Creating Woodland on improved grassland saves costs

Woodlands planted on improved grassland or poorer arable land are potentially very profitable. Schemes in Grampian have shown high growth rates while thinning operations can begin after only 17 or 18 years, writes Simon Jacyna, a Forestry Consultant with SAC Consulting, who has helped farmers create woodlands for over 25 years.

As much of the work can be mechanised planting on good ground gives opportunities for substantial cost reductions. Shaun Conroy of SRC Contracting designed and built his own planting machine and has recently worked closely with Simon to establish several schemes on farms.

Planting by machine gives uniform spacing and can be combined with a simultaneous application of herbicide. The regularity allows follow-up band spraying to be carried out with a small tractor or quad bike. This more than halves the cost of a similar application by hand. It is most effective for species such as spruces and pines which are tolerant of Glyphosate at low doses in the dormant season.

Compared with hand work planting by machine is cheap so a standard practice is to plant at a higher density than the minimum specified in the contract which reduces or eliminates the need to replace any losses. Uniform stocking also allows quick assessment of stocking densities and the planting machine can even record the number of trees planted.

Fertile ground can often mean heavy regrowth of weeds. Planting in lines allows inter-row mowing which, in the first year or two, prevents plants from being smothered by vegetation, as well as reducing the cover for damaging wildlife such as deer or voles. .

Simon says “Many farmers are able to undertake ongoing maintenance operations themselves and find that reducing the labour costs makes woodland creation even more financially attractive”.

Up to 12,000 trees a day can be planted by machine. SRC Contracting 07792 633848. Copyright PsingerAgriPhoto

Band weeding carried out by quad bike.