Buying timber off Coillte

hammer73

have any of you any experience buying timber off coillte? is there any negotiating with them or have they a set price and thats that. Looking for an artic load of wood for firewood. Looking to hear your experiences before i tackle them

levallat

I bought some from them 28 years ago and I remember trying to haggle the price down a bit and they wouldn't have any of it, it was a take it or leave it price, but in the current situation they might be easier to talk to as their Louisiana plant is only working part-time and they are selling whole trees to Blue Frog in Omagh to make shavings with.

colrow

its about €26 a cubic metre

reilig

If you have a way of transporting logs - like a tractor and trailer, you might be better contacting a farmer who is currently thinning forestry. They currently get a very poor price for their thinnings and I'm sure would welcome a cash deal. If there is a forwarder on site, they would be able to load it onto a trailer for you. An alternative would be to offer some cash to a lorry driver who is bringing wood off site to deliver a load to you.

I think at €26 per cubic meter, Coillte have a nice profit margin on it.

I heard that it costs the farmer €12 per cubic meter to get it thinned and he can get a sale price of €18 per cubic meter - making just €6 profit per cubic meter.

(My figures could be wrong, so someone in the game might be able to better inform us)

hammer73

thanks for that, it will be worth a try tackling a the growers direct. i am off to the ploughing match next week so ill try and get talking to someone in the coillte stand and get some info there.

PMU

hey hammer, any luck finding a load of timber,
I am in the market also. pat

cormywormy

I was wondering to and got in contact with coilte and they gave me a mob number to ring . I think it was an area manager or something.

Caoimhín

Right lads,

Coillte usually sells its timber through auction either a standing sale (un-felled) or roadside.
At the moment pulp wood from first thinnings (€26 a m3 is for quality sawlogs) is making about €8 per tonne (just over 1 cubic meter) standing, ie; before the harvester and forwarder have cut and brought the timber to roadside. It is about €14 or €15 per tonne roadside. A truck will hold about 20 tonne so €320 plus delivery wouldnt be a bad price. Anything substantially over this price and you may be being ripped off.

If you are looking for a truck load of pulp wood, ring the local Collte office and get the mobile for the harvesting forester, he will give you a price and maybe even arrange to have it delivered.

If that fails or the price is a little high, you could try get in touch with the harvesting sub-contractors themselves. These guys mainly work on private sites, so nothing to do with Coillte. They might offer you a reasonable deal if you are in their locality.

Note* all prices above refer to soft wood (spruce) and not hard wood like Beech or Oak. Softwood/conifer timber is best left to dry for at least one summer before burning, particularly if it is for an open fire.

Hope this helps.

Johnnyr

There is an online timber sales website for private forest owners to market their timber. http://www.timbersales.ie/

Prospective buyers can view the location of the timber sale and get details on what type of timber is being sold. Owner or agent details are provided to cobtact the seller.

nophd08

hammer73 wrote: »

have any of you any experience buying timber off coillte? is there any negotiating with them or have they a set price and thats that. Looking for an artic load of wood for firewood. Looking to hear your experiences before i tackle them

Hi Hammer, Did you have any luck with coillte, I am in the market for a bit of
firewood also. Small loads of split hardwood seem a bit pricey.

sailordog13

Hi,
I rang coillte bout a month ago, and got put on to various 'Harvest Managers' in the mid west.
In a nutshell they have no interest in selling hardwood as firewood.
They have long standing customers who will get preference. Also there is a huge shortage of supply recently.

I don't know if that's to do with less harvesting, or more customers though.

moy83

sailordog13 wrote: »

Hi,
I rang coillte bout a month ago, and got put on to various 'Harvest Managers' in the mid west.
In a nutshell they have no interest in selling hardwood as firewood.
They have long standing customers who will get preference. Also there is a huge shortage of supply recently.

I don't know if that's to do with less harvesting, or more customers though.

I had the exact same experience with them so i gave up , got in touch with a private forester and he was sound he lets me know whenever he has the stuff i want and he is not too dear either

keep going

bought timber a couple of years ago and no probs even put it down as fencing

reilig

sailordog13 wrote: »

Hi,
I rang coillte bout a month ago, and got put on to various 'Harvest Managers' in the mid west.
In a nutshell they have no interest in selling hardwood as firewood.
They have long standing customers who will get preference. Also there is a huge shortage of supply recently.

