Ponsse has deve­lo­ped a new tech­no­logy solu­tion for forest rege­ne­ra­tion. The PONSSE Buf­falo Plan­ter is a til­lage and plan­ting unit moun­ted on the frame of a forest mac­hine, enabling mec­ha­ni­sed and auto­ma­ted plan­ting. This is the first tree-plan­ting inno­va­tion in the company’s his­tory.

“The Buf­falo Plan­ter is Ponsse’s solu­tion for mec­ha­ni­sed forest rege­ne­ra­tion, with the entire plan­ting process car­ried out by a single mac­hine. “Built on the Ponsse Buf­falo forwar­der plat­form, the plan­ting mac­hine per­forms spot til­lage, plants the seed­lings and waters them – all in one seam­less process,” says Juha Inberg, Ponsse’s Chief R&D and Tech­no­logy Officer.

“Built on the Ponsse Buf­falo forwar­der plat­form, the plan­ting mac­hine per­forms spot til­lage, plants the seed­lings and waters them – all in one seam­less process.”
Juha Inberg
Chief R&D and Tech­no­logy Officer

Ponsse aims for bet­ter sup­port for the forest life cycle

Deve­lo­ping the Buf­falo Plan­ter marks a new step for Ponsse, moving from har­ves­ting tech­no­logy into forest rege­ne­ra­tion solu­tions and broa­der life-cycle sup­port. In the first phase, the pri­mary mar­ket for the plan­ting mac­hine is South Ame­rica, where its bene­fits are most evi­dent on plan­ta­tion sites.

“The Buf­falo Plan­ter impro­ves the pro­duc­ti­vity and cost-efficiency of forest rege­ne­ra­tion by enabling large areas to be plan­ted in a shor­ter time. The auto­ma­ted plan­ting process ensu­res a high-qua­lity and con­sis­tent plan­ting result, crea­ting good con­di­tions for seed­ling growth and reducing the need for later replan­ting. Out­side the plan­ting sea­son, the sys­tem can be con­ver­ted back into a con­ven­tio­nal forwar­der, which impro­ves the machine’s uti­li­sa­tion rate,” says Inberg.

The new plan­ting mac­hine has a reliable and fami­liar foun­da­tion: the Buf­falo has long been Ponsse’s most popu­lar forwar­der model.

Focus on the ope­ra­tor

In addi­tion to spee­ding up the work, the Buf­falo Plan­ter brings safety and ergo­no­mic bene­fits to the plan­ting process. Digi­tal sys­tems sup­port the moni­to­ring, repor­ting and docu­men­ta­tion of work. To ensure the high qua­lity of the work, the came­ras ins­tal­led on the plan­ting device trans­mit infor­ma­tion about ground-level events to the ope­ra­tor in the cabin. Thanks to auto­ma­tion, only one per­son is nee­ded to cont­rol the Buf­falo Plan­ter and carry out the plan­ting work: the ope­ra­tor of the mac­hine.

• The plan­ting sys­tem con­sists of four plan­ters, two on each side of the mac­hine.
• Each unit has a sepa­rate til­lage head, as well as a plan­ting head that takes care of plan­ting, wate­ring and com­pac­ting the seed­lings.
• The plan­ting inter­val of the trees is adjus­table both late­rally and in the direc­tion of tra­vel.
• The seed­lings are fed through four seed­ling cas­set­tes with a total capacity of up to 960 seed­lings per load.
• With spot moun­ding, the wor­king rate is around 750 seed­lings per hour, while wit­hout til­lage, the mac­hine can plant around 1,300 seed­lings per hour.

The inno­va­tive Buf­falo Plan­ter was deve­lo­ped in col­la­bo­ra­tion with Ponsse’s tech­no­logy com­pany Epec and Novelquip Fore­stry, a South African com­pany specia­li­sing in plan­ting equip­ment.