Development Trends and Future Prospects of Cut-to-Length Machinery

Abstract

Over 30 years of cut-to-length harvesting machines experience have demonstrated their effectiveness to logging companies in the countries of the boreal forest zone; i.e. better labour conditions in terms of ergonomics and safety, and less environmental damage and reliability in combination with convenient operation and maintenance. The introduction of fully mechanized cut-to-length technology in Russia shows a number of challenges that reduces cut-to-length effectiveness. These include a lower productivity of harvester-forwarder chains and higher roundwood losses in comparison with the Nordic countries due to a number of objective and subjective reasons (service, training, forest management, motivation, etc). Wood harvesting machinery has developted in the Nordic countries in recent years. The major changes were in integrating the harvesting of logging residues and stumps into the traditional system. Future prospects of cut-to-length technology require the development of forest logistics and forest bioenergy, and better environmental compatibility of wheeled vehicles with forest loam and clay soils.