Continuous planting, continuous income

Like many business people, Colm Foy carried out his own research before developing his enterprise gradually over the years. In Colm’s case his enterprise is forestry, but it is more than a business, which is not only a profitable land use but also provides a range of wood and non-wood benefits.

Some readers will be familiar with Colm as his Ballymacleavy forest near Ballynacarigy, County Westmeath was the outright winner of the RDS Forestry Awards in 2012 and his property in Ferefad, Co. Longford was runner up earlier this year in the production category. He is a strong believer in innovation and education and makes the forest in Ballynacarigy available for Teagasc field days especially for forestry students attending Ballyhaise College. “I regard education as essential and over the years I benefited from advice from Liam Kelly, Teagasc when establishing forests and also from Victor Barber, Western Forestry Co-op,” he says.

His 35ha forest, in Ballynacarigy, established in 1995, was his first major investment in forestry. The success of this venture prompted him to plant a further 12ha and since then he has established other forests.

However, he began modestly by establishing 2.4ha in Lisduff near his family home outside Longford in 1989. This has acted as his research forest at a time “when annual premium payments were not available so investing in larger blocks wasn’t an option,” he says. “The advice then was to plant tried and trusted species so we opted for mainly Sitka and Norway spruce, with birch and beech.”

He clearfelled Lisduff this year after taking out two selection thinnings earlier in the rotation. Close to 1,000m3 were removed and he hopes to achieve a small additional income by removing lop and top (woody debris left on ground after harvesting) and selling it to biomass energy plants in the Midlands.

Colm has a major advantage over most forest owners in Ireland as he carries out virtually all of the work himself. His harvesting unit consists of a high ground cover tractor with a steering trailer which allows for ease of manoeuvrability between the trees. “This prevents any damage to the trees as would be the case with a less flexible machine,” he says. “The crane on the unit has a 7.5 meter reach which allows for an adequate reach in any forest.”

When I met him recently, he was using the unit to remove lop and top. “I decided to remove up to 85% of the lop and top which makes the site more accessible and and more cost effective to reforest as I plan to pit plant it during the coming planting season,” he says. The site is wet mineral, formerly grazing, land but is sufficiently nutrient rich to allow the removal of lop and top which he left on the site for six months after harvest.

Colm is among the 40% of forest owners who repeat plant in Ireland which guarantees continuous income, one of the advantages of owning mixed aged and mixed species forests. Selection of species may differ slightly in his reforested sites as the Forestry Division places conditions on felling licences to ensure more diverse species in the second rotation. This is unlikely to pose a problem as he has planted a wide range of species over the years.

Regarding the second rotation, he says: “Conifers are likely to remain the core production species but I will also continue to explore broadleaves including beech, birch and mountain ash with alder a possible replacement for ash since the threat of Chalara infection.”

He will continue to experiment and will plant some high yielding species for wood energy and will also explore agroforestry in a limited way to broaden his land use options.

Andrew Doyle, Minister of State with responsibility for forestry “encouraged people to choose a real Irish Christmas tree this year”. Speaking during a visit to Rathcon Christmas Tree Farm, he highlighted how society has become so much more aware of the negative impact plastic is having on our environment. “I believe choosing a real Irish tree over a plastic tree will be a conscious decision for most Irish families this year,” he said. Pictured with Minister Doyle is Dermot Page, Rathcon Christmas Tree Farm and chair of the Irish Christmas Tree Growers Association, an organisation that represents 80 growers who will produce close to 600,000 Christmas trees in Ireland this year.