Blackstock, P, Gallagher, R, Kula, E, O'Donohoe, S & Wall, S. (2003). A
review of the Danish private forestry sector in, Developing effective
market led grower co-operatives. COFORD Dublin
About 11% of the land area of Denmark in covered with forestry. Of this, 65% is growing
conifers, with Norway spruce the dominant tree species. The dominance of conifers in
Denmark's woodland is only about one hundred years old and reflects a trend towards
shorter rotation plantation forestry common in many European countries. Private individuals
own 46% of the forests in Denmark, with the rest held either by the state or by institutions
and foundations. Plantations of less that 5 hectares account for 65% of all forest holdings in
Denmark, with another 25% being less than 20 hectares in size.
Denmark produces about 2 million cubic metres of timber annually, of which about two thirds
is from conifers. The total sale value of this timber (and from the sale of Christmas trees and
greenery, a Danish speciality) is about 130 million Euro. Hunting rents and nurseries each
produce an income of about 13 million Eurasia annually. Of the softwood crop, 42% goes for
timber, 23% for fuelwood and the remaining goes for particleboards, paper and packaging.
Timber is traditionally sold either at roadside or delivered and is graded by the timber grower
or his agent. Roadside prices (in October 2002) ranged from about 17 Euro m3 over bark for
first thinnings destined for fuelwood, up to about 35 Euro m3 over bark for 4.25m sawlogs.
Larger sawlogs, traditionally sold without being crosscut into lengths, were even more
valuable, as were hardwood logs. The grading system for hardwood logs was considered to
be more effective that that used for softwood logs.
Danish forestry support organisations
In common with many other European countries where the private forest resource is
fragmented, Danish private forestry suffers from a pattern of very small individual private
woodlots owned by people who have very poor forestry knowledge and who do not have
adequate forestry machinery. To address these problems, Denmark has established a series
of farm forestry co-operatives. The first of these was formed in 1904 at Vejle in Jutland.
Since then a network of these co-operatives has developed to cover all of Denmark. Through
amalgamation there are now nine local forestry co-operatives, serving 7,000 private woodlot
owners who have an average of about 12 hectares of forestry. Between them, the forestry
co-operatives manage about 33% of the private forestry in Denmark. About the same
amount is managed by a private association on a commercial basis. Of the rest, some is
owned in large blocks where the owners employ their own foresters and some of the private
woodland is not managed for timber production.
Between them the Danish forest co-operatives employ 65 foresters and 20 administrative
staff. Within the nine local-operatives, most of the foresters tend to look after members
within a geographically distinct area, although foresters with specialisms like environmental
woodland management or the management of Christmas trees tend to cover a wider area.
On average, each local forester looks after about 1,500 ha of forest, owned by about 200
forest owners. The main tasks carried out by the forestry co-operatives are
 The provision of a yearly management survey
 Assisting with the purchase of materials
 Organising and overseeing forestry operations including planting and harvesting
 Providing training and education
 Organising timber and forest product sales
 Publishing forestry leaflets and the maintenance of an Internet homepage with
information and advice.
The co-operatives do not own sawmills or harvesting equipment, preferring to work with the
private sector to establish a market advantage for their members through negotiations and
competition.
Members of the forest co-operatives pay a yearly membership fee for the services the cooperative provides. The exact charges vary between each of the local co-operatives but seem
to be between 9 and 15 Euro per hectare. Members also pay a commission on sales (about
9%) and a commission on the purchase of forestry materials and services. The co-operatives
themselves gain about 55% of their income from a commission on the sale of timber (about
half of which is generated by the sale of Christmas trees). A further 28% of their income is
generated from management fees, with the rest of their income coming from consultancy
fees and from commissions on plant and material supplies. The Danish State provides a
subsidy of 725,000 Euro to the co-operatives. This subsidy is paid to support the provision of
training and planning visits and is linked to productivity.
One aspect of Danish co-operative forestry practice that was of particular relevance to the
Irish situation was their approach to the (normally loss-making) early thinnings operations in
a spruce crop. In Denmark most of this material was harvested for fuel. Two distinct
approaches were demonstrated. In the first instance a small harvesting machine was used to
fell a row of trees about every 12 to 15 m. leaving the felled trees in situ. This was carried
out when the trees were between 8.0 and 10.0 m tall. At the same time badly shaped and
weak trees were also felled within the remaining plantation. This created a series of tracks
within the growing crop. The felled trees were left in situ for about eight months, during
which time the needles had fallen, thus retaining most of the plant nutrients in situ. After
eight months these fallen trees are chipped in situ using a mobile chipper and the resultant
chip was extracted and transported to the enduser. The total cost of felling, chipping and
transporting these chips was about 10 Euro per m3 of wood chip (equivalent to about 30 Euro
per m3 over bark). The sale price for these wood chips is 11.82 Euro per m3. Given that the
first thin produces about 100m 3 of wood chip per hectare, the potential 'profit' from these
early thinnings is close to 200 Euro per hectare.
A second approach to harvesting and marketing early thinning was demonstrated. In this a
row was felled about every 12 to 15 m and the remaining crop was thinned as before.
However, in this instance a harvesting machine was used to fell and de-limb these small
trees, three or four at a time. This approach produced a serviceable brash mat, particularly if
small, low ground pressure, harvesters and forwarders were used. The resulting partly delimbed trees were then cross cut into 3.5 m lengths, regardless of their top diameter. This
material was then extracted and transported in the same way as all other sawlogs to a
central processing yard where they were converted to wood-chip fuel by an independent
contractor. The contractor paid 22.34 Euro per m3 over bark for this material when it was
delivered to his yard. As the cost of felling, extraction and delivery of this material was 19
Euro per m3 and the amount harvested was about 30 tonnes per hectare, the potential 'profit'
available for the forest owner for these early thinnings was 100 Euro per hectare.