Farmers should group together to maximise woodchip profits

HEAT production from wood is only half the cost from oil, and the energy market offers landowners an opportunity to make money from thinnings — but they must co-operate if they are to harvest, process and market profitably.

IFA Forestry Chairman Pat Hennessy says he was offered €24 per metre for thinnings, but it would cost him €25 per metre to harvest the wood.

However, he took a different route and succeeded in achieving a profit margin of €10.50 per metre. “Farmers need to group together because it is the only way forward if they are to get a return from thinnings.”

Utilising the increasing area of forest now coming up to the first thinning stage was one of the topics at a seminar in Tipperary on Opportunities and Threats in Farm Forestry, organised by Teagasc and IFA.

“It is necessary to have a reasonable area of forestry to offer in an area to make it worthwhile for the contractors to come in, and if farmers group together, they can get a reasonable return,” he said.

Teagasc forestry specialist Mary Ryan said the average area of forestry per farm is eight hectares, but a cluster of at least 30 hectares of forest is needed to make it worthwhile to hire a contractor, and this will only be achieved by farmers coming together.

She said heating with oil costs 7c per kilowatt hour, and can cost as little as 3c with wood (at a woodchip price of €100 per tonne). She urged farmers to consider setting up their own wood chip processing facilities to further strengthen their position in supplying and marketing wood for energy.