NZ Logger March 2019

March 2019 | $7.20

ISSN 1176-0397

es x fi d a e h g n i l Fixed fel s e u s s i e g a k a bre

How to mechanise first thinnings

Clearer future for Tenon

contents MARCH 2019

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FOREST TALK Effects from Wakefield fire linger; forest fire danger to increase in future; Hikurangi Forest Farms sale agreed; foresters meet in Christchurch for safety push; logger killed near Gisborne; banks warn forestry of head-winds; what to do with East Cape; Gough Cat opens new Customer Support Centre; providing opportunities for women leaders; tenyear celebration for Eastland awards; who’s going to run our new technology harvesting operations.

SHAW’S WIRE ROPES SPECIAL FEATURE – FELLING FOCUS 1 Stem breakages have been accepted as ‘part of the job’ in harvesting operations for years, but now the team at Mechanised Cable Harvesting in Nelson are challenging that notion.

30 They’ve equipped their new feller buncher with a fixed felling head to prevent breakages and improve the way the machine bunches for the yarder grapple. The results are amazing and the rest of the industry is sitting up and taking notice.

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SPECIAL FEATURE – FELLING FOCUS 2 Up in the North Island, another contractor has been using a different fixed felling head to introduce mechanisation to his first thinning operations. It’s hard enough trying to make mechanisation work in production thinning, but extremely challenging for a machine to squeeze through miniscule gaps in a 1000plus stems forest to carry out a first thin. Tombleson Logging has somehow managed to make it work.

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NZ TIMBER It would be an understatement to say that Tenon has been put ‘through the mill’ in recent years, after enduring the collapse of its mouldings business in the US, the Global Financial Crises, ownership changes and reduced supplies of pruned logs. But now the Taupo mill is buzzing and making plans for a brighter future.

DEPARTMENTS 2 editorial 56 top spot 58 fica 60 new iron 65 classifieds

March 2019 | NZ LOGGER 1

from the editor

March 2019 | $7.20

ISSN 1176-0397

PHOTO: JOHN ELLEGARD

head fixes Fixed felling ues breakage iss

How to mechanise first thinnings

Clearer future for Tenon

The KF800 fixed felling head fitted to MCH’s TimberPro 765D is significantly reducing stem breakages.

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Smoke and mirrors

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W

E’VE UNCOVERED SOME GREAT THINGS HAPPENING IN forestry recently, but there’s also been some worrying stuff – like the devastating wild fire at Wakefield, near Nelson.

The Wakefield blaze shows just how vulnerable we are to natural events that are beyond our control.

The big fire didn’t even start in a forest, but in parched fields well away from trees. The tinder-dry conditions and wind soon whipped it up into an inferno that spread through scrub and into our workplaces.

The result was that nearly 2,000 hectares of productive forest went up in flames, driving people from their homes – but sparing houses, fortunately – then putting hundreds of loggers and others out of work as harvesting operations were shut down for almost two weeks.

That’s when the consequences of these incidents are really brought home.

Scientists and weather experts tell us these extreme conditions will become more common in future years and heatwaves could last longer during our scorching summers. The fires that do break out are likely to be more intense and more dangerous.

We’ll need to be much better prepared than we are now. That includes fire prevention and response.

Our industry is actually better prepared than most. In these conditions, loggers start work earlier and stop before it gets too hot. Everyone is on high alert for things that could spark a fire. Other, non-forestry people working in rural areas need to follow the same strict work practices.

We may need wider fire breaks in some locations – something forest owners are considering. And we’ll need to give thought to having aircraft with greater water/fire retardant carrying capabilities to combat these fires. When I visited the south of France 18 months ago, French fire authorities had a large water tanker aircraft in the sky every day during their extreme heat period, ready in case a fire broke out. An expensive precaution, but still cheaper than dealing with losses like those in Wakefield.

Ironically, one of the great things we uncovered recently was right on the doorstep of Wakefield, up on the Golden Downs, where the MCH crew of Nathan Taylor and Hamish Matthews have employed a fixed felling head to cut breakages during felling and improve bunching for the yarder. They are mirroring the success of Aussie contractors who have been using these heads for years.

And up in the North Island, Nick Tombleson has used similar fixed felling head technology, but this time from Europe, to mechanise first thinnings in his Tombleson Logging crews working in Northland and Kaingaroa Forest.

Both innovations are covered in this issue, along with the aftermath of that fire. NZL

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forest talk

The Wakefield fire burned more than 2,300 hectares, much of it’s plantation pines.

Effects from Wakefield fire to linger IT’S BEEN LABELLED THE MOST disruptive and costliest wildfire in recent New Zealand history, with a whopping $30 million bill that is still mounting, and the effects of last month’s Wakefield blaze could linger on well into the winter.

The main fire was brought under control around ten days after it started in an agricultural field in Pigeon Valley and spread to bush and pine forests, but fire fighters remain in the area to douse hotspots and watch for any flare-ups. And they could be there for a while, until conditions are deemed benign.

Logging contractors, their employees and families will probably feel the effects for much longer, not to mention forest owners who lost their plantation blocks or had log production curtailed.

That’s because harvesting and silviculture operations in the wider Nelson region were halted by Civil Defence for almost two weeks as part of a widespread equipment ban. Around 30 crews were affected, with 240 forestry workers laid off and only allowed back outside the fire-affected area after convincing Civil Defence of the robustness of their Health, Safety and Risk Management plans.

Even though some were re-employed to fight the fires and help with creating

4 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

fire breaks and other related tasks, many loggers lost their regular pay. Contractors also lost income, estimated at around $10,000 per day per crew.

“Financially, it’s a big blow,” contractor Kim Brant told NZ Logger, adding that it will take time to recover from the losses, even though forestry companies, such as Nelson Forests, worked to mitigate the hardships, including offering a support package for contractors to assist with the impact of crews being unable to work until normal operating conditions resumed. Government agencies also scrambled to help.

On top of that, many loggers and their families also had to quit their homes during the height of the fire, since the Wakefield district has a large forestry population, causing disruption and additional financial burden. Around 1,700 people were directly affected by the fire.

Forest owners are counting the cost, too.

Whilst nearly 2,000 hectares of pines were burned, the inability to get logs out of other forests in the region quickly mounted. It even forced the closure of two sawmills, including the big CHH plant in nearby Brightwater.

Tasman Pine Forests (TPL), owned by Sumitomo Forestry NZ, was among the hardest hit with around 60% of the burned

pine blocks under its management.

Although the destruction of forest area to TPFL was described as “serious” by TPL’s Chief Operating Officer, Steve Chandler, the variety of tree age classes and the fact that some trees were left unburnt or partially burnt has helped to minimise losses.

Chandler says TPF plans to salvage as much as it can before the trees start to deteriorate, adding that extra manpower and machinery resources will be required to do that, along with additional resources needed to clear and replant the areas burnt.

He goes on to say that fire mop up and patrol work will continue in the fire area and the rest of TPF forests until the area receives significant rain.

Meanwhile, attention is also focusing on what can be done to prevent such fires in the future or manage them better.

Lees Seymour, Managing Director of Nelson Management Ltd that operates Nelson Forests (whose forests were untouched by the fire) says: “There are always lessons to be learned from experiences such as this.

“We will be working with FENZ (Fire & Emergency New Zealand) and with our own staff and contractors to identify lessons learned and expect there to be greater clarity about this over time.” NZL

forest talk

Hikurangi Forest Farms sale agreed MALAYSIA-BASED SAMLING GROUP HAS AGREED TO SELL ITS Hikurangi Forest Farms (HFF) assets on the East Coast to Australasian forestry investment company, New Forests.

The sale is expected to be completed by mid-2019, subject to consent from the Overseas Investment Office, with New Forests intending to launch a rebranded business at that time.

HFF is one of the largest forestry estates in the Gisborne region and includes around 25,000 hectares of Radiata Pine plantation on 35,000 hectares of freehold, forest rights, and leasehold land.

Significant investment has been carried out since the assets were acquired in 1997, building a high yielding and sustainable forest estate, along with a new log processing plant, which is a significant contributor to the regional economy.

New Forests is currently working through an ownership transition plan incorporating continuity of operations with its own management plans and will be widely consulting with locals.

“New Forests looks forward to engaging with stakeholders during the ownership transition to chart the future for this business and ensure the long-term sustainability of this regionally significant forestry asset,” says David Brand, CEO of Sydney-based New Forests.

“The HFF acquisition secures a cornerstone asset for New Forests’ Australia New Zealand Forest Fund 3, complementing the fund’s existing New Zealand forestry portfolio in the North and South Islands”.

Mark Rogers, Managing Director for New Forests’ Australia-New Zealand business adds: “We are proud of our track record and commitment to sustainable forest management, and this estate has significant potential to be a preferred provider of sustainable wood products.

“New Forests and our clients represent long-term, stable, institutional ownership that we believe will be a key enabler for the future growth of New Zealand’s forest industry.” NZL

Forest fire danger on the increase LAST MONTH’S DEVASTATING WILDFIRE NEAR NELSON IS A taste of what we can expect in future, according to a leading fire expert.

Grant Pearce, fire scientist with the Scion Rural Fire Research Group, says the dry conditions that helped to fuel the big blaze will become more common and more extreme.

“The major forest fire at Pigeon Valley, near Nelson, showed what a dramatic and devastating event, wildfires can be,” says Pearce.

“The Nelson region has a history of significant forest fires, with major ones occurring in February 1981 at Hira, on the outskirts of Nelson city (which burned 1,972 hectares); in October 1997 at Harakeke, in the Moutere Hills (535 ha); in December 2004, in Irvines Forest (200 ha); and in November 2009, near Tadmor (600 ha).

“The 1981 Hira fire occurred at a similar time of year (February 5) and is closest in size to the (latest) event. Many smaller wildfires have also occurred across the region, both in plantations and other vegetation types.”

Pearce is one of New Zealand’s leading specialists in wildfire behaviour. His research has enabled the development of fire behaviour models for New Zealand fuel types, which are routinely used by fire management agencies.

He says the Nelson region’s fire climate severity isn’t as high as neighbouring Marlborough but, based on weather data for Nelson Aero, the region still experiences 9-to-10 days per year on average of very high and extreme forest fire danger.

However, in a bad fire season, as many as 16-to-17 days of very high and extreme fire danger may occur. Nelson has seen a number of days of very high and also extreme forest fire danger since the beginning of January, with the recent heatwave being a major contributor to the

Pigeon Valley event.

Pearce says fire managers have reported that fire danger levels during February were the highest they’ve seen in almost 20 years and NIWA’s soil moisture maps were showing significant soil moisture deficits across the region. The level of extreme dryness can be seen in a comparison of fire danger code levels with previous years, as for example shown by the Build-up Index component, which describes the overall fuel dryness and amount of fuel available for consumption (with a value of 60 being very high, and 80 extreme).

“The very hot, dry and windy weather had a major effect on the drying of forest fuels in particular, including slash and prunings, understorey scrub vegetation, pine needle litter on the ground and organic material in the soil, which all contribute to the amount of vegetation fuel available to burn,” says Pearce.

“These dry, elevated fuel loads contribute to easy fire ignition and spread, and to high fire intensities including crown fires that are very difficult, if not impossible to control, especially in steeper terrain often favoured for forestry plantings.

“Surrounding grass fuels are also dry, but the lower fuel loads mean that fires are usually easier to control once they spread out into these grass areas.

“Modelling of potential future changes in fire danger indicates that the number of severe fire weather days is likely to increase in many parts of the country. This includes the Nelson region, where the number of days of very high and extreme forest fire danger could increase to more like 12-to-13 days per year on average, and maybe 20-to-25 days in the worst years, with climate change.

“So the Nelson region, as well as other parts of the country, are likely to see more of these types of wildfire events in future.” NZL

March 2019 | NZ LOGGER 5

forest talk

Foresters meet in Christchurch for safety push THE FOCUS IS MOST DEFINITELY ON SAFETY IN THESE EARLY weeks of 2019, as the forestry sector comes together this month to try and keep people out of harm’s way – made more poignant by the death of a young logger near Gisborne in February.

The first Safetree conference is taking place in Christchurch on March 13 and 14 and is a joint effort by the Forest Industry Safety Council (FISC) and the Forest Industry Contractors Association (FICA), with former All Black and mental health champion, Sir John Kirwan, giving the keynote speech.

There’s been growing disquiet within the industry and from WorkSafe about the upward trend in injuries and deaths in forestry, says FISC National Safety Director, Fiona Ewing.

“This conference is a chance for forest owners, managers, contractors and their staff to come together and to hear some new ideas for how to keep people safe,” Mrs Ewing says.

“It’s about making sure you and your people don’t join those statistics.”

Prue Younger, CEO of FICA, says the conference will help get contractors back on the front foot to explore how best to equip themselves with the information and tools to ensure everyone in the forest is safe.

She says the numbers who have already committed to attend is excellent, but there is still room for last minute decision makers who wish to join in.

“We can accommodate more people and I think it is really important that contractors try and make time for this gathering because they’ll take so much out of it – and the result could save someone’s life or prevent them from being hurt,” says Younger.

One of the unspoken safety issues that will be aired at the conference is the subject of mental health. It’s something that men in particular are reluctant to open up about and foresters aren’t immune. That is why former rugby star Sir John Kirwan, who now promotes mental health awareness following his own battles with depression, is kicking off the conference as keynote speaker on the subject.

6 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

Another hot topic for the industry is WorkSafe’s approach to compliance issues and for that reason Daniel Hummerdal, Chief Advisor Health & Safety Innovation at WorkSafe, will also present at the conference. Daniel will talk about how safety has traditionally been approached through a ‘control and compliance’ lens. While this has produced some benefits, there have also been some problematic side-effects. He’ll outline a framework and some tools for how organisations can engage around safety in a more informative way.

Several other leading health and safety experts will also guide conference attendees through more informed ways of achieving better outcomes in the workplace.

One of the most useful aspects of the conference will be the workshops, where attendees will learn first-hand about how they can encourage their teams to work better and faster, while remaining safe. They can also learn how to make tailgates more useful, engaging and effective. NZL

Logger killed near Gisborne A 28-YEAR-OLD MAN DIED LAST MONTH WHEN HE WAS struck by a log while working with a forestry crew north of Gisborne.

The incident took place in a forestry block on West Ho Road, inland from Tolaga Bay where the young man was breaking out for a hauler in a gully 400 metres below the landing.

Police say it appears one of the logs he was trying to hook up snagged another loose, which sprang up and hit him. Colleagues rushed to his aid and tried to resuscitate him, but he was unable to be revived.

His death is the first recorded in a New Zealand forest for 2019. NZL

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forest talk

Banks warn forestry of headwinds How long can forestry prices continue their upward trajectory? Not long says the banks.

ECONOMISTS ARE WARNING THAT HEADwinds facing New Zealand forestry could slow overseas sales, particularly in the allimportant Chinese market…even if the tariff spat with the US is resolved.

Having just ticked off another record year in export sales, the industry is looking forward to more good times ahead in 2019, but experts at several New Zealand banks say that optimism may be misplaced.

Among them is ASB Senior Rural Economist, Nathan Perry, who is picking prices to remain flat for 2019 and demand for our logs to be at risk – even though the year has started on a high note.

