drinksloe

Have u read ur link? The exemptions for planning pretty much mean u can move around some inside walls of a shed. Really can't see a big deal in that and i bet it's similar in most industries. U can do that with a normal house without planning, hell u can even extend ur house without planning, (as long as a permitted development criteria) althou u would have to involve BC. If u want to build a new shed/tower etc u have to get PP just like everyone else All i was trying to say is many of the perks are not just for farmers and plenty of other sectors have perks too. I mentioned earlier about the planting grants for woodlands and subsidies for Boimass timber/firewood. Are they ok as they suit u? There is all sorts of subsidies grants and incentives flying about for all sorts of businesses

Why don't u become unemployed and claim benefits?? Then someone else would fund ur lifestyle. That bloke will probably work bloody hard for wot he's got, possibly handed down for generations. It wouldof been profitableor at least a subsistance living back in the old days, it had to be as no subs. In his grandfathers day (50+ yrs ago) the shearing/wool money would of covered the rent or shepherds wage now the wool doesn't cover the cost of shearing most years Also pretty sure there is no exemptions from planning regs (althou in theory the 'crown estate' doesn't need to apply but they still do go throu the regs) Reduced council tax?? Possibly only because they have no water rates (private) or sewerage Rebated desiel? Do u not use Red desiel for non road going machines/plant, never meet a timber harvester/plant contractor yet that runs his machines on 'white' Wot about owners of woodlands being free from inheritance taxes??

While i see where ur coming from. Wot happens when other countries realisewe are dependent on their produce and start to put there prices up? Or if another country or 2 decides to do the same and u start a bidding war? Would u happily pay more for ur food? I hope and dubt they're will ever be a war again, but do u really want to live on an island that doesn't even try to be self sufficent? Plus at a time of rising fuel costs and carbon footprint d u really think we should be abandoning UK farms as some sort of urban wknd playground and ship food in? Do u care wot conditions this foriegn food/animals are grown/kept in? Or is all meat the same to u wether horse or beef? When u see a modern UK farm its hard to see how any country could look after the stock as well and produce product any more efficently. The wage/land price cost of living is wot puts the price up but u really have no idea wot other countries are doing. It really wasn't that long ago that 'angel dust' was fairly normal in rogue farmers beef cattle only accross the irish sea, it could still be going on elswhere

Well written billhook. Another thing that often comes up with farmers is folk moaning about the nice motors they drive. But nowadays ike most folk a lot of the motors will be on the never never (u only have to drive round a housing estate to see plenty of fancy motors or where boy racers gather all on the HP) and no doubt will be registered throu the business as a tax dodge. Sometimes farmers don't help themselves, a mate (young dairy farmer, oldish focus before anyone ask's) was trlling me about 1 local farmer having a right goo moan at the vets about money before jumping into his brand new Jag. But at same time he rents a lot of ground, his business/assets probably would be worth millions if he was to sell up and thats without owning ground. Althou i bet he'd make a bigger profit of his money sticking it in the bank even at low interest rates So wots wrong with him driving a Jag, i bet many other bosses with assets of that value an worked bloody hard all there lifes would not be grudges a fancy car as they retire And even if the subsidy has paid for that fancy motor, is that not proof that the subsidy money is shared round local businesses even outside agriculture.

So wot about the timber industry?? Should we take away all the planting grants? All the grants for boimass/RHI payments which are propping up ratesthe firewood industry?? Aswell as keeping pulp/chip rates higher. How many contractors are now making a living/sideline selling firewood? It's very easy to blame grants/farmers, the grants are set up by EU wot are farmers meant to do turn this free money down? (as i seriously doubt the EU would just gift it back to UK) If u use ur tatties anology, u haven't paid for it twice but actually paid far less for it than u should have because its subsidised Depends on the ground and type of farm ur talking about but most rougher/higher/LFA type farms will never make a profit anyway no matter who runs them, unless u amagalmate them all sack and all the staff and let animal husbandry go down the chutes Only 20yrs ago in my area a decent family dairy was milking 80ish cows, 120 was massive and still quite a few small herds of 40ish. Nowadays the few 120's are milked by robots and many dairies are now 200+ with a few into the thousands of cows. With the modern breeding the average lifespan has decreased from 20ish years to 7ish years with any bull calfs born totally worthless, but it also has meant yields/profits have went up. So must be a good thing?? Yet in most other countries a family can still survive on milking 40 cows, eve in middle of Canada where milk tankers have to drive for 12hrs to pick up the milk. Wot would u prefer all our meat and milk came from battery type farms where cattle are raised entirley in sheds as that is more profiable? Personally i'm more than happy to see subsidies to try and keep farms smaller more family orientated units rather than big factory farms. If the farms merge and workers are slashed, where's the work going to come from in rural areas? Who's kids are going to fill vilage schools and keep local village shops open (if there is many left)

