IF another person dares to complain about the current state of the weather, I may punch them on the nose. This time last year it was cold and wet and the sun had been locked away under a grey blanket of cloud for what seemed months. To make matters worse, business was really slow.

This year, yes, there have been some wet days, but these have been followed by several days of sunshine. In fact, I think it’s been the best run of weather for the last 10 years. So far I’ve really enjoyed the autumn and, with temperatures generally in double figures compared to the single miserable figures of June, the grass continues to flourish and my cattle fatten in preparation for the freezer.

While I’m being quite optimistic, the rest of the population appears trapped in a doom loop with the new government apparently intent on talking the country into a recession by issuing an endless stream of fatalistic economic predictions and assessments. I think we’d all be a lot happier if we didn’t listen to the news.

I’m not wishing to sound like ‘I’m alright Jack’, but with a freezer full of home-grown beef (with more on the way), the log stores full to the top with firewood (which has cost me nothing) and with no real need to worry about domestic energy costs, the immediate future looks bright.

Business wise there’s nothing more true than the saying which dictates that you either go forwards or backwards but never stand still. With an ageing workforce (not excluding myself), the need to make everything easier is gaining momentum. We have a small delivery truck which carries about five tonnes, or eight with a trailer which we also use for sawdust, and although it’s now 15 years old it has never broken down. While I have no doubt it would continue for another 15 years, we really need to move up the weight and so I have invested in a larger vehicle. Far from being new, it is another ex-council truck with low mileage which has just sailed through its test.

However, before bringing it into service I’ve had some adaptations made by a local farmer/fabricator. The problem we’ve had in the past in using a truck for both flat and tipper work has been lifting drop sides and greedy boards on and off. This adaptation means we now have sides which we can store in a rack behind the headboard, which can fit into slots when required.

Having bought the truck from London it’s virtually rust free which gives it a chance before being subjected the salt and hostile climate and roads of Northumberland. I’ve also been coating it underneath with ‘raptor’ paint which has been recommended, but it won’t be ready for service until it’s had at least four coats.

Earlier in the year I looked at a much younger model from a local dealer. As I crawled underneath I saw a sea of red corrosion. So I’ve decided that for the foreseeable future I intend to buy as far south as possible.

In the sawmill we still have to have stack slab wood by hand, which is probably our most labour-intensive activity. However, the mill has an automatic function which scavenges pallet wood out of the slabs. The slabs should, therefore, be very thin and easy to handle, except when we are cutting logs with big butts. I know plenty of people who like big butts, but in the mill they are a most labour-intensive job and also one of the heaviest. Despite going a long way towards automating much of this process, the operator must still hump huge slabs with heavy ends, so this is an activity we need to remove. 

In an ideal world, with no restriction on costs, we’d simply go out and buy a butt reducer.

However, in a small mill one is always battling with what one can justify. For instance, we buy new forklifts because we are using them all day, every day, but with a butt reducer we’d only use it on occasion and therefore it’s difficult to justify the cost. Added to this I always try to keep the machinery we use as simple and easy to maintain as possible, and in some instances less is more. Some of my workforce is near or at pensionable age and so I have to consider their needs.

The easier I can make stacking large pieces of wood, the better.

I am pleased to say that through the free Classified pages of Forestry Journal a butt reducer is now sitting comfortably in the yard. I say comfortably because as space is at a premium I wasn’t sure where it might go, but there turned out to be an ideal location. So, with this good weather and a machine that now makes some difficult jobs an awful lot easier, it’s onwards and upwards, which leads me nicely onto sales.

Over the last few weeks I have had seemingly every timber agent in the UK trying to sell me oversized logs. This is usually accompanied by a short spiel pointing out that there are no small mills left to take such logs or pallet wood. No surprise there, then! At one stage I used to sell mainly to government agencies like the Forestry Commission, the MoD, National Trust and local councils, but nowadays they won’t purchase anything from me because I’m not a member of the chain of custody or FSC.

If you read the FSC criteria it states that as part of its goal (and I quote) it has: “No discrimination in employment and occupation, freedom of association and a right to collective bargaining.”

Despite these clearly stated goals/aims, every time I have enquired as to how to become FSC certified I get fobbed off with the implication that I shouldn’t bother or that it would be a waste of time and money. On other occasions calls have remained unanswered and promises to call back ignored and I can only conclude the FSC was set up by the big companies in order to monopolise the market. Shortly after the Forestry Commission finished commercial dealings with me they started importing wood and ignored local suppliers – even their own timber, which doesn’t seem like a very eco-friendly/green approach to me!

It’s a similar story regarding local farmers, who are struggling to sell their timber. As far as I can see, the FSC chain of custody does exactly the opposite of what is intended or what it claims to do. To me it’s just an exclusive members’ club which monopolises the market.

As I sit in the office I’m looking at the FSC website and am drawn to yet another quote: “We balance social, environmental and economic interests to develop solutions that benefit all.” I’d rather reinterpret that quote in the following way: “Our aim is to destroy the market for local timber and anything associated with it like small woodlands and suppliers and thereby any small sawmill operators.”

WANT MORE FROM VOICE? 

I can’t help but conclude that increased bureaucracy and identity politics have stopped woodsmen from being woodsmen and farmers from being farmers, and that the heavy hand of government institutions is slowly strangling any innovation or desire from those wishing to enter the industry. I hope I’m wrong, but there appear to be obstacles placed in the way of everything we do and the whole way we live and work seems to be under threat. About 50 per cent of all the sawlogs coming into the yard now need tidying up and I sometimes feel like heading up to the woods and saying to these people: “This is a chainsaw and this is how you fell a tree.” You’d think with all the courses available, PPE and rules and regulations, standards would have improved, but because of cost-cutting, standards are clearly falling. If I wasn’t in the mill then I’d have no one to do the trimming.

As more and more of us retire and all this knowledge disappears, the destiny of a plant that has spent 80 years growing into a beautiful tree is biomass – to be hacked down and thrown into a chipper.