nick channer

does that merlo belong to your farm ben... we're seriously thinking about a new merlo this spring.. there 20 grand cheaper than equivelant jcb or manitou..

if your self employed you can work for several people... if your not you need to be in full time employment with someone..

land is a water meadow... any spraying is illegal... unfortunatly... we've even got a block of 200 acres arable land not that far from this field and they've put over 70 horses in there before on stubble... the land is well fenced as used to be dairy/livestock farm.. now we have to plough it soon as straws off to stop em doing it again...

tell me what these huge running costs with a mog are?? everyone on here keeps sayin this but i'd like to no what they are.... my mog is a 1996... its done 15000 hrs... in the time i've had it its done 5500 hrs....thats what i mean by its tired... i didnt buy it new 7 or 8 yrs ago did i....

problem is we can get em compounded... this has happened 4 times o9ver yrs....[or hasnt as case may be] to compoud them you have to get court order which isnt a problem... you have to put notices up on gates, fences etc tellin them they have 7 days to vacate.... on the 6th day the gypsys come in and move the horses..on the 8th day they bring them all back again.. in other fields we could use that time to dig big ditches round perimeter but at this particular place this cant be done... so they put them back... when they get out on the road its us wh get bollocking by the ploice and get told if they cause an accident its our insurance they'l be claiming off... anything thats in land we own or rent has to be fenced in properly as we'r owner or tennant even if there there illegally...we refused to pay the rent on that 25 acres 3 or 4 yrs ago cos of that problem bu for 7 yrs we were payin £900 a yr for bit ground we couldnt use and gettin snotty letters from agent quotin passeges from tennancy agreement about sub lettin [which wasnt allowed].. we payed this for those yrs cos didnt wanna upset the school and loose the other good arable land bt enough was enough...!!

the horses havent been abandoned though have they... the gypsy's are squatting the land thats all.... its very big problem round here... we rent a block of 125 acres from a private school.. 100 acres arable and rest rough grass with stream running through it.... we've had it 10 yrs now and in that 10 yrs the rough grass has been occupied by gypsy horses and theres nothing can be done about it... the agent strutt and parker have been to court several times tryin to get em out now they've given up and asked me to find out who's horses they are so they can offer them a proper tennancy.. its a joke...

dont believe that.. i sell my chip to stobarts at 6 quid a ton... they take it away screen it and bring it back to someone 5 miles from me for 26 a ton.. just clean mixed woodchip that is all below 50mm with guarantee of no debris in it.... my chipper being a biggish one will produce chip lot bigger than 50mm sometimes.. i'm glad to get the £6 a ton to be honest.. soon as thertes a load there they send a lorry within couple days and i get around £170 a load for it which equates to £170 a month or more when i'm really busy.. ok, if we had to hire someone in to load it with teleporter then there wouldnt be much change outta the £170..... but we dont.. so i'm happy..

this is what ahs told me at beginning, but how do you push the wood chip up into a pile... unless you got a 2 acre yard to just leave out in truck loads that dont work

dont think so.. it needs to be below 50mm in sze and doesnt matter whats in it long as its that size..it has to be on concrete base so no stones, bricks etc can get in it..

mine is tipped on a hardcore/burn off base and i get £6 a ton as it has to be screened... if chip is on a concrete base and the site is inspected i thought it was around £20 a ton. local brick works near me has just gone over to woodchip for supplin heat for their brick drying rooms.. so it'l be worth me puttin bit concrete down as a base with a sleeper wall at rear... they pay £26 a ton delivered in and there only 5 miles from my yard..

i'd stick with ahs stobarts.... prac browns are less than 500 yards from me..

carb kit....

we only have one chipper... and thats on front of mog.... ok if we have a small local job with not much brush we'll take 1 or 2 transits and buzz it up in back.... but 90% of time the mog goes out to the smallest of jobs... it'll fit through any gate way the transit will and i still believe over period yrs the mog and chipper are cheaper to run than a transit and road tow chipper.. once you have a mog/chipper set up theres no reason that shouldnt last for min 20 yrs... how many transits would you get through in that time....

i have posted on here before re selling a 26 ton load green hardwood [prob beech] split and delivered... had quite bit interest... also thought of taking £500 deposit for a 26 ton load green wood... i'll bring it back to my yard and store till its seasoned...process and deliver and get paid balance on delivery... at the heart of the operation needs to be a big processor that can process 26ton in a day to keep the cost down..

could you give me a rough idea what that mog would cost new without chipper.... my old 1996 U1600 has done me proud over last 7 or 8 yrs but its gettin very tired and we're doing jobs up to 100 miles from yard some days.. want summin that'l sit on motorway at 56mph loaded or unloaded whether on flat or up hill.now my tree works all part of farming and contracting business it makes sense to get summin new that perhaps could be used for trailer work during harvest.....just a rough figure.. not gonna hold you to it..

is there a savin per litre when using a fuel card..... i'm spending nearly 2 grand some weeks on diesel now i run an artic.. any savin would be good...

we dont use duals now, but no plenty who do on high horse power tractors [over 300hp]. i used to use them all the time in the 90's on front and rear of tractor.. used to snap the occassional wheel stud but apart from that we had 3 tractors running on them for years [over 20] before and after i left school.... wouldnt have a problem running on them now if we had to...

had to put todays job off as way too windy down here...

we got 3 farms and 2 of them have had every building let for over 10 yrs...the other one which is our main yard has over half let... all areas are the same as in once council no what your doing they'l be on your case wouldnt worry about it where you are ben... the worst way all they'l do is tell you to vacate the barns.. last farm we bought was completly let and council no this.. no permission and not heard from them yet in 3 yrs.. [although theres nothing they can do other than rate them as they been let for 15 yrs].. only problem we have is we cant put any more barns up for farm use which as we just taken another 400 acres on is bit of a pain...

yeah.. no what you mean.. i just had 50 ton on a job and got £300 a load plus haulage..

depends how you value the poplar... if you value it similar to beech or sycamore then its half price...haulage would be £200-£250 a load..

cant sell poplar, lime or willow round here no matter how dry..... sold 2 artic loads lovely pop the other day for 300 quid a load plus haulage and was lucky to get that....

is it not just in ireland??

i'm with barclays.. put cheques in once cleared take cash out where i can see it... just leave enough in there for direct debits etc.. never had or wanted an overdraft facility... not in last 10yrs anyway... when i started doing more and more site clearance and commercial work [10 yrs ago].. i had a direct debit bounce cos of lack of funds... asked manager for a £2000 overdraft as didnt want this happenin again, and he could see from my months invoices that i was owed over £20.000 at that time with same amount work booked in for followon month/6weeks..... he told me with my turnover i was eligable for £30.000 overdraft but there policy is i have to go 6 months without a returned dd or cheque.... so they couldnt give the 2000 i'd asked for..... ever since then i use that acc as way of cashing cheques and payin bills...

was pheasant shootin xmas eve.. clay shootin boxin day morning and all day yesterday and back at work grinding out a 5ft sycamore root today and out in lorry moving cord wood rest of week.... my eldest boy [17months] loves comin with me in artic...