Harvesting Productivity and Cost of Whole-Tree Clear Cutting Using a Tower Yarder in a Larix leptolepis Stand

The productivity and cost of clear cutting operations were examined to broaden our knowledge on the harvesting system in a Larix leptolepis stand of Korea. The harvesting system was divided into tree operations which were chainsaw (STIHL MS440) felling, tower yarder (Koller301-4) yarding and harvester (WOODY H50) processing. The average cycle time of felling, yarding and processing were 98 s/cycle, 245 s/cycle and 150 s/cycle. The total stump-to-pile operational productivity was 43.07 . The highest production activity was the felling 17.93 , followed by the productivity of processing 15.62 and then by the productivity of yarding 9.52 . In addition the total stump-to-pile operational cost was 24,086 . The highest cost activity was the yarding 14,557 (60.4% of the total cost), followed by the costs of processing 8,461 (35.2%) and then by the costs of felling 1,068 .