At-wharf prices for exports logs climbed NZ$8 and NZ$5-6 JASm3 in January and February respectively, according to the latest market data from PF Olsen.

With China coming off Lunar New Year celebrations to welcome in the Year of the Pig, the industry does have cause for optimism, says PF Olsen. Total softwood log stocks across China increased only slightly ahead of the Lunar holiday period and are now around 3.1-to-3.3 million m³. That is lower than the same period last year and also compares favourably to when softwood log stocks peaked over 5 million m³ last April with no market issues. Stocks are

expected to reduce as work ramps up after the holidays.

Coincidently, log supplies from the US into China are declining and in Canada, the British Columbia regional government has announced plans to make it harder to export logs in a bid to encourage more domestic processing.

Yet, ASB’s Nathan Perry asks the question: Are record forestry prices too good to be true?

He says: “2018 was a fantastic year for forestry exports. Export receipts jumped $684 million from 2017. Moreover, forestry prices have started 2019 where they left off. Indeed, the Forestry Index has been at a record high in NZD terms since mid-January.

“But will prices continue at this level over 2019? In this sense, we are doubtful. Global demand for logs is actually falling, with log import volumes dipping around 2% in three months to November compared to the same three months a year ago.

“In fact, the main reason NZ prices are strong is that NZ log exporters have grabbed significant share off the other major log exporters. For example, over the same period, NZ’s market share increased 4 percentage points to 42%. In contrast, the US and Canada’s share has fallen 5

percentage points to 15%.

“Looking ahead, we anticipate that global log demand will fall further. World economic growth is slowing, particularly in China. Recall that China is the world’s largest importer of logs and NZ’s largest market by a long shot.

In other words, unless NZ can continue to grab market share from other exporters, NZ is unlikely to be immune from falling demand for a second successive year.”

BNZ rural economist Doug Steel also wonders if New Zealand has too many eggs in the Chinese basket and is reminded of a similar situation when this country relied too much on the UK in the 1970s with meat and dairy exports, which crashed after Britain entered the Common Market (now EU).

“It does pay to be aware of the rising concentration and potential fallout if conditions were to deteriorate rapidly in that market and plan accordingly,” he says.

ANZ is also urging caution, saying the future price direction for logs will depend on buying activity post the Chinese New Year holiday period. While in-market stocks are low, indicating strong buying activity may result as mills look to replenish inventories, the bank says there is a risk that demand will weaken on the back of the slowdown of China’s economy. NZL

What to do with East Cape’s growing resource AS THE WOOD SUPPLY ON THE EAST COAST OF THE NORTH Island continues to grow, the NZ Institute of Forestry has been pondering what to do with the lowest grades.

A recent Institute newsletter raises the issue of the nearly 700,000 cubic metres per year of chip logs that will be available between now and 2050.

It says there is a significant proportion of log grades not suitable for the export market and which cannot currently be economically

8 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

transported from the East Coast forests to the closest domestic processors “hence the major issue with logging slash”.

It suggests this volume of chip logs would keep a sizeable wood processing plant busy, opening up an opportunity to build our first OSB plant, which could encourage even more wood processing on the East Coast. The Institute says the provision of additional jobs and opportunities would surely improve forestry’s social license in this currently ‘highly-polarised’ region. NZL

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forest talk

The new Gough Customer Support Centre.

Gough Cat opens new Customer Support Centre GOUGH CAT’S NEW NATIONAL CUSTOMER SUPPORT CENTRE IN Christchurch is now fully up and running.

Known as the CSC, it’s located at Gough Cat’s Christchurch headquarters and has been steadily developing since first going live last year.

The CSC reflects Gough Cat’s ongoing commitment to industry, leading to great feedback on the centre’s success, says Gough Cat Executive General Manager, Chris Heaton.

Specialist teams respond to customer enquiries across every channel; phone, email, web and chat.

“From our frontline support agents to subject matter experts in parts, sales and technical services – the team’s all totally committed and resourced to resolve customer enquiries,” says Mr Heaton.

“Providing centralised technical advice and solutions to external customers is a real game changer for us as a business, we love helping our customers resolve and troubleshoot problems over the phone or by email before a field technician is required.

“The technical communicators are all trained and experienced former Heavy Diesel Technicians and their wealth of experience

10 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

helps our customers troubleshoot technical issues or provides them with specs and data that would otherwise be difficult to source.”

The CSC team creates service and parts requests for customers, gathers equipment information and often uses telematics data from the field to understand the full picture, even if customers can’t provide many details. The service also includes centralised parts ordering, just as if it were taking place in a branch. Parts tracking is another service the CSC provides.

A state-of-the-art system for managing and following up any outstanding enquiries ensures customer enquiries are resolved in the shortest time possible.

“We’re answering more calls than ever before and have also increased our ‘first call resolution,’ which means customers have issues resolved faster and with less transfers,” adds Mr Heaton.

Outbound services provided by Gough’s Inside Sales Representatives also assist with customer parts, service and equipment purchase decisions. And insights derived from data are also helping prioritise its resources and develop new services and solutions to meet customer needs. NZL

forest talk

Providing opportunities for women leaders MANY WOMEN IN FORESTRY DON’T HAVE A PATHWAY TO progress through their organisations, says Women & Leadership New Zealand’s Alistair Young.

To facilitate this, Women & Leadership Australia is driving a national initiative to support the development of female leaders across NZ’s forestry sector. This will provide women with grants of between $3,000 and $7,000 to enable participation in a range of leadership development programmes.

“The grants are provisioned for women in traditionally male-dominated sectors including trucking, forestry and to a lesser extent, finance and law, to allow women to progress upward through their organisations,” says Alistair. He adds that the programmes tackle team dynamics, interpersonal communications, leadership and the like, helping build confidence and abilities.

“Logging is an important part of the NZ economy and in fact, any country’s economy. Women who have participated in past programmes have given feedback that these sorts of support networks and channels help. More diversity of women in industry makes that industry stronger, economically and strategically and with a better ability to adapt,” explains Alistair.

Prue Younger, CEO of FICA, agrees saying: “Women are quite new in forestry and I think it’s fantastic that they have included forestry in lifting industry.”

Alistair says women are under-represented in the workplace context, particularly, at senior levels, adding: “By giving women access to these programmes and networking events they can step up and play a greater part in society. Ultimately this works towards a more inclusive and diverse society which is healthier and robust.”

The multifaceted learning approach incorporates expert guidance, peer collaboration, self-analysis, experiential exercises and practical application.

Theoretical exploration is complemented with real-world experience to ensure that participants develop the skills needed to confidently deal with

future challenges. A combination of executive coaching and peer group mentoring enables participants to develop valuable peer networks, build their self-confidence and hone their leadership skills.

“It doesn’t just start or stop with leadership development programmes either,” says Alistair. “That’s one component. Strong networking and support networks are another. Mentoring is also important for women trying to make their way through the ranks of a male-dominated industry.”

The scholarship funding is provided with the specific intent of providing powerful and effective development opportunities for forestry sector women. The programmes run over a period of 12 months and are designed to fit the schedules of working women.

Information on the course, along with an Expression of Interest form that needs to be submitted prior to March 15, is at www.womenandleadership. co.nz/register. NZL

Forestry women are getting a chance to develop leadership skills in a new programme in New Zealand.

Ten-year celebration for Eastland awards THE EASTLAND FORESTRY AWARDS IS celebrating its tenth anniversary as it opens up for entries for the 2019 edition.

Eastland Wood Council (EWXC)Chief Executive, Kim Holland, says the anniversary is a time to celebrate and reflect on past awards and achievements.

“It is a huge milestone for the industry nationally,” she says. “EWC led the way in 2010 with the first (regional) forestry awards in New Zealand and they’ve now been replicated across the country.”

Kim believes the ongoing success of the awards are a real credit to the industry and an opportunity to recognise excellence and achievement of the people and companies involved, adding: “The people who make our industry what it is are all passionate, skilled and hard-working, and they deserved to be recognized for the outstanding work they do.”

Event manager Prue Younger, who has been involved from the start, has seen the calibre of entries rise over the years, along with the

numbers attending the awards evening.

She says: “Each one has been memorable, and the evening is always a sell-out – this year will be no different with around 600 people expected.”

Previous supreme winners will be invited to attend the 10-year anniversary dinner and Kim is hopeful all will be on hand to toast the 2019 stars.

A new category this year is the Woman in Forestry Certificate, which seeks to recognise a female forester who demonstrates excellence across a range of skills, going above and beyond in any area of the timber industry.

Other categories include forestry excellence, roading, harvesting, distribution, wood processing, construction, individual faller, pavement excellence, health and safety, regional service, contractor of the year and the environment.

The concept of local forestry awards was first floated by Matt Wakelin, then a member

of the Eastland Wood Council, who says: “I just thought it would be good to recognise the workers in the forest and in doing so present the positive side of the industry.”

While he left Gisborne before the first awards evening was even held, he returns to help toast those he sought to be recognised and says it was quite special to attend.

“Seeing that room full of people, with people being recognised for their work in the forest and just the community support it – it is great to see,” adds Matt, who now works for Carter Holt Harvey as the manager of fibre supply.

“Hats off to (the organisers). These awards have now been replicated around the country but importantly Gisborne has been successful in reaching its 10-year milestone.”

Entries for the Eastland Wood Council Forestry Awards 2019 remain open until March 31 and the awards will be made at a dinner held in the Gisborne Showgrounds Park Event Centre on May 17, 2019. NZL

March 2019 | NZ LOGGER 11

forest talk

Who’s going to run our new technology harvesting operations?

AS HARVESTING TECHNOLOGY CONTINUES TO GATHER PACE to improve safety and productivity, there’s a growing unease about how the industry will attract new people into forestry to run those new systems.

When foresters gather in Rotorua for the bi-annual HarvestTECH 2019 conference in June, this thorny issue will be high in the minds of many attendees.

“As we all know, it’s a major issue and it’s already constraining the forestry industry – here and overseas,” says Brent Apthorp, Director of FIEA, which is running the two-day conference.

“We all know that our population is aging rapidly. Around 300,000 workers in New Zealand are currently 65 years and over, and by 2041, that will grow to around 1.37 million people.

“We’re now dealing with Generation Z, those born after 1995.

There’s around one million of them already in the country. They’re ‘digital natives’ – their smartphone is an extension of their body, they’re independent and ambitious and they’re looking for ‘authentic and transparent experiences’.

“It sounds foreign to most of us, right? For the forestry industry and harvesting contractors though, it means that we need to better understand the drivers and motivations of these new millennials and Generation Z. “This is going to help us to get a reasonable share of the available workforce. Experience, we’re told, is crucial for retention and educating and enlightening the sector employers is as important as attracting talent. An insight into some of the key drivers to attract and retain this new workforce along with a raft of new initiatives set up to train new logging entrants will be profiled at HarvestTECH 2019. This will provide some useful tips on how businesses are going to keep their machines and operations working into the future.”

Apthorp says some exciting new initiatives are being rolled out

12 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

(inside and outside our industry, both from within New Zealand and internationally) to attract young people and new skills into the industry which will also be covered.

FIEA is expecting a strong turn-out to HarvestTECH 2019, after the event sold out two years ago, attracting more than 450 people.

While much of the focus at previous events has been around the drive by forest owners and contractors to increase mechanisation, productivity and the safety of new steep slope logging equipment, it won’t be the sole focus this year and presentations will be covering a wide range of topics.

Inevitably, solutions to steep slope harvesting challenges will be among the highlights and will include an update from Dale Ewers on DC Equipment’s felling carriage and hauler system, plus US logger, Eric Krume, will talk about his new 100-foot hydraulic yarder operation that they’re combining with pre-bunching on steeper slopes to increase their grapple payloads (he’ll also talk about products made by his Summit Attachments business). Australian Andrew Mahnken, of Mountain Logging, is joining with Nathan Taylor, from Nelson-based Mechanised Cable Harvesting on log bunching practices being employed on steeper slopes to improve productivity.

Apthorp says HarvestTECH 2019 will also cover new technologies and operating practices that increasingly are being developed for small woodlot harvesting, such as the FOMS two-stage log extraction operations now being used in smaller woodlot areas by many of the company’s 50 harvesting crews around the North Island.

International insights will also come from large US manufacturers John Deere Forestry and Caterpillar, along with Tigercat and Eltec from Canada and Ponsse of Finland, while local business FORCO will represent Ecoforst and the T-Winch from Austria.

More details are at the www.harvesttech.events website. NZL

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Felling Focus 1

No breaks.

No worries Story & photos: John Ellegard

Operator, Ron Roberts, gets ready to fell another tree with the TimberPro TL765D and KF800 fixed head feller-buncher.

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Felling Focus 1

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HERE’S NOTHING MORE FRUSTRATING THAN watching an impressive 35-metre tall Radiata pine topple to the ground and then shatter into two or more pieces.

That stem has now not only lost a chunk of its value, it has also become harder to get those fractured pieces back up to the landing or skid site, compared to a wholly intact tree.

Unfortunately, this is a sight that is all too familiar in logging operations throughout New Zealand forests, with some estimates putting breakages as high as 75% – that’s three quarters of the crop!

Amazingly, it’s accepted as normal practice by forest companies and contractors alike.

But now something is being done about it.

An old, yet simple idea is making a timely comeback and it’s set to play a significant role in the way our trees are felled, particularly on steep slopes.

It’s a new take on the venerable fixed head feller-buncher. And interestingly, a bunch of Australians have been driving the trend in this part of the world.

Hardly surprising. Fixed head feller-bunchers have been popular in ground-based Eucalyptus forests across the Tasman for many years, notably the US-style disc saw and shear head models that can cut and accumulate multiple stems and place them accurately and, most importantly, gently on the ground. This results in better bunching for the skidder and virtually no breakages.

It didn’t take long for astute Aussies to figure that pine trees could be felled in a similar fashion. But disc saws don’t work so well with large diameter pines, which led to fixed head chainsaw models being developed and becoming mandatory in some Australian forests, particularly those under the management of HVP Plantations in the state of Victoria.

A Kiwi was involved in the HVP decision (it wouldn’t be right for the

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Australians to take all the credit, would it) and on moving back to New Zealand, Ian Wilson has become the catalyst for a similar change that is now taking place here.

That change can be precisely pinpointed to a discussion that Ian, now Director of Operations with ForestPHD (the company that owns the STICKS harvesting software), had with two Nelson contractors, which set things in motion.

The pair, Nathan Taylor and Hamish Matthews, had recently established Mechanised Cable Harvesting (MCH) in partnership with their old boss, Ross Wood. Ian knew both men from visiting Wood Contracting over the years to update himself on the winch-assist technology developments spearheaded by Ross, which included bringing Australian contractors over from HVP to see tethered harvesting in action.

Like Ross Wood, Nathan and Hamish are fervent believers in using mechanisation to create a safer working environment, along with making the most of technology to enable their operations to become more efficient and more productive.

That led to talks with Ian about using the data from their harvesting equipment via the STICKS cloud-based software programme to understand what they are doing and how they could make good use of the information gleaned from the machines. Ian has been involved in the utilisation of harvesting machinery data for many years and sits on the StanForD committee that’s run out of Sweden, so he knows his stuff.

