# How the kiwis do it



## StihlKiwi (May 11, 2012)

Went on a feild trip a couple of weeks ago and spent a whole week looking at harvesting operations and logyards etc.
I've finally got the pics off my phone and onto my computer so I thought I'd share them here.

The first two pics are a crew cutting whole tem to be sent to a logyard for optimizing and processing - These guys were producing around 750 tonnes/day and apparently could ramp up to around 1400 if necessary. The stems are carted to the yard on an off-highway network, so they can cart 65 tonne + of 25-30m stems.
As well as the woodsman head pictured this crew has a faller working some of the rougher stuff, and everything is pulled with a rubber-tyred grapple skidder.

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Second crew we visited were logging stems as well, using a Madill 124 and a Cat 525 with a grapple. All hand-falling because they were in some steeper stuff
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I haven't got the whole embedding pics thing sussed yet sorry. More to come


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## StihlKiwi (May 11, 2012)

A stem truck on the landing
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And a production thinning operation with a valmet feller/processor and a valmet forwarder. These guys were cutting 6m pulp logs, and sharing a loader with another crew doing the same in the nest stand over. I think they were doing 1000 tonne/day altogether

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## StihlKiwi (May 11, 2012)

The yard the stems in the previous post are sent to, pictures can't really show the size of it that well.
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All the stems are laid out on bearers, and a team of two well-trained logmakers will go through with the days cutplan and mark the stem into a series of logs that maximises the value recovery (Their cutplan ranges from 28 to 19 grades, depending on whether they are cutting for a domestic or export focus.) Then two guys go through with saws and cut up. There's are railhead onsite that runs directly to the nearest port, and a sawmill and pulpmill across the road.
Most of the logmakers working there are women, they're typically better at it than men as they can remember more grade specs.

Heres a couple of shots of the Port of Tauranga, 3-4million tonnes of logs leave here on boats each year.

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## StihlKiwi (May 11, 2012)

Another crew, not a stems operation this time. We didn't spend any time on the landing so I can only describe it form what the foreman told us. They're running a 90ft tower with a Bowman carriage, and all the logmaking is manual (guys with chainsaws marking and cutting on the landing). They had awesome delfection acros this gully thanks to a dirty big rock bluff just below the landing.
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Motorised carriages have become more and more popular over here in the past few years, especially in places where full suspension is required over streams and for pulling around patches of native bush.


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## StihlKiwi (May 11, 2012)

Just found my notes from the first 2 crews.
Trimax:
Machines:
1 harvester
3 excavators
1 grapple skidder
Manpower:
1 harvester operator
4 machine operators
1 faller
1 skiddy (landingman)

Stand info:
Recoverable Volume = 604m[SUP]3[/SUP]/ha
Ave. tree size = 1.91m[SUP]3[/SUP]
Harvest age = 27
Daily production = 750t/day

Newton:
Machines:
1 harvester (delimbing on landing when we were there)
2 excavators
1 grapple skidder
1 swing yarder
1 tailhold excavator

Manpower:
1 harvester operator
2 machine operator
1 skidder driver
2 fallers
1 yarder operator
1 skiddy

Stand info:
Recoverable volume = 550m[SUP]3[/SUP]/ha
Ave. tree size - 2.21m[SUP]3[/SUP]
Harvest age = 28
Daily production = 450t/day


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## pastryguyhawaii (May 11, 2012)




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## pastryguyhawaii (May 11, 2012)

Nice pics! That's some beautiful scenery down there.


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## ShaneLogs (May 11, 2012)

Looks like you have been having some fun recently! I like that harvester head, Looks like it can get some production in.


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## tramp bushler (May 11, 2012)

Ya , like as if there arn't enough distractions to get a guy killed .:msp_sleep:

Post the img code . 
That ground is alot like S.E. Alaska . Some of the timber is bigger than I thot it would be . What species ? 
How do you like those hard hats with the vents in the top ??


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## StihlKiwi (May 11, 2012)

tramp bushler said:


> Ya , like as if there arn't enough distractions to get a guy killed .:msp_sleep:
> 
> Post the img code .
> That ground is alot like S.E. Alaska . Some of the timber is bigger than I thot it would be . What species ?
> How do you like those hard hats with the vents in the top ??



It's all radiata pine, grows real fast down here. Average tree height at age 20 in the region these photos were taken in can be anywhere from 20-35m depending on the site etc.

