Month: November 2017

Robust practices, clear data to support financial planning, and reliable calculations to win tenders. These are among the services offered by Tietohippu Ltd to Finnish harvesting enterprises. “We tend to estimate the profitability of our business based on our experience. That’s a big mistake,” a harvesting contractor recently told Timo Komulainen from Tietohippu Ltd. The contractor stressed the necessity of reliable data in decision making. This is where FOBIA project …

Swedish timber harvesting contractors face challenges in terms of recruitment and training needs. Digital solutions may well be a key for a brighter future. Johan Dietrichson from the Swedish Association of Forestry Contractors knows the business environment within timber harvesting in Sweden. The contractors, especially in northern parts of the country, depend on large forest companies which usually make contracts with harvesting contractors for one to three years. A typical …

In Ireland the project work is being done by The Waterford Institute of Technology. WIT has a history of working on research on harvesting methods and systems, such as residue bundling, stump harvesting, whole tree harvesting, and biomass harvesting in cut to length systems. With the FOBIA project, WIT aims to bring much of the experience and expertise of the partners in Finland, Sweden and Scotland into Ireland to benefit …

“Early morning the Sun peeks through the trees after the first big snowfall in the Highlands where smoke rises above the canopy, as thinnings from a birch wood and rhododendron clearance are being burned. I am on-site with a contractor by a hydro dam and low-lying cloud that is idly drifting about the river basin. No harvesting machines are to be seen, only chainsaws and workers abseiling down rocky outcrops to …