Clean Kit… minimising pests and diseases

We’ve cleaned everthing off ready to go out again… doing our bit to keep pests and diseases out of woodlands.

Clean kit about to go out to the woods

Not solely to keep everything looking nice a shiny and out OCD cleaning….

One of the key reason’s for cleaning the equipment we use in the woods is to ensure biosecurity between sites. This is to ensure that no pests or diseases (if present) are transferred from one site  to the next, thereby minimising the potential risk of transferring non native invasive species (eg. Himalayan Balsam) or diseases (Ash dieback, Chalara Fraxinea). For more info on keeping it clean please take a moment to have a look at the Forestry Commission’s information page linked here.

With the global trade in timber products we are seeing lots of timber being imported into the UK, which has not always been treated sufficiently prior to arrival to ensure that there are no living pests/diseases arriving with it. There are a number of things you can do ranging from buying locally produced firewood (rather than imported because it’s £5 cheaper) to managing neglected woodlands (Phytophthora ramorum – often affecting larch – flourishes amongst rhodedendron and dark woodlands with limited arirflow. Ideal conditions for the disease to establsih and spread from).

If you have some woodland or pests and diseases that you are concerned about or would like to bring a wood back into a managed state, get in touch via the contact us page here and we will do all we can to help.

Forest Mulching

The Bobcat Machine we have had in this week to complete the forest mulching/ride clearance has been a tracked one – Handy in some of the wetter areas that we have encountered over the last few days. The amount of work that we have done with this mulcher set up has been exceptional and we have created some cracking new habitat areas for the local wildlife to enjoy. This will create areas for wildlife to warm up in the suna nd dry off after the rains we seem to be having at the moment. The grass should now come back having been given access to light – so long as we can keep on top of blackthorn/bramble regrowth – there isnow a lot of rides to mow so looking at the grasss growth already we hope to be busy over the summer!We managed to convince a budding Spielberg to join us in the woods today and we have added a slightly better video to our Facebook and Youtube pages (click here for Facebook and YouTube) . I can assure you that our forest work is better than our camera work though!

A few new pictures to keep you interested too…..

A perfect spot for breakfast:

Before:

After:

The last stint before completing the woodland…..

Ride clearance

We have been busy over the last few days doing some ride clearance.

This work allows some other flora and fauna a chance as opposed to everything being overtaken by brambles. The pheasants in particular are loving the work,

happily rooting around about 10m in front of the working machine. This will benefit game drives and despite what some say about disturbing the birds during the season they seem to be quite unconcerned and happy with their new space!

There are some more photo’s and a couple of short video’s on our facebook page Click Here so please feel free to have a look.

if we can assist your shoot/woodlands by creating some breathing space for trees and wildlife please drop us a line or click here Contact to be redirected to our contact us page.

Scrub Clearance

A quick update on some recent Scrub clearance works

We’ve been doing some clearance to let some light (and water) back into a pond site. The removal of the trees has also allowed the water back into the pond and it is filling up again – quite quickly with the wet weather we’ve been experiencing recently!!

Before

During

Finished works with some of the timber still to be removed.

To facilitate the scrub clearance we took our tractor mounted chipper onto site and chipped the smaller diameter timber in situ to save time and money for the landowner. The tractor and chipper all go onto the back of a flatbed trailer and can easily be moved to site and then due to the lighter footprint of the machine it is able to get into sensitive sites that may not be possible with larger or tow behind equipment.

If you have some unloved areas of your own that coud do with a tidy up, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are more than happy to come and have a look and advise on potential options.

Stoking the fires

As Autumn seems to be knocking on the door with nights drawing in and temperatures cooling, the first loads of firewood are going out to keep homes toasty warm. Give us a call for good value seasoned firewood delivered to you, at a time that suits keeping you toasty warm on the cooler nights! Loads are going out on a regular basis so ensure you don’t miss out.

YouTube videos

We’ve added a few short video’s to our youtube channel showing some of what we do. Please head over to the page at Red Kite Rural Services – YouTube and have a look!

The videos are a UAV flight from setup to take down and some speedy woodland management.

We’ve also put up a fly through, taken with the UAV this is approx 150 photos combined to give one image. We then manipulate to give the fly through representation you see here.

Wet weather and website development

During this period of delightful weather... We are taking the opportunity to do some office work and improve the website. Please bear with us, but drop us an e-mail or give us a ring if you have any questions.

New Flythrough video from our UAV

There are numerous benefits of aerial imagery in modern precision agriculture. A recent study from Russia showed how a reduction of fertiliser applied to a field by 20% was possible through the use of a drone like ours.

The drone that we use to capture images for Precision Agriculture.

You can watch a short video summarising the study here Fertiliser reduction by 20% At 3:29 long the video is easy to watch while having a break from paperwork.

The video also demonstrates how modern technology can work alongside old technology – in this case the tractor and use of tractor driver ability to create straight tramlines or lack of!

Benefits of Drones/Precision Agriculture explained by Ohio University

We also came across this slightly longer video (7:19) produced by Ohio University Drone Benefits explained.  This video outlines some of the uses and associated advantages from using UAV’s in agriculture and how images taken from above can help decide future farm plans for cropping and management. Whilst a bit long winded it does demonstrate the different uses and advantages that aerial imagery provide. Whether you would like to also look at potential soil type or map crop health using Near Infra Red cameras there are all sorts of possibilities.

The end goal from all of this is to provide the farmer with more information that allows them to grow their crops more efficiently by targeting fertiliser/chemical applications where they are required and can give the most benefit whilst minimising both financial and environmental costs.

If you have any queries on using a UAV to assist with your farm/crop management plans, please feel free to contact us either from the site or through email/phone. Details of which can be found here. We are more than happy to discuss bespoke options for aerial imagery, if you would like to view something other than your fields and forests from above.