drinksloe

Alright Just wondered if many subscribe to any of the forestry type mags?? Or are they just a waste of money. If so which is best or is there more than the 2 I've heard off ( Fmj and forestry machine mag) Cheers

Scottish power or SSE? used to sell there old 110 landy's which had pto winch fitted directly onto engine or gearbox Good bit off kit as a rescue winch and won't drain the battery the way an electric 1 would, more so for long pulls where it could over load the battery

Aye I've used hydraulic winches on factors etc and they generally are slow. But they are generally rescue winches and slow and steady is the way to go when debugging urself. Althou u must get faster winch motors if u have the flow/pressure as I'm sure ur 360 skyline conversions the drums work off additional hydraulics.

Cheers Chris, was more wondering wot I'll personal experiences are? Do they work ok or bad for over heating depending wot ur using it for. Was speaking to a salesman the other day and he reckoned the folk that had added them to his machines didn't rate them. Was just wondering if anyone else had any 1st hand experience off them. Chers

But surely it still takes the same amount off timber to put a cut in? Just ur gun is left on the stump rather than on ur produce, I dare say u should be cutting the hub off the end before measuring ur log. Althou they do seem to put a for narrower more closed gun in than most UK cutters would. Not sure all those programmes are really an example off good practice. I was told the programme axmen was stopped on request of proper logging companies as it was making them look like fools. Can hardly be best practice to use ur hand gun as a felling bar.

Just wondering if many folk have much exp of converting hydraulic flow into a pro drive?? Say like from a tracked dumper to power either a normal pro driven winch, which I guess is fairly low pressure, to a flail mower or even a mulcher which could be up to 1000rpm. I realise it will depend on up and flow rates etc, but is there a min? And wot sort of price do they cost? Also have folk found them to be successful or not? Or a bit off a waste off time. Cheers

I'd double check with ur trainer about ur tickets. I know many forestry companies never used to recognise lantra tickets I think u are correct not only do assesments but most trainers should put a course on to cover that not ticket. The lantra course will cover it all anyway, can u not ask for a nptc assesment instead of lantra?

Would the drill 'hammer' into wood?? I thought it had to be a proper hard surface to work right. I welded a 4" brick bolster to a pinch bar but an old boss used a spade bit on a pinch, just buff it off with a grinder when u need too. I found the brick bolster to be better as thinner metal than spade bit. It works really well in a tight hole, axe far better in a wide hole

There used to be very old fashioned tools for pulling out docks, thistles and ragwort, sort off 2 pronged pinch bar thing. The pock marking might not be as bad as u think, will create different micro niche's for different plants in the bare soil. Will soon have new plants growing out of the soils seed banks. How will the weed wiper work?? Are u weed wiping before u cut?? Otherwise the stumps will be to low and u'll end up costing all the vegetation with chemical. I'd mibee tie a wee container to belt and just cut and dab each individual stem as u cut them. I reckon a dish wash pad with the hollow handle ( in theory) would be the ideal tool, should we drip the way a paint brush does Secatuers might work better as 1 handed if trees small enough.

If shallow soil and small trees would it be possible just to brute force and pull them out with a set off welding gloves?? Althou sometimes decieving how firm a grip even small trees can have in good soil, be easier in thin soil Otherwise u could spot treat with a paint brush or even 1 off those dish washing brushes u can fill the handles up with soap ( weedkiller, be just like a mini weed wipe) and dab it on each stem as u cut I'd just use Glyco as the spot treatment

But 150 would buy u a lot off chains. It all depends how often u need it, but an axe/chopping pinch are easily stored and cheap for occasional use

Just keep that chain or any other old 1s specifically for jobs like that and save ur new chains for the stem. To be honest ur quicker with an old axe or a chopping pinch (welded a 4" brick bolster to pinch) both aren't too long even with big roots I had to cut 350 pieces from old 2nd hand used railway sleepers the other week, bloody horrible job. And not a lot u could do about it either, hard timber for an old chain. Ended up working 2 saws and just rotating them constantly sharpening them. Took a lot off the chains but still doing ok now

Seen the dreaded orange chips a few times when I worked on the railways. Saws were often carried in the hoppers as sometimes a long walk in Luckily never happened to my saw, usually just the rear handle got slightly chipped

Not sure if the barrier fencing will work, infact might just become a hazard to the deer if they carry on fraying their antlers. But the time for fraying could be almost over as most roe should be in hard antler shortly. U might get a small amount of fraying in 4 to 8 weeks time when bucks marking territories for the rut (breeding season) Often with territorial marking u often see a wee triangle off scrapped ground below the tree too. In the past when u had more forest rangers controlling deer they would actually leave the large bucks near vulnerable young tree crops, as they will hold a larger area and keep many small bucks away. Small bucks cause far more damage as often more of them competing showing off against each other. Modern deer management tends to be more about purely numbers so very few good mature bucks are left as a 'stand' buck Deer tend to always fray on smaller trees rather than mature 1s andd tend to favour willow, some old school foresters would plant sacrificial willow purely fort the deer to fray/mark Nic I've never heard of roe or fallow ring barking trees, but reds definitely will. Some will also bore score the trees too ( usually red, sola and occasionally fallow

