Chris Hughes

Location: Builth Wells

Destination: Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Slovenia

Topic: Timber Extraction by Cable Crane

Chris Hughes

Chris Hughes from Builth Wells will visit Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Slovenia

Chris Hughes is a woodland owner from Builth Wells who has spent most of his working life mentoring within the land-based sector.  He mentored in university as a postgraduate researcher; in farming through his advisory roles; in the forestry and woodland industries through his senior management and auditing roles, and as director of a multi-disciplinary training company which involves mentoring a team of over 30 instructors and assessors.

He also provides Farming Connect accredited training and support to individuals and businesses on woodland management, practical machine skills and health and safety in general. He plans to visit Austria to look at developing hi-lead, skyline and cable crane systems for use in farm and private woodlands.

“There are some private woodland owners, small manufacturers and training centres in Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Slovenia that are using small scale skyline/cable crane apparatus for extracting timber from awkward and steep ground that has limited access to wheeled or tracked machinery.

“I propose to visit contacts in these countries to view their machines and my second stage plan would be to either purchase or build similar machines that would be suitable for timber extraction from Welsh farms and woodland.”

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