“A Performing CROP = A Performing Investment”
TIMBERLANDS's Tree Crop Team manages some of the largest scale forestry operations in New Zealand, from tree crop establishment to pre-harvest, including:
- Nursery management and propagation of up to 7.5 million trees per annum.
- Planting programmes greater than 5,000 ha per annum.
- Pruning programmes greater than 6,000 ha per annum.
- Thinning to waste programmes greater than 6,500 per annum.
- Aerial pre-plant desiccation (5,000 ha/annum) releasing (10,000 ha/annum) and dothistroma programmes (10,000-40,000 ha/annum).
- Largest mechanised forestry land preparation programme in New Zealand (3,000 ha/annum).
- TIMBERLANDS manages the Kaingaroa Timberlands's Estate and the Te Ngae Nursery.
How Can We Enhance Your Tree Crop?
Armed with a clear understanding of forest owners' goals and objectives together with an understanding of the past and present performance of the site and resource, TIMBERLANDS's Tree Crop operations focus on establishing and tending an optimal crop of trees through the whole life cycle of the forest. We tailor specific forest management solutions to ensure your investment reaches its maximum potential. Key management decisions are based on the following principles:
- An understanding of the site and resource together with owners' goals and objectives to recommend sound silviculture regimes that incorporate appropriate genetics, tending regimes for each specific site and utilisation of biological growth to maximise returns.
- Scheduling and planning the full compliment of silviculture operations to ensure that a healthy and vigorous crop of trees is maintained through to end of rotation.
- Deploy suitable risk management strategies to ensure that the tree crop is protected against biosecurity and other forest health risks.
- Establish and tend the tree crop with the best use of cash to optimise returns on the tree crop investment (or an appropriate level of investment to meet owners' investment hurdles).
- Ensure staff are well directed, trained and focused on improving the asset value for owners.
- Through the use of financial and physical reports, TIMBERLANDS monitors the progress and performance of operations and implements corrective actions where necessary.
- Identify new technologies and opportunities that allow optimised returns to investors.
Forest Management
TIMBERLANDS's Tree Crop Team has expertise in large-scale forest management and can draw on staff with specific skills in species and genetic selection, nursery management and forest establishment. This includes large-scale mechanised land preparation and aerial operations, pruning, thinning to waste, production thinning, forest health and biosecurity and mensuration. By understanding owners' investment goals and philosophies, we can develop suitable investment regimes appropriate to each specific site under our management.
Genetics and Deployment
Expertise is provided with tree stock selection to select and identify genotypes through the best possible use of genetically improved plants that compliment owners' silviculture and site management objectives. Through TIMBERLANDS's involvement with the Radiata Pine Breeding Cooperative (RPBC) and Forest Genetics Limited, we are able to ensure that the best genotypes are selected and incorporated into our deployment portfolio of seedlots.
TIMBERLANDS's Tree Crop Team has specific expertise in large-scale propagation and nursery management to produce quality tree stocks for deployment to plantation forests. Forest Genetics Limited are using TIMBERLANDS's expertise to grow a significant portion of their production varieties of Radiata Pine.
Forest Establishment
With an intimate understanding of the site, its character and the establishment challenges that each site presents, TIMBERLANDS will manage the development of a consistent and even crop, which fully utilises the site and mitigates risk. This includes land preparation, planting (including consideration of frost damage and weed control) and releasing operations.
Tending
Thinning and pruning can have significant impact on the value of a tree crop at rotation age. TIMBERLANDS's experience with large-scale pruning and thinning operations ensures these operations are managed in a timely manner to produce high quality sawlogs without compromising the growth and quality of the tree crop.
Forest Health & Biosecurity
TIMBERLANDS will manage forest health, forest nutrition and biosecurity activities within your forest estate and develop a biosecurity programme to ensure all possible biosecurity threats are adequately assessed and monitored and that effective counter measures are implemented where required.
Forest Mensuration
TIMBERLANDS provides a very comprehensive reporting system whereby all operational work is monitored by technical and QC/auditing staff.