I do agree there is a gap in the market but the problem is to get something with a decent speed/capacity ur talking decent money, which will end up sitting in ur yard most of the time till it gets knicked. It's amazing the loads u can shift with 1 of those arb trolley type things althou relaying on muscle power too. Probably ur best bet unless ur very good at doing it urself (and even then ur steel, time and hyd bodging costs could be esp) just lifting the skip off and using a fold down ramp and some pulleys/winch to get the butt onto the skip space and ratchet it on. For the few times ur actually loading logs the faff might be worth it. Quite a few years ago i worked for a big fencer out in OZ, he was really getting into the vine yard fencing quite big. He believed in 1 tractor/machine for 1 job would completely customise it for that 1 job so it done it perfectly. He'd buy older tractors (even then and that was 20yrs ago) nice simple engine get in over hauled and then adapt to suit his needs. He had a wee kubeto with a post knocker welded just behind front wheels, a few counties that pulled trailers with double post knockers, a couple of mog's with a postknocker on front corner and a rock drill on the back. The other problem for a commercial company welding/fabricating 1 is that everyone would want something slightly different

The problem most of these small unit have is either there speed or lifting capacity. How much will that grab lift Marc? Looks a cracking bit of kit and some clever fabrication (which wouldn't be cheap and quite time consuming) But i imagine any log lifted has a fair bit of leverage over the barrow. Often u'd be quicker cutting it in 2 and stcking it on ur shoulder (but i know that gets tiring long term) or cutting it in 2 and throwing it in the skip with a load of other logs:sneaky2: which defeats all the clever engineering

Fair play to u timberbear:bowdown: for doing somethin like that. I bet many on here including myself would love to do something like that. Grouse moors will only recieve the same subsidy that u get per acre and thats only if the moor is ran by the landowner and there is no tennant farmer. Also very few grouse moors in scotland make any money and most lose substantial ammounts most years (prob ur nearest 1 has employed 4/5 FT keepers as long as i can remember but only shot grouse a few days in the last 10 years) The english moors are slightly different but in scotland a profitable grouse moor is almost non existant, yet they still invest massive ammounts of cash in wages, machinery and labour (if enough grouse to shoot) mainly on conservation and predator control. And don't believe everything u read about grouse moors shooting BoP's most of it is propaganda by the likes of packham with very little if any facts behind it. Its all more fooling the townies to part with there money to fight the evil murdering landowners Most grouse moors will have 95% of the same objectives as urself breaking up blanket single age heather (except ur doing it with rashes) but u will fnd ur biggest problem will be predation which will severely limit ur wild bird breeding success to next to nil (proven by a few studies by GWCT namely Otterburn (paticularly relevant to urself/habitat) and Sailsbury plain) as well as at some rspb reserves where breeding succes of various waders increased by 300% due to fencing and/or predator control I know of plenty of grouse moors putting in horizontal drains across hills to catch and hold water as well as blocking drains and puting wader scrapes in to increase water and insect numbers. Pretty sure grouse moors/GWCT ill have developed the concept originally

There already is various wheeled and tracked versions, 'the iron horse' is an ancient one with old fashioned steel wheels with spikes. Rubber tracks aren't great esp if top soil is greasy at all will just slip and spin on any slope with a load on. Some of theose smaller things ur as well just with a quad and an 'log arch'? (dunno if thats the correct term) Also those smaller tracked barrows can be quite 'tippy' on uneven ground. But it really all depends on exactly wot u need it for and how u use it, wot is great for 1 persons work style will not suit the next mans.

