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Articles containing the keyword 'bucking'

Category : Research article

article id 10062, category Research article

Jouni Siipilehto, Miika Rajala. (2019). Model for diameter distribution from assortments volumes: theoretical formulation and a case application with a sample of timber trade data for clear-cut sections. Silva Fennica vol. 53 no. 1 article id 10062. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.10062

Keywords: bucking; optimization; simplex method; truncated Weibull function

Highlights: The Weibull distribution was solved successfully from assortment volumes using optimization; The solved distribution provided accurate assortment volume when the input variables were correct; Goodness-of-fit tests indicate the compatibility between the solved distribution and the cut trees, according to harvester data; Timber trade contracts showed overestimated average merchantable tree sizes, which resulted in an underestimation of the number of cut trees; The reason for underestimation seemed to be in the decreasing distributions.

Abstract | Full text in HTML | Full text in PDF | Author Info

This study examined a theoretical model for stand structures from the volumes of pulpwood and saw logs of clear-cut stands. The average stem size was used to estimate the number of cut trees. The distribution was solved using nonlinear derivative-free optimization. The truncated 2-parameter Weibull distribution was used to describe the stand structure of the commercial stems. This method was first tested with harvester data collected from seven clear-cut stands in southern Finland. Validation included reliability in the stand characteristics and goodness-of-fit of the species-specific distributions. The distributions provided unbiased estimates for the saw log volume, while the bias in the estimated pulpwood volume was 2%. The standard stand characteristics from the Weibull distributions corresponded notably well with the harvester data. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test rejected two distributions out of 21 cases, when the accurate input variables were available for the theoretical model. The results of the study suggest that the presented method is a relevant option for predicting the stand structure. In practice, the reliability of the presented method was dependent on the quality of the information available from the stand prior to cutting. With a timber trade data set, the solution for the distribution for a clear-cut section was found. The goodness-of-fit was dependent on the accuracy of the visually assessed timber trade variables. Especially the average stem size proved difficult to assess due to high number of understorey pulpwood stems. Due to overestimated average stem sizes, the solved number of harvested trees was underestimated. Less than 50% of the distributions predicted for clear-cut sections passed the KS test.

Siipilehto, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Latokartanonkaari 9, P.O. Box 2, FI-00790 Helsinki, Finland E-mail: jouni.siipilehto@luke.fi
Rajala, Metsä Group, Revontulenpuisto 2, P.O. Box 10, 02020 METSÄ, FI-02100 Espoo, Finland E-mail: miika.rajala@metsagroup.com

article id 9972, category Research article

Jukka Malinen, Harri Kilpeläinen, Erkki Verkasalo. (2018). Validating the predicted saw log and pulpwood proportions and gross value of Scots pine and Norway spruce harvest at stand level by Most Similar Neighbour analyses and a stem quality database. Silva Fennica vol. 52 no. 4 article id 9972. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.9972

Keywords: stem quality; bucking; non-parametric prediction; database; assortment recovery; value recovery

Highlights: Non-parametric prediction together with external stem quality database provides predictions usable for pre-harvest assessment at a stand level; The prediction of Norway spruce assortment recovery and value proved to be more accurate than the predictions for Scots pine; RMSE and bias of unit prices were 3.50 € m^–3 and 0.58 € m^–3 for pine and 2.60 € m^–3 and 0.35 € m^–3 for spruce.

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Detailed pre-harvest information about the volumes and properties of growing stocks is needed for increased precision in wood procurement planning for just-in-time wood deliveries by cut-to-length (CTL) harvesters. In the study, the non-parametric Most Similar Neighbour (MSN) methodology was evaluated for predicting external quality of Scots pine and Norway spruce, expressed as stem sections fulfilling the saw log dimension and quality requirements of Finnish forest industry, as they affect the recovery of timber assortments and the value of a pre-harvest stand. Effects of external tree quality were evaluated using saw log recovery and saw log reduction caused by stem defects, as well as total timber value (€) and average unit value (€ m^–3) in a stand. Root mean square error (RMSE) of saw log recovery and reduction were 9.12 percentile points (pp) for Scots pine and 6.38 pp for Norway spruce stands. In the unit value considerations, the predictions compared with measurements resulted in the RMSE of 3.50 € m^–3 and the bias of 0.58 € m^–3 in Scots pine stands and 2.60 € m^–3, and 0.35 € m^–3 in Norway spruce stands, respectively. The presented MSN based approach together with the utilization of the external stem quality database included in the ARVO software could provide dimension and external quality predictions usable for pre-harvest assessment of timber stock at a stand level. This prediction methodology is usable especially in analyses where timber assortment recoveries, values and unit prices are compared when different bucking objectives are used.

