Landing size of harvesting operations in New Zealand

Abstract

Landings are an integral part of modern whole-tree harvesting operations in New Zealand. A representative sample of 142 landings was measured using GPS, whereby nine were recently constructed and unused, 34 were live and the remaining 99 were older and closed out. The average landing size was 3900 m², with a range from 1370 to 12540m². On average, the number of log-sorts cut was 11, the landings were in use for 4 weeks, estimated daily production was 287 m³/day, 37% were manual processing (63% mechanised), 81% were grapple loader (19% front-end loader). A regression equation to model landing size indicates that number of log sorts and production levels are the two main driving factors. Landings do tend to ‘grow’ over time, with used landings on average being 560m² larger than live ones, which in turn were 280m² larger than recently constructed (unused) landings. Most recently constructed landings were larger than the company design; whereby either 40mx60m or 40mx80m were common specifications. A comparable study in 1987 showed the average landing to be just over 1900m², indicating landing size has nearly doubled in the last 20 years. Landings serviced by front-end loaders were slightly larger than those serviced by grapple, but this is compounded by front-end loaders being more commonly used in high production systems. Analyses of the schematic drawings for the live landings indicate that as landing size grows, there is a preference for using multiple rows to manage log inventory on the landing. Smaller landings typically prefer to stack around the edge of the landings.