I don't know if that's to do with less harvesting, or more customers though.

I'd imagine that coillte's hardwood supplys would be limited. 99% of their forests are softwood. I'd hate to imagine what type of prices they are charging??

There should be loads of private forest owners thinning hardwood at the moment - so it should be easy enough to pick some up.

Or else consider burning softwood - it will work out a good bit cheaper than hardwood and will burn fine in any appliance other than an open fire.

allanpkr

just been quoted 1800 for 25 ton from coilte ,must be hardwood ,would this be right,,help

Caoimhín

allanpkr wrote: »

just been quoted 1800 for 25 ton from coilte ,must be hardwood ,would this be right,,help

Seems quite expensive, is it being delivered?

Here are the quarterly prices, you would be getting the smallest diameter, pulp wood (i presume!)
http://www.coillte.ie/coillteforest/log_sales/quarterly_standing_contracted_prices/

Oldtree

You could have a look a these astute people in Donegal:

http://www.donegalwoodlandowners.com/

reilig

Caoimhín wrote: »

Seems quite expensive, is it being delivered?

Here are the quarterly prices, you would be getting the smallest diameter, pulp wood (i presume!)
http://www.coillte.ie/coillteforest/log_sales/quarterly_standing_contracted_prices/

Based on those published prices, the cheapest wood that Coillte have is €26 per m3. Its 18 months since I got a price for a load from them and at that time the cheapest wood that they has was €12.50 per m3. At the time, the price that they gave to me for pulpwood was €1000 + VAT for a 25 ton load Delivered. Seeing that the base value has almost doubled over the last 18 months, its easy enough to see where they got the costings for the €1800 load.

I have just done a cash deal with a neighbour for forestry thinnings. €9 per m3. The harvester will leave them onto my land. For €1000, I'll have over 100m3 of small diameter timber that will only have to be sawn in lengths (not split) for my gasifying boiler.

Caoimhín

reilig wrote: »

Based on those published prices, the cheapest wood that Coillte have is €26 per m3. Its 18 months since I got a price for a load from them and at that time the cheapest wood that they has was €12.50 per m3. At the time, the price that they gave to me for pulpwood was €1000 + VAT for a 25 ton load Delivered. Seeing that the base value has almost doubled over the last 18 months, its easy enough to see where they got the costings for the €1800 load.

I have just done a cash deal with a neighbour for forestry thinnings. €9 per m3. The harvester will leave them onto my land. For €1000, I'll have over 100m3 of small diameter timber that will only have to be sawn in lengths (not split) for my gasifying boiler.

Yeah, timber prices have doubled in the past 8 months. Good for foresters, bad for sawmills and end users. You were right to do a deal with your neighbour. For small amounts it is better to avoid Coillte as they charge a premium.

allanpkr

hey,thks guys ,great answers very helpful,,i will have to search around,, live in mayo see whats availible

mashed13

I was looking for a firewood myself and found this oldy thread here

Here's some update from coillte if anybody is interested:

''Thank you for your email. We sell individual lorry-loads of pulpwood logs to domestic customers. These are usually full length softwood (spruce) logs i.e. they are not cut into blocks. The logs are 3.0 metres in length and range in diameter from a minimum of 8cm up to 36cm. As such, you will have to split and block the logs yourself.

The approximate price is €1,400 per softwood load delivered (incl. VAT at 13.5%). Hardwood prices depends on availability – please speak to the harvest manager if you are interested. A load is usually 25 tonnes but it will vary, which will carry around 25-30 cubic metres of timber. Each load is weighed. You would have to be able to facilitate the parking and off-loading of an articulated lorry off the public road (i.e. a yard).

If you are interested in progressing the sale, please contact your local harvest manager''

By the way does this means that cu m of soft firewood comes at the price of just around 50e ? or am I doing my maths wrong ? Thanks

BorneTobyWilde

A load of wet softwood not exactly good firewood. A 4 bay truck load of hardwood is what you need.

mashed13

seasoning is a must, ofc you have to have place to store it for a year or two although this is not always the option.. for anything dry you'll be paying a hefty premium