Southern Research Station

Title: Field trials of a short-rotation biomass feller buncher and selected harvesting systems

Author: Stokes, Bryce J.; Frederick, Douglas J.; Curtin, Dennis T.

Date: 1986

Source: BIOMASS 11(3): 185-204. Great Britain: Elsevier Applied Science Publishers, Ltd.

Description: A continuous-speed felling and bunching prototype machine was evaluated in harvesting a three-year-old, short-rotation sycamore plantation. A small tractor, grapple skidder, and large chipper were evaluate along with the prototype machine as complete harvesting systems. Prediction equations, production rates, and costs were developed for each component of the systems. Production of the feller buncher was about 850 stems an hour (17.3 green Mg), and felling cost for the test was $3.29 green Mg^-1. Total system cost `was about $11.50 green Mg^-1. However, cost could be reduced with a smaller chipper. A survey of stump damage showed little damage from the feller buncher when it was operating properly. The tractor caused minimal skidding damage, less than that of the large skidder.

Keywords: 

View and Print this Publication (1.9 MB)

Pristine Version:  An uncaptured or "pristine" version of this publication is available. It has not been subjected to OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and therefore does not have any errors in the text. However it is a larger file size and some people may experience long download times. The "pristine" version of this publication is available here:

View and Print the PRISTINE copy of this Publication (7.6 MB)

Publication Notes: 

• We recommend that you also print this page and attach it to the printout of the article, to retain the full citation information.
• This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and is therefore in the public domain.

 Get the latest version of the Adobe Acrobat reader or Acrobat Reader for Windows with Search and Accessibility

Citation

Stokes, Bryce J.; Frederick, Douglas J.; Curtin, Dennis T.  1986.  Field trials of a short-rotation biomass feller buncher and selected harvesting systems.   BIOMASS 11(3): 185-204. Great Britain: Elsevier Applied Science Publishers, Ltd.