10.0 



9.0 



8.0 



7.0 



5 6.0 

 o 

 Q 



w 5.0 

 O 



4.0 



3.0 



2.0 



1.0 



CONVENTIONAL HARVEST UNITS- 



NEAR COMPLETE HARVEST UNITS 



J L 



J I I I I L 



J L 



8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 

 PIECE SIZE (Logs/Mfbm) 



Figure 6. — Skidding cost versus piece size. 



The slope of the curves in figure 6 indicates that in near complete harvesting 

 skidding costs are lower and are less sensitive to piece size than in conventional 

 harvesting. This is mainly because it is more efficient to skid small trees whole 

 than to skid them in pieces. Another possible explanation for reduced cost is that it 

 was not considered practical to remove defects from full trees skidded to the landing. 

 Instead, the entire tree was chipped, which reduced the cost of handling small mer- 

 chantable logs. (This is also the primary reason for lower merchantable volumes har- 

 vested in Units 1 and 4.) Also, in other skidding studies, prebunching of merchantable 

 material has been shown to reduce skidding costs. 



The cost of handling and piling the nonmerchantable material (top and limbs) in 

 Units 1 and 4 could be charged against the merchantable volume rather than to the pro- 

 duction of BDU's of chips, as was done in this study. Best allocation of these costs 

 can be determined in future sales when and if this level of utilization becomes 

 commercially profitable. 



Experience gained from this study and analysis of production capabilities of 

 equipment used for the near complete harvesting units indicates that cost savings could 

 be realized by more careful planning. These possibilities are investigated in Part II. 



9 



