sjc1987

How much would you expect a self employed harvester to charge per hour, or would they charge per tonne? Man, machine, fuel etc would all be included in the rate.

Thanks for the response folks. It does sound cheap, I don't think there is a catch other than the rural location, which is only 5 minutes from my door so very handy. Matty, do you think I could still make money after paying contractors? The only reason I thought about doing it myself was to keep costs down although I didn't realize a second hand harvester would be so expensive. Would a harvesting head on a digger not suffice? What sort of price would I be getting for a tonne of lodgepole pine at the minute? Thanks

Hi All, I am very new to forestry but am keen to learn. A local forestry block came up for sale recently, 1000 acres of tress and it's advertised for £755,000. Approximately 250 acres are ready to be harvested and the remaining 750 acres will be ready in 10 years. The trees which are ready to be harvested are Lodgepole Pine, the rest are Sitka Spruce. Obviously I would need a huge loan to purchase the forest and equipment but i'm fairly sure there is money to be made. I'd love to hear the views of some experienced members. Thanks