Firewood orders gone very quiet cos everyone else is doing it

Hfd Cattle

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Hereford
Bought a processor about 10 yrs ago. Got fed up of cutting wood with chainsaw then splitting with an axe then chucking in trailer then tipping in yard then chucking in shed then carrying in the house......just to keep dad warm in the winter ! Best money we made out of processor was my lad going out on hire cutting wood for other people. It gave him a bit of cash in his Uni days. It's now sat in the yard doing virtually nothing. We have a huge amount of deadwood lying about the farm so I thought during the winter I would cut it up and sell it......needless to say wood is still lying on the floor and the processor still parked up......maybe in the summer ?
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
Most of it is measures in a bag 1m3 lose filled. Its on the the FB/web and Yell page detailed as such. It weighs so where near 1 tonne. Agree around 50% stacked and this is where some people have moaned.

See many delivered in this crates stacked, uniform shape and length. Debarked. Nothing like ours. Best money maker is the stacking service. 8" is in big demand now what is more work really and goes over the 1m3 in measurement.

Starting to hate the sodding thing now driving with 1m3 on a Saturday morning.

I sell a non-wood material in dumpys...and they are not all the same size by any means...Trading Standards Officer stand-by!
standrd ones I'm using are -from memory, 850mm cubed, which is a long way short of a mt cubed.

I've found putting logs in dumpys needs care to avoid them going mouldy.

We're on cage/slatted bunkers and telehandler usable - bulk handled until they're chucked off the truck. (2 steps from truck limit, no garden paths!).
 

oldoaktree

Member
Location
County Durham
B33B82C1-1477-41C9-8834-A15495E0C1D4.jpeg
B5E45064-37D1-4BB9-B977-105179550398.jpeg
786C772B-B0A3-4254-B8E7-2770B124A481.jpeg
I’ve been in the Firewood job for about 12 years now .
It’s quite this year with me too might be the mild winter.
I sell my dumpy bags for £65 for 1 or £120 for 2 . Barrow bags £25 each. I’ve had a average winter so far . I’m not going to knock my prices down.
I’ll often get a old customer coming back due to getting sh!t logs off someone for £5 or £10 less than me . I’ve got a fairly decent hard core of regular customers now.

It’s brings in a bit of an income in the winter and ties into my work life quite nicely.

I’ve a decent set up for chopping logs . Let the core wood dry out for about a year outside chop it up in the spring into the shed and it’s ready to go come the Autumn .
Try to have 100-200 tons on site at all times.
 

Lincs Lass

Member
Location
north lincs
I went into my arb tip site two weeks ago, as I went in two rolo skips came out, both were full of clean trees.
Aperantly no market for it so it got dumped to put through the shredders.
Came home with two loads on my trailer for free.
He's got a mountain of 3yr old dry that he's been trying to shift but nobody wants it, local log boys don't want the hassle of cutting and splitting
 

Goweresque

Member
Location
North Wilts
what weight of cut logs would be in a builders bag presuming % moisture down to recommended rate

I have weighed my bags of logs (which are 90x90x90 ones, so 3/4 of a cubic metre), and when tamped down (ie jiggled a bit on the pallet forks to settle them down) and filled to the top they weigh in at 240-250kg. Thats hardwood logs. The normal sand and gravel bags would be less, because I've got some of those I use for my own logs and they are shorter.
 

oldoaktree

Member
Location
County Durham
A friend seems to be flat out all winter doing kiln dried logs at £75 for a builders bag full.


It's cheaper to put the central heating on...

Depending on what size bag it is I’d guess it’s less than a 1m2 , £75 for kilin dried logs is pretty cheep these days. Should be about £90.
The demand from wood chip , biomass boiler, power stations , kiln drying markets getting RHI has pushed the price of timber right up .
One chap told me he would have to pay £70 a ton for hardwood if he wanted any it’s no worth doing logs at that price. No body would buy them if you priced it right.
 

egbert

Member
Livestock Farmer
Depending on what size bag it is I’d guess it’s less than a 1m2 , £75 for kilin dried logs is pretty cheep these days. Should be about £90.
The demand from wood chip , biomass boiler, power stations , kiln drying markets getting RHI has pushed the price of timber right up .
One chap told me he would have to pay £70 a ton for hardwood if he wanted any it’s no worth doing logs at that price. No body would buy them if you priced it right.

a very mild winter has depressed log sales, so there must be some long faces where firewood merchants have paid hard coin for round timber.
 
Heard on the top deck.

a...Shame about grandad.
b...I know, just on Christmas.

a...Cancer it was.
b...I know, sad.

a...He loved Christmas.
b...I know, full of Christmas spirit he was.

a...Always had all the Christmas trimmings.
b...I know, lovely tree.

a...He would trim the tree himself.
b...I know, lovely it was.

a...He always had a Christmas log.
b...I know, it used to take six buckets of water to shift the bloody thing! ;)
 
Yeah good job no personal investment on this - there is an RDP grant available if I want. I havent delivered wood in 2 weeks and then it was a posh hotel. 8" logs is in much demand - that wont be 1m3 as its smaller cut. Ive got enough cut for a about 10m3 thats it then. I question that its worth bothering come September. Last year I had nutter phoning in July (boiling day) just in case. Saying that keeping it local and some nice cash is always good.
 
We at buyfirewooddirect sell our kiln dried logs online, logs are directly sourced from our mill in Baltics. I also work for company producing premium A class wooden pellets, for local market though. Speaking with residential pellet producers, i have learnt, that last two years sales or margins are down for everyone. Stoks are high, forced to sell either with small or no margins. Similar signs are visible here for kiln dried logs, last 2 years are lower compared to 3 years back. Related or not, also the competition grown over the last 3 years, I noticed, think 5, new brand names online selling kiln dried logs...
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 75 43.4%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.8%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 27 15.6%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 3 1.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,284
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top