Precision Silviculture in High Value Eucalyptus Plantations:
Testing Caterpillar Compact Machinery in Vegetation Clearing Activities
Gustavo Iglesias Trabado & Roberto Carballeira Tenreiro 
GIT Forestry Consulting - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS
GIT Forestry Consulting - Consultoría y Servicios de Ingeniería Agroforestal - www.git-forestry.com - EUCALYPTOLOGICS
You never know what benefits having a forestry blog as EUCALYPTOLOGICS can deliver... until it happens. Last week we were kindly invited by Caterpillar and Barloworld Finanzauto to see an Atomic Ant in operation. Sounds strange? Then, imagine what a yellow toy-sized Bulldozer Micro-Machine as big as your golf cart can do when CAT engined!
Fig. 1: Compact Multi-Terrain Loader Caterpillar CAT277C on forestry work operations in a High Value Eucalyptus Model Forest of Galicia (Northwestern Spain). (Click image to enlarge)
And the funniest part of it all is that these guys did let us drive the machine even if you are a noob like us who had never tried before. So, there it goes a video of it all in a nearby pine plantation (do not make risky experiments in model forests, do it at the neighbour's yard ;-).
Fig. 2: Eucalyptologics staff driving the CAT around a pine plantation, trying to imitate the scrub clearing and mulching operation done earlier by Barloworld-Finanzauto professionals... and failing miserably! (Click play to watch the video!).
Very comfortable noiseless pressurized cabin with hydraulic seat! And after some simple explanations by their staff you soon start to drive the CAT Atomic Ant by using two joysticks, same way as if you were piloting a X-Wing.
Fig. 3: CATERPILLAR - Barloworld Finanzauto Machinery Demonstration Team in Galicia (NW Spain), after a long day of testing the CAT 277C and the CAT mulcher HM 312. And some good laughs too. (Click image to enlarge)
So, after some fun, we got into the work part of the party. Which was nothing but a technical diagnosis of CAT 277C performance on forestry duty, quality of operation doing scrub slashing and soil mulching, unitary costs, efficiency and fuel thirstyness.
Fig. 4: GIT Forestry's Technical Evaluation of Compact Loader CAT 277C + Rotary Scrub Slasher CAT HM 312 while performing vegetation control and mulching activities in the Galician Highland Forests. (If interested in a larger version, just contact us!).
And particularly interesting for us, on the ability of this machine to work with high precision levels in this model forest, where damage caused by any operation to any standing tree has a bigger effect on the financial balance of a high value timber investment than in the case of a standard timber plantation!.
Fig. 5: GIT Forestry Consulting managed High Value Eucalyptus Model Forest is open to forestry machinery testing and any type of collaborative forestry research (Click image to enlarge)
The results were very promising. However, as with any machinery option, it is a balanced comparison of a range of technical factors what gives you a solid ground in which compare brands, machines, accessories... and cost/benefit ratios.
One thing is however certain. If a kid can drive Oddball's Sherman...
... then almost anyone can drive this CAT!
Acknowledgements
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© 2007-2009 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.