His knowledge and experiences led Nathan and Hamish down the path to putting a fixed felling head with lateral rotation onto a new levelling felling machine for their Nelson operation – the first of its type in New Zealand – and discovering what a huge difference this style of machine can make to minimising felling breakages and improving the way they extract trees on steep terrain.

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Facing page: Even though trees are generally felled with the machine facing uphill when on really steep sites, it’s still necessary to slew the base around so the butt faces the yarder grapple.

Above both pics: Another stem is swung around to join the bunch.

This is hardly news to Aussie contractors. People like Andrew Mahnken, from Mountain Logging in Gippsland, Victoria had discovered the benefits of using fixed felling heads to harvest full stems long ago, says Ian. And HVP became aware of it when the company decided to take a more holistic approach to their value recovery programme around 2003, rather than just focusing on the log making phase.

“Our mantra was that ‘operational value recovery’ starts at the tree felling phase and goes all the way through the whole production chain, right to the delivery and if we want to capture the value that we have worked so hard to create over the last 30 years growing the tree, we have to get every step in that process correct,” says Ian. “Otherwise, we can do a great job on log making but we could have already lost 20% of the value of the trees through breakages”.

As the HVP team looked more closely, they discovered that significant value was indeed being lost through felling breakage in full stem operations – but not all of them. Using the available harvester/processor optimisation data, they could clearly identify which contractors were using fixed felling heads and those who were using dangle heads.

“We were able to look at like-for-like operations, with the same tree sizes, same species, same conditions, same slope and see what the differences were (between fixed and dangle felling heads),” says Ian. “There were contractors who already had fixed heads on their feller bunchers, like Andrew Mahnken and he was very much aware of what could be done – he’s an incredibly knowledgeable guy in steep slope tree length logging and, in my opinion, he’d be the leader in the Southern Hemisphere when it comes to felling heads.”

The fixed felling heads being used at that time included the US-built Timbco 33” bar-saw, and a suite of Aussie designed and built heads such as VHLC LogMate and PulpMate, Rosin Developments’ CF750 and CF800 and Waratah’s FL235 via its purchase of Unicon from Dennis Smith. The LogMate, PulpMate, CF750, CF800 and FL235 had the added advantage that they had full lateral rotation, so could shovel, load trucks and put in extraction tracks if needed, turning the feller buncher into a real multi-purpose machine.

In addition to dramatically reducing the amount of felling breakage, other benefits were recognised in the HVP study, such as lower stump

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heights, increased utilisation of the harvesters ‘Find End’ function and no slabbing or splitting of the stems. The other major plus was in the presentation of the wood – with full control of the tree as it is brought down to the ground, the feller buncher operator can precisely place the stem neatly into a bunch ready for a yarder grapple to grab or for a skidder to collect. This made extraction easier and much faster, which delivered a productivity gain for the contractor.

Ian says HVP took a very commendable approach to this gain, saying: “We didn’t go into it for productivity gains. We said the value for us is in the tree crop and if there’s gains for the contractor in productivity, let them have it.”

That approach helped win over contractors when HVP went on to make fixed felling heads mandatory in its tree-length harvesting operations, much as it did when the use of harvester optimisation became non-negotiable a couple of years earlier.

Ian says the goal was for zero tree felling breakage, i.e. eliminate it altogether, but the realism is that you’ll likely never ever eliminate it and instead, stem breakage minimisation would be a better description…but there’s no harm in shooting for the moon!

“Like all forest companies, we had a felling breaking equation in our business model, so we knew for every 1% increase in felling breakage what it was ultimately costing us,” he says. “We changed our thinking around from saying ‘felling breakage is something we just have to live with’ to ‘what processes or systems do we have to change to prevent it from occurring and get a more positive outcome for our investors’.”

And that’s the way it’s been in HVP Plantations’ tree-length harvesting operations for the last 15 years.

So, when the discussion with Mechanised Cable Harvesting’s Nathan Taylor and Hamish Matthews about how to capitalise on the information that STICKS had shown took place, which wasn’t long after Ian had returned to New Zealand, he used the opportunity to update the Nelson pair on his experiences in Australia, including the topic of fixed felling heads.

“I floated the concept of what Andrew Mahnken was doing and showed them some photos of all the stems nicely laid out on the hill and with minimal felling breakage, and Nathan said ‘that’s impressive, we should be doing something like that here’, which really got the ball rolling,” says Ian.

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Felling Focus 1

The TimberPro base feller buncher boom geometry and the KF800 have more than enough power to hold this tree up off the ground for the operator to decide exactly where to place it.

The new Falcon 171 and its Falcon Claw 1580 grapple carriage display impressive line speed – note the Madill 071 in the background, assisting Moutere 8 to pull wood to this landing.

Operator, Ron Roberts, manoeuvres the TimberPro closer to the tree to give himself even more control once this tree is cut.

It wasn’t long before Nathan and Hamish jumped on a plane bound for Australia to visit Andrew Mahnken’s Mountain Logging Operations in Gippsland and see first-hand how they could up their game in Nelson.

“I really take my hat off to them – they did all of it off their own bat.

They built up a really good relationship with Andrew and he allowed them to operate his fixed head feller bunchers and speak in-depth with the operators, and once they had seen them working first-hand in conditions that were similar to their ones in Nelson, then they couldn’t see any reason why this style of felling machine wouldn’t be as affective in New Zealand as they were in Australia.”

To see exactly what they did end up doing, NZ Logger has travelled to Nelson to catch up with Nathan and Hamish at one of their two crews working up on the top of Spooners Range, just south of Wakefield in the former Golden Downs state forest now managed by Nelson Forests Ltd. This is steep slope logging country, where everything is working against crews trying to harvest and recover trees off the mix of long and broken hills. Even with the advent of winch-assist technology and grapple carriages, it’s still a hard task. But life has been getting easier recently.

When Nathan and Hamish formed this crew four years ago, they inherited the original Ross Woods winch-assist bulldozer up on the hill tethering a John Deere 909 base with a harvester boom set and a traditional dangle felling head feeding their yarder on the landing.

They’ve since updated the winch-assist machine to a more versatile excavator-based version built by EMS, which has recently been joined by that brand new feller buncher and fixed head combo. Extraction

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from the hill has also improved with the addition of a Falcon grapple carriage.

Hamish remembers back to the early days when Ross Wood was experimenting with his first winch-assist set-up and he was asked to bunch with the Volvo digger down the hill.

“I was Ross’s guinea pig with the tether line,” he says.

Having survived that initial experience more than a decade ago, he’s still amazed at how far steep slope mechanisation has come and on the way into their site he points out a slope that illustrates the progress. A few weeks earlier the slope was a tangle of wind-thrown trees that was far too dangerous to be tackled manually. Today there’s hardly a whisker of wood left on the ground – it was all cleared using the winch-assist system and the new levelling feller buncher and the fixed felling head that we’ve come to see.

The base machine is the very latest TimberPro TL765D and the head is the KF800 – both are the first to go to work in New Zealand and supplied by Komatsu Forest. Due to a production shortage, the KF800 is currently only available as a package with the TimberPro base, however this shortfall is only temporary as production continues to ramp up. In the meantime, the TimberPro base machine can be purchased separately.

This arrangement is because the KF800 and its smaller sibling the KF750 are built in Australia by Rosin Developments and marketed by Komatsu Forest, and its customers come first.

There are other options for those who prefer to make separate machine and head purchases, as explained in the separate article on page 27.

Right now, we’re interested in how Nathan and Hamish came to

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Felling Focus 1

It’s all about control, as the tree is held up and swung around and then gently placed in a tidy bunch ready for extraction. make this particular choice and it turns out they had seen the KF800 fixed felling head and the TimberPro base on display at the AUSTimber 2016 show.

Although they liked what they saw, it was only after having their initial discussion with Ian that they were spurred into action.

Nathan says: “We were looking at our harvester head data via STICKS and could see that the stems arriving at the landing were consistently broken around the 20-to-30cm diameter range, so where was the rest of the tree length? It meant we were either running the Falcon grapple back out and picking up these broken heads, which isn’t very cost effective or good for production when you’re bringing in part trees over 350-to-450 metres. Otherwise, the broken tops stay out on the cutover, which invariably increases the re-establishment costs.”

That information focused their attention and the issue was further highlighted when they saw the photos of well-bunched stems with minimal felling breakage on the hills in Victoria.

“The key to good extraction productivity is to have good stem presentation,” says Nathan.

“If you’re felling timber and you’re putting it in shit piles, you’ll get shit results. If you’re putting them into good piles, you get good results. That was it for us, we knew we had to make a change.

“Ian put us in touch with Andrew and we spent three or four days with him, it was bloody impressive and he was really helpful.

“We looked at the different types of fixed heads they operate over in Aussie and the one that seemed the best application for what we wanted to do was the KF800 because it could shovel as well as fall and bunch.”

Back in New Zealand, Nathan and Hamish weighed up their options after an informative chat with Brett Jones from Komatsu Forest. One option was the ex-Mark Ward TimberPro TL765C, equipped with a harvester boom that had been running a Waratah HTH625C harvester head, but the cost of converting it to a feller-buncher boom and arm to accept the fixed felling head ruled it out of contention. So they decided to take the plunge and go for the all-new TimberPro TL765D feller buncher base and KF800 combination, which would be set up right from the start.

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The US-built machine, complete with the feller-buncher boom/arm, arrived via Australia where it was kitted up with the KF800 head by Komatsu Forest, before eventually landing at Lyttleton port mid-way through last year (a little late thanks to delays caused by the stink bug).

Then came the process of learning how to make best use of the new TimberPro and KF800 fixed head combo.

Hamish explains that the controls are pretty much the same as on felling machines with dangle heads, but the last thing you want to do is cut a tree and just let it fall to the ground, which will likely result in stem breakage – it needs to be a controlled process.

“Just trying to get your head around this takes a bit of time – holding onto the tree and how you move it,” he says.

It may be a fixed head, but it does have more dexterity to its operation than you might think. For a start, it has full 360-degree rotation and it will tilt forward in excess of 90-degrees, as well as tip back slightly.

The large grapple arms on the KF800 provide excellent gripping force after the tree has been cut, so there’s no worries about it slipping out when being swung around to form a bunch on the ground.

Even while the crew was still learning to use the of feller buncher, Nathan and Hamish could see results immediately.

“First tree it cut we could see it working the way we envisaged – we could see the benefits there in front of us, grabbing and then placing that tree into a precise bunch and not breaking it,” says Nathan.

But there wasn’t quite the speed they had expected for a big 40-tonne machine boasting 255kW (342hp) of engine power and associated hydraulic performance. Clearly there were some gremlins in the system, which were eventually ironed out by Komatsu Forest technicians and it’s now running at full steam.

“150% better than when we first got it – just had to be tweaked,” adds Nathan.

With the new fixed head feller buncher working at optimum levels, the MCH team have spent the last seven-to-eight months honing their operation to take full advantage of the way they can now control the placement of stems on the ground. It was a steep learning curve.

What they quickly discovered was that getting the right operator

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who was in tune with what they were wanting to achieve was key to making it all work seamlessly.

They found the right person in Ron Roberts, who joined MCH nearly three years ago and became foreman of this crew. He wasn’t the first operator, taking over a month or so after it arrived and he’s loving it.

Nathan says: “Ronnie had a really good attitude when he jumped in there. And he’s thrived in that environment.

“He is the right person because he buys into it and he knows why we want to fell timber this way. He gets upset every time one breaks, which now happens very rarely.

“But he’s made it his personal responsibility. He wants to fell timber

and do the best he can for us, because he knows how important it is, especially as this is the first stage of the operation and get it wrong here…well, we all know what that can lead to. And the whole crew gets it, too.

“Everyone has an understanding of how important and difficult that job is to get the trees down fully intact and set up for efficient extraction. If Ronnie can put the wood in good piles that makes it easier for our yarder operator, Ben. And if Ben brings the wood onto the skid and puts it in a decent pile for the processor, then the processor can process the wood and put it in decent piles, then it (Continued on page 24)

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Felling Focus 1

With the tree leaning back towards the machine, there’s no danger of the operator losing control.

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Felling Focus 1

Greater view from the enlarged window on the front of the TimberPro cab enables the operator to see the top of the tree.

(Continued from page 21) makes it easier for the loader, so it’s a whole flow-on effect. You do your job and then you do an extra 10% to make the next person’s job easier, that’s one of our crew mottos – do your job well but also look for the opportunities you can find to make the other people’s job easier and faster.”

So, have they completely eliminated stem breakages with the new TimberPro/KF800 combo?

Pretty much, say Nathan and Hamish. Compared to where they were with a dangle head, it’s a massive leap forward and the proof can easily be seen in the number of fully intact stems brought up to the landing and via the harvester data using STICKS. “Every time I see full stems come up on the wire I smile,” says Nathan.

Being able to log-make a whole stem allows the processor’s optimisation system to really select log combinations that return better value. That’s how true optimisation works. Sure, it can still make logs from the broken parts, but it’s not as effective as if it had been working with a full stem, plus a full stem is much faster and less work for the operator.

“Optimisers don’t work as effectively on half trees,” Nathan reminds us, as the optimiser physically can’t see a broken top on a stem.

“Everything is based on algorithms and log length combinations.

An optimiser by itself won’t recover full value out of a stem if it’s got a break at 25cm SED without the operator having to override things.

Everything you’re trying to do is to ensure you get down to those

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minimum SEDs with every grade that it can. That’s where you get your maximum value.”

And those skinny SED logs from the top part of the tree are mightily important to MCH and Nelson Forests in providing another good source of income.

Normally, they’d be considered low value pulp logs and there isn’t much call for pulpwood around these parts. There is, however, good demand for posts from a mill in Nelson that specialises in them and the amount of posts they’re now getting has dramatically increased.

The only broken stems that make it up onto the landing these days are cut from windthrow and the way the fixed head has been able to cope in these tangles of trees has been a revelation.

“Fixed heads normally don’t work well in windthrow but the KF800 does because of its full lateral rotation and the degree of fore and aft movement,” says Hamish, adding that it has a ‘float’ mode that makes it work a little like a dangle head to provide some extra movement.

That good range of movement allows it to shovel well and the ability to place even part-stems into handy bunches in a controlled manner is another plus for the KF800.

Nathan reminds me of the hill we passed on the way in and says: “Everyone that I’ve shown that face to says ‘Jeez is that windthrow’.

It looks so tidy.”

Being able to bunch more effectively on the hill has been a key factor in the success of the fixed felling head introduction, as the yarder operator uses less time attempting to grab a good load in the Falcon’s grapple. More multi-stem loads and fewer singles are arriving on the landing than ever before and that’s helped keep the processor

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Felling Focus 1

Above left: The KF800 fixed feller-buncher head is the first to go to work in New Zealand.

Above right: MCH partners, Nathan Taylor (left) and Hamish Matthews, took a calculated risk introducing this type of head to New Zealand…and it’s paying off.

Below: This slope was a tangle of windblown trees a few weeks earlier, now the hill looks like it has been manicured. well fed.

They won’t give out any figures to indicate how much it’s improved, but the smiles on the faces of Nathan and Hamish say it all.

