Tree Crop

“A Performing CROP = A Performing Investment”

TIMBERLANDS' 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 8.5 million trees per annum.
  • Planting programmes greater than 6,500 ha per annum.
  • Thinning to waste programmes greater than 9,000 per annum.
  • Production thinning operations (>190,000 tonnes per year).
  • Aerial pre-plant desiccation (6,500 ha/annum) releasing (12,000 ha/annum) and dothistroma programmes (10,000-40,000 ha/annum).
  • Largest mechanised forestry land preparation programme in New Zealand (4,200 ha/annum).
  • TIMBERLANDS manages the Kaingaroa Timberlands's forest estate and the Te Ngae Nursery.

Enhancing the Tree CropPruned Pinus radita stand - Aged 10 years old

Armed with a clear understanding of the forest owner's goals and objectives together with an understanding of the past and present performance of the site and resource, TIMBERLANDS' 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 the forest owner's investment reaches its maximum potential. Key management decisions are based on the following principles:

  • An understanding of the site and resource together with the forest owner's 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 range of establishment and 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 using best practice to optimise returns on the tree crop investment .
  • Ensure staff are well directed, trained and focused on improving the asset value for the forest owner.
  • 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. These include the deployment of elite clonal plants to the forest estate, examining soils, nutrition, remote sensing and silvicultural practices.

Forest ManagementLifting Pinus radiata seedlings at Te Ngae Nursery

TIMBERLANDS' 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, forest establishment and tending operations. This includes large-scale mechanised land preparation and aerial operations, pruning, thinning to waste, production thinning, forest health and biosecurity and mensuration. By understanding the forest owner's investment goals and philosophies, we can develop suitable investment regimes appropriate to each specific site under our management.

Genetics & Deployment

Through TIMBERLANDS's involvement with the Radiata Pine Breeding Cooperative (RPBC), Forest Genetics Limited and seed suppliers, we are able to ensure that the best genotypes are selected and incorporated into our deployment portfolio of seedlots. These genetic selections are made giving due consideration to the sites that they will be deployed to, and the silviculture regimes they will be managed under.

Final lift clearwood pruning operationNursery Management

TIMBERLANDS' Tree Crop Team has specific expertise in large-scale propagation and nursery management and produces high quality tree stocks for deployment to the plantation estate. Forest Genetics Limited are using TIMBERLANDS' 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 manages 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

Silviculture can have significant impact on the value of a tree crop at rotation age. TIMBERLANDS' 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. Production thinning is undertaken with both a commercial and silviculture focus.


Forest Health & BiosecurityAerial spraying of pinus radiata in Kaingaroa forest to  manage competing weeds

TIMBERLANDS manages forest health, forest nutrition and biosecurity activities within the 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.

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