New publication - Cut-to-length logging of pine in Tasmania

The CRC for Forestry has released a new bulletin examining the productivity, fuel consumption and logging residues of a CTL harvesting system.

The bulletin (No. 23) is titled “Evaluating a cut-to-length harvesting system in Tasmania”, and the authors were Mohammad Ghaffariyan and Mauricio Acuna. The research examined a CTL logging system consisting of a tracked feller buncher (Valmet 475), processor (Komatsu P300-7 with a Waratah 980 head) and a forwarder (Timbco TF840-B) operating in 1.8 m3 Pinus radiata in southern Tasmania. The research had the following objectives:
 

• Evaluate the impact of tree size, extraction distance and extraction route slope on the productivity of the logging machines
• Determine the fuel consumption of all machines
• Determine the amount of biomass retained on-site after logging
• Determining the yields from the CTL system within the study area

The results showed that the feller buncher achieved productivity of 122 m3 per productive machine hour (PMH), the processor 62 m3 per PMH and the forwarder 80.9 m3 per PMH (average extraction distance of 134 m). Graphs display the result of tree size on the productivity of the feller buncher and processor, and the effect of extraction distance, log size and slope on the forwarder. An interesting result was the large difference in productivity between the two processor operators when processing trees greater than approximately 1.5 m3. The fuel consumption figures and logging residue information can be accessed via the bulletin. Additional information is also presented for truck loading and transportation.

To access the bulletin, please contact Mark Brown at mbrown2@usc.edu.au  or access the CRC website at www.crcforestry.com.au