Integrated Harvesting of Medium Rotation Hybrid Poplar Plantations: Systems Compared

Fabio De Francesco; Natascia Magagnotti; Barnabas Kovac; Patrik Heger; Dávid Heilig; Balint Heil; Gàbor Kovàcs; Tomáš Zemánek; Raffaele Spinelli

doi:10.3390/f13111873

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Integrated Harvesting of Medium Rotation Hybrid Poplar Plantations: Systems Compared

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Integrated Harvesting of Medium Rotation Hybrid Poplar Plantations: Systems Compared

Fabio De Francesco, Natascia Magagnotti, Barnabas Kovac, Patrik Heger, Dávid Heilig, Balint Heil, Gàbor Kovàcs, Tomáš Zemánek and Raffaele Spinelli

Forests, Vol.13, pp.1-13

2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/f13111873

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Abstract

mass handling

WTH

CTL

Integrated Harvesting

MRC

ex-arable land

In this study, the authors provide a direct comparison made between whole tree harvesting (WTH) and cut to length (CTL) methods, which was conducted in two sites in the Slovak Republic and applied to poplar plantations. Both systems, WTH and CTL, have been employed at the highest mechanization level in two sites: " Nivky " and " Skalica ". Two different strategies, namely, " mass handling " and " small scale mechanization " , have been used for WTH and CTL, respectively. The study results showed that the level of productivity (ODT SMH 1) in the felling operation was almost double for WTH than for the CTL method in Nivky (+84%) and more than double in Skalica (+113%). The extraction operation under WTH showed a productivity increase from one fifth (+20%) to more than double (104%) that of the CTL method in the Nivky and Skalica sites, respectively. Regarding cost efficiency (EUR ODT 1), the WTH system offers a similar trend except with respect to extraction in Nivky (higher productivity site), in which the CTL extraction was 4.5% less expensive than the WTH extraction. The study results show that the mass handling technique deployed in the WTH system offers very good performance in poorer plantations since the very small tree size and low growing stock challenge the CTL system more than the WTH system. The total operation (felling, bucking, and extraction) costs (EUR ODT 1) recorded by the study in commercial conditions (as contractors perform for revenue purposes) were 32.50 and 45.80 EUR ODT 1 for CTL and 43.30 and 53.60 EUR ODT 1 for WTH for the higher yield site (Nivky) and lower yield site (Skalica), respectively. Regarding the WTH System, the researchers found that the drop in efficiency (and the consequent rise in the costs per ton of product) depends largely on the bucking phase conducted using the harvester at the landing of the stacked piles of interlocked trees. The main results of this study demonstrate the promising strategy of mass handling associated with the WTH system in medium rotation coppice (MRC) harvesting and shows that bucking is the weaker phase. Future efforts must be made to ensure feasibility of the " mass handling " strategy alongside the entire workflow by means of finding suitable mobile machinery that can delimb, debark, and crosscut tree bunches instead of single trees.

Details

Title: Integrated Harvesting of Medium Rotation Hybrid Poplar Plantations: Systems Compared
Authors: Fabio De Francesco (Corresponding Author) - National Research Council
Natascia Magagnotti (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Research Institute
Barnabas Kovac (Author) - IKEA Industry Slovakia
Patrik Heger (Author) - IKEA Industry Slovakia
Dávid Heilig (Author) - University of Sopron
Balint Heil (Author) - University of Sopron
Gàbor Kovàcs (Author) - University of Sopron
Tomáš Zemánek (Author) - Mendel University in Brno
Raffaele Spinelli (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Forest Research Institute
Publication details: Forests, Vol.13, pp.1-13
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date published: 2022
DOI: 10.3390/f13111873
ISSN: 1999-4907
Copyright note: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creative commons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
Grant note: European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 745874 “Dendromass for Europe” (D4EU)
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Forest Industries Research Centre; Forest Research Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99686997902621
Output Type: Journal article