Have many of u been to NZ or Argentina to see the standards the stock are raised in? Generally its called ranching and many farms in this country are going more along those lines generally leaving stock to fend for itself. Some of the larger farms/stations in NZ sheep will most likely only be seen 2 times a year, clipping and marking (or in OZ clipping and crutching) very few sheep will see a vet or get any medical attention, very much survival of fittest. In UK stock has to be looked every 24hrs. So the man hours are always going to be far higher. 1 of the big benefits of NZ is the population does try to buy NZ products and it being isolated only helps that. Thats 1 of problems UK has cheap imported food from all over, esp EU. UK has nothing to fear about the standard of the animals/grain/milk it produces, most of the standards will be as high if not higher than most of Europe, half the problem is stuff coming in from elsewhere that ill be nowhere near the standard (hell some off it might not be off the animal stated, horse burgers anyone??) As for upland flooding not quite that simple, trees can increase flooding all depends wot there replacing and wether commercail planting or not. Often the best use of moors for flood prevention is grouse shooting as it needs good heather cover and peat retention wich can help slow water flow. Simle fact is weather patterns are changing and we tend to get more extreme weather and we're building houses on flood plains, and then surprised when they flood??? Farming probably would be better off if it could survive without subsidies. But the biggest problem is not the subsidies but modern culture of greed, the selling of SFP was quite a recent thing and only happened for the last 15 or so years since the SFP came in and replaced the last subsidy and it has now changed again so it can't be sold. But wot about all these folk screwing the RHI subsidy system?? I know of 2 sheds recently leased who has installed 32 and 24 chimneys coming out of them all trying to screw the old commercail RHI tarriffs. In forestry wot about all the sub's for boimass timber, pushing the price of chip/pulp higher than it should be. How many big businesses get big government grants to resettle/move factories etc. The simple fact is too many modern folk are only intrested in getting rich and will screw every system they can to get there, wether morally right or not Most farm subsidies go out of the farmers hands as soon as they come in to pay bills (know some agri contractors only get paid once a year after sub's come in) so most will be passed on to many other trades/sectors

Thats a very good reason for always carrying a spare bar and chain in ur lunch bag. Had many a bar stuck in timber, usually throu my stupidity or complancy or both, so very handy to always have a spare bar. Saves a lot of walking if ur on big soft wood jobs and also a lot of leg pulling if the machine operators see u walking for ur spare saw. With any leaning tree esp if it is heavily branched on same side as lean (which is more than likely if its an outsider) is just to be very aware, know the signs and be ready to get out the way quick. If there is a bit of pressure/wieght in the crown it really doesn't take much back cutting for it to break off But it can happen to anybody. When i 1st started working on the railways 1 of the older boys (sort of mentor) had a decent sycamore chair on him. This was someone who had been working in commercial softwoods snce the 70-or 80's doing thinnings etc, so been about about and cut the odd 'stick' Must admit i used to often leave my saws/wedges/bar hidden in the woods esp if a long uphill walk to the job, but i was usually fairly remote

Possibly a wee bit harsh. Surely it will depend on the tree type and how bad the lean and wot sort of pressure on the lean too (lot of branch pressure that way) and even time off year I've had a few in the smaller size range chair over the years, more so than larger trees. Must admit i've never seen the 'finn' cut before but i usually just stick an oversized 'gub' into the smaller ones

The other thing the old boys (pre chainsaw days) was to tie a chain round the butt to stop it splitting. A ratchet strap would do the same job, if u had 1 near

Sycamore is a bad/brittle timber anyway and will barber chair more easily than most. I've discovered since being on here i have no idea wot different cuts are called:001_smile: But i always do the proper cuts on leaning trees even soft woods as they are just so dangerous when they go wrong. Sometimes more of a problem on smaller trees asnot got the room to do the usual cut The proper cut is to bore into treee behind the hinge for the back cut and cut towards the back of tree, ur meant to leave a tag, but i have to admit i often just come straight out

Out of couriosity, wot reason/type of wood would make u pick up a different axe? And do u see a big difference fom the likes of a X27 to a 100 quid+ axe Must admit i thought my old cheap 1 was good/OK till i got my X27 and i'm sure the other top end axes are also a joy to swing. And i still have the wood grenade and sledge handy althou its rarely used. I also think i'd not b too keen on using an expesive axe to batter in a wood grenade (plus as a kid always drummed into me at scouts never to use an axe as a hammer for safety reasons and its always stayed with me.)