Malinen, University of Eastern Finland, School of Forest Sciences, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: jukka.malinen@uef.fi
Kilpeläinen, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Production systems, Yliopistokatu 6, FI-80100 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: harri.kilpelainen@luke.fi
Verkasalo, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Production systems, Yliopistokatu 6, FI-80100 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: erkki.verkasalo@luke.fi

article id 7816, category Research article

Pentti Niemistö, Harri Kilpeläinen, Eero Poutiainen. (2018). Effect of first thinning type and age on growth, stem quality and financial performance of a Scots pine stand in Finland. Silva Fennica vol. 52 no. 2 article id 7816. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.7816

Keywords: bucking; growth and yield; external stem quality; profitability; Pinus silvestris; tree selection; saw log

Highlights: Early commercial first thinning at the top height of 11 m with tree selection targeting high quality of remaining stems was more profitable in a Scots pine stand than thinning from below at similar time or delayed thinning 10 years later; After early first thinning only one intermediate thinning was needed, but a late thinning at age of 60 years was feasible in connection with increased amount of high quality butt logs after artificial pruning; The optimal rotation period for a Scots pine stand using a lower interest rate of 1% was 80–85 years depending on the thinning pattern. With a higher rate of 4%, the optimal rotation took only 60 years.

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The objective of the study was to ascertain the effects of tree selection (thinning from below, from above and according to stem quality) and timing of first commercial thinning (early and delayed) on the growth, yield and quality of trees in a Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stand. A long-term field experiment (25 years) was measured in 5-year periods and the further development was simulated with growth and yield models to final cuttings using alternative rotation periods of 55–85 years. The measurements included also the exact location and type of technical defects detected on all trees in the experimental plots. The measured volume increment per unit area during the study period, 25 years after the early thinning stage was the lowest in the plots thinned from below, and the highest in the plots thinned from above or in the delayed thinning plots. However, the largest volume of saw logs during the whole rotation of 80 years was yielded after early first thinning according to the quality. The largest volume of very high-quality butt logs was produced by pruning connected with early thinning from above, and a smaller volume after early thinning according to stem quality but no after thinning from below or delayed first thinning. Without pruning an early quality thinning with one intermediate thinning was the most profitable thinning treatment in the Scots pine stand regardless the rotation length or the interest rate used. By interest rates of 1% and 2%, the optimal rotations were 80–85 years and 70 years respectively. A late thinning at the age of 60 year with long rotation was profitable only for the pruned pine stands with a low interest rate.

Niemistö, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Natural resources, Kampusranta 9 C, FI-60320 Seinäjoki, Finland E-mail: pentti.niemisto@luke.fi
Kilpeläinen, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Production systems, Yliopistokatu 6, FI-80100 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: harri.kilpelainen@luke.fi
Poutiainen, Oulu E-mail: eero1.poutiainen@dnainternet.net

article id 117, category Research article

Harri Kilpeläinen, Jari Lindblad, Henrik Heräjärvi, Erkki Verkasalo. (2011). Saw log recovery and stem quality of birch from thinnings in southern Finland. Silva Fennica vol. 45 no. 2 article id 117. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.117

Keywords: Betula pendula; Betula pubescens; thinning; European white birch; silver birch; saw logs; stem quality; stem defects; bucking; recovery