Aye as woody said likely time for roe to be fraying the last off there velvet off there antlers

I think u might struggle to get owt out off the digger driver. U should off never gave him permission to use ur saw anyway Wot did u say to the boy at the time?? It might seem strange if u never said anything at the time. I would off been absolutely raging at the time. Might not be wot u want to hear if saw was still going well, but in reality if u have worked that saw hard for 10yrs it doesnae really owe u anything. Might have to take it on the chin and NEVER loan ur saw to anyone. Could off been worse could off been a new saw he flattened

Also remember u can only do a bat survey from may till sept ish' before they go to hibernate in winter roosts. So if u suspect a bat roost u will have to wait till then to see if active or not.

Just to get this thread straight ur calling these folk cowboys,, scum bags and thieves etc for doing exactly wot they priced for and doing a tidy job. How do u know they weren't just workers doing exactly wot was on there job sheet. And to be fair makes no odds wether boss or not as tennant doesnae have the right to tell u to cut trees down anyway,, they don't know if the owner agrees or not. Also not all trees in the hedge are part of the hedge, they could be standards. I imagine if the lads cut down these 2 hardwoods when there job sheets said only conifers etc they would have hell to pay if they complained about those trees being cut down. Ur calling these folk scumbags etc but u have admitted pricing EVERY job high just incase u get an extra job to do. Wot happens if u don't get that extra job I've just ripped them off. Seems massively hypocritical to accuse others of being thieves for not doing extra when upcharge extra to everybody all the time I bet u must be busy, doubt many mind reading gardeners around, know to add to ur quote for jobs u haven't been asked to do yet

It will depend on the moorland, not all would resort to woodlands. Plenty in Scotland that are unmanaged and don't resort to trees. As for proper muirburn, tends to be different for sheep or grouse. Sheep tend to be tartar bigger areas, whereas grouse will be loads of small areas. For the very reason open space mentions above young shoots as per to areas of old heather for cover, nesting. Also any muirburn should off been finished last month unless over 2000 feet. So all finished before bird nesting season. Plus with a muirburn ur only burning the vegetation when done right a natural burn can go deeper into the peat so resulting in losing stored carbon and erosion water contamination etc, so can take longer to recover from.

Chances are any wildlife value would be minimal due to everyone letting there dogs run off lead. At this time of year free running dogs can cause massive damage to ground nesting birds, doesn't have to kill them just disturbing them a few times is enough to make them desert a nest.

Matty is right it's just ascam. I bought a small area off woodland and even built a load of bat boxes for it, but never put them up as will just make any future management ackward and cost me money. Bizzarely thou if the bat box rots or falls off the tree the tree is no longer protected and there is no obligation for u to replace the box. So motto is use really crap string if u want to put 1 up

Ur mibee right if they thinned a smaller area it would mean less journeys which would help, but it would also mean less brash for a Matt too. That's the problem with thinning don't have as much bag to make the matts with. Would a tractor and botex not make just as much mess. If they sent a digger in after I'd cover a lot of ground, be porridge the 1st year but after that would soon harden up

A lot of truth in ur above post Conor in an ideal world. Althou generally forests are better thought out now than they used to be. Think u have the age old problem cheaper in large scale etc, plus when u think about it all those woods harvested the now would of been planted with hand cutting in mind as harvesters/forwarders hadn't been invented. It really wasn't that long ago. As for ur photo doesnae look great, but I doubt any machinery could of hauled the timber out without making a mess, esp with no decent brash Matt. Just looks that heavy clay soil, even running feed out with a quad throu rides like that in wet weather soon turns them to porridge. Possibly more working in the wrong soil/weather conditions than the machinery, if ur climate is similar to ours here in SW Scot with 6ft of rain a year there's not a lot u can do on soft soil.

I think every district seems to have its own policy, or at least they did have. The district where I live only had 1 harvester/forwarder and then ended up with just a forwarder doing 40 hour weeks until he retired. But districts either side had quite a few each or at least did have Kielder used to have a squad off subby cutters/Brasher's that were there full time but that could be going back 10 years now. Think most districts did back then but doesnae seem as common now.

I'd 2nd wot SP said above, all out on the new nightmare tendering system. I know a couple off lads that used to work full time exclusively for FC doing all new roadsides and brashing inspection racks or mountain bike tracks etc 1 lad has had the contract for the same district for years if not decades not sure if he got back in this time. In this area most FC harvesting work is subbed out or wood bought standing so the contractors will just pay the boys the usual rates as they would elsewhere. Don't think the local district has a single cutter left despite the amount of bodies Inthe office, far too many chiefs and no Indians. Really wonder how they justify the staffing levels esp when woods not managed that we'll in first place compared to other landowners