COMPLETE SERVICE
PROVIDER
Brophy Timber Services Ltd’s comprehensive line up of harvesters, forwarders, excavators and haulage trucks means the company is just about ready for anything, as Eoghan Daly reports
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atering for a range of harvesting and extraction situations calls for a high level of operating versatility. With few machines presenting a complete solution, Brophy Timber Services’ fleet has evolved to include a range of harvesters and forwarders capable of working in all stages of thinnings and through to clearfell operations on the most challenging site types. However, one factor which sets the company apart from many others is the willingness to cater for the harvesting of
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AUTUMN 2020 FORESTRY MACHINERY
smaller blocks which are synonymous with private forestry in Ireland, especially in farmer owned plantations. Catering for the harvesting needs of this sector has been very important for the growth of the company, as Damien Brophy explained. “We may work with a number of major sawmills and with Coillte now, but when we started it was just private work. This sector has a lot of potential and we can either work as a contractor and look after all the harvesting, extraction and haulage for the grower, or buy timber standing and harvest and market it ourselves,” he continued. “As we work
across a large area, it is possible to coordinate work to include the harvesting for private growers, and is helped by running our own low loaders which allows much more flexibility when moving machines between sites.” Much of the company’s ability to cater for such diverse site types is down to its timber harvesters, which have seen much evolution and upgrading since Brophy’s original Timberjack 1070. Each machine has been selected based on its specific merits, as Damien explained. “We have harvesters from Ponsse, Silvatec and John Deere, with
