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I'd be more than happy with that pay, seems like an interesting job to. For a short period at least. I wonder if anyone pays per tree, I wouldn't mind a contract like that. I reckon mini digger and tree shear is the way to go but some jobs will always be better by hand.

The new one is? I've only ever done one with a joint sorry. I'm guessing you have to take the motor out then but probably best talk to Kilworth.

Never did it on our tajfun but when I did it on another machine it's easiest to pull it round with the old one as you take it off.

Ryetecs probably your best bet then, we mostly do billets with our oversized so went for the short one and it's done well for us. You might be better hiring one for the cost though unless you have a lot of work for it.

Ryetec will probably build you one to spec, we've got their 40ton, 4ft length one but that's a big machine already for towing. Is it for big stuff or stakes? We've also got a 2.5m 10 ton posche which has a pushing and pulling ram to make it shorter.

Pretty boring and I'm 'only' 26 but I grew up on the family beef and sheep farm, got good grades in school (although could have tried harder) but just wanted to farm so left at 16 and started work at home while doing a few certificates and a livestock course. We've tried a lot of ideas over the years on the farm; going big into contract baling (still do some), growing wheat, barley, lupins and looking into daffodils as a cure for altzheimers and planting willow although neither of those panned out. Unfortunately the central farming business wasn't making enough to live off. We tried a pheasant shoot for a few years which I enjoyed but a combination of high costs and poaching meant we couldn't continue. More recently we host a few endurocross races, more as a hobby than a business, I only ride quads myself but they're good fun. Throughout all that we've sold firewood, my dad did a few odd loads from 96 onwards but it wasn't until we formed a separate partnership from the farm to get a loan that we started to quickly grow. In the past 8 years we've gone from 100 tons a year to 1800 to the point where we now kiln dry and cut nearly every day in the winter with a couple of extra staff at peak times. I'm quite business minded so hopefully despite some challenges coming up we can keep the firewood at the same level despite all the paperwork but I'm hoping to do more livestock work and maybe have a day off...

I always try to take between Christmas eve and new year off, except for a few hours a day to do livestock and essentials. I normally end up working more than I want to but I don't take any other holidays so it's nice to break the year up and reset if nothing else. Unfortunately firewood customers don't seem to listen to that.

We've sold more than ever in the year because of wholesale loads but our own sales seem down a bit for the time of year. Not sure if it's because we put prices up or just the weather. Still 300cube of logs last month so keeping us busy and we normally peak in January, February when suppliers who don't dry their logs run out.

Wage bills are much higher here and it tends to be in small blocks with poor access. Most contractors don't want to haul a load of machinery for a few acres as it's not cost effective. Add to that paperwork with felling licences, bat surveys, agents etc it makes more commercial sense to do massive blocks abroad than the small woodlands we have in this country. I would never import firewood of course, I don't think the disease risks and transport are worth it. To the original question; I think the minimum price will go up for biomass and customers like ours who only have wood heating but the occasional users who are willing to pay £100+ a cube will probably start to cut back before they pay anymore. A lot will depend on whether the oil/electric price keeps rising and if the government decide to tax imports or even wood burning in general which I think is the bigger risk.

Yes, it's on a ram. Unfortunately it's not quite long enough to double stack anything over 8ft but it's nice for longer pieces.

Few random thoughts; I think a steering drawbar is essential if you're using it in the woods, gives you a lot more flexibility. Go for the biggest trailer you can, with hardwood you'll normally only get half it's capacity on. Most larger trailers have hydraulic legs which will speed up all jobs over manual ones. Land drive is nice but pointless if you're primarily on tracks and takes another spool You need a return pipe or power beyond on top of the spools. Edit: pic of our farmi 14ton, very good trailer but build quality could be an issue after a few years.

We've done a bit of forestry (hardwood) work with our takeuchi 8tonner and it certainly speeds things up, especially felling into a field when you can scrape up brash quickly which you can't do with a forwarder/trailer. Also have a tree shear which is brilliant for debranching and smaller trees.

Aarow, I think around 20kW.

I think splitters make a better product than cones so would always prefer to use one but from experience there isn't much of a demand to rent them. We've only rented ours a few times in 3 years. Problem I see is that smaller operations will run a saw through and larger ones will have their own equipment. If you could find a few landowners with biomass boilers who want their own billets I think it could work but it's finding them /getting their attention that's the hard part. Also renting one with a trailer /360 is a big cost for a new customer to take unless you're brave enough to quote per ton...

The problem with comparing to other industries is that everything seems better when you're not involved. For example I do pay one mechanic £45 an hour which seems expensive but we also have a local we pay £20. It's the same where I know someone who installs solar panels for £150 a day but he works with labourers who are on £60. Everyone thinks they're undervalued but if everyone increased we would be in the same relative situation, money is important but I would rather do something I enjoy than earn slightly more doing something I hated.

I would have tied the handles to avoid it spilling but I don't think it's a serious problem.

Yes, as far as I know it's gone apart from the last few that already applied who are allowed to complete. I'm not sure if there's still a grey area on replacing an existing installation.

We clad most of our shed with insulation using them and they're strong enough to hang off once they're in.

That's why we started, it was either massively increase storage space and still struggle to dry below 20% or adapt a shed into a kiln. It cost a fair bit in insulation and piping but luckily RHI will pay off the boiler installation as opposed to going for oil or diesel. The strange thing is that they're encouraging kiln drying with legislation on dry logs but they've also removed RHI on log drying. As usual it's knee jerk reactions rather than a long term plan.

The UK system is different to Northern Ireland in that they had the common sense to put a limit on the heat you get paid the full amount for. There's still people taking advantage of the system by heating huge open sheds/factories but it's not limitless.

We use around 150tons of softwood to dry 1500 of mostly hardwood from 40 to 15% moisture. That's very rough and includes drying some woodchip.

Got some poplar here in mid Wales (Llandovery), probably a bit far but there's plenty of it.

Just to add, LED lights should cause less issues with fuses to as they only use a fraction of the power. That also means you could technically replace a 50w halogen with a 300w+ Led https://www.malpasonline.co.uk/oem/04425599.4/Deutz-Fahr

LEDs are better in pretty much every way now - brightness, power use and reliability - so I would definitely go with them. Only issue is they can be too bright /dazzling if you look at them but that's fine for work lights if you're in the cab. We've got the optional LED package on our tractor and while it's overkill (ex demo) it will easily light an entire field.

If anyone is worried about stacking then potato boxes are a good option. We stack up to 5 high but I've seen them double that.