Productivity and cost of manual felling and cable skidding in central Appalachian hardwood forests

A field production study was conducted for a manual harvesting system using a chainsaw and cable skidder in a central Appalachian hardwood forest site. A partial cut was performed on a 50-acre tract with an average slope of 25 percent. Felling time per tree was most affected by diameter at breast he...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forest products journal 2004-12, Vol.54 (12), p.45-51
Main Authors: Wang, J, Long, C, McNeel, J, Baumgras, J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
cable skidders
chainsaws
Computers
continuous time study
Costs
Deciduous forests
Energy consumption
equipment performance
Exact sciences and technology
felling
Field study
Forest products industry
Forests and forestry
hardwood forests
Harvesting
Harvesting machinery
manual harvesting
Mathematical models
Mechanical woodworking and drying
Methods
operating costs
Polymer industry, paints, wood
Production costs
Production management
Productivity
research methods
skidders
skidding distance
Statistical analysis
tree and stand measurements
Trees
unit costs
Wood
Wood. Paper. Non wovens
Woodworking equipment
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Summary:A field production study was conducted for a manual harvesting system using a chainsaw and cable skidder in a central Appalachian hardwood forest site. A partial cut was performed on a 50-acre tract with an average slope of 25 percent. Felling time per tree was most affected by diameter at breast height and the distance between harvested trees while skidding cycle time was mainly affected by turn payload size and skidding distance. Productivity of chainsaw felling was 362 ft.3 per productive machine hour (PMH) (2.23 thousand board feet MBF/PMH) with a unit cost of $8.0/cunit (100 cubic feet) ($13.0/MBF). Cable skidding productivity was 289 ft.3/PMH (1.78 MBF/PMH) and unit cost was $27.0/cunit ($50.0/MBF). The balanced manual harvesting system could produce 7,236 ft.3 per week (44.63 MBF/week) with unit cost of $37.0/cunit ($60.0/MBF).
ISSN:0015-7473
2376-9637