I was the exact same, no way did i think an axe could be so good esp when most have fibre glass shafts nowadays (just old enough to remember the difference fibre glass shafts made to fencing mels when they were 1st made) Picked it up and thought i'd made a mistake until i swung it at some wood. I have split some ugly beech rings, 3ft dai and 18" thick as long as u pick round the sides, my other splitting mual was just bouncing off. Sure shafts are a lifetime guarantee, but any shaft can snap anyway, even ur top end 1's are often on wooden shanks and there twice the money For the money it is a really decent axe

To be honest i couldn't quite understand wot u were meaning, watched some clips of it never thought something like that would even be possible. Does anyone actually use a cut like that nowadays? I could imagine it would be very handy doing outsiders when ur up against a fence or even in a tight ride. 1 of the old timers who i occasionally cut with would bre the centre of hinge and then just work his saw right round from the back cut from there completely severing 1 side of the hinge before he even started the back cut, said it pulled trees in nicely

Is bucking not more of an americain term? Never really heard it used i this country, well not the sites i've been on as usually the harvester does it all as it processes the tree. (Althou i do call the spikes on saw bucking spikes) When u watch likes of axe men it tends to be them converting the long poles into sawmill sizes, but even when i've felled for skylines here the harvester still does all that. Is a 'soft dutchman' wot u use for trying to unhang a hung up tree, when u sevre 1 side of the hinge after 'letter boxing the middle of hinge? Never heard it called that before, but not really up on the cuts different names Only 1 i can think of adding is Sometimes in my area they call brash 'haag' and 'haaging up' is when the forwarder driver is taking brash/haag out to repair his running track to stop it becoming a bog But i'm sure loads of regional variations for the same thing

Must admit very very happy with my Fiskars X27. But i haven't used the others so can't compare. Are the others not serious money? 100 quid+, can get a fiskars for around 40-50 quid. Prob split 40-50T last few years and the Fiskars is a breath of fresh air, can swing for hours without getting a sweat on, my old mual u wre sweating after 30mins.

Just watched that clip Wot's the 2 opposing felling cuts for?? Looked like a leaning tree with root plate moving slightly, not sure why they didn't just put a normal felling curt in. And even putting the 2 opposing cuts surely the tree would of pinched the bars doing the back cuts?

Must admit never sure where the 'J' cut name came from. Its basically just a step cut u'd use for limbs when climbing, but which way u step it depends on the stem and tension etc (will rooy plate flop back down or fall towards u? stem spring up/down or sideways? etc) U want the saw/step to be on he side which will move less. I try to position myself in the safest area and do it all from there and not changing sides and if its a big stem i would run the saw over to the far side first and cut well throu the tree so when i'm making final cut not needing to use the whole bar struggling to cut the whole width of the tree. But it all depends on the tree some freshly blown soft woods can be lethal the amount of spring they've got Can u not still get the Nptc course handouts online? They used to give u daigrams etc

I shoot nests out with eggs in them quite legally, pretty common practice for corbies and rooks, but u'll have to check the GL for where u are. And abide by wot reasons they give u.

Is that not wot they teach at the Jermany clarkson school of aboroculture?? Aye i thought that Possibly there is ways round it, u'd have to check the licences but possibly ur allowed to destroy the nest by other means? Mibee long poles/drey poking sticks or just poke it with a branch before u drop the limb. Most likely GL would be for conservation and say its to help the wee birds nest in the garden? With some other bird species u can oil/prick their eggs so possibly u could claim u were doing that badly and branches accidently fell down too:confused1: I know an ecologist on a big utility job goes well infront looking for rook/crow nests then speaks to landowner/keeper and gets them shot out before he comes to 'survey' the trees so no work is held up

That should be good advice, but the 1 drawback, often bat group's are ran by nutters (used to be in 1 until i couldn't stand it any longer) so might depend on the individual/group but i'd imagine they would definately erring on the side of caution and could easily put the job on hold until late spring/summer times when bats move into the summer roosts which are often trees. Really only way is dawn/dusk emergent study's to see bats either coming out or going into the roost/trees. Plus many in bat groups are just generally against folk felling trees full stop anyway so once they get involved may make life harder.

Only from a tree surgery point of view still perfectly legal to shoot crows on a nest as long as u comply with terms of the general licence. GL's are different in each country but u can find the info on SNH/Defra websites or shooting assoc's like Basc will have a link to GL's and there conditions Flattyre wot type of 'crows' are they? ie rooks, carrion, hooded, jackdaw. Also u have to comply with the GL which is generally for agricultural crop protection, conservation or environmental health are the most common used and tell u wot species u can control and how u can control them