Forestry Journal – May 2018

FIREWOOD

Nae

Wet

Sticks

James Hendrie recently

visited Macpherson’s

Firewood Sales in

Aberdeenshire to discover

more of the background of

the company.

28 MAY 20 18 FORESTRYJOURNAL.CO.UK

L

OCATED just off the A96 near Huntly

and surrounded by countless trees,

it’s not hard to see why Thomas

MacPherson of Netherton Farm

decided that firewood production

could be a good addition to his agricultural

contracting work.

Although hailing from Essex, Thomas has

been in Scotland since the late 1990s and

purchased his current farm ten years ago.

Primarily, his aim was to supplement his

production of hay and silage from the farm

by carrying out agricultural contracting

work for the many local estates and farms in

the area. With this being very seasonal, he

sought to move into other areas to help create

a solid, year-round workload.

Firewood production was something he

considered after his father urged him to visit

a friend. “I went across to visit Murray Brown,

at Aboyne, and I was impressed by his

setup. He was also the agent for Hakki Pilke

firewood processors. I decided to take the

plunge and move into firewood production,

buying a Hakki Pilke 1X37 processor.

“I quickly found that sourcing wood wasn’t

an issue, with many neighbouring estates

happy to sell me wood, with a lot of softwood

then, and now, coming from Forestry

Commission Scotland (FCS). Tom Dunn, the

harvesting manager for FCS, based at Huntly,

has been very supportive and helpful as I’ve

built up the firewood side of the business.

Although things are much more centralised,

with the purchasing of timber carried out

through FCS in Edinburgh, he is still on hand

locally to offer advice, guidance and help if I

need it.”

In order to get the business operational, the

purchase of a second-hand Farmi log trailer

from Caledonian Forestry at Aucterarder was

a necessity. Also, after a period of working

with varying sizes of wood, a cone splitter

was needed to help split some of the larger-

diameter wood. Part of the problem with the

wood in this part of the country is that in

one load he can get wood that varies from

50–60 cm in diameter right down to 10 cm.

He opted for an AH 630 CS cone splitter from

Approved Hydraulics in Stockport.

Even with the cone splitter, it is time

consuming, and another job to do, adding

to the cost of production. This is something

Thomas had to contend with as he started

to build up his firewood business. The

other issue he had while he operated the

Hakki Pilke processor was that he did not

have a log deck to stack the wood prior to

processing it. As a result he upgraded to a

Posch S360 firewood processor from Jas P

Wilson in Dalbeattie, complete with a 3.2

metre log deck.

Tom told me, “The Posch has a circular

saw cutting the wood, whereas the Hakki has

a chainsaw. This makes the Posch quicker,

but it can jam if the wood doesn’t hit the saw

straight. The chainsaw of the Hakki allowed

me to sharpen it myself, whereas the Posch

blade needs to go to a specialist. But, overall,

I find the output is quicker with the Posch.”

One of the issues Tom faced was the build-

up of sawdust underneath and around the

processor. He found he was stopping two or

three times a day to clear away sawdust, so

he quickly came up with a ‘make your own’

fan extraction system that takes away the

sawdust via tubes which empty into a nearby

trailer. To date, he hasn’t come up with a

market to sell his sawdust.

While sourcing wood in this area of

northern Scotland has not been a problem,

getting to his farm has been challenging,

with the ‘B’ road not being suitable for artic

deliveries. Even if it was, the task of turning

into the farm itself presents yet another

hurdle. With firewood sales increasing,

Thomas decided that he needed to invest in

a bigger, specialist trailer. So, it was back

to Jas P Wilson to purchase a Botex 11-tonne

extendable Euro trailer with Botex 560B

crane fitted.

Though this was a big cash investment,

Thomas certainly feels that it has paid off. It

allows him to move bigger parcels of timber

The cone splitter attached to the

back arm of the digger.

Logs move from the processor

directly to the Ifor Williams trailer.