Preprint
Article

Productivity and Cost Models for the First Commercial Thinning of a Scots Pine Stand Using an Excavator with an Arbro 400S Harvester Head and a Farm Tractor Coupled to a Logging Trailer

Submitted:

17 May 2021

Posted:

19 May 2021

You are already at the latest version

A peer-reviewed article of this preprint also exists.

Abstract
The objective of the present work was to determine the productivity and costs of timber harvesting and skidding during the first commercial thinning of a Scots pine stand. The analyzed harvesting set consisted of a mini-excavator (34 kW) with an stroke harvester head (gripping range: 4–30 cm), and a farm tractor coupled to an logging trailer with a hydraulic crane. Merchantable timber (roundwood with a minimum diameter of 5 cm inside bark) was harvested from a 25-year old planted Scots pine stand growing on a grid of 1.4×1.8 m. The study showed the productivity of the mini-harvester range from 3.09 to 3.47 m3∙PMH15 -1, and that of the forwarding set to be 4.07 m3∙PMH15 -1. The analyzed model of productivity as a function of individual tree volume and thinning intensity was statistically significant, but the intensity parameter was significant only on plots located along wide access trails (3.7 m) and insignificant on plots located along the narrow access trial (2.5m). The intertree distance was not found to be significant. The calculated net machine costs for the forwarding set and mini-harvester were 36.12 Euro∙PMH 1 and 52.47 Euro∙PMH-1, respectively. An increase in the utilization rate of the harvesting set to 80% would reduce the timber harvesting and skidding costs to 22.07 Euro∙m-3.
Keywords: 
Subject: 
Biology and Life Sciences  -   Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.
Alerts
Prerpints.org logo

Preprints.org is a free preprint server supported by MDPI in Basel, Switzerland.

Subscribe

© 2025 MDPI (Basel, Switzerland) unless otherwise stated