Utilization Rates and Cost Factors in Timber Harvesting Based on Long-term Machine Data

Operating forest machines is not only expensive but accurate monitoring of economic variables can be very difficult. Detailed machine data capture of economic variables within a forest enterprise can be used to support accurate decision making processes, especially costing for new investments. The objectives of this study were to analyze economic variables of forest machinery based on long-term recorded data from one of the Austrian federal state forest machinery workshops. The study used data from the enterprise’s resource planning system over the period 2004 to 2008. In total 28 tower yarders, 19 skidders, 12 harvesters and 18 forwarders where analyzed for annual utilization, repair costs, fuel consumption and lubrication costs. The average annual utilization of all skidders was approximately 1,150 productive machine hours excluding breaks less than 15 minutes (PMH15) per year. Skidders consumed an average 7.3 L/PMH15 with repair costs of 11.4 €/PMH15. For the fully mechanized harvesting system the harvesters achieved 2,040 PMH15/year and the forwarders 2,070 PMH15/year. The annual utilization of cable yarding systems is between 560PMH15 and 1,500 PMH15.