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About gdh
- Birthday 22/01/1992
Personal Information
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Location:
Mid/South Wales
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Occupation
Farmer/ Firewood and woodchip
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City
Llandovery
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What will an ash woodland look like in 10 years time?
gdh replied to 5lab's topic in Forestry and Woodland management
I haven't had a chance to read the whole thread so apologies if I double post . From what I understand only about 1% will be immune to dieback and maybe 5% will recover so I would work on the basis it's all going to be dead. There are immune varieties of ash (so far) but I think it's still being worked on and you would be very lucky to have them. In terms of felling, if they're a reasonable size then access is more important than slopes but from experience of harvesting ash die back I would say to halve any estimate of standing volume because it shatters everywhere. If they look badly affected they're usually even worse inside on bigger trees. -
A 25 ton lorry of fresh hardwood should average around 45 cube. You'll be lucky to get it at less than £90 a ton at the moment so if you're offered tidy stuff at less it's a good deal.
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Is this the wettest (firewood selling )autumn you have known !
gdh replied to cessna's topic in Firewood forum
Yes, it's strange but we tried some dry stuff and it burns but makes a lot of smoke whereas the fresh stuff burns clean. It doesn't need to be soaking just can't be dried material like chip boilers take. I would guess it's to do with the burn speed but there has to be more to it. -
Is this the wettest (firewood selling )autumn you have known !
gdh replied to cessna's topic in Firewood forum
It's a sawdust boiler, very basic technology just with automated feed and water pumps. It's designed to burn damper wood cleanly so we can scrape the yards at the end of the day and burn all the waste. -
Is this the wettest (firewood selling )autumn you have known !
gdh replied to cessna's topic in Firewood forum
Haha, we have been doing it a while now but the principal is the same on any - heat and maximum air movement. What we cut at the moment averages 10 days for 150cube. -
Is this the wettest (firewood selling )autumn you have known !
gdh replied to cessna's topic in Firewood forum
We use biomass boilers for the drying. One uses woodchip and the other runs off all the processing waste plus there's a lot of fans and heat exchangers. Running costs are about £9-10 a cube I think. -
Cube is generally just short for cubic metre. Nearly always loose.
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We've put our prices up 10-15%, most expensive is £210 for 1.8cube of hardwood. We got lucky because we held out for lower priced roundwood and it worked but it's gone from £70 to 90 a ton average and now a lot are asking for £100 plus if we bought now. Machinery costs and electric costs for drying have also rocketed so I expect prices will go up again next year.
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Bucket shouldn't be a problem on concrete but you could also look at a riddle bucket so and mud and stones fall out. It would mean less sawdust as well.
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I normally go bigger so you're faster on the road, especially towing but it's a balancing act with economy now. Those valtras you listed are around 150k now so will cost more in depreciation and fuel. But valtras do have good gadgets. 😉 With the newer valtras the t174 up to t254 are the same tractor, just tweaked. I would always go Vario/automatic with newer tractors. Once you get used to it you won't want to go back and having the speed and PTO rpm separate is a big improvement. Just for fun: https://showroom.valtra.com/en/t-series
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I do a fair bit of sharpening with all the saws and a processor so I put the saws in a vice to get the best position and hand file. For the processor and bigger saw chains I used to use an old bar screwed to the side of the work bench because it's quicker than undoing the vice but now I've got a Markusson triplematic which has been working well. It's a mess today I know 😉 20231210_170908.mp4
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Is this the wettest (firewood selling )autumn you have known !
gdh replied to cessna's topic in Firewood forum
I'm lucky that we can kiln dry everything but all the wood we take out goes back up to 17% in a couple of weeks even though it's in dry sheds. I thought things were improving last week but everywhere is getting cold and damp again now. -
Here's some photos then 😉
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I've got a tilt hitch on our 8 tonner and I would have one again but there are trade offs. Obviously there's the big cost but it also adds weight and a lot of unwanted leverage when digging, especially on rock. It's noticeably more length when you're using a free hanging grab as well but it does balance out by giving you a bit of extra movement at the end. It's strange how different countries do things. I saw the other day that America doesn't use pick up hitches on tractors, they have to jack everything up which seems weird to me.