Enough talk. We want to see how this new-but-old idea works, so we head down to where the TL765D feller buncher is parked up and get our first look at the KF800.

There’s a lot of metal in that head, which stands to reason when it has to ‘manhandle’ trees weighing anything up to six or seven tonnes.

The head itself weighs in around 3.5 tonnes and that includes the guard that Hamish and Nathan added after it arrived to protect the joints at the top.

It’s fitted with a 40” saw that boasts very good speed, thanks to the excellent hydraulic flows, plus the saw can cut past 180 degrees, making it a simple and quick process to scarf-cut a tree without moving the base if the need arises.

The TL765D is mostly familiar to us. Last year we tested the C-series model that is working for Kuru Logging over behind Tolaga Bay on the East Coast and we were impressed.

This D-series model has been upgraded with a redesigned cab that incorporates a larger side door for easier entry and exit. Together with a wider, deeper and taller front screen, this redesign now provides more glass area and increases the operator’s exterior vision. The hydraulic performance has also been improved with fine tuning and the slew torque has also been increased by changing the size of the dual slew motors, giving it a clear performance edge in the market.

The tethered hitch is now fitted as standard for contractors like MCH

who use the machine in a winch-assist harvesting system. There is also another model, the TimberPro TL775, which comes with a longer 10-roller track frame in place of the standard 9-roller unit.

We’re keen to see it working because the forecast is for the weather to get worse as the day progresses and it’s already drizzling. The wet has put paid to our plans to use the NZ Logger drone to capture the action from the air and get closer than we’re allowed from the ground.

But we are watching the action from the vantage point of a high ridge, which is the next best thing.

Seeing the TimberPro/KF800 cut, lift, turn and gently place large full-grown trees on the ground feels like witnessing felling in slow motion, yet it isn’t any slower than how an operator would drop a tree with a dangle head. Taking into account that the operator with the fixed head machine doesn’t have to grab the stem again and drag it into a bunch, the fixed head is definitely quicker overall. To give you some idea, remember those Aussie contractors that were mentioned earlier…they have fixed head feller bunchers felling in excess of 200,000 tonnes per year, single shift and for multiple crews that are sometimes located upwards of 80km apart. Their terrain isn’t as challenging as this, however.

On steep ground like we have, the trick, says Hamish, is to have the machine pointing up the hill because that provides more control and prevents the tree from toppling under its own weight. The operator

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Left: Fixed feller-buncher heads aren’t new. The date on this photo of a Waratah FL235 working for Tim Christian’s company (Cable Logging) in Gippsland, Australia shows it to be 15 years old.

Right: TimberPro operator and crew foreman, Ron Roberts, is enjoying how the machine and head work so well together.

More fixed felling head options

I

T’S NO SURPRISE THAT OTHER HEAD MANUFACTURERS are watching the KF800 ‘experiment’ in Nelson with interest…and planning their own fixed felling head options.

One New Zealand producer already has a fixed felling head in its line-up. Tokoroa-based SATCO introduced the SAT640 as an alternative to its dangle heads, mainly for overseas markets that are already ‘in tune’ with the advantages.

But CEO, Warwick Batley, says there is some good interest now occurring here in its home market and he’s already met with forestry companies to discuss how the SAT640 would work in New Zealand.

“It makes sense,” he says, “because we produce locally with local parts and support.”

The SAT640 is a large capacity fixed felling head with two sets of jaws that can be independently operated or at the same time as each other. It has 360-degree continuous rotation and can connect directly to any excavator bucket C-linkage.

It has a large 30cm slew bearing for robustness along with a heavy-duty SATCO auto chain tensioning system with a 50” bar and 3/4” chain. The saw bar has a unique 270-degree rotation, making a front cut easy to perform without having to reposition the base

machine from the felling position.

Weighing in at 3,700kg and requiring 200 LPM at 280 Bar (4,000 psi) it’s well-suited to 29-to-45 tonne base machines.

Tigercat also offers a fixed felling head out of its Canadian factory, although local distributor, AB Equipment, has only brought in the dangle version to date.

But that is expected to change as Tigercat is developing a stablemate to the existing 5185 fixed felling head model that will have full 360-degree rotation and will be called the 5190. AB Equipment’s Mark Hill says they are talking to Tigercat about making the new 5190 available to New Zealand contractors who purchase one of its harvesters/feller bunchers, with fitment taking place at the factory. He expects Tigercat to release the 5190 sometime this year.

Rotorua-based Ensign told NZ Logger that it is looking at producing a fixed felling head for New Zealand customers, but no other information is available at present.

SouthStar is also in the process of investigating developing a fixed felling head to include in its line-up, while Waratah says it is unable to comment about its plans but adds that it is well aware of the current interest. NZL

Felling Focus 1

can still turn to lay the tree downhill without breaking it.

When Ron shows off the shovelling prowess of the head by dragging a large tree back up to the landing, I’m keen to ask how much control does he really have with a fixed head when felling.

“There is a definite technique to it,” Ron says. “You have to work up under the stand, because of the natural lean of the trees, so it’s almost on top of you.

“But compared to a dangle head, I’ve got heaps of control. Some of the biggest trees I’ve brought down are five or six tonnes. You are slowing things down a wee bit but the way you lay them down they land as a whole tree not in pieces. It’s quite amazing how just that little bit of slowing down the trees fall helps stop them from breaking.”

Before he was made foreman, Ron operated the previous felling machine, a John Deere 909J fitted with a dangle felling head.

He says: “I wouldn’t go back to a dangle head, just because of the bunching for a skidder or a yarder. You know that each tree you bring round to bunch you’re bang on every time.”

When asked if he has tried to emulate the way Andrew Mahnken’s Mountain Logging crews lay out their bunches in herring-bone fashion on the hills, Ron says he has his own method.

He says: “I’ve seen the photos of how the Aussies bunch trees all very nice. I aim to have each drag separated, with a bit of a gap to the next bunch. I try and do it as individual bunches so it matches how much the Falcon claw grapple can take while also taking the slope’s deflections into account. I’m trying to make sure the yarder operator doesn’t have to chase around after scattered pieces, which can really

slow things down. We want a full drag up the wire for each and every cycle.”

Knowing where to lay them down in the bunch and how many stems to put into each bunch for the Falcon claw to grab takes skill and experience. But it’s still guesswork. And that’s something Nathan, Hamish and Ian have been discussing.

They’d like to see felling machines brought into the 21st century and be able provide the operator with an easy-to-use navigation system so that the stems can be precisely laid out on the extraction corridor and bunched into sizes that are the most efficient given the terrain’s deflection, plus be able to know for each felled stem, the GPS coordinates, the species and even the tree’s DBH measurement.

Ian says: “In Cut-to-Length (CTL) harvesting operations, we have been able to record and utilise all of the above data and more for many years, but when it comes to Tree Length (TL) harvesting operations, we are missing out, as StanForD data is typically only for harvesters and forwarders. However, that is likely to be changing in the not too distant future with machines like the feller buncher and skidder coming into the StanForD standard.”

More on this development in a future article.

In the meantime, a lot of foresters are watching the progress of Nathan and Hamish and their crew. A number of forest managers and contractors from around the country have already visited their operation to witness their industry-leading approach to minimising felling breakage and better bunching, and we’ll undoubtedly see it adopted by others soon. NZL

The photo that started the ball rolling – neat bunches of pine trees precisely laid down by operator Dylan Carne from Mountain Logging using a fixed head feller-buncher in Gippsland, Australia.

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A new era in th

breaking Felling Focus out 2

Thinning to waste with a machine means more hectares are covered in a fraction of the time it takes a manual crew to complete the job.

30 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

thinnings

Story & photos: John Ellegard

N

ICK TOMBLESON OF TOMBLESON Logging claims there was no big masterplan behind his development of a fully mechanised thin-to-waste operation to be used in young forests stocked with up to 1,000-plus trees.

Instead, he says, it just evolved in response to a common problem.

“We’d been doing fully mechanised logging for years and I could see the merit in a fully mechanised thin-to-waste operation, especially with the issue around finding talent and keeping guys safe. It was just a matter of trying different things to see which would work best,” Nick says.

Today, Tombleson Logging has two mechanised thinning outfits working successfully in forests in Kaingaroa and Northland. These machines are tackling conditions that would test manual silviculture workers on foot and the results are quite astounding. For example, thinning 1,400 hectares per year with just two people. That’s around 15 hectares per person, per week.

“We’ve worked it out that in normal conditions, one machine equals the production of 3.4 guys on foot,” Nick says.

What made it possible was an Austrianbuilt fixed felling head called a Woodcracker.

Woodcracker heads have been used successfully around the world for clearing land, but as far as Nick knew, no one had put them to the task of thinning. Designed especially for small diameter wood, Woodcracker was found to be ideal for felling young trees of first-thin age, ie around 8-to-10 years old.

The Woodcracker is different to any felling head you’ll have seen working in a New Zealand production pine forest to date because it has shears to slice through the trunk, instead of a chainsaw or even a disc saw.

March 2019 | NZ LOGGER 31

Felling Focus 2

Nick came across the Woodcracker heads when researching various options on the web and approached the West Tech Woodcracker factory direct in late 2016 – today, Woodcracker heads are distributed in New Zealand by Donaldson Mechanical of Hamilton, alongside its own Duxson dangle felling head and grapples, so it’s much easier for other Kiwi contractors to follow Nick’s lead.

The discovery of these lightweight fixed heads was the final piece in a puzzle that enabled Nick and his team at Taupo-based Tombleson Logging to unlock the secret to making first-thinning possible by machines.

“I was lucky to have Ken Holmes, of Holmes Group, as a sounding board throughout the process,” says Nick, who started his logging career with one of Ken’s crews.

“I had an idea of how I could make the mechanised felling work and it was all down to having the right felling head – because Ken was trialling different options in Kaingaroa, he was happy to share learnings and ideas from his experiences, which helped me narrow down the direction I wanted to try up in Northland. Ken’s really innovative and I respected his insights.”

Ken had been using compact Bobcat

32 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

excavators fitted with a traditional dangle felling head in Kaingaroa Forest for his mechanised thinning trials.

The discovery of the lightweight fixed felling heads from West Tech Woodcracker, allowed Nick to build on the Holmes experience.

Nick says: “Woodcracker have a range of models and for us, the attraction originally was that they had accumulating arms and a single-action knife cut instead of a double

Above: This unpruned stem is being removed to leave the pruned trees to grow to maturity.

Below: Working in these rough ground conditions is easier inside a machine than on foot.

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Breaking Felling Focus Out 2

ram cut. The grapple is quite big, too. And it’s a lot prettier than the other heads.

Generally, if something looks good, it is good.”

“They were also a lot cheaper than buying anything in New Zealand at the time, when the Euro conversion was more in our favour – it would have cost almost another half again to buy something in New Zealand. And that included shipping and everything.”

So, armed with that information, Nick flew to Austria to visit the West Tech Woodcracker factory, four hours from

Vienna, close to the Italian border and not far from where Palfinger loading systems are made.

“They tend to use these heads for land clearing over there, mainly brush and small trees,” he says. “They’ve got some working in South Africa and they’re designed to have a quick hitch to go and clear some trees and then put a bucket on and clear a road.”

Nick wasn’t looking to use a quick hitch for his heads, as they are for felling only and intended to stay on the machine. But they are just bolted onto the dipper arm and easy to take off if required.

He ordered a pair of C250 models – the smallest in the Woodcracker range, which can tackle softwoods up to a diameter of 300mm or hardwoods up to 280mm with its 450mm blade. This model is designed to go onto a base machine of around 7 to 15 tonnes, which got Nick thinking about what he should buy for his proposed thinning project.

He ended up going for Caterpillar 314 zero-swing machines to match the felling head’s capabilities. They’re considerably larger than the Bobcats Ken Holmes had used, but more suitable for the steeper

Above: It’s a tight row but still enough space for Cam Keates to manoeuvre the Cat to grab this tree.

Left: Crew foreman, Cam Keates, grabbed this tree and walked it out in the jaws of the Woodcracker.

Opposite page left: The benefits of having a larger base machine is being able to hang a tree out to the side without fear of tipping over.

Opposite page right: The Cat 315F has a handy 8-metre reach to grab trees over in the next row.

34 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

terrain where the first Tombleson crew was working in Northland.

Those two Cat/Woodcracker combos went to work in a newly-formed crew headed by Nick’s father, Leigh, in Northland two years ago. Leigh was the first driver of the unit, offering driver feedback and developing the process on managing blocks and felling using the new head – input Nick found invaluable.

“These machines will only be as successful as the operator, so it was great to have someone with Dad’s experience helping forge the way,” Nick says.

Forestry is in the blood for the Tomblesons.

His father, Leigh, has worked in the industry

for four decades. Nick started his career in forestry when he left school at 15, working with Holmes Logging and then Stanaways, as well as short stints elsewhere. In 2002, Nick took the plunge to go into business with his father, starting a fully mechanised clear-fell harvesting crew in Woodhill, Auckland.

Today, Tombleson Logging includes a clear fell crew in Auckland, Leigh’s thinning crew in Whangarei, and a road-lining crew, sub-contracting crew and thinning crew in Taupo, where Nick is now based with his wife Anna and two young sons, Lachlan and Riley.

Nick’s mechanised thinning operations

are winning fans around New Zealand.

Initially, sceptics didn’t think the excavators would be able to easily manoeuvre within the tight confines of a heavily stocked forest, removing unwanted trees whilst leaving the best ones undamaged.

But Hancock Forest Management backed the concept from the start, giving the fledgling Tombleson Logging thin-to-waste crew an opportunity to have a crack at some of its young forests near Auckland.

The machines worked well, so the crew continues to thin for the Hancock north operation today. Tombleson has also thinned forests for Hancock central and Rayonier.

(Continued on page 38)

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Breaking Felling Focus Out 2

(Continued from page 35) The concept also caught the attention of Timberlands, which has the largest single thinning requirement in New Zealand, needing 8,000 hectares thinned in Kaingaroa Forest every year.

The health and safety factor of not having workers on the ground saw Tombleson Logging win a contract to start thinning to waste for Timblerlands early last year. And that’s the operation NZ Logger is visiting today.

Like the northern thinning crew, the Tombleson Logging outfit in Kaingaroa runs with just two machines, but by the time this contract was signed, the Cat 314 had been phased out by Caterpillar, replaced by the Cat 315F. Instead of using Tier 3 engines, the Cat 315 machines have Tier 4 Final units, which require diesel exhaust fluid, such as AdBlue, to be added on a regular basis.

Nick accepts that the 315F is a little on the large size for the type of work it is undertaking, but there was no real other option: “The 315F is Caterpillar’s smallest machine that has the pump flow required for the head so that’s obviously what we went for.”

Working within the close confines of a tightly planted forest has other drawbacks, such as keeping the Cat engines sufficiently cool. Nick has found the Tier 4 Final

38 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

technology seems to create more heat than its Tier 3 predecessor, something he’s working with Goughs on.

Of the two new machines, one is running with the original Woodcracker C250 used by the northern crew, while the second has been fitted with the larger C350 model, brought in to deal with the bigger trees in Kaingaroa.

