planting hillside forestry

mchammer

Well Lads,

Am fairly new to this so i'll throw this out there and see what ye reckon... am inheriting a farm (c.68 acres) that is mainly(85%) upland hillside pasture for sheep, disadvantaged area etc..the farm is an hour and half away from where i live...so am thinking of a few things and forestry is one..

The hillside has a reasonable cover of peat /mineral based soil and I don't see any difficulty for trees on it except that it is quite steep and access is limited.. one exit/entrance on a decent local road is about it...
Was wondering would this be suitable for forestry or would an application be thrown out at an early stage because of the difficult access for harvesting etc..
any advice appreciated

Cheers

blue5000

Any hen harrier or SAC restrictions in the area?

Which direction does slope face?

There are still grants available for forest roads, but you won't need them until you start thinning, grants are changing next yr, give some of the forestry companies, greenbelt etc. a call.

mchammer

thanks --a lot of the hill is a proposed nha natural heritage area... not sure what that really means!... slope facing south mainly to south east as it goes up.. thanks

Oldtree

no harm to give your local Teagasc forestry advisor a shout too for unbiast (:D) advices.

http://www.teagasc.ie/forestry/

mchammer

Thanks - Just wondering/curious about the premiums paid under the afforestation scheme - there are 2 rates it seems 1 for farmer and 1 for private land owner... if I wanted the farmer rate which is obviously better would i need herd no and agricultural qualification or it there a forestry qualification which would entitle you to the higher premium

ganmo

What is required before ya go ahead and plant?
Plannin permission soil tests etc?