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The objective of this study was to examine the timber quality of silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) and European white birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.) trees in the first and second thinnings in southern parts of Finland, from the viewpoint of sawing of small-diameter, short logs, in particular. The average stem volume of birch was 0.140 m³ in the first thinning stands and 0.206 m³ in the second thinning stands. In planted stands, the trees were larger in the first thinnings but slightly smaller in the second thinnings, compared with naturally regenerated pure birch stands or mixed stands of Norway spruce and birch species. Almost 60% of the harvested and 35% of the remaining stems that could provide saw logs were graded as pulpwood for timber quality due to the occurrence of stem defects. The most common stem defects were multiple crooks and middle crooks. Only minor between-stratum differences were detected in the numbers of defects. Depending on the bucking option, the total percentage of saw and plywood logs from the total birch recovery in the thinning of the sample stands varied between 11.7 and 18.2. The recovery of saw logs was clearly higher in the second thinnings, 12–19%, than in the first thinnings, 8–14%. Of the stand types, saw log recovery was the highest in planted birch stands, 12–19%, but lower in naturally regenerated pure birch stands and mixed stands of Norway spruce and birch. The highest share of saw logs was in the second thinning of planted stands, 17–25%. This study shows that the harvesting recoveries of end-use based timber assortments can be estimated in different kinds of thinning birch stands. Based on tree and log dimensions and stem squality, silver birch firstly from plantations and secondly from mixed stands should be the most interesting source of raw material for the saw milling, furniture and interior product sectors.

Kilpeläinen, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Eastern Finland Research Unit, P.O. Box 68, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: hk@nn.fi
Lindblad, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Eastern Finland Research Unit, P.O. Box 68, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: jl@nn.fi
Heräjärvi, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Eastern Finland Research Unit, P.O. Box 68, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: henrik.herajarvi@metla.fi
Verkasalo, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Eastern Finland Research Unit, P.O. Box 68, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: ev@nn.fi

article id 177, category Research article

Tuomo Nurminen, Heikki Korpunen, Jori Uusitalo. (2009). Applying the activity-based costing to cut-to-length timber harvesting and trucking. Silva Fennica vol. 43 no. 5 article id 177. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.177

Keywords: logistics; bucking; cutting; forest transport; long-distance transportation; trucking; time consumption; timber assortment; cost driver

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The supply chain of the forest industry has increasingly been adjusted to the customer’s needs for precision and quality. This has changed the operative environment both in the forest and on the roads. As the total removal of timber is increasingly divided into more log assortments, the lot size of each assortment decreases and the time consumed in sorting the logs increases. In this respect, the extra assortments have made harvesting work more difficult and affected the productivity of both cutting and forest transport; this has thus increased the harvesting costs. An activity-based cost (ABC) management system is introduced for timber harvesting and long-distance transport, based on the cut-to-length (CTL) method, in which the logistic costs are assigned to timber assortments and lots. Supplying timber is divided into three main processes: cutting, forest transport, and long-distance transportation. An ABC system was formulated separately for each of these main operations. Costs were traced to individual stands and to timber assortment lots from a stand. The cost object of the system is thus a lot of timber that makes up one assortment that has been cut, forwarded, and transported from the forest to the mill. Application of the ABC principle to timber harvesting and trucking was found to be relatively easy. The method developed gives estimates that are realistic to actual figures paid to contractors. The foremost use for this type of costing method should be as a tool to calculate the efficiency of an individual activity or of the whole logistic system.

Nurminen, Metsätoimisto Tuomo Nurminen, Joensuuntie 5 B 8, FI-41800 Korpilahti, Finland E-mail: tn@nn.fi
Korpunen, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Parkano Research Unit, Kaironiementie 54, FI-39700 Parkano, Finland E-mail: hk@nn.fi
Uusitalo, Finnish Forest Research Institute, Parkano Research Unit, Kaironiementie 54, FI-39700 Parkano, Finland E-mail: ju@nn.fi

article id 277, category Research article

Laura Koskela, Bikas K. Sinha, Tapio Nummi. (2007). Some aspects of the sampling distribution of the Apportionment Index and related inference. Silva Fennica vol. 41 no. 4 article id 277. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.277

Keywords: harvesting; bucking; dissimilarity index; multinomial distribution; overlapping coefficient

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As customer-oriented production strategies have gained ground in the sawmill industry, proper measurement of the fit between the log demand and log output distributions has become of crucial importance. The prevailing means of measuring the outcome is the so-called Apportionment Index (AI), which is calculated from the relative proportions of the observed and required distributions. Although some statistical properties of the AI have recently been examined and alternative means of measuring the bucking outcome have been suggested, properties of the sampling distribution of the AI have not yet been widely studied. In this article we examine the asymptotic sampling distribution for the AI by assuming a multinomial distribution for the outcome. Our results are based mainly on large-sample normal approximations. Also some studies of the determination of the number of logs needed to obtain a specified level of accuracy of the AI have been carried out.

