fmeforestry

Just cutting for that money, forwarding around £5 a ton depends on the distance. Yes we do a lot for private agricultural land owners here in kent and are asked to cut into a trailer or a ROLO bin, cut and reverse with the tree and length into the trailer for there biomass or logs.

Morning everyone, I'm based in Kent, covering kent, sussex, Surrey and Hampshire. We are charging £12-15 per ton depending on clearfell or thinnings. Bunched according to bucking in the wood ready for forwarding. £55-65 per hour, again depending on thinning or clearfell and distance to the landing, bunched into a trailer or bin or to a central landing. But Id prefer to clearfell and bunch to a landing rather than thin. Transport costs depending on distance and job size. Email me at [email protected], or call 07790032573, prices exclude VAT. Kind regards David

We've looked into the CHP plant, it's definitely something we are interested in. Dry all the wheat etc, just trying to get all the ducks in a row to put the project together. Needs a new grain store really, all the tractors and trailer are too big these days and it doesn't make sense to retrofit grain stores if they aren't fit for purpose.

Ok, so we keep coming back to same question on my part! Yes I understand that you all think it would be easier to have a contractor come in and job lot the wood but, and this is an important but, it cannot happen like this otherwise it would have already happened. Am I making sense? My customers and my own father need someone they can trust to run the job, we have unfortunately been messed around a bit in the past, father had some coppicing work down on a small wood in line with his 25 year policy, around 20 acres, all told he was paid for 2 loads of timber. So our 25 year wood averaged 3 tons per acre. We cut the next block of chestnut last winter and sold 125 tons of wood. This is my problem, you all come back to 'locking the gate', 'finding someone you can trust' I was hoping I might find some people to trust here! The issue with farming the project out to a contractor outside of my immediate control is just that, losing control of the situation, I'm happy to use a friend of mine to run the harvesting section, we can run the forwarding operation and I'm hoping to run the sales. We know the Silvicultural side of the job because we've had the advice and understand what needs to be done and how to do it. I know I can sell this service to my clients who I already manage farms for but I wont be able to sell the 'whole job contracting' because my clients have stories just like the old mans! Like I said I'm trying to integrate as much of the project as possible to reduce the risks for my clients. We can't offer the contract out as easily as all that for many reasons including the simple fact that our countryside stewardship is tied in with the woodland grants, the potential risk of losing that would kill any project. As I said I'm hoping to manage the project to reduce any risk. I just have a rather large stumbling with the whole project and that's where to sell it! I hope that you don't all think that i'm trying to take work away from the industry specialists because the works not being done anyway! If I wasn't pushing this the woods remain as they are. You never know where this job might end up, as my farm management business grows we might get into the situation where I can tender the work out, but at this early stage I need to be the face of it and have all the answers!

I can teach you how to farm no worries at all, its all about soil structure and management, plant in the dry, spray in the dry, combine in the dry, its all quite simple! Plant before winter, spray it all 5-6 times a year, 3 rounds of fertiliser, combine as soon as it's under 15% in July. Bang it in a shed, call frontier grain or grain harvesters, job done, home for tea.

I'm down in Kent. I have considered just leaving it all to a contractor but my issue is that all the grants etc are linked in with our single farm payment grants and I'm concerned that I'll end up jeopardising all of that. I understand a lot of the grant process and the woodland management side of it. I've been a few years looking into it. We've just got to the crunch point now where it's time to put the plans into action! Like I said I'm looking for something to put my team doing in the winter anyway and we can easily do the woodland management side of it, I've also got the job of organising the sales side of it! Where do I contact the buyers? I see that there are some online auction website but obviously I need the wood cut before I can sell it and well if I get it all cut wrong then it's worthless. Seems most timbers in 3 metre (10 ft) lengths, is this the industry standard? Then let the buyer process it from there? I'm not trying to pretend it's easy but well seems there is a job in it, I don't mind the work organising it all, and my team are capable of doing the on the ground work gapping up and weed management. I'm hoping it could be a useful diversification for me in the winter if I'm honest. Thanks for your help so far.

Good afternoon, Ok so here's the story and how the idea has come about. We are farmers mainly, I run a agricultural contracting company alongside my farmers farm. Along with our farm we own around 500 acres of woodland, from mixed hardwoods, some mixed softwoods and some chestnut coppice. On 3 of the farms I manage there is a further 200-300 acres of woodland. Again mixed hard and softwoods. I have long been interested in the potential of doing something with woodlands, father is a big shooting man and deems this to be the sole activity for all the woodland he can own! Unfortunately this isn't paying the bills and since his health has caught up with him he has decided to retire. So providing I can still provide the shooting he wants I have been allowed to investigate woodland management, coppicing, clear fell, thinning etc. My main aim is to provide a 'winter' job for my staff and hopefully some profit! The big idea is to have a contractor come in to handle all the felling and my team provide the management services. I have the prices for the contractors, they seem pretty steep but then harvesters etc are £350,000 machines so maybe they aren't all that bad! What I needs is an idea of prices per ton, yield per acre, how it all needs organising, i.e different stacks of different species or does it need stacking by size? How do I get it graded? Do I have someone in to say 'that's firewood, that's woodchip wood etc' or do I just get it all organised back in my yard and let the buyer decide if he wants it or not? Where's the best place to sell? I'm worried about putting a lot of time and effort into this enterprise and getting messed around. Any help would be greatly appreciated