We travelled to Kerry to catch up with Edwin Stryker, a Dutch native who farms 140,000 chickens alongside his woodchip business, North Kerry Woodchip. Having moved to Ireland with his family in 1977 as a 16 year old, Edwin explains that his father wanted to escape the paperwork involved in running a farm in the Netherlands and take on a holding in Ireland.

After searching the country, the family settled in north Kerry where they took on a 10-year lease of an existing poultry farm. Eight years later, Edwin and his brother bought the holding.

Forestry

As a pension investment, the brothers decided to invest in land for forestry. Upon making the initial investment and planting the trees, Edwin explains that the premiums then covered the repayments. When the first thinnings began to come on stream, the brothers felt the farmer wasn’t being paid enough, so Edwin decided to set up a new business.

At the time, he noted that woodchip for biomass and renewable energy was gaining some traction. He also noted that there was a grant-aided drive at the time to convert buildings from oil-derived heat to woodchip powered boilers. Edwin saw an opportunity and decided to go down this route.

Machinery investments

In 2008, the decision was made to purchase a two-year-old Heizohack HM 10 400 wood chipper from a Tipperary contractor. The decision was made based on the fact the machine had 10 knives and could handles logs with a diameter of up to 400mm.

Chopping in the region of 4,500t of timber each year, Edwin explains: “We typically go through four sets of knives each year. The knives are double sided and we edge them every three weeks. Each set is edged twice before being replaced.

“Our running costs have averaged approximately €2,000 per year, equating to around €2.25/t chipped”.

A T170 had been used to power the chipper until a T194 was recently purchased. The T170 had a typical fuel consumption of 27l/hr when chipping.

Botex trailer

When Edwin first entered the woodchip game, he also bought a Valtra Valmet 6400 and a Kronos 8t forestry timber trailer. He noted the decision to go Valtra was easy – he’s located just up the road from a dealer who he has a great relationship with and the fact he was able to turn the seat around to work the trailer.

Recently, Edwin upgraded both the 12,000-hour Valtra 6400 and the Kronos trailer for a new Scottish-built Botex XL PRO-14 timber trailer. The new trailer is a 4t capacity upgrade on the Kronos and features an extendable rear extension.

Most of what Edwin carts is from stacks within the yard to the chipper. However, the trailer is also used to collect thinning’s from nearby forests.

The trailer is fitted with a heavy-duty 570c Botex crane with a six metre reach. The crane has its own on-board hydraulic system which is powered by the tractors PTO. The high-spec trailer came at a cost of €30,000 plus VAT.

Delivery of woodchip

At present, the chipper and 24ft tri-axle Broughan trailer are powered and pulled by a 2016 built Valtra T194 which was purchased last year. Edwin also recently got a new custom-built 24ft Broughan trailer. A hatch within the main rear door is hydraulically operated from the back right to allow a constant flow of chip from the trailer into the loading conveyers.

Edwin said that the majority of his clients are within a 50km radius. However, he has a handful of clients up to 120km away. Typically, he covers Cork, Kerry, Clare and Tipperary. This was reiterated by looking at the Valtra’s telematics for the past 12 days which showed it had covered a huge 1,600km.

Today, the business is split 50:50 between biomass boilers and animal bedding. Woodchip for boilers is seasoned for approximately a year and a half while bedding chip is seasoned for nine months.