JF Forest Services is a professional forestry contracting company providing a range of services to forest owners and managers. Irish Tractor & Agri touched base with its Managing Director Colm Doyle to learn all about the family-run business, its origins and some of the excellent machinery that it has in its fleet.
Based outside of Dunleer, Co Louth, JF Forest Services is a family-run forestry business which officially is up and running three years now.
Headed by Colm Doyle, the company provides professional timber harvesting, timber haulage, timber sales and wood chipping service and sales to forest owners, forestry consultants and sawmilling customers.
Colm’s brother John works on a part-time basis at JF Forest Services and the Doyle family have more than 20 years’ experience working in the forest industry, having started out by establishing their own private forestry.
Irish Tractor & Agri caught up with Colm Doyle recently to hear more about this young and growing business situated in Salterstown.
“We’re established three years now and we have three full-time staff at the moment, my brother is part-time with me,” he outlined.
“We provide a broad service from first thinning through to clearfelling as well as a wood chipping service covering all areas of the country.
“We also provide a haulage service for all lengths of commercial timber as well as woodchip.”
Along with that, JF Forest Services supplies forestry products, including commercial timber – pallet, stake and saw log, wood chip produced and kiln dried firewood and kindling.
Colm and his team look to secure timber from clearfell, thinnings, wind-blown wooded areas and roadside timber. Both Softwood and Hardwood are purchased.
They also offer bespoke service tailored to the forest/woodland owner.
Since its establishment in 2018, JF Forest Services has enjoyed a quick rise and business at the moment is relatively strong as they await licencing to come through on certain different projects.
Colm’s own background before becoming immersed in the forestry industry had been in haulage farming and general haulage itself.
Since that time, his experience in the forestry industry has grown more than two decades old and he now operates his own contracting company which has been growing in stature since its inception.
Business has been good and, thankfully, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the government restrictions which have followed, have not affected what is still a relatively young venture.
Since ‘Day One’, JF Forest Services has endeavoured and worked with its clients to make sure and deliver the best returns and provide a high-quality service.
The company operates nationwide and provides a cost effective, professional timber harvesting and timber marketing service.
JF Forest Services can also provide a range of forest management services so as to assist a forest owner to establish a forest, prepare, develop and be ready for first and second thinnings, as well as clearfell.
Services provided in forest management include Forest Establishment & Planting, Timber Felling, Timber Haulage, Wood chipping, License Applications, Site Clearance, Road Building and Drainage and Timber Valuations and Sales.
It seems Colm and his team provide the complete package for their clients, but what has been the secret to the company’s growth and success in the space of just three short years?
According to the Managing Director himself, providing clients with value and quality goes a long way in the forestry contracting game.
“I suppose a big part of the reason why our clients choose us is the fact that we provide value for money and a one stop shop in terms of the range of services we provide,” he said.
“We’ve built good relationships with our clients here and hopefully that will continue going forward for us.”
As for the machinery that JF Forest Services is presently operating with, On the timber harvesting side of things John Deere seems to be the brand of choice as they currently have a John Deere 1170 harvester and a John Deere 110 forwarder in the fleet.
At the heart of their chipping enterprise is a case magnum 315 driving a Kesla 645C twin axle wood chipper with a capacity of circa 30tonne/ hour.
On the haulage side there are Renault rigid and artics, allowing flexibility depending on the client’s site access.
One or two more additions could well be made to the fleet in the next year but, for now, Colm is happy with where they’re at as he targets a bit more growth in the months ahead.
At the moment, the real challenge lay in waiting for a felling license application to be processed for certain projects.
As ever though, Colm is optimistic about the future for JF Forest Services as it continues its splendid progress.
“The hopes here are to grow the business, especially the harvesting, haulage and wood chipping side of things.
“Right now, the delays in issuing felling licenses are holding up a number of our projects, so hopefully that gets resolved soon allowing us to continue to grow,” he concluded.
If you are a forestry adviser with a client who is thinning / harvesting / selling their timber you can contact JF Forest Services today (details below) for a free competitive quotation / proposal.
JF Forest Services
Salterstown,
Dunleer,
Co Louth
Mobile: 086 360 9756
E-mail: [email protected]
Opening Hours:
Monday – Saturday (9am – 6pm)
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 9 No 3, May/June 2021