“In Whangarei, Hancock does its thinning at age 8 or 9 years, or 12 metres, which is their optimum tree height, whereas Timberlands is something like age 12,” says Nick. “At the moment Timberlands also have some production thinning blocks with trees aged about 16 or 17 – they want us to fell it because it’s more dangerous for their manual thinners to do that stuff, which is why we upsized the head to the C350 model.”

Nick believes they’re getting closer to getting the equipment right for the mechanical thin-to-waste operations.

He says: “The fixed head and knife gives you better direction – the boys might grab it on one side and then move it across to the other side while it’s still standing. The machine is big enough to be able to cut and then pick the tree up and go around in circles if you wanted to and then put it down. It gives us the ability to cut, place and pick.

“And the knife is low maintenance, with lower running costs. If they hit a rock or

something the operator might jump out with a file and sort it, but generally we don’t do anything to the knives – we might do one sharpen every three months. We’ve only changed one knife after a year-and-a-half.

It’s really simple, but quite sophisticated, too.”

He also likes the fact that the smaller of the two heads is very light, weighing in at just 900kg, including the accumulator arm – although they don’t use the arm now.

“We just stack to one side because the trees in here are bigger. We found we could get away without using it. We took it off one and everyone liked it so we took them off all of them,” says Nick.

“When you cut the tree it sits on top of the knife and when you cut the next one it keeps stacking up on the knife. And you’ll eventually run out of room on the knife.

It’s got a big ram behind it to provide the pressure, unlike some other heads with accumulators, they are accumulating for a drag, whereas we are doing it to get enough to put them down on the ground."

While the Woodcracker has been a success in his Northland and Taupo operations, Nick is still keen to refine and improve. He’s working with Dave Cox at Ensign in Rotorua to develop their own fixed head that will be a little bigger and stockier to withstand the extra challenges presented in Kaingaroa. It will feature shears, too, but no accumulator arms – “we’re just going to stack them with

Above left: Tombleson Logging has two of these Cat 315F machines fitted with Austrian-made Woodcracker heads working in Kaingaroa Forest.

Above right: Old stumps and lumpy conditions underfoot don’t bother a machine.

grapple that’s already there.”

As far as operating, Nick says the two crew members work in tandem and move through each block until completed.

“If it’s flat they’ll generally keep moving down in a straight line,” he says, “but more often than not, ground conditions in Kaingaroa are far from flat. It’s very lumpy in places, littered with numerous stumps from earlier rotations and is criss-crossed with gullies that can be several metres deep.

“The two operators sometimes see each other but in thicker places they may be out of sight. They’ve got two RTs – one on them

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and the other in the machine – so they can always be in contact. They might be working at different speeds, so one might get ahead of the other one and then they’ll cross over.

“We’ve got a stock standard 3-metre boom on these machines and one with a 2.7-metre boom. I factored in the 8-metre reach, because we need it for the row width – to be able to get two rows either side and access through the middle. I didn’t care how it was configured, as long as it was long enough.”

There are times when the operators still need to wield a chainsaw, for example in

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Felling Focus 2

Clockwise, from top left: Picking up a young tree and placing it on the other side of the machine is child’s play.

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40 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

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Breaking Felling Focus Out 2

areas where a machine can’t access, but Nick says it’s very rare. But one thing they don’t have to worry about is extracting the wood, because it’s all thin-to-waste.

“We’re just cutting it down and moving on,” says Nick.

“In here we’re only doing one tree at a time and putting it down, because the trees are too big to get any more in. In this block we’re doing pruned block regime, with a lower stocking, to create larger trees. This means we can only cut one at a time, but when we get into higher stocking regimes, we’ll cut multiple trees before putting them on the ground.”

Pulling up at a small clearing where crew foreman Cam Keates has parked his Cat, fitted with the Woodcracker C250 for us to inspect, it’s hard to believe that just two relatively small machines can be so productive, but Nick insists they “can get through the hectares – we’ll get through about 1,600 hectares for Timberlands in a year with these two machines”.

He’s quick to add that the crew working near Whangarei probably won’t cut quite as much because of the different silvi regime and the more difficult terrain. But they

42 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

won’t be far off that number he reckons, adding: “They’re a more experienced crew that does all the hill country, the more tough stuff.”

Cam has been doing this work just over a year, joined six months ago by teammate Ash Darroch who drives the Cat fitted with the larger Woodcracker C350. Cam put his hand up for the gig as soon as he knew these machines were being introduced into the central North Island. The former carpet layer has been with Tombleson Logging for 5 years and was working on a loader when Nick decided to hold trials for operators to go into the cab of the new Cat/Woodcracker combos.

“I definitely wanted to try it,” says Cam, who was chosen as the driver and pleasantly surprised to be chosen as foreman of the crew, too. He hasn’t looked back since.

The three of us conduct a walk-around tour of the Cat, with its zero-swing tail illustrating a clear advantage for working in such tight confines, only compromised by the fact that the small engine compartment doesn’t provide much opportunity for hot air to escape – no wonder they keep a close eye on operating temperatures.

Above: Nick Tombleson (left), who runs Tombleson Logging, and crew foreman Cam Keates with one of the two Cat 315F machines working in thinnings in Kaingarao Forest using Europeanmade fixed felling heads Oppisite page: Cam Keates plots his progress inside the young forest using a mapping system on his smart phone.

Both 315F machines were fitted with purpose-built cabs by EMS on arrival in New Zealand, a sensible piece of protection when there’s always the danger of limbs or even whole trees coming down on the roof. Marguard is used for the screens to improve the operator’s outside view, while still keeping him safe.

It’s a tidy machine, but our attention quickly moves to the Woodcracker C250 fitted to Cam’s Cat. It is surprisingly compact, but then it is only cutting down small trees. And I have to agree with Nick’s earlier assessment that it does look remarkably simple – a large blade operated

by a hefty ram on the bottom and two large grapple arms at the top, which are able to open as wide as 930mm (on the larger C350 they open wider, to 1,430mm).

Nick ticked the option box for the 360-degree rotation, which provides the head with a full vertical turn, but it remains fixed horizontally.

I ask Cam if that restricts the operation and he says: “No, it works very well. You have to go in and out and move the machine around, just like a bucket, if you want to move it horizontally.

“But I can pretty much get any tree from most positions. I guess it does limit how you fall, but I haven’t known anything else and I’m used to it and I always position myself right. If there was a tree behind another one that I wanted to grab I could still reach around and spin it, pull it back and then try and cut it.”

Not having any experience with any other felling head, Cam can’t really offer an opinion on how the blade differs from a chainsaw-equipped felling head, although Nick chips in he doesn’t find the shears slow at all, adding: “It’s a 3-second cut.”

Thinning to waste is a numbers game and time is marching on, so Cam climbs up into the cab to provide a demonstration of how well this combo works.

I’ve accompanied manual thinning crews in the forest many times in the past and am envious of Cam being in his comfy, air-conditioned cab while Nick and I struggle through the undergrowth and try not to tear clothes (or skin) on the blackberry.

Mechanisation is definitely the way to go.

Despite its size, Cam is able to weave the Cat through the canopy with remarkable ease and position himself to select unwanted trees, cut and lift them to exactly where he wants, instead of allowing them to fall any old fashion. It’s a tight fit in

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Felling Focus 2

Above left: The Woodcracker C250 fixed felling head with grapple and shears closed.

Above right: The grapple arms open out to almost a metre to make it easier to grab a bushy tree for that blade to cut.

Below: It may have zero tail-swing, but the Cat 315F is still quite large for first thinnings. some places, he knows the spacing formula that is required and can usually pick off trees with that 8-metre reach if there isn’t enough room to get in close.

The trees are laid down in a pattern to provide more space for a person to easily come in on foot afterwards to perform an audit compared to a haphazard manual job.

The machine works fast and, unlike a manual faller, doesn’t tire or have to stop to sharpen or change a saw blade or fill the tank as often.

When Cam completes his demonstration, I ask about the formula he works to.

“We make sure they are spaced well, we’ve got a set number at 5.1 metre a square as a spacing – so the amount of trees in a 16-metre circle we have to get is 31 trees,” he says.

“We try and do two rows either side, depending on the planting. Although in this block we can go down one row and get three rows each side just because of over stocking – there’s one wide row and three smaller ones.

“Every now and then we get out and measure to make sure we get it right, so we’ll have 368 per hectare.”

To make the task even easier, Cam has saved a map on the screen of his phone (Ash uses a tablet) that identifies where he has logged and he can mark trees that he hasn’t been able to get, so someone can return and drop them with a chainsaw.

“I don’t think I’ve logged any of those in this part of the forest, but Nick says in the next block there is stuff that’s going to need manual falling,” Cam adds.

44 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

I mention that he leaves the floor tidier than most manual operations I’ve seen and he says: “Once cut, we try to place each tree out sideways to the machine as it’s easier to continue and it looks a lot tidier. When we’re going in to make plots it makes it a lot easier when they are all facing the same way instead of being crossed up.”

Cam likes the Cat 315F and says it’s well balanced, adding: “Compared to the loader I used to be on it’s a lot more stable. And having the head fixed means we have a lot more control. Plus, you don’t have to be careful with the tree because it’s waste.”

In spite of being able to work closely with Ash in the other machine, Cam says it can feel quite isolated compared to working in a large crew, but he doesn’t have a problem with that. In fact, he likes it.

“I really enjoy it and can see myself doing this for a while,” he says.

That’s good feedback for Nick, who says word of these mechanised firstthin operations has spread among forest managers and he’s already fielding requests to work for them. Especially as he is able to operate his machines for similar rates paid to manual silviculture crews on thin-towaste jobs. And still be profitable.

Mechanised it may be, but Nick says you can’t underestimate the role the operators have to play for this type of work to be a success.

“We’re pretty confident in the equipment we’ve chosen and the process we’ve developed but the guys who are doing it every day are the ones who are really driving this innovation and improving it every day,” says Nick.

“We’re always responding to their feedback and trialling new things based on what they’re telling us.” NZL

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Junior Motautia at the controls of the breakdown saws that cut the first lengths from the lo

46 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

ngths from the logs.

Tenon looks to a clear future March 2019 | issue 38

Story & photos: John Ellegard

T

HE FUTURE FOR THE TENON operations at Taupo is looking much clearer these days.

But that wasn’t always the case.

The business has been on a rollercoaster ride over its 51 years of existence, with various ownership changes, including an uncomfortable period under the public glare when listed on the stock exchange, which also coincided with a torrid time during the Global Financial Collapse (GFC).

Now back in private ownership and away from the spotlight, Tenon is performing strongly, and quietly getting on with what it does best; producing some of the finest clearwood boards on the planet and selling them to a range of international and local buyers.

The company is very clear about the importance of its products, having

March 2019 | NZ LOGGER 47

registered itself as the Tenon Clearwood Limited Partnership, under the strong committed ownership of a group of US and New Zealand investors.

Being the largest producer of clearwood products in New Zealand, why wouldn’t you want to highlight your hero product in your company name?

And contrary to some opinions within the forestry industry, as a result of reduced intentions to prune trees by a few forest owners, the people at Tenon believe there is a very bright global future for clearwood products made in New Zealand and the company is putting its money where its mouth is with upgrades to production facilities to improve processes.

We’ll come back to that contentious pruning issue shortly, but first to the recent changes at the mill, which were still being bedded in when NZ Logger / NZ Timber called in last month. This involved the installation of an USNR full colour scanner at the trimmer over the Christmas and New Year period to enhance quality.

It’s one of a number of changes made at the Taupo plant in recent years to take advantage of new technology.

Originally set up as a sawmiller making industrial grades in the 1960s by Fletcher Timber, the business then converted to become a specialist manufacturer of mouldings and clear products under Fletcher Challenge, using the pruned supply coming out of Kaingaroa Forest, next door. This was targeted at the huge US new home market in the 1990s and became very successful.

But as the GFC decimated world economies in 2008, it caused new housing starts in the US to plummet from an annual rate of 2.2 million to just 500,000. At the same time, there was also a trend away from traditional mouldings in the market.

It hit Tenon hard and General Manager, Mark Taylor, says: “It really forced us to reconsider the wisdom about having such a big egg in a single market. We’d seen a lot of growth over a number of years, but then an unprecedented decline in a very short period of time.”

A full review of the business resulted in Tenon dropping production of mouldings to concentrate on producing clear boards from 2012 and going from a four-shift 24-7 operation down to three shifts, which helped the company return to the black.

That move was in recognition of a trend towards more varied use of timber around homes and in other applications. But it also underlined one of the key points

48 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

Top left: You won’t see much better defect-free clearwood coming out of a mill anywhere in the world than this.

Middle left: Dalvin Brunning watches over lengths moving down the new USNR trimmer optimisation line. Note the colour scanning screen behind him.

Bottom left: A forklift stacks freshly cut timber onto empty kiln trollies before heading into the drying kilns.

Right: Some of the nine drying kilns at Tenon, all heated by the neighbouring geothermal field.

of difference about New Zealand-grown pruned Radiata Pine. Compared to pine grown in other countries, New Zealand trees are bigger and produce wider and longer clearwood, which appeals to a number of international customers.

“The boards market has become much more important because it’s stable and strong in terms of demand, and ultimately, it meets the price point that enables the whole pruning equation to work,” says Mark.

De

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Tenon still sells a lot of its products into the US, where it now has many enduse applications including hobby boards, shelving and also in the manufacture of windows and doors. An interesting and ironical trend is a move to the use of cleaner

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March 2019 | NZ LOGGER 49

square-dressed wood for mouldings.

Tenon has also found demand for LOSP treated and primed wood in the US northeast for trim to replace extruded plastic as a result of its superior performance (treatment and priming is done off-site in Taupo under contract).

Furthermore, Tenon sought to differentiate its products from other wood suppliers by capitalising on its Lifespan Solid Select brand of exterior wood products, that had been launched in 2006 and it’s now become a point of difference for customers seeking quality solid lumber for key projects.

In a bid to continue its global expansion and spread its risks, Tenon has been targeting other markets, including Europe, where it is making inroads against very tough odds, including Finland, possibly the furthest market from New Zealand and one that also has its own significant wood resources.

This is based upon targeting the increasingly important modified wood market, where Tenon sees New Zealand Radiata Pine having a clear advantage over many other species. And it’s this

Above: Mark Taylor, General Manager at Tenon, with the Lifespan Solid Select-branded products that differentiate them from other Radiata timber in key international markets.

Below: Boards ready for final defecting pass through the System TM/Microtec scanning/defecting and automatic stacking line.

Opposite paget: Inflatable bags are positioned inside containers to prevent damage to timber stacks during transit.

50 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

emerging wood modification technology that is likely to become the basis for the future success of clear Radiata products in the future.

Tenon’s Technical Development Manager, Wayne Miller, says: “It was really when wood modification started to take off, and the recognition that Radiata Pine had a number of unique properties that made it very favourable for modification, that we started to get traction in Europe.”

He says Radiata accepts modification – both thermally and chemically – more easily than many other types of wood and the resulting appearance and performance are excellent.

This has led to an increasing supply of clears from the Taupo mill to key wood modification businesses in Europe, where it is sold as a replacement for hardwood species in various exterior and also interior uses.

The Tenon team sees wood modification growing exponentially in the coming years, not just in Europe. It's already seeing growth in sales of modified products across the Pacific rim including Australia and the West Coast of the US.

