Farm tractor logging

[slowzuki]

Just as a note, I've done the chain and tractor logging before and it was plain out terrible in my opinion.  I had never used a winch before so it was all I knew.  Moving to a winch was at least a 10 fold increase in production.

Laying out skid trails at a little less than double your winch cable lenght then felling towards the tractor works great.  If it hangs just pull it down, no stump to catch on.

[SwampDonkey]

I've used chains to pull a small amout of wood out with a 120 HP tractor. I was on ideal ground. But, I'll agree I wouldn't want to make a living with chain yarding. I had all the time in the world and was in no hurry to get the logs. I hauled treelength across a 100 acre field to where we bucked the logs and the rest of the tree was for firewood. It was also an ideal fall (October) and as dry as could be when normally it could be wet and slick as goose grease. Our farm was what you'd call rolling, but the woods ground couldn't be any flatter if you wished. I don't care for cutting on steep ground, and thank goodness have never had to.

[Deadwood]

I worked all one winter cutting on steep ground. Granted it was with a skidder and not a tractor. Still what a pain. It was so steep and icy that we left a large tree in the center of the hill. We had to drag the cable up to the tree, hook onto it, winch the skidder backwards up the hillside and then do it again on the next half of the hill. We did not do this much because when we came down, we had every choker filled.

It was so steep that you had to put your feet on the dash of the skidder to keep from bouncing out of the seat...it was that steep. It was also no fun and probably why I am a railroader now instead of a logger. I'm not lazy, but that was way to much work, not to mention dangerous!

[SwampDonkey]

I worked all one winter cutting on steep ground. Granted it was with a skidder and not a tractor. Still what a pain. It was so steep and icy that we left a large tree in the center of the hill. We had to drag the cable up to the tree, hook onto it, winch the skidder backwards up the hillside and then do it again on the next half of the hill. We did not do this much because when we came down, we had every choker filled.

One logger told me: 'If I'm gonna lug on skidder cable on a side hill, it's going to be down hill.' :D Most loggers here build their roads on the ridge tops, if accessible. I cruise ground for loggers where I had to hang onto the trees to keep from sliding downhill 200-300 feet or from going into freefall. :D

[Max sawdust]

Yup work from the ridges down with a cable.  Tension on the cable makes it easier to walk down hill with it ;D  Also your tree's come up the hill real nice without trying to dive into the ground when you pull them from a ridge top.
Just need to figgure out a safe way to ride with the log back up the hill :D
max

[SwampDonkey]

Just need to figgure out a safe way to ride with the log back up the hill :D
max

Now that would be a hoot.  8)

[Scott]

 I did a bit of chain logging with the tractor and had pretty good luck with it. I had a hook on the 3 point hitch crossbar and once i chocked up the tree I'd lower the hitch down and pick the end of the log right up. It was slow and it wouldn't be much good on steep ground but I wasn't concerned about the butt of the log fetching up. Next purchase will be a farmi winch 

[Deadwood]

Yeah that woodlot would have been a lot easier getting to it from the top, but here in Coastal Maine we are not privy to building roads like they are up North or in other States. Our logging is mostly on private woodlot owner land. On that woodlot, the property line was about 3/4 of the way up the ridge. It was terrible. You could hardly stand up it was so icy and snowy.

One more unique thing about Coastal Property. You might have a 150 acre woodlot to harvest, but most of the woodlots around here are "Spagetti Lots." That is, they usually are only a couple hundred feet wide, but might be a mile and a half deep! It makes for some very, very long twitch roads.

When I did my Certified Logger training, we actually used that steep hillside woodlot in Appleton Maine. The guy was from up north where they cut on Paper Company land and was blown away at the distances we routinely harvested wood. He was also surprised at the woodlot sizes. Around here it's not uncommon to get a woodlot harvest of only 10 to 15 acres.

[SwampDonkey]

Lots in my area are wide and deep because alot of smaller farms were amalgamated when alot of small 100-200 acres farms were gobbled up by large farmers. When father was buying up land he bought 4 - 100 to 120 acre farms side by side. One block was 7/10 mile wide in the middle by 1 mile long. Down by my brother's place that lot was 1.6 miles long by 1200 feet wide. The lots here go east west from the Saint John River. Up in Drummond there are farm lots there that are large enough that you can't see a tree or a line fence in your line of sight. Often the line is just a ditch between farms. This is spud farm country. Same idea over in Aroostook county Maine, especially between Easton, Presque Isle and Caribou along route 1A.