Great turnout for Western Forestry Field evening

WESTERN Forestry Co-op hosted another great field evening on harvesting. There was a great turn out on the evening with plenty of discussion and questions from forest owners. The live demonstration of harvesting in action was a big hit along with timber being collected and loaded for the sawmill.

Topics discussed on the night included forest roading and planning permission for a road entrance and the felling license application process which can take up to 9-12 months to get all licenses approved so owners need to be thinking ahead when it comes to thinning and final harvest.

Western Forestry Co-op outlined how they complete these applications as well as managing the sale through their co-op model which gets the best return for the forest owner, from the initial forest visit (which is free) right through to replanting the felled area and the importance of fostering an indigenous forest culture in Ireland through to generational handover so that the benefits from the forest enterprise remain in rural Ireland in the local community and continue to compliment farming as it was intended.

Forest owners also got to see first hand the difference between a high and an average yielding crop, which can be as much as €4000 an acre in revenue, the high yielding forest earning approx €10,000/acre net profit for the forest owner. The importance of managing the crop to increase yields was also discussed. For more information or to be on the mail/text out list for future events please contact Western Forestry Co-op on 071-9161458 www.westernforestrycoop.ie.