HarvestTECH News Issue 7

Welcome to the latest issues of HarvestTECH.News.

So, what a difference a month makes. When the last monthly issue came out there were rumblings about our country’s borders potentially being closed. Incoming passengers were increasingly being tested for COVID-19. There were also, of course, the very real issues in getting our logs into China’s congested ports so harvesting crews and those involved in transporting wood were at the time being put back onto reduced hours. And, we at the time thought that was tough.

Roll on four weeks. For the kiwis, as we go to print, the forestry and wood products industries, despite some concerted efforts to get the Government to budge, are currently considered to be non-essential – the only primary sector industry labelled with this particular tag. So, wood harvesting, log transport, wood processing and manufacturing businesses and export operations remain idle. We’re all sitting at home until the “go back to work” button (provided the business, of course, is still afloat) is pushed. In Australia though, like the US and Canada, although self-isolation and travel restrictions have been put in place, forestry, wood processing and construction activities are at this time considered as “essential services” and are still in full swing. Production though is reduced in some industries because of uncertainties in the market.

For this harvesting and wood transport newsletter, we plan on still producing and sending it out to our ever-growing number of readers. In times like these, particularly when in shut-down mode and with the uncertainties surrounding wages, jobs and the future – once we get moving again – it’s critical that we keep the communication channels open. If you have work colleagues or crew members you think would benefit from subscribing to this newsletter (it’s free), they can register directly on www.harvesttech.news.

For the large HarvestTECH 2020 – Wood Transport event we were planning with many of you for September, the programmes for both Australia and New Zealand had pretty much been set up. The plan is to still proceed but the dates won’t be confirmed until the current situation becomes clearer. We’ll keep you updated.

Now for a bit of news for you. This month we cover Safetree’s NZ campaign to keep the industry safe and well over this difficult time, a great video demonstrating the use of a headset device to improve truck inspections and a number of new John Deere and Tigercat machines and services hitting the market. We are also pleased to see that Timbeter, who will likely be at HarvestTECH 2020, has received seed funding and are now expanding their services into South East Asia and Latin America.

That’s it for this month. Remember to send through any contributions, stories or links that we can pass onto the wider wood harvesting and transport community. Stay safe and we look forward to perhaps better news in a month’s time.

Check out all the articles below and enjoy this month’s issue.