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About Husqvarna
The
Husqvarna Group is the world's largest producer of chainsaws,
lawn mowers and other petrol-powered garden equipment such as trimmers
and leaf blowers, as well as one of the world's largest producers
of garden tractors. Husqvarna is also one of the world's largest
producers of cutting equipment for the construction and stone industries.
The product offering comprises equipment for both consumers and
professional users.
Husqvarna Outdoor Products,
PO Box 76-437, Manukau City, Auckland
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No. 9 Pruning and pruned stand certification
NEW ZEALAND FARM FORESTRY ASSOCIATION INFORMATION LEAFLET
New Zealand’s plantation resource is in the process of rapid change in
size, quality and ownership. Prior to 1987, most of the high investment
pruned plantations were owned by the state. The sale of this resource
to large corporates is resulting in some dramatic changes. Through the
1990s, the forestry corporates have effectively ceased new planting and
very recently severely reduced their collective spending on pruning.
While this has taken place, there has been a major new entrant into the
forest growing business with a totally different outlook on investment
and returns.
This new party is the large body of investors and landowners attracted
to high investment pruning regimes using radiata pine. Ownership is
broadly based and many of the members are new to the business of
forestry. Their debt is low and combined asset base is huge. Through
the 1990s they have established in excess of a half million hectares on
mostly ex-farm sites. At today’s log prices, this already existing
estate will net the owners around 20 billion dollars at harvest and
they are continuing their high level of investment in both new planting
and pruning.
Forest management
strategies
Why prune?
Pruned stand
certification
What does PSC measure?
Who is using PSC?
What is a
typical stand profile under PSC?
What does pruning cost?
Forest
management strategies
Two very different forest management strategies are currently in place.
Although the forestry corporates are still undertaking major pruning
investment, a large part of their collective estate will be managed on
low cost non-pruning regimes.
There are two reasons for this. The first is the obvious short term
benefit in reduced cost which appears to improve a company’s financial
performance.
The second is that, so long as a forestry corporate has integrated
processing capability, it has the option of ‘adding value’ through
further processing at the end of the rotation. The payback on this
additional expenditure is rapid unlike a pruning investment where the
cost must be carried through the rotation.
By contrast, the new forest owners do not realistically have the option
of ‘adding value’ at the end of the rotation via processing and then
there are some compelling financial and risk aversion reasons that make
pruning very good business.
(top)
Why prune?
Profitability.
Using today’s costs and current log prices, it is a
relatively simple task to show that a well pruned
and appropriately marketed pruned stand is a highly profitable
venture. On the other hand, it is very difficult to prescribe a
non-pruning regime that doesn’t make a loss at realistic interest
rates. However, the worst case scenario is having to
carry the cost
of
a pruning regime that doesn’t achieve a high pruned log price either
because the pruning was too late or it was badly marketed because the
owner couldn’t prove it was well
pruned.
Current log prices for the best pruned logs are up to $210/m
3
(at mill
or wharf) while unpruned log prices range around $60 to $100/m
3
(at
mill or wharf). A good pruning regime can produce logs worth $20,000 to
$30,000 per hectare more than a regime without pruning. If we can prove
the pruning was of a high standard, thereby eliminating much of the
risk for the log buyer, the returns could be very much greater.
Otherwise there will always be a margin for risk held back by the buyer
if the buyer isn’t sure of how much value the pruning has added.
Market
risk. An old and well-established axiom pervades most of
our
business – a quality product can be used in high or low value end-uses,
a low value product has at best only low value end-uses. This has been
brought home during the depressed log market following the Asian
crisis. Knotty log grades were either not saleable or experienced major
drops in price, yet pruned log demand has remained buoyant and prices
are still high.
 |
| Prune energetically, thin aggressively to produce clear wood.
Trees
must be able to grow a wide sheath of wood over the knotty core. Photo:
Denis Hocking |
Many tropical and temperate countries have the land resource and
conditions to grow huge amounts of industrial grade (unpruned) wood. If
‘carbon accreditation and trading’ becomes a reality, this could
further fuel major new planting programs of ‘industrial’ plantations.
Conversely, the world’s old natural forests, the major source of
knot-free-timber, are becoming exhausted. The future principal supply
of other than re-manufactured knot-free-timber must come from pruned
forests. Few countries carry out extensive pruning (examples are; New
Zealand, Chile, Australia to a lesser extent, and in Japan 10% of the
cypress estate is pruned). In summary, for the private grower, there
would appear little competitive advantage in growing unpruned
plantations, but pruning produces a knot-free-timber for which there is
strong demand, a diminishing supply and a wide range in end products.
Targeting
quality. If you are growing radiata pine, there is one
more
very good reason to prune. Most growers are hoping to harvest on a
rotation of around the 24 to 30 years. What will the wood be like?
Unfortunately, the greater portion of the stem – the top half tapering
into a core and extending down to the stump– will be wood largely
suited to low-value end uses – packaging, low strength structural and
pulp. It will be low in density, low in strength, have stability
problems, low in surface hardness and inevitably very knotty.