That belief is built upon dwindling availability of sustainable hardwood supplies in the future and the need to find a suitable substitute – and modified wood is ideal in that role.

The elephant in the room, however, is being able to source sufficient supplies of pruned Radiata to meet that future demand.

This has been undermined to some extent recently by Timberland’s decision not to prune its trees anymore, in addition to some other forest owners.

Kaingaroa is a major source of pruned logs for Tenon and that’s caused the company to look further afield to secure ongoing supply when its neighbour runs out within the next 15-20 years.

“We have a plan that we are very comfortable with as to how we will manage this moving forward, even though it’s a long way out. There are a number of options available to us,” explains Mark.

“For those forest owners who are interested in providing long-term employment – not just cutting the tree down, but through several phases from planting, pruning and ultimately logging, as well as the potential employment opportunities from local wood processing jobs – the reality and advantages of

52 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

having a mix of different regimes in their forest makes good sense to them. We’ve been talking to our current suppliers and potential suppliers, sharing our story, helping them to understand there is this emerging market in Europe, that there is continued demand out of the US and that there are customers around the world that truly value wide, long length Radiata clears and are prepared to pay for it.

“This is helping them make decisions on how to run their forests in the knowledge of not just hearing what one or two others are doing in not pruning, but by actually seeing what the end-market opportunity is, and hence the value that can be created for the forest owner from a pruning regime.

The feedback to date has been very encouraging.

“We know what’s in front of us harvestwise. We know how that is likely to be split

by region and we know what we need to do to continue to operate like we do.

“For example, one action we have taken is to expand our supply base options, and in this regard we have been pleasantly surprised by the number of southern contractors who actually welcomed the opportunity to supply a large-scale operation like ours and we’ve always said we are open for business 24-7. If someone has got 30 loads they want to sell us we can buy it and that will be gone in a shift. If someone’s got 5 loads we can buy that as well. So, for some of the southern forests that we’re buying from now they’ve really welcomed the ability to supply Tenon.

“That has allowed us to form some better relationships and while some of it is about price, it’s also about other things. Getting wood to the port is not as easy as it sounds – there are some constraints in getting the

Below: Minimal shrink-wrapping is used on product bundles heading off to market.

Opposite page: The log yard at Tenon marks the end of the off-highway road out of Kaingoroa Forest.

product through the wharf. Being able to demonstrate to their customers that they have an extended supply base and one that they can rely on is helpful.”

The Tenon team also believes that the current no-prune sentiment among some forest owners may change in the future.

“It may stack up for them in the current environment, but we all know that forest ownership is a long-term game and circumstances can change dramatically and quickly, significantly altering the economics of decisions made today. You need to look out 30 years and ask if the same situation that we’ve got today is likely to be around in 30 years. I think you are drawing a really long bow if you expect that to be the case,” says Wayne.

“Will growing low grade logs/lumber and sending them anywhere, not just China, be acceptable? I think it’s high risk. Unfortunately, some people look at Kaingaroa and simply say if they are not pruning why should we. Some of the particulars of Kaingaroa are that they are very efficient essentially from the stump to the boat – sorting pruned logs and putting

them on a logging truck and sending them to the likes of us is a much higher cost operation. We understand that. But other companies that don’t have that same sort of infrastructure have got a completely different set of economics.

“We hear that pruned logs need to be at a certain price relative to A-grade export to make it worthwhile and until they get that price they are not going to prune and currently we’re not there but it’s getting close. From our perspective, we look at that A-grade price into China and we believe it is artificially higher than it should be for the quality of the wood and the uses it goes to. That’s due to a whole number of factors but largely it’s down to subsidies from the Chinese government to support their own manufacturing. It’s artificial and our argument is that it isn’t sustainable. It will change and it’s just a matter of time.

“If you look at what clearwood offers, particularly in the modification area, I can only see that growing. The world has less tropical hardwoods and if you look at what’s available in durable, sustainable hardwoods the world is rapidly running

out of it. They are really dwindling. And what have you got left – you’ve really got modified wood. Some of that will be other species but we know that Radiata, if it is available, will be the species of choice.”

The Tenon team aren’t sitting on their hands waiting for that day. They’ve been upgrading the plant at Taupo to make sure it becomes more efficient and produces even better quality clears, regardless of the timing of future developments.

The sawmill, in particular, needed more investment. A new optimising board edger was installed and commissioned in Sept 2015, followed by a SystemTM and Microtec scanner, cross-cutting and stacking line in the secondary processing area. The USNR equipment now being bedded in was another logical step.

There’s more planned for the future.

“The ownership group is committed to seeing our operations expand and grow – investing in processing technology is a critical part of this mandate” says Wayne.

A quick tour of the plant begins with the break-down saw that has been working for half a century, now electronically controlled

March 2019 | NZ LOGGER 53

with full shape scanning by operator, Junior Motautia in an air-conditioned cab to one side. Junior has been with Tenon (and its predecessors) for 30 years and doing this particular job for 19 years. His skill and experience, aided by sophisticated technology, ensures much of the log’s value is captured at the start of the process.

That value is further enhanced at each of the following phases, through to where the timber is assessed by the new USNR scanner on the trimming line resulting in a myriad of options, from 45mm to 290mm widths and long lengths of up to 5.4 metres.

The progress made by Tenon over the years is illustrated in an eerily quiet building towards the end of the production line. This is where timber that doesn’t quite make the grade is reworked into products.

The reason it’s quiet today is because there is much less work thanks to better quality decisions being made through the introduction of scanning technology in the upstream operations – it’s currently working just four days a week.

“It will come down further as we make additional investments in optimisation and materials handling,” says Mark.

Workers in here are redeployed in other parts of the plant when this area isn't operating. Currently, Tenon has 265 staff, plus some contract workers who operate loaders and forklifts.

One surprising sight is the line of nine static drying kilns, rather than the latest continuous kilns that are currently in vogue.

“Drying is all batch operations and for us, batch works pretty well – they are big kilns,” explains Wayne.

“We’ve looked at continuous kilns and for us it doesn’t logistically fit well with our existing structures and product flows.”

All the kilns are fed from the geothermal field right next to the Taupo plant, which Mark describes as a fantastic resource.

“It’s enabled us to unlock the true potential of the kilns – the ability to dry like we do today has only been possible through the geothermal and that’s not because we are drying faster or more aggressively, in fact we’ve gone the opposite,” he says.

“What the geothermal allowed us to do was operate all nine of them as though there was only one. We can start several kilns at the same time whereas before we were always trying to stagger or stage start-ups. We have actually become less and less aggressive or kinder to the wood in the drying process versus how we may have dried 15 years ago.

“One of the challenges with Radiata is effectively being able to dry the thicker sizes and we’ve had some really good success. Feedback from customers who are very focused on wood quality say the measures made in drying the thicker sizes have been really positive.”

Tenon also goes to great lengths to ensure its overseas customers receive their timber in exactly the same condition it left the factory. Timber is packed carefully into containers and large inflatable air bags are pumped up between the vertical stacks so they don’t shift in transit, thus avoiding damage. More than 200 containers leave the site every month.

And with the environment and wastage in mind, plastic wrapping has been reduced to a bare minimum, which has

Above: An truck arrives from Kaingaroa Forest with another load of pruned logs for the Tenon mill in Taupo.

Photo: Tenon. also pleased customers.

The tour stops – somewhat fittingly – where the off-road highway road from Kaingaroa Forest also ends, at the log yard.

Here, single loads of up to 100 tonnes arrive on a regular basis out of the forest, but the future will see a greater mix of on-highway trucks arriving from other areas.

Just one more change in a string of changes at the Taupo mill over the past 51 years. What is very clear is that there’ll be more changes ahead. NZL

54 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

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top spot Safety/performance/quality

Lifting your Top Spot performance WE’RE IN THAT ‘IN-BETWEEN’ PERIOD THIS month, where we are letting crews settle back into the new year prior to commencing Top Spot 2019 assessments.

In spite of that, the challenge has been laid down by the performances of 2018 and crews are already looking to improve on last year. For some, that means lifting overall achievement, while for others it’s a matter of tweaking their results to reach the pinnacle of competition.

Our team has been fortunate in being able to attend some company safe starts and presentations. It is always a good reminder of the skills, professionalism and humour of many folk in our industry, but it also reminds us of the challenges we face in trying to improve things for our people, both professionally and financially.

We look forward to seeing what individuals and crews will bring in 2019 and how the year shapes up.

In the meantime, we continue to celebrate the top achievers from 2018 on these pages, from both the fourth period and full year.

their ongoing support and feedback.

Our ongoing thanks to Rayonier/ Matariki Forests, Wenita Forest Products, Port Blakely, Crown Forestry, Brand Logging, CMH Logging, Hauraki and Moehau Logging, Thomassen Logging, Te Waa Logging, Lakeland Cable Logging, Logged on Logging, Pakiri Logging, IntaWood Forestry, Otautau Contractors, Heslip Forest Contracting, Waikato Forestry Services, Hodgson Silviculture, Makerikeri Silviculture, NJ Simns Forestry Services, SAS Forestry, XMen Forestry, Central Forestry Services, Mangoihe Logging, Kohurau Contracting, Tohaia Forestry

Harvesting, Kuru Contracting, Dennis E Hayes Logging, Swain Logging, Lumberjack Logging, Ernslaw One. Blue Wood Logging, Mike Hurring Logging, McCallum Logging, Whisker Logging, Kaha Logging, Lahar Logging, Dempsey Logging, Moutere Logging, JBD Harvesting, McDougall Logging, Forest View Logging, Kimberley Logging, Dewes Logging, X Men Harvesting, Pakiri Logging, Storm Logging, Lumberjack Logging, Eastside Logging, Veal Forestry, McHoull Forestry, Pride Forestry, Halley Forestry, Penetito Forestry, FM Silviculture, Forest View Forestry, Wayne Cummings, Rodco Forestry, Johnson Forestry, Pro Forest Services, Eastside Logging and Norwest Logging.

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So a big ongoing thank you to our Strategic Partners – STIHL and NZ Logger and sponsor SWAZI. The best way to keep our industry working is to get out and support those businesses that support New Zealand.

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Adam Diamond, of Hauraki Logging 91, was first in Yarder in the full year results.

Charlie Balle, of Hauraki Logging 91, was first in QC / Skid Work in the full year results.

top spot Safety/performance/quality

Dusty Wallace, of Dennis E Hayes Logging, was first in Mechanised Felling in the full year results.

Mark Hayes, of Dennis E Hayes Logging, was second-equal in Mechanised Processing in the full year results.

Receiving his certificate from Ernslaw One’s Russell Kerr, right, is Dean Beauchamp, of Mike Hurring Logging, who was second in Forwarder in the fourth period results.

Marty Blythe, of Mike Hurring Thinning, was first in Forwarder in the fourth period results.

Reef Aston, of Mike Hurring Private, left, who was fourth in Breaking Out Cable in the full year results, receives his certificate from Ernslaw One’s Russell Kerr, centre, and Phil De La Mare.

March 2019 | NZ LOGGER 57

www.fica.org.nz

Prue Younger, CEO Message It’s important for us all to understand the priority of a tailgate meeting which is a vital part of keeping crews safe for the day’s work. It informs them of the day’s safety issues and reinforces safety messages. n short an e ective tai gate meeting can be the di erence between a prod ctive and e ective crew and an uncontrolled operation that could face high costs and unexpected incidents. Ultimately, a tai gate meeting co d mean the di erence between ife and death afetree have wor ed hard to give you resources to help aid the delivery of tailgates, including a template for running a tailgate meeting and ai gate opic ards that cover more than common forestry ris s iona wing irector for confirms ai gate meetings are a great way to he p set crews p for a good day and the afetree tai gate template suggests a new approach to tailgate meetings. In addition to planning for the day ahead, it enco rages peop e to earn from yesterday to ta abo t what went we and capt re that for the f t re or anything that made the wor more diffic t and come p with ideas for avoiding those iss es today t a so enco rages peop e to p an for tomorrow to ta abo t what s needed to ma e s re the wor goes smooth y onversations amongst the who e crew abo t the wor of the day is what ma es a s ccessf day eaching o t to contractors across the co ntry we hear how they manage their tai gates and o er s ggestions for yo to se

Regional Voice Andy Gale – Gale Contracting Ltd., Blenheim

r crews find the tai gate an essentia part of having a successful day. It’s the crew s opportunity to have a quick look bac at yesterday and disc ss the good the bad and the g y This way they learn from things that went well, instead of just focusing on near misses and incidents. The crew also use the tailgate as an opportunity to weigh up each other’s mood, menta state and fitness to wor there s nowhere to hide in a ft container hen the foreman o t ines the p an for the day the crew wi be as ed what they see as the re evant ris s and controls for their part of the operation and how that impacts on others. This way we get good engagement from everyone. The crew will also discuss rotating tasks during the day to he p beat the fatig e of repetitive tas s he tai gate is a so the opport nity to disc ss anything the crew need to be successful. Without a good, proactive tailgate meeting the crew s chances of s ccess wo d be ne t to ero and the ris of someone getting h rt wo d be greater

Michael Alexander – Fast Harvesting, Tokoroa

All the crews at Fast Harvesting know tailgates are the most important part of the day. It works to reinforce at the start of the day in a team environment, that everyone knows what they are doing. I always make the comparison to a sport team and the example that a change in the game plan can see the team fall to pieces. We see tailgates as setting the plan and it’s the g e in the daytoday of the r nning of the b siness he combination of the crew c t re the perception of ris and the confidence to speak up takes time to get to grips with and with my foremen, I have put them on courses that support the learning. hey nderstand it ta es debate interaction and commitment to get ever yone in a simi ar direction b t it s important to have all crews go through the same training. The more proactive forest owners are also pushing for a greater focus on tailgates now which is great to see r crews have deve oped a ha ard ris matri based on temp ates avai ab e and it means more to them as they created it and makes it easier for them to use and gets reviewed reg ar y hanges wi be ac now edged at a safety meeting and as we know, health & safety is a moving target. They all know that they can input into the matrix, we ask for feedbac and when it is ed then we imp ement it is a prompts are a over the sta room containers which get changed out most days too. Talking is not innate to everyone

so that ta es time for peop e to fee comfortab e and confident that when they bring something p they wi be istened to hey wi be as ed what they can do what wor ed and re eva ate says in ast arvesting coordinator e are constantly reviewing the way tailgates are going as tai gates are not st abo t the operation of the e ipment they inc de the socia and persona attrib tes of o r crews and it’s got to get to a point where it is just part of the day and b siness as s a to be rea y e ective

Mark McCarthy – Mangoihe Logging, Wanganui

e find to r n a s ccessf tai gate meeting dai y there needs to be a we set e pectation of each team member n short a peop e concerned need to be invo ved with as m ch concentration as yo wo d app y to ens ring the road is c ear at a b sy intersection and yo r persona safety and we being depends upon your choice of when to commit to the intersection.

Punctuality, dedicated attendance and active interaction for each crew member is important as is paying attention even if yo are the a er perator and not rea y concerned abo t the Loader operator or the cross cutter requirements.

