The Hazel
Revolution: Managing Hazel Coppice for
Profit Conference organised by the Wessex
Coppice Group, 25 March 1997
Economic
Aspects of Hazel Coppice
By Roy Lorrain-Smith
A Wessex owner of fully productive
in-cycle hazel coppice might seem to have a steady little earner. With
little or no outlay on maintenance, hazel coppice can be sold standing for
as much as £1,000/ha every 6-7 years. But the prudent owner of such
coppice may nevertheless pose searching questions. How good is the income
when compared with alternative uses of the land? How likely in fact are
sales to reach £1,000 in each cycle? And although the coppice cycle may
be capable of going on forever, how secure is the market? Moreover, much
Wessex coppice is not fully productive and, far from being in cycle, may
have been neglected for decades. What are the economic prospects of
neglected coppice. This paper tackles those questions.
1 PRODUCTIVE COPPICE
1.1 Sizing up the income
The first things to consider are the levels that sales are likely to
achieve in practice, and whether this represents good or bad value.
1.1.1 Average sales income
It must be owned at once that £1,000/ha (£400/ac) from the sale of
standing hazel coppice is on the high side. Recent sales have sometimes
reached that level, but a better average might be, say, £600-700/ha
(about £250/ac), although, as we shall see, there may other be other
elements of value over and above crude sale income.
1.1.2 Comparison with arable crops
To put the matter in perspective, a sale income of £600-700 every 6-7
years is equivalent to £100 each year, which can be compared to gross
margins many times that level from cereal crops in adjacent fields -
fields which presumably once carried hazel coppice. However, that
comparison implies that existing hazel coppice could be cleared for arable
crops, which is by no means certain. Technically there would be no
problem, beyond a bulldozing cost or, £750-l,250/ha (£300-£500/ac), and
it might sometimes be done within the strict letter of the law, but it is
not in the spirit of the law and would be strongly discouraged by the
Forestry' Authority, and prevented wherever possible.
1.1.3 Comparison with high forests
More realistic comparison may be with conventional forestry; hazel coppice
could be cleared and converted to a high forest of oak, ash or sycamore.
Productivity would vary with the fertility of the site, but yield classes
of up to 8 are considered quite possible. Table 1 gives a broad indication
of the level of return, in cash terms, which might be expected. The
figures are for pure broadleaved crops, because conifer nurses which could
greatly boost returns are unlikely to be permitted on such areas.
Restocking grants have been included. Table 1 shows that, in cash terms,
hazel coppice compares well with sycamore and ash, and with oak of low
productivity.
Table 1. Cash Returns for Broadleaf High
Forest
O A K SYCAMORE/ASH
Total
/yr*
Total
/yr*
YC3
£6,000
£50
£1,000
-£12
YC6
£17,500
£146
£3,300
£41
YC8
£30,000
£250
£9,000
£113
* Based on rotation of 120 years for Oak
and 80 for Sycamore/Ash
