Ash firewood - how to sell?

GFish

I have 12 acres of Ash first thinnings in Co Sligo, stacked in the forest in 3 meter lengths- not roadside.

I don't have the equipment to extract or process the timber to firewood so I want to sell it as felled timber, not roadside, not delivered, not split (pretty much no splitting required).

Forester says it's about 60 tonnes.

I've measured and counted the piles. My calculations say there are 140 m3 in 3m lengths. Is 140 m3 of poles about 60 tonnes?

I'm looking to sell it in one lot it but not sure what to advertise and for how much. Everybody seems to advertise firewood but this is not yet "firewood".

Anybody able to advise me please:

Is 140 m3 about 60 tonnes?
Should I advertise it as tonnes or m3?
Any idea what I should expect to sell it for?

periodictable

I'd say about €60/ cubic metre

FT7

we bid €30 per ton for some last year , it was a very awkard site and timber was freshly felled and weighing like lead

bid wasn't accepted but I was aprroached about 6 weeks later to know was i still interested, I declined as the weather was too bad and we felled some of our own

we were on our own insurance and weighting in a local merchant

stone_man_2004

Hi,
Possibly interested in the lot but would need to view as access at this time of year can be problematic in Sligo. Also if not seasoned it will weigh a lot and will need to re-stacked to dry

Leitrimlad27

Can you pm me with details location etc ?

TomOnBoard

GFish wrote: »

Forester says it's about 60 tonnes.

I've measured and counted the piles. My calculations say there are 140 m3 in 3m lengths. Is 140 m3 of poles about 60 tonnes?

"How long is a piece of String?" Basically that's what we have here.

The principal problem is that both your forester and yourself are simply not communicating. S/he's saying tonnes; you're saying cubic metres.

OK. Lets try to help bring ye together..

a) Tonnes, although regularly used by foresters, Coillte etc., is a pretty useless measurement in itself.

It is really only used by sales people and transport managers (It's hugely relevant when you are going to move your timber from Point A to Point B, as in- if you have a truck with so many axles, you can only transport UP TO so many tonnes per Axle...If that's a cubic inch of uranium 235 or 15 cubic metres of dry Oak, no-one cares on the transport front what volume is involved..)

Furthermore, selling/buying by the tonne, is useless, unless an agreed moisture content is stated, such as 3 tonnes of Ash at 30% Moisture Content (AND the term Moisture Content needs to be agreed also- but that's another day's work).

GENERALLY, a tonne of a VERY Fresh (recently felled) wood species will contain anywhere from 130% to 200% of its VERY WELL SEASONED equivalent wood by volume.

b) Cubic Metres is far more useful for buyers. Generally, an equivalent cubic metre of VERY WET wood will measure around the same as a VERY DRY metre. (maybe 2-5 or 6% shrinkage adjustment, but lets not be too scientific here).

c) BUT, what comprises a Cubic Metre?

i) Its the total volume of wood excluding all airspaces, as though all logs were liquidised and put into a cubic metre form, and all airspaces were removed by a humongous vacuum pump;

ii) Its the space consumed by a geometric face of wood, whose individual lengths are known (such as 2 metres each), within which the amount of air is excluded by a known technique.

iii) Its the amount of un-chopped and un-split timber that will fit in a 2x3x1 metre trailer with sides;

iv) Its the amount of cut and split wood that will fit in the same trailer as in iii) above.

My best guess: Max:€6500 with a hugely favourable wind if your 140 mtrs stands up. Min: €3000- all assuming collection from a reasonable roadside. And that's entirely up to you. Whether by Ox, Horse or tractor. Your description simply gives nothing like the needed level of detail to assess what would be needed to draw the wood out for transporting.

wayoutwest

Cubic metre of green ash =1.28 tonne.
Your forester has told you that you have 60 tonnes, which should measure about 50 m2 so someone has measured wrong.If you HAVE got 140 M2 then weight wise, you should have about 180 tonne.
180 tonne@€20/tonne =€3500
180 tonne@€30/tonne =€5100
180 tonne@€40/tonne =€7160
If your piles of thinnings are tractor trailer accessable, then they could beworth maybe 4 or 5000.
If you have to handball the piles to roadside - maybe 2000

p.s just noticed that its an old thread- probably in somones stove by now
......If however you only have 60 tonne or 50 m2 , then you will make considerably less ie: 1 or two thousand euro......better get the tape measure out and work out what you have actually got.