Trees in the forest – from plan­ting to har­ves­ting – are just one of the acti­vi­ties at Wald Jacob. In addi­tion, the com­pany pro­duces 25 hec­ta­res of Christ­mas trees. The family also orga­ni­ses a large Christ­mas mar­ket every year in Decem­ber.

The Saxon Vogt­land is a den­sely woo­ded region in eas­tern Ger­many. The headquar­ters of the Wald Jacob fore­stry com­pany is loca­ted just a few kilo­met­res from the Czech bor­der.

“We mainly work in Ger­many in a range of up to 100 kilo­met­res,” explains Ronny Jacob, head of the com­pany.

“Around 80% of our cus­to­mers are pri­vate forest owners, local aut­ho­ri­ties and cor­po­ra­tions. We have base capacity uti­li­sa­tion thanks to orders from the state forests in Saxony, Thu­rin­gia and Bava­ria, where we par­tici­pate in ten­ders. Bey­ond the state forest, the price pres­sure is somew­hat lower, yet the smal­ler struc­tu­res mean that we have a sig­ni­ficantly hig­her workload in terms of order acqui­si­tion, orga­ni­sa­tion, proces­sing and tim­ber sales. But tim­ber sales allow us to gene­rate some addi­tio­nal mar­gin. Because, as we all know, there is more to earn in the retail sec­tor,” the fore­stry cont­rac­tor adds with a laugh.

“Howe­ver, we had to orga­nise our­sel­ves accor­dingly. We have four qua­li­fied fores­ters on our team who are res­pon­sible for cus­to­mer con­tacts, con­sul­ta­tions with the district fores­ters and mana­ging ope­ra­tions. In addi­tion, we have the appropriate capaci­ties in the back office. The concent­ra­tion of fore­stry cont­rac­tors in our region is very high. Howe­ver, what sets us apart from others is that we offer a very compre­hen­sive port­fo­lio of ser­vices. It all starts with plan­ting, main­te­nance and forest pro­tec­tion, con­ti­nues with tim­ber har­ves­ting and tra­ding, and ends with special tree fel­ling. Con­sul­ting and sup­port are our especially strong points. We can even pre­pare forest apprai­sals.”

Wald Jacob was foun­ded in 1990 by Hart­mut Jacob. He was the mana­ger of a fore­stry mac­hi­nery com­pany in the GDR, which was dis­sol­ved after Ger­man reu­ni­fica­tion. Because he always had a mar­ket eco­nomy pers­pec­tive, he seized the oppor­tu­nity to set up his own busi­ness. With a hand­ful of emplo­yees and two LKT 81. They were the stan­dard long tim­ber cable trac­tors in GDR fore­stry at the time. The com­pany saw growth. In the mid-1990s, the com­pany star­ted using short log­ging tech­no­logy – a forwar­der, fol­lowed later by a har­ves­ter.

Five har­ves­ters, five forwar­ders

“We now have five har­ves­ters and five forwar­ders. We also have two short tim­ber lor­ries, a low­bed, a T‑winch, two cable trac­tors, and various agricul­tu­ral and fore­stry mac­hi­nes,” says Ronny Jacob.

“One special fea­ture is that we have never gone with brand loy­alty. My fat­her would say that ‘We test the mac­hi­nes our­sel­ves and create our own opi­nion!’ This is how we have used and still use all the dif­fe­rent colours in the com­pany. Howe­ver, PONSSE is num­ber one. We have two PONSSE Bears – one of them brand new – a PONSSE Bison and a PONSSE Buf­falo. Of course, tech­no­logy and per­for­mance are the pri­mary concern when we make an invest­ment deci­sion. But what I par­ticu­larly like about both PONSSE and Wah­lers Forst­tech­nik is that they are both family busi­nes­ses. Just like us. It’s a comple­tely dif­fe­rent kind of col­la­bo­ra­tion.”

Whe­ne­ver pos­sible, the com­pany car­ries out the ser­vice and repair of the mac­hi­nes them­sel­ves. To this end, it has a well-equip­ped works­hop inclu­ding a gantry crane. Along with an equip­ment shop with cent­ra­li­sed oil supply. Ope­ra­tors have a chip which always give them access for refuel­ling. The large die­sel tank is out­side. Once a year or after 1,000 hours, the mac­hi­nes come into the works­hop for a major ser­vice, while the ongoing work is car­ried out out­side in the forest.

“We gene­rally aim for the long term,” says Ronny Jacob. “We are loo­king at 12,000 to 15,000 hours for the har­ves­ter and over 20,000 hours for the forwar­der. Howe­ver, this approach only works with regu­lar good care. And halfway through the ser­vice life, a more exten­sive invest­ment is requi­red to make the mac­hi­nes fit for the remai­ning ser­vice life.”

Wald Jacob is proud of the company’s sta­tus as a trai­ning centre for fores­ters. In each of the three appren­tices­hip years, one to three young people learn this pro­fes­sion, which is par­ticu­larly deman­ding and varied. Appren­tices who are inte­res­ted will have the oppor­tu­nity to work on mac­hi­nes in their final year. This way, the com­pany secu­res qua­li­fied labour.

The new PONSSE Bear

Out in the forest, Ernst-Moritz Jacob dri­ves the new PONSSE Bear with a C6 crane and H8 power pack.

“I am par­ticu­larly impres­sed by the boom exten­sion,” says the fores­ter. “Especially in stands with natu­ral rege­ne­ra­tion, it is strong enough to gently lift out even heavy trunks.”

Ernst-Moritz pre­viously wor­ked mainly with a chain­saw and has been using the mac­hine for around two years. Today, he is sup­por­ted by fores­ter Louis and appren­tice Lisa as assis­tant fel­lers. The sur­face is quite steep, but thanks to the straps on the front axle, the Bear climbs the hill with ease. The good sta­bi­lity of the mac­hine is noticeable during fel­ling and proces­sing. The cra­ne’s auto­ma­tic tilt mec­ha­nism is a great help in this ter­rain, ensu­ring that the lif­ting force is always at its maxi­mum. “We have again inves­ted in a heavy tim­ber har­ves­ter because we assume that this type of work will con­ti­nue to domi­nate in the region’s ove­ra­ged stands for the next few years. The con­ver­sion to stable mixed forests is still in full swing here. Howe­ver, if the focus later on will be on main­te­nance and thin­ning, we may have to make a dif­fe­rent deci­sion.”

We return to the depot for anot­her special surprise from Wald Jacob. The family pro­duces Christ­mas trees on 25 hec­ta­res, but that’s not all: most of them are mar­ke­ted them­sel­ves during a four-week Christ­mas mar­ket in Decem­ber.

“For us, eve­ryt­hing revol­ves around the tree. There are also att­rac­tions such as a pet­ting zoo with a variety of dif­fe­rent ani­mals and horse-drawn car­riage rides. We round off the concept by ser­ving veni­son from our own hunt. After all, this is also part of holis­tic fore­stry. And most of the mem­bers of the Jacob family are indeed pas­sio­nate hun­ters.