I like vented hardhats. I spent the summer wearing an unvented one for work and a vented one on the weekends and the difference was noticeable some days


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## tramp bushler (May 11, 2012)

That is fast growing for sure . The 123 Madill is a nice fadt swing yarder . Better than the 044+084 machines .


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## StihlKiwi (May 11, 2012)

Yea thats a 124, its 15 years old but had a rebuilt and paint over christmas, so it looks real tidy.

Radiata grows fast, but for the most part is a lower-value softwood in the big scheme of things


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## StihlKiwi (May 11, 2012)

ShaneLogs said:


> Looks like you have been having some fun recently! I like that harvester head, Looks like it can get some production in.



They sure chew through the wood. Easily the most efficient way to log as long as the terrains accessible for tracked machines


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## Joe46 (May 11, 2012)

One of our renters went down to NZ sometime in the 80's to help your lads with tower logging.


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## Samlock (May 12, 2012)

That's some serious growth you got from the land. Well over 20 cubic meters/year/hectare. Here we are happy to have annual 5 cubes.

It's your winter, huh? Sleeveless shirts and sun glasses? I could cope with that.

Valmet forestry hardware is made 250 kilometers west from my place. They've taken a long sail to your island.

Very nice pictures and facts. Thanks, Stihlkiwi.


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## StihlKiwi (May 12, 2012)

Samlock said:


> That's some serious growth you got from the land. Well over 20 cubic meters/year/hectare. Here we are happy to have annual 5 cubes.
> 
> It's your winter, huh? Sleeveless shirts and sun glasses? I could cope with that.
> 
> ...



No worries Samlock.
It was late April, so not full-blown winter but the breeze was pretty cold. I think we were at about 800m asl up there.

Am I right in thinking that Valmet has recently been bought by Komatsu? They make some nice machines


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## imagineero (May 12, 2012)

Is that up in the north island? I was working over the south island for a year, and the trees we were working in were nowhere near that size for the same age. At 27-30, they were mostly in the 10-12 metre range, and nowhere near that sort of diameter. I think the spacings in the plantations we were in was a bit tighter though, and the blocks were mostly on private land. A lot of it was farmland and the planted areas were only in places you couldn't graze. All awful gullies and steep terrain. They were mostly smaller blocks too, even the bigger jobs were knocked over in a week or two by a 6 man crew. Still think of new zealand every time I smell pine.

Shaun


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## StihlKiwi (May 12, 2012)

Yep its up in the central north island. They get big fast up there, better climate and soils than the deep south


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## imagineero (May 12, 2012)

Impressive growth! Do they prune them to improve grade during growth? Down south they do 3 prunings, spaced about 7 years apart. Only costs about $1.20~$1.30/tree and adds quite a bit to the value. Still hard to come up with that sort of cash multiplied by however many 10's of thousands or hundreds of thousands though.

Shaun


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## Oldtimer (May 12, 2012)

More pics of the leggy blonde ladies please....


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## StihlKiwi (May 12, 2012)

imagineero said:


> Impressive growth! Do they prune them to improve grade during growth? Down south they do 3 prunings, spaced about 7 years apart. Only costs about $1.20~$1.30/tree and adds quite a bit to the value. Still hard to come up with that sort of cash multiplied by however many 10's of thousands or hundreds of thousands though.
> 
> Shaun



They prune for clearwood grades, although it is less common now than it used to be - some companies don't prune anything anymore. Radiata is pruned to get clearwood grade logs. It seems cheap to prune at the time but the price differential between pruned logs and sawlogs needs to be around $50/m[SUP]3[/SUP] to actually make it worthwhile. Lack of demand for clearwood and improvements in the quality of structural sawlogs means the differential is much lower than $50.
Most of th pruning in the north island is done in eother 2 or 3 lifts to around 5.4m, and the final lift is done arund age 10, if not earlier

Sounds like the stuff you worked in was pretty ####ty timber


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## OlympicYJ (May 14, 2012)

StihlKiwi said:


> No worries Samlock.
> It was late April, so not full-blown winter but the breeze was pretty cold. I think we were at about 800m asl up there.
> 
> Am I right in thinking that Valmet has recently been bought by Komatsu? They make some nice machines



I read somewhere that komatsu did buy them out.


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