The crew is a team and re ired to be respectf of one another after all the interaction of the operation is such that we as peop e are the softest thing in the b sh and m st oo o t for one another. good meeting re ies on the oreman being organised and di igent in his approach with time to prepare prior genera y the day before with the act a meeting a ba ance of confirming who is at wor fit for tas and competent for tas his or her on y foc s to comp ete the start to the meeting boots sho d be on and aced oots on witched on ach erson m st have the opportunity to have input so we often swap the leader role to give confidence to o r peop e who i e to y nder the radar n the odd occasion we have in the past he d the crew bac after if it is considered iberties have been ta en on time procrastinating in the mornings b t oots on witche d on with p nct a ity is espect hat espect has to go both ways and is earned by being professiona and e pecting no ess n other words if you are merely running a tailgate meeting to satisfy or afe or the orest ompany then give p now as that is on y a stic er on a b siness card as opposed to having a c t re of doing the ob right with peop e who care to do the ob right working together.

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FOURTH DOOSAN FOR CROP

HODGSON CAT & SATCO

Doosan number four has arrived at Cropp Logging in Rotorua, in the shape of a DX300 model. Equipped with a SouthStar QS600 processing head, it sports the first purpose-built cab to be manufactured by Priceright Parts for approximately 15 years and the combo makes for a perfectly balanced unit. Sold by Priceright Parts & Machinery, Rotorua.

Hodgson Logging has taken delivery of a new Cat 336FL excavator with a full forestry package and SATCO processing head. The machine was delivered south of Bruce and Scott’s home town of Benneydale in the King Country. The new Cat is shown here felling and Scott says he is very impressed with how it can get around the slopes. The machine was proudly sold and delivered by James West, Major Account Manager from Gough Cat.

TIGERCAT & SATCO FOR CENTRAL

HITACHI FOR CHARLES

Mike Pook, of Central Logging in Hunterville, has taken delivery of a new SAT3L3SC and Tigercat 855E. Mike runs a small forestry operation in the lower North Island and his new Tigercat/SATCO are busy felling and processing.

The Charles Logging boys pose alongside their new Hitachi ZX 290L-5 log loader on delivery day. This Hitachi is now performing fleeting, shovelling and loading duties in Broadwood. The support offered from CablePrice out of the Kerikeri Branch, as well as the performance from their Hitachi machine, were key decisions in the purchasing of new plant.

60 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

new iron

VOLVO FOR VANNER

ERNI’S CAT

Brett and Heather Vanner have put a new Volvo L120H into their 035 crew in Kaingaroa Forest, loading on and off highway trucks from their central North Island operation. The new L120H comes complete with CDC steering and is factory fitted with a third valve, logging counterweight and rear radiator guard. A set of Ensign 1.7m high lift log forks completes the L120H. The new loader was sold by Ewen Satherley, of TransDiesel.

This purpose-built Cat 548GF Forest Machine is a new addition for Dick Erni, of Erni Logging, which has been put into his Whanganuibased crew operation. The great reach, stability, smoothness and visibility of this big Cat, coupled with an Ensign 1730 grapple, sees it powering through the work. The machine was sold by Ryan James, Territory Sales Manager for Gough Cat.

HYUNDAI & SOUTHSTAR FOR WOOD A recent delivery for Wood Machine Hire is this new Hyundai R320LC-9H/C with a SouthStar QS630, which is working at Maraetai, Auckland. Brent and John are impressed with the combination of the R320LC-9H/C and the SouthStar head, which was installed by Total Hydraulics, Rotorua. The operator is equally impressed with the ease of use and production. Featuring a PFS purpose-built cab and guarding, the machine is seen here processing wood on delivery. Porter Equipment North Auckland and Northland Territory Manager, Paul Gorrie, made the sale.

JOHN DEERE FOR GAMBLE Gamble Forest Harvesting has taken delivery of a new John Deere 2156G rear entry cab-swing machine to replace an older 2154D model. One of the most notable features of the new model is how much quieter it is in the cab, says Craig Gamble, seen here getting ready to load out more logs from Mt Allen, near Dunedin.

March 2019 | NZ LOGGER 61

new iron

WAIMA CAT & WOODSMAN PRO

HANSEN KOMATSU

Waima Logging recently received its first Woodsman Pro processor, an 850 head working on a Cat 336FL and installed with the new Loggic control system. The full forestry conversion was completed

by Ensign. The sale was made by Heath Steward, from Gough Cat.

Philip and Lynne Hansen, of Matakana-based EF Hansen, have taken delivery of a new Komatsu PC 220LC-8 for their harvesting operation in Puhoi Forest, working for Darrin Collett from Woodbank Ltd. The PC 220LC-8 has a full EMS heavy-duty forestry guarding package and is fitted with a live heel and an Ensign 1520 IH log grapple. Pictured, from left, are Ricky Britton, Shane Cobb, Simon Fenwick (foreman), Paul Osbourne, Antz Sowry (operator), Philip Hansen and John Kosar (Komatsu Forest NZ). Photo: Herb Janssen.

SECOND SUMI FOR R&R

CASTLEROCK HITACHI

Brian and Sonya, of R&R Logging, have taken delivery of their second Sumitomo SH300-5TLFS excavator to fulfil front-line loadout duties in their hauler crew working in the hills north of Whangarei, with their existing SH300-5TLFS now charged with clearing the chute and fleeting. The SH300-5TLFS offers excellent reach, lift, slew power and visibility, making the negotiating of the stereotypical hauler skid seamless. The operator of the original Sumi, Darry Topia, was happily on hand to take the controls of the new addition and is looking forward to running up as many hours as he did on the old girl. Jase and the team at Donaldson Mechanical did another excellent plumb up.

Castlerock Contracting has taken delivery of a new Hitachi ZX 250L5G forestry machine for root raking and forestry roading in and around the Southland area. It features a factory high and wide with high lift, plus some other items fitted by the CablePrice engineering department in Christchurch which included, purpose-built split full-length track guards, external ROPS cab frame with driver side OPS door and corner guard. A quick-hitch is fitted for quick change between the root rake, grapple and various buckets needed in this line of work, with hydraulic plumbing and fit-up handled by Jescos Invercargill. Mark, from Castlerock, is extremely happy with the power and comfort of his new ZX 250L.

62 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

new iron

HOLDEN CATS & SATCO Lawrence Holden, from Holden Earthmoving, has taken delivery of two new purpose-built Cat Forest Machines – a Cat 538 and a Cat 558 Processor. After years of forestry roading Lawrence has set up a forestry crew and is looking forward to the new venture. Both machines have been well received and are now hard at work. The 558 is fitted with a new SATCO 3L2T for felling and processing, with the Cat machine and head proving to be a well-matched combo and impressing operator, Luke. James West from Gough Cat made the sale.

WPI VOLVO

JOHN DEERE & WOODSMAN PRO FOR HORNE

Winstone Pulp International has taken on a new Volvo L90F wheel loader to perform various tasks around the Karioi pulp mill.

The new L90F is set up with an Ensign quick hitch to enable the loader to pick up all WPI’s existing attachments used at the site.

The superior features and comfort found with the Volvo loaders were well received by the WPI team. The sale was made by Ewen Satherley, of TransDiesel.

Matt, from Horne Harvesting, stands proudly alongside his new John Deere 959MH Harvester, fitted with a Woodsman Pro 750.

Contracting to Horne Logging – his parents' company – this is not only Matt’s first machine, but the first John Deere machine for the Horne family. The Woodsman 750 Pro is fitted with the new Loggic system and Matt is loving the speed and power of this combination.

Sale was made by Cameron Wait, Cable Price.

March 2019 | NZ LOGGER 63

new iron

VERSATILE SUMI FOR STOKES MADILL & WOODSMAN PRO FOR HAWKES Shawn and Rachel Hawkes, of Hawkes Harvesting, have taken delivery of a new Madill T2250C leveller, fitted with a Woodsman Pro 750 harvester/processor installed and commissioned by Ensign, Rotorua. This machine is being used both in the cut-over and on the skid processing, currently in the Taranaki area. Operator, Paul was keen to get the machine working and processed a pile of wood on day one and is very impressed with the performance. Porter Equipment North Auckland and Northland Territory Manager, Paul Gorrie, made the sale.

Steven Stokes, of Stokes Logging, recently took delivery of a new Sumitomo SH240-5TL fitted with a Dusxon GX171 grapple, a Wedgelock HD manual coupler and Wedgelock tilt bucket for one of his ground-based crews working in Northland. Steven was looking for versatility with this machine to fulfil a wider range of duties, such as roading, water control, tracking, digging deadman etc and the Sumi ticked all the boxes. Operator, Neville John Connelly, is impressed with the smoothness and power of the Sumi and was stoked that it only took 10 minutes to swap the grapple over to the bucket configuration when some tracking was required. Jase and the team at Donaldson Mechanical did yet another quality installation.

WILD HOG HITACHI & WOODSMAN PRO HODGSON SATCO Bruce and Scott Hodgson have taken delivery of their new SATCO 3L2 fall and trim head for their ground base operation in the Benneydale area of the King Country, which joins their existing SAT325T used in processing. Scott has been putting the new head through its paces on their CAT 336FL. The installation was carried out at the SATCO factory in Tokoroa.

64 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

Josh and Viki Williams, of Wild Hog Logging, recently took delivery of a new Hitachi log processor set-up. The new ZX 400L-5 fits in well with the company’s well looked-after modern fleet of logging equipment on the East Coast. The machine is fitted with the crew’s first Woodsman Pro 850 and Josh and Hamish say it makes a great combination and they’re impressed with the extra power for the big head, which is installed with the Loggic system and runs with new belly wear plates and replaceable knife inserts. The Wild Hog crew is pictured, from left, Jury, Ritchie, Paul (CablePrice), Josh, Hamish and Willow. Sold and supported by CablePrice, Gisborne.

new iron

KOMATSU FOR ST Scott and Kate Torrie, of Gisborne-based ST Logging, have taken delivery of a new Komatsu PC 270LC-8, fitted with a Damon Collins Engineering heavy-duty forestry guarding package including an Ensign 1730IH log grapple. Willie Saddiel, operator, is very impressed with the PC 270LC-8 describing it as having “heaps of power in the tracks, lift and slew”. Pictured, from left, are Ian White (Crediflex NZ), Willie Saddiel, Scott Torrie and John Kosar (Komatsu Forest NZ). Photo: Steve Palmer (Komatsu Forest NZ).

ACME FOR GIBBS Holden, Maddy and the Team at Gibbs Logging recently went out on their own and have taken delivery from Shaw’s Wire Ropes of a new Acme S228 carriage to go onto their tower working on the East Coast.

NZ LOGGER classified

NOW AVAILABLE FOR HIRE

visit us on

LG26859

www.facebook.com/RWFSfieldservice

Ph: 07 348 0501 Email: Info@rwfs.co.nz Mob: 027 817 9448 Workshop 41 Riri Street, Rotorua March 2019 | NZ LOGGER 65

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S 0

NZ LOGGER classified

0

CONTRACTORS PLANT NZ LTD 59 Broadlands Rd - Taupo

0

)

EQUIPMENT SALES

REVISED PRICE

BROKERS

HIRE

NEW STOCK

S

0

0

Cat 527 Track Skidder: NZ new, genuine 4,000 hours, full forestry guarding, Cat winch and fairlead. Later ball trunnion PAT blade. $315,000 plus GST

00

John Deere 548GIII Grapple Skidder: 5,700 hrs. NZ new, genuine low hour machine presented in excellent condition. Popular John Deere 648GIII Grapple Skidder: size for woodlot harvesting.

Tidy machine with good mechanical history. $155,000 plus GST ROTORUA PALMERSTON NORTH

E: philt@heavymachineryservices.co.nz

Cat 330DL Harvestline: 3 drum machine complete with drop-line carriage, grapple, radios, blocks. Approx: only 3,000 hrs on H/ Line conversion. Ready for work. $P.O.A $POA CONTACT: PHIL TODD

M: 027 595 0019

P: (07) 345 4343

S

z

LG29234

Cat 320CFM Log Loader: FM machine with purpose built Kawasaki 65ZIV: Cat 324DL Log Loader: cab, high wide, Ensign grapple.

Tidy machine, square back Ensign log forks.

Always popular and this unit is tidy. Very good $55,000 plus GST undercarriage, Ensign grapple. $45,000 plus GST $125,000 plus GST

Komatsu PC220LC-8 Log Loader: 11,000 hrs, full guarding Daewoo 290LL Log Loader: Komatsu PC400LC-8 / Woodsman PRO800: package, Ensign grapple, good undercarriage.

Logger boom, heel, grapple, high-wide.

Full cut-over guarding, Purpose built cab, bonnet, Logger $135,000 plus GST $65,000 plus GST boom, tractor grousers. 10,000 hrs. $385,000 plus GST

Trades Considered – Finance Available (normal lending criteria applies)

Contact: Peter Wilson Mobile: 0274 948 742 or 07 378 6844 Email: cplnz@xtra.co.nz Contact: Phil Todd Mobile: 0275 950 019 or 07 345 4343 Email: philt@heavymachineryservices.co.nz March 2019 | NZ LOGGER 67

NZ LOGGER classified

For Sale

2008 WOODSMAN PRO® 800

harvesting head

www.chains.co.nz ENGINEERED WITH EXPERIENCE...

30.5x32 $10150.00 + GST per pair 35.5x32 $13495.00 + GST per pair Both with 2 tightening tools per pair

Trygg Ring Lug Chains with tension chain

23.1x26 30.5x32 35.5x32 Chain Protection Services

• • • • LG29024

Chain Protection have been Clark Tracks NZ agent for 20 + Years.

Chain Protection Services Ph: 03 338 1552 • E: chainpro@xtra. co.nz • www.chains.co.nz

Fully refurbished after 15,000 hours Includes new control valve, hose kit, wiring loom, saw motors and feed wheel motors Ideally suited for 30-45 tonne excavator with diameters up to 800mm Continuous 360 degree rotation Includes our new LOGGIC® control system software Superior back-up service and field support

$175,000 + gst

LG28480

• •

Contact Adam if you are interested P: 07 3481286 or 027 475 0558 E: adam@ensign.co.nz W: www.woodsmanpro.co.nz

STRONG & RELIABLE GRAPPLES STRONG && RELIABLE RELIABLE GRAPPLES GRAPPLES STRONG Made in NZ

• M SERIES 852 AND 864 – STRONG & RELIABLE GRAPPLES

Grapplesand andall allspares sparesinin Grapples stockwith withovernight overnightdelivery delivery stock

• GRAPPLES AND ALL SPARES IN STOCK WITH OVERNIGHT DELIVERY

LG27145

•SERIES PROVEN AFTER 852 and864 864 MMSERIES 852 and SALES SERVICE STRONG&&RELIABLE RELIABLE STRONG GRAPPLES GRAPPLES

68 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

ProvenAfter AfterSales Sales Proven Service Service ContactMarty MartyororBruce Bruce Contact Ph027 027324 3249091 9091 Ph 79Chambers ChambersStreet, Street,Tokoroa Tokoroa 79 enquiries@cdlloggrapples.co.nz enquiries@cdlloggrapples.co.nz

A DIVISION OF

ice d pr duce re

CATERPILLAR 336DL

CATERPILLAR 336DL

2013. Very tidy CAT 336 fitted with Waratah 625. Undercarriage rated at 70% left. Most of its life has been on a skid. Approx.

