JD slash bundler machine

[jimmyj]

I never even knew such a thing existed. I wonder what they do with the bundles. Fascinating machine thought.

YouTube - John Deere slash bundler 1490D

 

[dave1949]

New one on me too. Apparently, the bundles are on their way to a chip mill and bundling the slash lowers the transportation cost.
Dave.

 

[jinman]

I wonder how large material can be for that machine? It seems that a logging operation might leave some very large tops laying around that would be too big. Don't know. . . .

When I went to your link, I also saw this sugar cane harvester. This machine really fascinates me because it first tops the cane, then cuts and separates the cane from the leaves/chaff. Don't you know there's some sweet juice running out of the bottom of that dump wagon before it gets its load to the processing plant? I wonder if this machine is at least 90% efficient?

 

[jimmyj]

I saw the cane harvester too. It's amazing the crazy stuff people have invented.

 

[Code54]

That is a neat machine - but I bet you sure have to invest a lot of cash to bundle that junk up. Wonder if there is a market for the bales it makes???

 

[JDPN]

Those bundles are only burned at biomass energy plants due to the high amount of extra green content. Wood chips used for plywood and paper are made by machines that delimb the trees and take off the leafy branches and sometimes bark leaving a high quality pulpwood chip.

 

[Redbug]

They sometimes do that down here with the slash. The problem is...taking all the debris is taking needed nutrients that would break down and go into the soil and grow more trees. I have read a recent study about this. A working forest can only take a couple clearcuts with the slash removed before the soil becomes too depleted to regrow another planting successfully. I know some of the big timber companies down here rotate their slash removal on their plantations. Same goes for taking pine straw year after year on a plot.

 

[beenthere]

Redbug
That is true for short rotation plantations, like in the south. But this Deere machine is touted to be for hardwood forests where the rotations are 80 - 100 years. So annually the leaves fall to the ground and add nutrients. Removing the tree in the 100th year doesn't have much effect on the soil nutrient loss.
But many enviros will use this approach to try to stop all logging and tree removal.
Some say that biofuels are coming, but I don't think there is anything on the drawing board that can compete with coal. So much more energy per volume of coal than per the same volume of biomass, that moving biomass any distance at all will either make it economically impossible, or there will have to be huge amounts of taxpayers money to finance it (at a loss). IMO
I think Deere has gone the extra to at least have the equipment ready for any biomass removal (when and if that time comes).

 

[Redbug]

BeenThere...You are right about coal. It's about as efficient and as cheap an energy source there is. Funny thing...down here, the power companies are importing their coal, (higher grade, cleaner burning), from South America. It is barged into Savannah and Charleston, then comes by rail to the power plants. A lot of the coal from West Virginia, etc. (lower grade, more sulfur, etc), is shipped overseas to other countries that don't have the standards we have here. Kinda ironic.

Yes, hardwoods don't have the short rotations like pine. Good point. I did not think of that. And more BTU's per ton. Here's a pic of a mulching job I watched go on down here in a hardwood clearcut. The chips were being trucked to a nearby paper mill to fire the boilers. I still think coal would be more efficient. And I think there must be a very narrow margin of profit after leasing/buying the equipment, trucking, diesel, salaries, on these operations. Do they do it a lot up there?

About "Green Energy" from corn, etc. We don't hear much about that anymore. It's been shelved. That's because oil came down in price, I guess. And corn is/was subsidized by us taxpayers. Like the rest of us...I guess the enviros don't want to pay more for corn fed gas...when it is cheaper now from coming from the well. Save the whales and kill the seals...