by Ronan Casey
A group of seven Westmeath farmers and foresters, dubbed the ‘Magnificent Seven’ by MEP Mairead McGuinness, this week saw their dream machine become a reality when it was launched at Reynella House, near Delvin.
The Falcon Forwarder F40 is a revolutionary piece of forestry equipment which will allow small to medium foresters to access and extract trees from high density forestry plantations. The narrow machine was designed by the seven Westmeath men after years of struggling to get felled trees out of tight sites. In a display of cross-the-border togetherness, their design was built in Meath.
Launching the machine to a rain-soaked gathering of farmers and foresters at Reynella on Monday, Mairead McGuinness praised the tenacity and vision of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ saying their novel invention will have a big impact on the forestry sector not just in Ireland but also abroad.
The seven – Billy Connell, Brian Semple, Vincent Nally, Pat Lynch, Peter Downes, Richard Brannigan and Eugene Carr – came together as they were all experiencing similar difficulties with larger European equipment and would spend days struggling to clear sites.
Collinstown farmer Billy Connell, the de facto spokesman for the seven, explained to Topic that because some of their sites were sensitive with difficult ground conditions, the high impact machinery designed for big, industrial forestry sites would cause “more harm than good”.
He said they needed something compact that could carry large loads and so the F40 was born.
“It was at a Forestry Group meeting in Mullingar where the idea was forest put out there. There was nothing on the market to suit the small to medium forester and it was a nightmare taking wood because you’d so many runs to do. We met again and started to develop the idea further.”
Several discussions later with a wish list and some drawings, the Magnificent Seven headed to Oldcastle, Co. Meath and approached engineer Darragh Hand of Hand Engineering (“he’d build anything,” quipped Billy) and Marcia Franklin, Handicrafts Ironworks. Together they came up with the Falcon Forwarder, or the F40 for short.
Tests on a prototype F40 earlier this summer ticked all the boxes and the Irish-made machinery went into production. Orders have already started to stream in, from home and abroad and the relatively small price – €90,000 – means a couple of foresters could come together for a small investment and save thousands in the long run and collectively manage their plantations.
“It would take you days to clear a small forestry plantation,” Darragh Hand told Topic. “Some foresters in the locality were using horses to clear forests, others back-breaking manual labour. To clear a few acres could take weeks. The F40 would do it in a few hours.”
His partner in manfacturing the machine, Marcia Franklin, said it is more easily portable than larger forwarders or agricultural trailers and optional extras allow it to become a multi-use vehicle. She said its crane can reach over five metres and its 48 hp engine gives it plenty of power and torque. She said all the Westmeath farmers’ suggestions were taken on board, such as width, height, type of wheel (floatation tyres for minimal impact) and confirmed that interest is high.
