The Steepland Harvesting PGP programme has worked on increasing operational efficiency. We have three key outputs/activities:
- Doherty Hydraulic Quick Coupler, for automatic switching between a processor head and a grapple without leaving the operator cab. Construction of the first prototype has been completed and is ready for installation on the first adopter contractor’s base machine.
- Harvesting Technology Watch – a project monitoring promising developments in harvesting technologies from overseas.
- Benchmarking Cost and Productivity database – to track the trends in harvesting developments across the industry. The database now holds over 1000 individual harvest area entries, relating forest stand and terrain data to harvesting crew information.