HarvestTECH News | Issue 31

Welcome to the latest issues of HarvestTECH.News.

This month we have several new product launches covered by Tigercat, Komatsu and John Deere. As you move into the forest, a number of you who have been working on introducing automation and robotics into your harvesting operations to improve safety and productivity, may well be interested in some of the work being undertaken in automating many planting and silvicultural operations. The driver here isn’t so much on safety out on the worksite but contractors just can’t find workers.

To help out here, NZ$25.5 million has this month been secured for a new seven-year Precision Silviculture development project in New Zealand, the objective being to progress some of the early work already underway by some of the larger forestry companies and contractors in rolling out mechanised planting. Future work will involve automating nursery production, tree planting and silviculture.

Australian plantation forest managers are showing a keen interest in options for mechanical or robotic tree pruning systems and a report on what’s out there right now has just been competed (and can be downloaded from the story below). And out of Sweden, we’ve built in a video detailing a Swedish company that’s been working on their own light weight 6 metre diameter drone (think about that for a minute), under which, a 60kg pruning and harvesting saw is fitted. The concept here is that you can thin – with a drone – and from the air.

And finally, we’ve had a huge amount of interest being shown in the upcoming Residues2Revenues 2022 event running in Rotorua on 26-27 July 2022 by local forestry contractors. Details on the event can be seen below. This last week we have been able to build in one of Australia’s oldest and largest chipping companies who’re operating a fleet of in-field whole tree chippers as well as running major chipping and debarking facilities along with wood harvesting operations in pine and eucalypt plantations across the country. Already, over 200 have registered for the event so it’s going to be a full house. So, if interested in coming along, best sign up before the sold out sign goes up.

Check out these stories and much more below. Enjoy this month’s issue.

Remember, please send through any stories or video you want us to pass onto the wider wood harvesting and log transport community.