Operational short rotation woody crop plantations: Manual or mechanised harvesting?

Harvesting is the most expensive, but the least investigated process in the cultivation of short rotation woody crops (SRWC). To get a better idea of the harvesting process (in terms of its performance, productivity, cost, soil compaction, cutting height and quality as well as biomass losses), we closely monitored the second harvest of a SRWC culture in Flanders (Belgium). We compared our results to the harvests of other, small European parcels. The trees at our site were harvested with both a manual and a mechanised (Stemster harvester) cut-and-store system, while the cut-and-chip system was analysed from an extensive literature survey. The production cost (to the edge of the field) at our site reached 426 (manual) and 94 (mechanised) € t−1, while the average values found in the literature are respectively 104 and 78 € t−1, versus 17 € t−1 for the cut-and-chip harvesting system. The productivity at our site reached 14 (manual) and 22 (mechanised) oven-dry tonnes per scheduled machine hour, while the average values found in the literature are respectively 15 and 23 t h−1. Based on the good performance (ha h−1) and productivity (t h−1) of the cut-and-chip system as well as its lower costs, this harvesting system is recommended for operational SRWC. •Literature data confirm our experimental data.•The cut-and-chip harvesting of SRWC is the cheapest but not the fastest option.•The mechanised cut-and-store harvesting is recommended from an economic point of view.•The manual cut-and-store harvesting proves to be expensive and time consuming.