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There's certainly things to be learned from new Zealand and things they can learn from us (and a lot of students do go between our countries) but ultimately we can't compete with year round grass growth and vast open spaces with no hedges or fences where the average flock is 20x the size of a UK one. It's like saying we should easily be able to manufacture cheaper goods than China but in the end no matter what we try the costs don't add up so instead we either have to subsidise like farming, energy, steel etc or compete on something like quality instead.

I don't think new Zealand is the best example when it's bigger than the UK with less than 10% of the population.

Basically because most farms (not larger more intensive ones) make a loss or very small profit the government pays money to them based on land area they farm. It's dropping every year but around here it averages just under £50 per acre. I think the UK total is 3-4 billion a year. There's a lot of conditions involving accurate records, inspections and mapping exercises but most are a requirement regardless which is why farms in the UK can't make a profit as easily as other countries with less restrictions on things like animal welfare. There's also other short term environment schemes which cover the cost of things like planting hedges or fencing out areas for wildlife.

It sounds like a lot but that's only £1750 of vat on sales so £550 after your diesel figures. 550 isn't much to find, it's less than the vat on 50 tons of wood (you would need a lot more than that for those sales) and there's plenty of other costs in firewood production.

We tend to sell more than we buy in during the winter but we're only selling at twice what we pay for timber so we get a refund every quarter. I doubt many people doing firewood will pay vat in a quarter because you would normally buy in during good sales periods anyway.

I've had it with what I thought was a straight ash but had all the branches on one side, split about 12ft up and stayed there. Only got it down safely with a winch. If in doubt do a dog tooth.

You have got it right. You can claim back the 20% and only pay them the 5 so if you were only selling firewood you would get money coming back to you each quarter. Only exception is if you're selling to someone to sell on again then you need to charge 20% vat.

Deck chair/barber chair - when a tree has too much weight on one side so splits vertically and kicks back towards you as you fell.

I thought that but it was already selected. It looks like there should be other options. I tried again with 100 blades to check it wasn't a cost thing but it didn't work. I'll contact them later.

Am I missing something here? I want chipper blades delivered and it says I qualify for free delivery but there's only 1 option...

If you ground the bar depth wouldn't the chain be too tight on the sprocket?

510kg

What was the moisture out of interest?

We've been using kramers for 20+ years. We're lucky because we share machines with our farm so we've got 2 kramers - a small 280 and a telescopic 750t, both brilliant machines. Not the best pictures but here they are.

556kg on my workings. Probably wrong though

We do the first except deliberately leaving a few big bits per load because most customers want them to keep fires going over night. The 12 way splitter isn't very effective unless you sort logs first because any small stuff that goes through just gets made into kindling by the ring then you get too much rubbish.

I doubt we're one of your suppliers and like to think we offer good value and high quality logs (nearly all of our customers are regulars) but I'll try and explain to you the production side of things. These are more random thoughts than in any order. First thing is that tote bags (not all suppliers of course) are a poor unit of measurement because they stretch over time so a 90x90x90 bag when new will hold 0.7cube but after a few uses will hold 1cube. Very few British companies offer stacked wood because it's a lot of effort for no gain so you're better off buying 6 cube and with decent suppliers that should be consistent regardless of how it's delivered although it sounds like you've had some bad experience regardless. Unfortunately UK suppliers will never be able to compete on price and quality with imported logs because the wood is so much cheaper in Europe and they can justify cutting it by hand to get more consistent logs because wages are so low. Not much can be done here of course as it's the same with any industry although I would say £110 a cube is very expensive. It's virtual impossible to get a consistent size with firewood because the diameter of timber is never the same, nor is the length but I agree it shouldn't be more than about 10% longer than listed although, while it shouldn't be massive, most of our customers ask for a range from kindling to big chunks in their loads to manage the fire. The rest I think you're right ; there should never be more than the odd bit of softwood in a hardwood load and there's currently too many units of measurement but thankfully more people are using cubic metres all the time although according to trading standards that's not allowed and we can technically only sell loads by names like small, medium and large. Best of luck finding a decent supplier anyway.

We work off 1.8cube per ton for hardwood.

Not log cutting I know but here's a few pictures of us fencing with the oak stakes I showed earlier.

I would have to double check but I remember reading somewhere that best practice is to put the netting on the public side and the barb on the other. I can't remember where it was now but that would make sense to me if you had children leaning on the fence or any issue like that.

Thanks, thought it was slightly high for loose.

Stacked or loose?

That's what I thought to and I think larch is one of the best value softwoods.

Been a couple of times, weirdly I then saw it on the new star wars film a few weeks later. It's certainly interesting to see although not as big as you would think. Some fascinating rocks and trees there.

They just need to be sharpened at different angles, I wouldn't say either was massively more difficult. In theory semi chisel stays sharp longer and full cuts slightly faster.