A low-investment fully mechanized operation for pure selection thinning of pine plantations

Raffaele Spinelli; C Nati

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A low-investment fully mechanized operation for pure selection thinning of pine plantations

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A low-investment fully mechanized operation for pure selection thinning of pine plantations

Raffaele Spinelli and C Nati

Croatian Journal of Forest Engineering, Vol.30(2), pp.89-97

2009

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Abstract

feller-buncher

biomass

thinning

Over the last decades many Mediterranean sites were planted with conifers, which offered fast growth, good fibre quality and the capacity to grow on poor soils. If not thinned, these stands cannot develop strong and healthy trees and they become vulnerable to stress agents. The authors designed a complete operation for the thinning of confer plantations under favourable terrain conditions by a feller-buncher, a farm tractor equipped with a skidding grapple, mounted on the three-point hitch and a trailer-mounted drum chipper. The whole investment in mechanical equipment was very limited, in the order of 6 338,000, including the truck and a tractor to move the chipper. Felling and extraction were quite balanced, with an average productivity around 40 trees hour1. A spreadsheet was developed in order to determine the effect of tract size on biomass delivered cost, a crucial issue in Non Industrial Private Forests (NIPF) where the problems inherent to the generally small tract size are compounded by the limited quantity and value of the harvest.

Details

Title: A low-investment fully mechanized operation for pure selection thinning of pine plantations
Authors: Raffaele Spinelli (Author) - CNR IVALSA, Italy
C Nati (Author) - CNR IVALSA, Italy
Publication details: Croatian Journal of Forest Engineering, Vol.30(2), pp.89-97
Publisher: Sveuciliste u Zagrebu
Date published: 2009
ISSN: 1845-5719
Copyright note: Copyright © 2009 CROJFE. Originally published in CROJFE. Spinelli, Raffaele, Nati, C. 2009. A low-investment fully mechanized operation for pure selection thinning of pine plantations. 30: 89-97
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Forest Industries Research Centre; Forest Research Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99448941302621
Output Type: Journal article

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