Koskela, University of Tampere, Dept of Mathematics, Statistics and Philosophy, FI-33014 University of Tampere, Finland E-mail: laura.koskela@uta.fi
Sinha, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India E-mail: bks@nn.in
Nummi, University of Tampere, Dept of Mathematics, Statistics and Philosophy, FI-33014 University of Tampere, Finland E-mail: tn@nn.fi

article id 356, category Research article

Hamish D. Marshall, Glen Murphy, Kevin Boston. (2006). Three mathematical models for bucking-to-order. Silva Fennica vol. 40 no. 1 article id 356. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.356

Keywords: mechanical harvesting/processing; optimal bucking; mixed integer programming; dynamic programming; buck-to-value

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The aim of this paper is to investigate different mathematical approaches to buck-to-order log merchandizing. A new bucking-to-order planning model using mixed integer programming was developed to determine the optimal production from a stand given different market constraints and forest inventory data. Three different approaches: market prices, target cutting patterns and adjusted price list were tested for generating cutting instructions to fulfill the plan created by the new planning model. The three approaches were evaluated in four test stands. The market prices approach simply applied the market prices to each stand. The target cutting patterns approach applied the sample cutting patterns generated from the planning model to the stand. The adjusted price list used a dynamic programming algorithm embedded in a search heuristic to adjust both the prices and small end diameters of log products to achieve the production goals of the planning models. The results showed that developing a buck-to-order plan is important in obtaining good order fulfillment. The target cutting patterns and adjusted price list approaches certainly out performed the market prices approach. This paper shows that these two approaches are capable of achieving excellent order fulfillment. Further development and testing is needed to determine which method is the best at generating cutting instructions for buck-to-order merchandizing.

Marshall, Ensis Forests, Private Bag 3020, Rotorua, New Zealand E-mail: hamish.marshall@ensisjv.com
Murphy, Forest Engineering Department, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA E-mail: gm@nn.us
Boston, Forest Engineering Department, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA E-mail: kb@nn.us

article id 417, category Research article

Jori Uusitalo, Sampsa Kokko, Veli-Pekka Kivinen. (2004). The effect of two bucking methods on Scots pine lumber quality. Silva Fennica vol. 38 no. 3 article id 417. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.417

Keywords: harvesting; mechanized logging; tree bucking

Abstract | View details | Full text in PDF | Author Info

Modern harvesters are equipped with measurement and bucking optimization systems able not only to continuously measure the length and diameter of the stem but also to predict the profile of the unknown part of a stem and to calculate the optimal cross-cutting points for the whole stem. So far, tree-bucking optimization in the Nordic countries has been efficiently applied only with spruce because the quality of pine and birch varies much more both within a stem and between stems. Since limitations in the measuring equipment mean that the presence and position of grade limits as well as additional defects in the stem will normally have to be detected and estimated manually. Consequently, optimization works inefficiently because the harvester operator is continuously forced to disregard the cutting suggestions supplied by the harvester’s automatic system. This paper presents the outcome of research intended to define how change from the current quality bucking principle to automatic bucking affects lumber quality. The study is based on field experiments and test sawing data on 100 Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) stems from southwestern Finland in 2001. Automatic bucking does not markedly lower the amount of good-quality lumber compared to quality bucking. Since automatic bucking inevitably leads to log distribution that matches the length requirements of customers better, it may be regarded as appropriate for these harvesting conditions.

Uusitalo, University of Joensuu, Faculty of Forestry, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: jori.uusitalo@joensuu.fi
Kokko, University of Joensuu, Faculty of Forestry, P.O. Box 111, FI-80101 Joensuu, Finland E-mail: sk@nn.fi
Kivinen, University of Helsinki, Department of Forest Resource Management, P.O. Box 27, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland E-mail: vpk@nn.fi

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