forestry grant

kfk

Am I allowed to do work (planting) myself and claim the forestry grant? Or do I have to get an approved contractor?
TIA

fordfocus1

i am lookin at doing this too. from talkin to tesgasc you need to hire a registered forester to do the plan. Once accepted you can do the work yourself with instructions from the registered forester.


do you think you will do the work yourself? They say its important to get a digger driver with good forest experience.

haybob

How are ye lads,

There is no bother with planting yourself, you will need a registered forester and a good digger driver, but if you can get your hands on the department inspector and quiz him up you will get the best advice, you will need to fence with pinch wire, maybe a bit of drainage but watch the spacing and the different species. The only issue I had was the fencing where I had two lines of pinch wire and he asked me to out in three in a place.

Have you any idea what you are going to plant there is a few bob more for certain species.

tabby aspreme

I got a forester to put in an application last summer and i got technical approval this week , i want to plant and fence myself but have not got time to do it this spring ,if I wait until autumn will all the money for planting be spent ?

fordfocus1

from what i was told this years planting has to be done by the 13 of march, so its a new year after this. I'm not going to make this deadline either. Is the digging working out the most expensive for you? I'm lookin at getting the trees from coillte

tabby aspreme

have not priced anything yet as i only got technical approval this week , the letter says work to be done by end december 2010 ,i spoke to dept of ag and they said planting would have to be done by end of march if i looked for financal approval straight away, so i will wait till autumn

tabby aspreme

I should be able to rip some of the ground the rest will have to be mounded ,what kind of money is mounding costing ? ,i reckon a lot of the digger men are a bit rusty on forestry work after all the site work over the last few years. I bought reps hedge plants from coillte in the past and found them ok

haybob

try your best to do what they want or you will draw ire on yourself, I'd imagin they are only mad to cut lads now

tabby aspreme wrote: »

I should be able to rip some of the ground the rest will have to be mounded ,what kind of money is mounding costing ? ,i reckon a lot of the digger men are a bit rusty on forestry work after all the site work over the last few years. I bought reps hedge plants from coillte in the past and found them ok

tabby aspreme

forester reckons ripping costs 125 / hectare and mounding 450 / hectare which sounds good to me

Caoimhín

tabby aspreme wrote: »

forester reckons ripping costs 125 / hectare and mounding 450 / hectare which sounds good to me

That sounds a bit pricy to me. I wouldnt pay my subbies any more than €120 per acre for ripping, €150 per acre for mounding.

haybob

Jaysus more than half the machines in the country are idle I smell a rat, did he reccommend a certain individual to you price around

tabby aspreme wrote: »

forester reckons ripping costs 125 / hectare and mounding 450 / hectare which sounds good to me

tabby aspreme

Caoimhín wrote: »

That sounds a bit pricy to me. I wouldnt pay my subbies any more than €120 per acre for ripping, €150 per acre for mounding.

Thanks for that Caoimhin , about 5 hectares to rip and 1 1/2 to mound i may have to pay a bit over the rate for such a small area to mound but good to know what work is being done for .

tabby aspreme

haybob wrote: »

Jaysus more than half the machines in the country are idle I smell a rat, did he reccommend a certain individual to you price around

No names were mentioned , I know a few idle digger men but they would need laser levels and a GPS system to mound properly:). will price around , thanks

Caoimhín

tabby aspreme wrote: »

Thanks for that Caoimhin , about 5 hectares to rip and 1 1/2 to mound i may have to pay a bit over the rate for such a small area to mound but good to know what work is being done for .

Yeah, that makes sense i suppose, it would be expensive to bring a digger onto the site to mound 1.5 acres. Maybe I could suggest that you get a subbie who is bringing a digger onto the site with a tractor to use that tractor to rip the area.
I do fairly large areas every year so maybe its my impatience but i would do on or the other if i thought i could get away with it. Have a chat with the inspector, most of them are quite practical and wont insist on something like that.

tabby aspreme

might try to rip it all as the wet patches will have dryed up a bit in a few weeks time , i am sowing alder in the wet bits as it grows of its own accord in them already, so it should not be to fussy about conditions,

djwalsh

Lads
Mounding for basic conifer spacing should cost no more than 300-320 euro per hectare but depends on level of work in terms of scrub clearence etc. Mounding for oak and beech should cost no more than 400-430 per hectare. Make sure you get a machine operator with some level of forestry experience as if this job is not done correctly the spacing and stocking levels will not recah required forest service standards