8,000 hrs.

00 Rotorua #E0119001

2013. Tidy low hour unit with Waratah 625C. 8,060 hrs.

$337,000.00

Whangarei #E1018107

$334,000.00

$495,000.

WAS

NOW

Whangarei #E1018108

KOMATSU GD655-3

WAS

$310,000.

00

NOW

$307,500.00

$210,000.00

Taupo #E0518052

2008. 14ft moldboard, rippers, space wheel & carrier. Groeneveld greasing system, Trimble machine control & new cutting edge. 6,476 hrs.

Invercargill #E1018105

ice d pr duce re

Tidy grader ready for work. 4,055 hrs.

2012. Popular John Deere Grapple Skidder on 35.5 tyres, includes 6,000 series winch. 9,800 hrs.

ice d pr duce re

ice d pr duce re

JOHN DEERE 770GP

JOHN DEERE 848H

JOHN DEERE 624K

WAS

$182,000.

00

NOW

$180,000.00

WAS

2010. Trinder Log Forks, Groeneveld auto lube, rear radiator guard, full mud guards, one owner driver from new. 16,342 hrs.

Nelson #E0718076

$79,500.00 NOW

$76,500.00

TIGERCAT 630C

2008. Well set up, very tidy Log Processor, Satco 424 processing head with measuring system. Approx.14,500 hrs.

2008. Tidy low hour skidder with winch. Near new front tyres and good rear tyres. 6,160 hrs.

Gisborne #E0918101

$250,000.00

Whangarei #E1018102

$170,000.

00

NOW

$165,000.00

$250,000.

00

NOW

$225,000.

00

$180,000.00 NOW

$175,000.00

Whangarei #E0818088

2014. Excellent example of a late model 630D Tigercat Skidder. Winch & grapple. 4,500 hrs.

Hamilton #E0917063

Branch Network Whangarei 43 South End Avenue, Port Whangarei (09) 470 0433

Auckland 1102 Great South Road, Panmure (09) 270 1360

North Shore 39 Anvil Road, Silverdale (09) 426 1280

Hamilton 29 Norman Haywood Pl (07) 850 8429

ice d pr duce re

Hastings #E1217095

TIGERCAT 630D

WAS

WAS

2007. Direct drive skidder in good mechanical condition. 6000 series winch. 7,849 hrs.

ice d pr duce re

Log Processor with Waratah HTH626 Big Wood head. Devine engineering ROPS, FOPS, OPS and forestry guarding. Approx. 11,000 hrs.

JOHN DEERE 748H

WAS

ice d pr duce re

VOLVO EC360CL

ice d pr duce re

ice d pr duce re

SUMITOMO SH350LHD-3B

JOHN DEERE 1910E

WAS

$385,000.

00

NOW

$300,000.

00

WAS

2016. Tidy low hour 1910E Forwarder, Powertrain warranty to Jan 2019. 4,100 hrs.

Hastings #E1118115

$450,000.00 NOW

$430,000.00

Rotorua 117-131 Tallyho Street (07) 349 0610

Palmerston North 20-28 El Prado Drive (06) 356 1880

Greymouth 65 Preston Road, Blaketown (03) 769 9005

Gisborne 15 Solander Street, Awapuni (06) 867 0928

Wellington 41-51 Bell Road South, Gracefield (04) 568 4289

Christchurch 29 Waterloo Road, Hornby (03) 349 0610

Hastings 1400 Omahu Road (06) 879 8170

Nelson 5 Kotua Place, Richmond (03) 541 0200

Invercargill 203 Clyde Street (03) 211 0256

t

CHECK OUT OUR NEW WEB SITE

www.blackduck.co.nz

SEAT COVERS

Main Logging ltd.

Forestry Equipment • Trucks • Utes – Vans – Commercials Construction Machinery • Agriculture Machinery • Quad Bikes

currently has a variety of Madill and cypress grapple yarders for sale in BC.

• Genuine high quality 12oz canvas • Manufacturing for over 25 years

SEAT COVERS • Water & rot proof

• Side airbag compatible

• • • • • • • • •

Genuine high quality 12oz canvas • Tailored specifically to fit each type of seat Manufacturing for over 20 years • Over 3000 patterns available Water & rot proof Easy to fit - easy• to clean your vehicle investment Protect Side airbag compatible • Overnight available on most products Tailored specifically to fit each delivery type of seat Over 3000 patterns available Protect your vehicle investment Overnight delivery available on most products

Ph: 0800 158 479 sales@blackduck.co.nz

0 158 479 - sales@blackduck.co.nz - www.blackduck.co.nz

LG29226

• Easy to fit - easy to clean

L G 2 8 7 1 4

UPER OUGH

NZ LOGGER classified

Please contact Dan Main for additional information 250-818-9020 dan@mainlogging.com www.mainlogging.com

Tyres that mean business.

STAYS ON THE JOB. Call us on 0800 NOKIAN (0800 665 426) or email info@nokian.nz to find a dealer.

70 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

Nokian understands the cost of downtime for a busy contractor. That’s why the entire Nokian foresty tyre range is built to stand up to the harshest of conditions and heaviest of applications. To get the best from your gear, choose Nokian.

USED EQUIPMENT from

AB EQUIPMENT Tigercat LH855C with Satco 424 (as pictured)

Three 2013/14 Tigercat LH855C’s ranging from 9000 to 11,000 Hours, with 2 coming in with a Satco 424 Fall & trim heads (1 with measuring) & the other coming in with a Waratah 624C Processor, All Available late March. Ex Taupo.

2014 Tigercat 610C Log Skidder

4,400 hours, 15ft Grapple, Winch, front tyres 40%, rear tyres 80% remaining plus 2x new tyres.

Ex Nelson.

$500,000 - $550,000+ GST 2011 Tigercat 630D Log Skidder

Log Skidder with 9,500 Hours, Winch, 19 Sqft Grapple, 35.5 tyres with Rear @ 70% & front worn but with Chains.

Ex Palmerston North.

9,000 Hours, Tigercat 5195 Felling Head, tethering Hitch, new undercarriage to be fitted, available late March. ex Dunedin.

Tigercat 635C Log Skidder

Log Skidder with 16,827 Hours, Large Fuel Tank, 25 Sqft Grapple, 35.5 Tyres on the Rear. Recently had new Engine & front Diff fitted. ex Invercargill.

$180,000 + GST 2013 Tigercat 630D Log Skidder

5,500 hours, NZ new, one owner, 19ft grapple, Allied winch, new rear tyres front tyres 30% remaining, good mechanical history.

Ex Gisborne.

$320,000 + GST

$495,000 + GST approx.

Contact your Forestry Specialist Today: WHANGAREI Marcus Bourke 027 241 6126 NORTH HARBOUR Charles Dryden 021 751 158 James Maunsell 021 937 304 AUCKLAND Colin Saunders 027 593 2661 Byren Ware 027 287 8902

HAMILTON Tony Hennessy 027 839 8153 TAUPO Steve Mellar 027 565 3956 MT MAUNGANUI André Muller 027 550 1729 HASTINGS Ben Kendrick 021 658 554

Grapple Skidder with Winch & Front Chains, Rear tyres 90%, Front tyres 15%.

Ex Nelson.

$238,500 + GST

$190,000 + GST 2014 Tigercat LS855E Feller Buncher

2011 John Deere 648H Grapple Skidder

NEW PLYMOUTH & PALMERSTON NORTH Richard Walker 027 553 9216 WELLINGTON Mardi Pritchard 021 335 873 NELSON Chris Jones 027 574 1712

FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA!

CHRISTCHURCH Nic McLennan 027 275 6252 Steven Varcoe 021 969 323 DUNEDIN Cory Hellyer 027 288 1952 INVERCARGILL Dean Cousins 021 932 246 AB EQUIP MENT

$205,000 + GST Caterpillar 545 Log Skidder 13,00 hours (approx.)

30.5 tyres in good condition grapple and PTO winch.

Ex Taupo.

$135,000 + GST 2017 Caterpillar 545D Log Skidder

With 2,165 hours, 1.97mt Box section Grapple, Full Winch, 35.5 Tyres at 50% remaining.

Ex Nelson.

$400,000 + GST

NZ LOGGER classified

KOMATSU PC 400LC-8

Tree Hugga Eco-Friendly Chain Bar Oil Key Benefits:

72 NZ LOGGER | March 2019

“We’ve been using Tree Hugga in our Harvesters since 2015, the only differences are the environmental benefits and the price!” Roger - Owner of Sika Logging, Taupo.

Proudly made in New Zealand by: Flower Power (NZ) Ltd. 3 Manga Rd, Silverdale.

M: 021 022 04 106 E: brendon@flower-power.co.nz

LG25750

Price $750,000 + GST Phone 0272 379 160

• Cheaper, only $1.99 per litre (based on 1000L) • Eco Friendly/Vegetable Based • Better Lubrication • Non Carcinogenic • Easy to clean from clothes

LG28734

L G 2 9 2 2 5

This harvester has a full EMS build, boom and arm, tilt bonnet, cab etc.

The factory radiator and oil cooler have been replaced by an high flow radiator and oil cooler. Plus an auxiliary oil cooler in the counter-weight.

Base has done 3350 hours.

The head has only done 1000hrs and still has 1000hrs warranty left on it, 3000hrs on the chassis.

Has the latest optimisation timberite H16 computer system.

New colour marking which is not fitted.

Currently being used and will be available end of April early May so the hours will climb a little.

FOR SALE: Clark F665, 666, F667, Cat 525B Grapple Skidder, JD648G, TJACK 460, 560.

DOZERS: Caterpillar, D4H, D6C, D6H, Komatsu D65 + D85, tie back dozers, D85/21.

Excavators: Caterpillar 320, 322, 325, 330, B,C & D. Hyundai 250/9 Volvo 240C log rigged.

Teebar manufactured and sold. Wheeled loader WA470/3.

Lakeland Heavy Machinery Ltd

Branches now in the NZ LARGEST RANGE OF SKIDDER SALE:BETTER Clark 664, 666C, 666B, F67 Grapple Skidders North & South Island CHAINS, HEAVIER HEA FORAND Komatsu D65/6 and D85/21 log rigged, CAT 936, 950B and Komatsu WA470/ wheeled loaders, buckets or forks.

Forestry Tyre Chains NZ LARGEST RANGE OF SKIDDER

Branches noNZ w in LARGEST the North & South IslSTOCKS and

Super Heavy DutyHEAVIER AND BETTER CHAINS, 35.5x32 - Weight 10000kg 30.5x32 - Weight 950kg 29.5x32 28L Super Heavy Duty 23.5x26 30.5x32 - Weight 950kg

Forestry Tyre Chains

OF DOZER

NZ LARGEST + DIGGER STOCKS CHAINS, OFROLLERS DOZER + DIGGER IDLERS, CHAINS, SPROCKETS ROLLER available Roller rebuilding/reshells Track press service IDLERS, Mini Excavator tracks SPROCKETS

35.5x32

Heavy 29.5x32 Duty

30.5x32 -23.5x26 Weight 650kg Heavy Duty Machines

30.5x32 - Weight 650kg

Zaxis 270Standard with teebar. Teebars in stock.

D7H with30.5x32 winch - Weight 365kg Machines

Roller rebuilding/reshells available Track press service available Mini excavator tracks also available

PC350/6 with teebar or grapple DYH with winch

Cat and Komatsu Pumps Komatsu Pumps

WE QUOTE HEAVY TRACK CHAINS WE DUTY QUOTE HEAVY DUTY TRACK CHAINS BONING OUT DISMANTLING 525 CAT 518,CAT 525A B & C, Clark, WRECKING, SKIDDERS, John Deere TJack.

BULLDOZERS, LOADERS, Excavators all makes, CAT EXCAVATORS All Models, 3x 33OD Cat, FOR SALE: Dozer parts

NYLON / FIBRE DRIVE GEARS NYLON / FIBRE DRIVE GEARS

CAT D5B, D6D, D7H D65 & D85 KOMATSU POA TRY US WE ARE FOR WORTH IT! SALE: More Machines On Our Website NEWParts PARTS, CAT, KOMATSU, New Clark off the shelf MACHINES $2476-$6884 + gst.

Grouser Bar From $36 per 3 EXCAVATORS metres HITACHI & SUMI ADJUSTERS DOZERS + DIGGERS Scrap Handling units also 32.5x32 FIRESTONE available Used Tyres RECOIL SPRINGS AVAILABLE 126-136 View Road, PO Box 1976, Rotorua Email: info@heavy-machinery.co.nz • Phone: 07 347 0765 • Fax: 07 349 2325 • Mob 0274 945 886 ROTATING GRAPPLES TO FIT 1 TO 40 TONNES ROTATING GRAPPLES MACHINES $2476 to 30K + gst.

TO FIT 1 TONNE TO 15 TONNE Shears, dredge buckets

126-136 View Road, PO Box 1976, Rotorua Email: info@heavy-machinery.co.nz

• Phone: 07 347 0765 • Fax: 07 349 2325 • Mob 0274 945 886 Check our website for more info www.heavy-machinery.co.nz

Check our website for more info www.heavy-machinery.co.nz

EXCAVATOR WORLD

Hokitika South Island BULLDOZERS EXCAVATORS SKIDDERS

ALL NEW STOCK

ORS EXCAVAT FOR SALE

er in 0/3 30 tonn Hitachi EX30 et or grapple. ck bu r de or nice + GST $39,000

LG25750

• • • •

Buckets Cabins Final Drive Parts Grapples

• • • •

Pump Parts Ram Seal Kits ROPS Slew Drives

ALL MAKES, NEW WINDOWS, NEW DOORS + PANELS, NEW RADIATORS AND COOLERS, ENGINE KITS + GASKETS, COMPUTERS, FINAL DRIVES AND PUMPS

3 ways to maximise rope life.

3 WAYS COOKES CAN HELP MAXIMISE ROPE LIFE AND REDUCE DOWNTIME

Swage 6x31

Larger blocks

BriLube

Our Swaged 6x31 rope provides improved e ibility and increased bend cycles, meaning reduced downtime. Ensuring optimum performance from your graple yarder.

Are your blocks part of the problem? Increasing the diameter of your blocks means increasing the bend cycle performance of your ropes lowering your production costs.

Forestry ropes work hard and fast and with this generate heat and loss of lubricant. Brilube 30 will ensure you get the maximum life from your wire ropes.

YOUNGS LIGHTWEIGHT HEAVY DUTY HAULBACK BLOCKS. When using quality rope, complete the package with Youngs quality blocks.

High Strength Alloy Steel Sheaves

Price Competitive

Timken Taper Roller Bearings

Quality U.S Manufacturing

S PEA K T O T HE T EAM TH AT KNOWS THE R O P E S Northland Lana Power 029 773 0744

Tauranga Lance Godfrey 027 480 9589

Upper South Island Mike Beleski 027 479 6806

Auckland/Waikato Andy Palmer 027 474 6032

Rotorua/Lower North Island Dave Caulfield 027 474 2809

Canterbury/Lower Sth Island Steve Marshall 027 434 7148

www.cookes.co.nz