Firewood orders gone very quiet cos everyone else is doing it

B R C

B R C

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
South Beds with a bit of Herts and Bucks
No processor here, hardly any of it would go through it a lot of over size but have very good splitter, Thor, which is miles better and a hell of a lot faster than the cheap simple ones, Oxdale, etc. Plan on selling mainly barrow bags 4 to a cube £40 ea and easy to deliver many cubes from flatbed trailer rather than one cube at a time. Early days yet still getting stock for next year! Also have sawmill and biomass boiler so some added value for good sticks and no waste. We don’t muck about with anything that looks like it won’t split easily, straight on boiler heap.
 
E

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
B R C said:
No processor here, hardly any of it would go through it a lot of over size but have very good splitter, Thor, which is miles better and a hell of a lot faster than the cheap simple ones, Oxdale, etc. Plan on selling mainly barrow bags 4 to a cube £40 ea and easy to deliver many cubes from flatbed trailer rather than one cube at a time. Early days yet still getting stock for next year!
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my heartfelt advice?
Cost your own time at what you would work for someone else, work out running costs and depreciation of saws/splitter/truck, put value on infeed, and site/buildings, factor in the odd bad payer, truck breakdowns, and time spent under the tender ministrations of a good physio-therapist.
and then consider whether you can stick the wait when there's a very mild winter like this one!
 
E

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
B R C said:
You don’t do much marketing? There you go, things don’t sell themselves. How do you differentiate yourself, by quality of logs, size, type of wood, dryness, by service ie turn up when you say you will, type of delivery ie well just dump them on your nice gravel drive and scarper etc You can not compete with the cut price beer money brigade so you need to do it differently. I am just about to start doing logs in a bigger way, still as an extra to main farming mainly as I have 40ac of nice ash, beech and oak that would go to waste and maybe fortunate that I live in a very affluent area. I do appreciate that it would be very hard to make money if you have to buy in the wood. Our rule when going to clear up fallen trees etc is never ever pay for it! Oh and keep investment low don’t try and get too big as you will be racing to the bottom IMHO
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'40ac of nice ash beech and oak' ...how nice? big enough to mill?
I've (reluctantly) been paying about £230/tonne for nice oak timber roadside.
I'm too far away from you, but there'll be someone nearer wanting millable timber.

Hardwood chip must be worth £50/tonne roadside in southern location with good road links.

If you've really got 40 acres of nice stuff, i'd be wanting pro advice before i started cutting firewood.
 
B R C

B R C

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
South Beds with a bit of Herts and Bucks
Did you not read my post properly? I have a mill, and a felling licence. It’s quite varied actually, a bit of what you would call traditional Chilterns woodland with mainly beech, some ancient, some old hazel coppicing which hasn’t been touched in decades which I am starting to restore. The nice ash/oak for felling is about 12/15ac.
 
E

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
B R C said:
Did you not read my post properly? I have a mill, and a felling licence. It’s quite varied actually, a bit of what you would call traditional Chilterns woodland with mainly beech, some ancient, some old hazel coppicing which hasn’t been touched in decades which I am starting to restore. The nice ash/oak for felling is about 12/15ac.
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sorry, hadnae seen that bit. Best of luck with the beech though.
 
Chasingmytail

Chasingmytail

Member
Location
Newport, SE Wales
We are selling at £80pcm and we have priced up that's around £20 profit per metre after delivery. Anyone who thinks its easy will have a shock. People want it delivered on different days. Flatbed trailer does not work in the terraces and back streets of welsh towns. People want it tipped on the drive or reversed up the back street. some of the nightmares of places and even steepest roads a trailer is a no no. Landrover tipper wins every time but you cant get the weight on.

A few years ago I must of had all the customers in the area like everyone has said every kid is loading the truck and selling for £50 cash. Marketing costs too much money advertising is where you can plough all your profits. The biggest problem with any small business is the advertising overheads and from experience it doesn't pay unless you really endlessly keep up weekly.

Processors are only ok for straight small pieces we have huge trucks and knarly branches. Every small scale processor we looked only works for certain diameters. Be using a splitter. Our wood has come from jobs and fallen trees on the farm. Farmer has all the chainsaws but its exhausting him fitting it all in. The stories we can tell of leaving lads cut up what disasters! Last time we spent 2 days cutting so he well understood the thickness of each piece we came in the evening to find he'd taken on himself to cut all the oak into kindling size and at £10ph we could of cried. Just proves you cannot leave anyone to do anything. Over the years lads have be left to cut the wood and ended up with 14" lengths and pieces so big you could heat the local hospital.

I agree its not worth the bother.
 
bobk

bobk

Member
Location
stafford
Chasingmytail said:
We are selling at £80pcm and we have priced up that's around £20 profit per metre after delivery. Anyone who thinks its easy will have a shock. People want it delivered on different days. Flatbed trailer does not work in the terraces and back streets of welsh towns. People want it tipped on the drive or reversed up the back street. some of the nightmares of places and even steepest roads a trailer is a no no. Landrover tipper wins every time but you cant get the weight on.

A few years ago I must of had all the customers in the area like everyone has said every kid is loading the truck and selling for £50 cash. Marketing costs too much money advertising is where you can plough all your profits. The biggest problem with any small business is the advertising overheads and from experience it doesn't pay unless you really endlessly keep up weekly.

Processors are only ok for straight small pieces we have huge trucks and knarly branches. Every small scale processor we looked only works for certain diameters. Be using a splitter. Our wood has come from jobs and fallen trees on the farm. Farmer has all the chainsaws but its exhausting him fitting it all in. The stories we can tell of leaving lads cut up what disasters! Last time we spent 2 days cutting so he well understood the thickness of each piece we came in the evening to find he'd taken on himself to cut all the oak into kindling size and at £10ph we could of cried. Just proves you cannot leave anyone to do anything. Over the years lads have be left to cut the wood and ended up with 14" lengths and pieces so big you could heat the local hospital.

I agree its not worth the bother.
Click to expand...

What's a cubic metre ?
 
bobk

bobk

Member
Location
stafford
renewablejohn said:
Lots round me selling for half that price but it wont burn and they come to me for quality. Also have stuck to hardwood. Softwood reserved for home use.
Click to expand...

That\s what you get , smells lovely .


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