Zitha, H.M.; Ramantswana, M.M.; Spinelli, R. Performance of Harvesting Residue Treatment Methods in South African Pine Plantations. Forests2023, 14, 1661.
Zitha, H.M.; Ramantswana, M.M.; Spinelli, R. Performance of Harvesting Residue Treatment Methods in South African Pine Plantations. Forests 2023, 14, 1661.
Zitha, H.M.; Ramantswana, M.M.; Spinelli, R. Performance of Harvesting Residue Treatment Methods in South African Pine Plantations. Forests2023, 14, 1661.
Zitha, H.M.; Ramantswana, M.M.; Spinelli, R. Performance of Harvesting Residue Treatment Methods in South African Pine Plantations. Forests 2023, 14, 1661.
Abstract
Forest harvesting generates variable amounts of residue that represent a fire hazard and a hindrance to regeneration and must be managed accordingly. In South Africa, burning is the most common residue management method, but there is an interest in introducing safer and more effective techniques, such as mulching. For that reason, a productivity study was conducted in the Eastern Cape province to gather information on the productivity, cost, and work quality of the three main alternatives: manual broadcasting, manual broadcasting followed by mulching with an adapted farm tractor and mulching with a purpose-built mulcher. Manual broadcasting required 16 h/ha, mulching with a farm tractor 3.6 h/ha, and mulching with a purpose-built mulcher 0.9 h/ha (one pass). Manual broadcasting was the cheapest option, at a cost of 400 ZAR/ha. Mulching with a farm tractor and a purpose-built mulcher incurred a cost of 3 267 ZAR/ha and 4 083 ZAR/ha, respectively. Manual broadcasting achieved a minimal reduction of residue size, with 50% of the slash (branches and stem wood) having a mean length above 40 cm. When mulching with a farm tractor was applied, 49% of the slash (branches and stem wood) length reduced to about 30 cm. When a purpose-built mulcher was used, only 10% of the slash elements exceeded 40 cm length.
Keywords
Mastication; Mulching; Broadcasting Productivity; Cost; Work quality
Subject
Engineering, Other
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
