Has anyone made the swicth from tree length logging to Cut to length? What was the reason for the change?
where are you located? the NH Professional Loggers Program is doing a class on just this topic next month- couple different CTL and WT operators and foresters walking a few different cut and un-cut stands talkign abotu site limitations, best wood for each, etc...
Oct 8th Henniker NH
The biggest reason for change is generally dictated by the facility you are delivering it to. CTL deliveries generally optimize the production of the facility as they are not dealing with the cutting up of the tree (so to speak) on site.
For most in this region, it is the difference between wood fiber production and high quality saw logs.
CTL is used for pulp and thinning operations.
WT is used in high quality saw log harvest.
Some operations here use both on the same harvest site for these reasons.
All the logging in our area is CTL. Reason is that the logs from one tree may go to 5 (or more) different locations based on the log grades and what the mills are paying.
There are 2 main sawmills, export logs go directly to the port, and low grade logs go for pulp or fence posts.
So the logs are bucked and sorted at the landing and taken to where they will fetch the best price.
Ian
It depends on what your cutting and where your going with it. I even cut all my eastern cedar tree length that I bring home to mill up then I just let it set piled up in log form to dry because I might get an order for 20 ft boards or when I make log siding I make 8,10,12,14,16,18,20 ft cedar.
Alot of small time wanna be loggers like to hual 8'4 sideways on a small truck that they try to sell to me for beer money :D They will cut the first 8'4 off the butt of a tree then leave the rest out in the woods because there to dam lazy to trim up the tree >:( What a waste "the tree and a human" :D
i run a mill next door to a cedar mill called cedar country that you ralph????
LOL Small world no its me Jason.
if you need anyy logs logs let us know, tim is cutting a large tract with a lot of big cedar
Sent you a pm fishman
It depends upon the stand and products being worked as stated above. It also depends upon soil types where much of the fines (topwood) are loped and scattered on site to decompose with any nutrients going back into the soil.
99% of my jobs, mostly in quality hardwoods, are cut to length.
I do a mixture of tree length and cut to length on the same tract. All timber is felled, limbed, and bucked by hand and is moved with a cable skidder or forwarder. It depends on the individual log/tree and where it's located as to how it's moved. If it can be skidded tree length without damaging the residual stand then it is. If not, it is bucked to shorter lengths and then skidded or packed out on the forwarder. Except for the rare double length veneer log every tree is merchandised and cut to length on the landing. I do not truck tree length logs.
I cut relatively higher value hardwoods and the ease of getting the wood roadside and the condition of the residual stand determine the method of extraction used. There are a few tracked feller bunchers working in my area but none of them have processing heads, so we really don't have any true cut to length outfits. Most of us use a combination of the two methods.