The potentially higher value wood (suited to appearance and higher
strength structural uses) is mostly confined to the outer wood of the
butt log. This wood is higher density, stronger, more stable, has
greater surface hardness and is even much more effectively preservative
treated. Pruning is a large
investment activity and this precious potentially high value wood is
its sole target. Without pruning, it can only be at best knotty
structural timber or suited to remanufacture.
Pruning produces knot-free-timber and means the outer wood’s inherent
superior qualities can be realised. However, for the buyer it can be
risky buying pruned logs. Logs of very different quality can look the
same. If the pruning was late, the log may only have the same inherent
value as a very branchy unpruned log. If the buyer can be assured of
the effectiveness of pruning, the increased value resulting from
pruning can be paid to the grower with much more confidence. To help
this process occur, in 1991 the Forest Research Institute (FRI)
introduced the Pruned Stand Certification service (PSC).
(top)
Pruned
stand certification
PSC is a service that provides a facility to measure and credibly
describe the effectiveness of pruning for price determination when the
stand or pruned logs are sold. These objectives are achieved by the set
of procedures that are the basis of PSC. These cover:
- A definition of work standards for quality of pruning to
ensure a
professional standard of pruning has taken place; plotting
methodologies to determine essential stand parameters and
measure how
effective the pruning has been; and stand
location and stand mapping
to
uniquely define and locate the stand.
- An audit process to give the pruning quality information
credibility
at both national and international levels. This process is undertaken
by a nationwide network of registered auditors who either undertake or
check all plotting and mapping work. An additional level of auditing
implemented on a random basis by the administrator.
- An information archive which includes, audit details, all
field
measurements, stand maps, assessment plot locations and data summaries.
All information is stored in a database supplemented with hardcopy and
is retrievable.
- A unique certificate is provided for the stand owner
showing
important measures of stand quality and a location map supported by
permanent comprehensive archived records.
Besides establishing the effectiveness of pruning, a PSC certificate
also clearly proves the stand exists and has received a pruning
operation of a professional standard. The plotting data also provide an
excellent basis for accurate yield and log quality forecasts through
the rotation. Another major benefit will result from the unity PSC
gives this very large and valuable, but geographically dispersed pruned
resource. Knowledge of location, stand age and size, and log yield and
quality presents the opportunity to supply domestic and
international markets of any size as part of an organised collective.
Owners will benefit from the market ‘clout’ currently only enjoyed by
the large forestry corporates.
(top)
What does PSC
measure?
Besides the stand tenure information and a location map, the PSC
certificate reports some simple stand parameters; stocking, the pruning
lift height, the mean maximum diameter over pruned branch stubs (DOS),
and a measure of precision. The stand data are obtained from sample
trees. Where plot assessment work is already undertaken, this
information is usually used if it meets the standards criteria.
Measurement methods are described in the Pruned Stand Certification
manual, FRI Bulletin 167.
Who is using PSC?
PSC has been operating since 1991 and usage is climbing steeply. Even
without a further increase in rate of use, it is anticipated there will
be between 350,000 and 500,000 hectares in the programme within a
rotation of its initiation. This is a very substantial resource for
which ownership, location, species, age, stand size, pruned log
quality, general stand parameters, and likely yield by log
quality/grade can all be readily established.
What
is a typical stand profile under PSC?
Once again it is only possible to comment on the resource quantified
within the PSC database. The users of PSC are almost invariably
achieving high quality pruning operations. A typical stand profile
would be:
- located on medium productivity ex-farm site,
- management advice and silviculture operations undertaken by
a professional other than the owner,
- approximate area around 20ha,
- butt log pruned to around 5.5 to 6.5m in three lifts,
- DOS sizes (diameter over pruning stubs) well under 20cm for
lower
lifts and 18 to 20cm in the third lift, and
- final stocking around 300 to 400 stems/ha.
There is a substantial range in size of stands and more recently other
species (particularly cypress) are also having their pruning certified.
The new plantation resource of the private grower is large and much of
it is being well managed under high investment pruning regimes (at
least the stands in the PSC
programme). Large areas will be available for harvest from 15 to 20
years and thereafter will be a main provider of New Zealand’s valuable
pruned logs.
This resource is uncommitted and will increasingly become the focus of
much national and international attention. The PSC programme provides
an important mechanism to link this valuable and geographically
dispersed resource. This linkage could provide major benefits for
owners in marketing and
coordinating harvest and log supply.
(top)
What does
pruning cost?
For radiata pine, a pruning cost of around 50 cents/m of crown removed
($1/m for macrocarpa) is a useful guide. To put this in perspective, an
example of the relative costs of all the main operations in growing a
crop of trees over one rotation on an ex-pasture site using a discount
rate of 8% can be found
on page 9-2.
This article by Alan Somerville appeared in the November
1999 issue of
the New
Zealand Tree Grower.
