2 of what it was. My point is that our hugely restrictive lockdowns have acheived absolutely nothing. The economic cost of this continued insistence on an interventionist approach to covid is now into the hundreds of billions, but the Tory's cannot possibly backtrack and reverse policy. To do so would be political suicide. This country is utterly fooked. The public finances will never recover from this, and I have no intention of staying here when taxes get increased hugely, whilst at the same time that services are cut, all in an effort to pay for a fatally flawed covid response.

Yep, very busy at the moment. Come New Year we're fooked.

Not too bad generally, and most of the first thinning that I am targetting is planted on virgin farmland.

You're missing option 3 - he's a f*cking idiot. Either way, I'm bitterly disappointed. I really had high hopes that covid would rid us of him but the bastard is still breathing ?

Depending on site access, ground conditions and local timber prices, somewhere in the region of £30-35/t standing. Maybe more, given the timber shortage in Ireland.

My ongoing saga with travel to Sweden looks like it'll take another interesting turn this week. Currently there is no restriction on going there, but my wife heard in the media this morning that it might be returned to the red list on Thursday. What's completely ridiculous is that they are using the figure of 20 cases per 100k people per week as the cut off. Sweden presently has around 30, we have over 100 in the UK. So in travelling to Sweden, we'd be going from a higher risk area to a lower risk area and yet we'd have to quarantine on our return? It's bloody ridiculous! I'm presently trying to bring my wife around to the point of view that there is no moral or technical case to adhering to any such quarantine restriction, so we're as well to go and just crack on as normal when we get back. I'll quite happily fight them in court about it as any such restriction on my liberty to travel is without any demonstrable reason. Restriction without just cause cannot be justified, and as such is unlawful. To reflect on the contributors from the previous several pages, another lockdown is clearly unworkable and is unlikely to seriously benefit anyone. I believe that the primary reason that the case rate came down over summer is that we had months and months of glorious weather. A modicum of social distancing, coupled with everyone being outside vastly reduced the transmission rate. With the winter looming, it will be more challenging to continue to use outdoor spaces for socialising. We just need to implement a considered and sustainable policy for managing covid through winter. Preventing families and friends from seeing each other (legally) will only result in bad feeling towards any government policy, and compliance will reduce incrementally. This is especially true if there are any further 'Cummings breaches'.

I've seen a number of the small harvester excavators with extending booms, but I guess that not only adds a lot of cost, but also adds weight ot the end of the boom. I did some matrix diagrams and can easily first thin with a 5m reach, so I'm not sure I'd need it. That is contingent on a narrower (ie 6t class, and 2m wide) machine though. I'm not pretending that such a machine wouldn't have it's limitations. It's aiming at a different market though - landowners that don't want a full sized machine into their stands. Also, most of the woodlands that have potential for such a machine are small (5 hectares) so being able to shift both the forwarder and excavator on one transport helps with the economy of it.

The Cat looks very nice but it's too large unfortunately. Is the lack of aux pressure on the JCB something they can address in the factory during the build? A Mecalac would be lovely, but is an expensive option, and does look complicated. I am looking for good functionality, but a degree of simplicity too. Thanks for your thoughts

I'd access the middle in one of two ways. Either by creating chevrons and using them to get further into the matrix, or I'd cut a ghost rack out in between the main access racks. I'm really not keen on a machine as large 14t. The largest I'd consider is a zero tailswing 8t base unit. There are loads of people down here with Harvadigs and similar sized harvesters and there is no point trying to compete with them. I do take your point about stability and strain on the machine though. A small head on a larger machine is eminently sensible.

JCB seems to be very unpopular. Good to know, as you cannot beat 1st hand reports.

Interesting regarding the TB175 - I've seen lots of videos on Youtube of small machines running roller heads. There is a big variation in the oil flow requirements on the thinnings heads that I've looked at though. There is a big difference in footprint between a 5-6t digger and a 7-8 tonner. Usually the former are 195-200cm wide and the latter are 30cm wider. I am told that there are a lot of young plantations in the Southwest that were planted tighter than normal (1.5-1.8m spacing) so to avoid having to take two rows, a narrow machine is a must. Definitely agree regarding the tracks.

I don't really fit in tractors (too tall), so it's not much of an option for me. I really like the look of the Nisula 325h - I was watching videos about them last night. As regards second thinnings, I like working alongside a cutter anyway, so can always get them to fell the larger trees as required. I'll have a look at the Kobelco....

Thanks for the suggestions chaps. All really interesting. I love the look of the Felix machines and I've seen the Mecalac machines before - I doubt I'd be able to afford one, but they are brilliant. I'll get in touch with FMS and Specialist Pant SW on Monday

Very useful. Many thanks! The JCB seems to be coming out top on flow rates, but I do need to check pressures. I'll make some calls on Monday and try to expand my knowledge on the topic. Because it's a very small machine, I'd be limited to small heads. The Jobo ST50 combi would work well here, having roller feed for cleaner timber and stroke feed for the crappy stuff. I need to explore a few more first thinning blocks in the area too to determine what the average ground conditions are like as that'll inform the base machine choice, should I go ahead.

I'm specialising in the new year with my business, focusing on young woodland management. I don't like clearfells and the hardwood market is buggered with the ash dieback. I want to do first and early second softwood thinnings, of which there is a fair bit around here, especially in West Devon. I'm going around in circles trying to find a decent 2 hand harvester that is compact. Vimeks lack power, Malwa are too expensive, Rottne H8 and Sampo Rosenlew are bigger machines and also quite expensive. So, I'm thinking about getting a 5 tonne class excavator converted. I haven't decided on what head I'd want, but looking at the JCB specs (not set on JCB at all, just first one that sprang to mind), they have decent oil flow (126l/min), sufficient for running a proper head. 5t rather than 8t is preferred due to the 2m track width. Which base machine would you recommend? I have a decent amount of excavator experience, but not in the forestry sector. I'd ask someone like RJ ****************es or FMS to convert it. Total build cost on a new machine is likely to only be about £75k, which is similar to a 12k hour Sampo. Any help much appreciated. Edit: Very amusing that the super sensitive censor blanks out RJ F U K E S!! ?

I work in forestry, so am not qualified to help with this, but I'm sorry that you're having such difficulty. It would assist those able to help if you were able to post a few photos. A picture is a thousand words and such like

I reckon another major contributing factor is the poor quality of our housing too. Having small, badly ventilated houses on minute plots, crammed into badly planned housing estates like battery hen cages in a chicken shed means that staying at home and not going mad is much harder. How was a person meant to maintain a modicum of sanity when confined to a 2 up, 2 down with a postage stamp for a garden? We also really need to address the societal issues with preventable, first world comorbidities. There is almost no excuse for being seriously overweight, and the health conditions that come with it. It is unreasonable to rely on a national health service to treat the illnesses caused by your inability to stop putting food in your mouth. In short, as a society, we need to be a bit more active, eat a bit less and endevour to build better, healthier houses. Also, it would be good if we weren't such pissheads and moderated our binge drinking tendencies. And Scotland needs to discover vegetables beyond the humble spud! ?