Comparison of timber utilization between a tree-length and an in-wood chipping harvesting operations

Two 25-year old pine plantations in Alabama, one for in-wood-chipping (IWC) and another for tree length (TL) harvesting operations, were selected to determine the proportion of the standing merchantable timber resource and value that got to a manufacturing facility. Amount of sawtimber after merchandizing in the woods was found to be 80.6 percent of inside bark volume as compared to potential volume for trees from the IWC operation and 103.4 percent for TL. The TL operation merchandized sawtimber tops that were smaller than specified by mill. Pulpwood inside bark volume after merchandizing in the woods was 163.4 percent in the IWC harvesting operation and 38.6 percent for the TL as compared to potential pulpwood. The percent of potential volume for pulpwood and sawtimber that was not recovered from the woods was 9.5 percent for TL and 2.9 percent for IWC. At current market price for pine sawtimber and pulpwood, the TL harvesting operation had an increase of 0.4 percent of value and the IWC harvesting operation had a reduction of 15.9 percent of value from final products as compared to potential value.