Quality focus key to broadleaf profits

Quality should be one of the key objectives in broadleaf management, forestry owners were told at a hardwood marketing event hosted by Teagasc. 

Teagasc Forestry Development Department brought forestry sector leaders together for the ‘Talking Hardwoods’ workshop yesterday at the Firgrove Hotel, Mitchelstown, Co Cork.

Private forest owner Ailbhe Gerrard of Brookfield Farm, near Nenagh, Co Tipperary, said quality should be a key objective for broadleaf forest owners, with the aim to produce valuable hardwood timber at the intermediate and mature crop stages.

Teagasc forestry researcher Ian Short said that appropriate management of broadleaf trees results in the production of quality timber and increased crop value.

Nuala Ni Fhlatharta, head of the Teagasc Forestry Development Department, said: “In contrast to the conifer timber resource, almost 63% of the broadleaf resource is in private ownership. Many new broadleaf woodland have been planted in Ireland since the early 1990s, with grant aid support.”

Teagasc’s John Casey also advised that many crops are now approaching first and second thinning stages. Broadwood owners discussed Teagasc research on silvicultural techniques, including formative shaping, high pruning, marking of potential crop trees, and thinning at the right stage and intensity.

The event was addressed by Agriculture Minister of State, Andrew Doyle.

Mr Doyle said: “I am pleased to participate in this very important event bringing together forest owners with broadleaf tree species in their forest plantations and the hardwood industry to learn and share information about the management, harvesting and marketing of hardwoods.

Broadleaves represent a very significant proportion of the forest estate, estimated at just over 25%. Given their value, their longer growing cycle and different management requirements, it is timely to focus specifically on issues for broadleaf growers.”

Mark Twomey of the Forest Service Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, notes that three million cubic metres of broadleaf harvest volume is forecast to come on-stream in the period 2016-2035, made up of both thinning and mature harvests, with the average annual harvest volume ranging from 80,000 cubic metres 243,000 cubic metres as production fluctuates.

Luke Middleton, Forest Service, reiterated that the felling of trees within a forest requires a licence under the Forestry Act 2014.

However, some trees outside of the forest are exempt, such as hedgerow trees growing within 10m of a public road.