[Forestry 101] Chopping Down Deciduous Trees

Welcome to your next “Forestry 101” lesson of the Farming Simulator Academy! Today, we’ll show you how to harvest wood from deciduous trees and what you need to bear in mind. We cover conifers in another tutorial. 

(Video coming soon!)

Before We Start: Deciduous Tree Or Conifer?

How you harvest depends on the type of tree you planted. If you planted deciduous trees, you need a chainsaw to cut them down. Because of the uneven growth of deciduous trees, it makes more sense, financially, to process this type of tree into wood chips instead of selling them directly. 

Conifers, on the other hand: You can cut them down either with chainsaws or a harvesting machine. Because of their long and even trunks, they are perfect to sell them or deliver them for further processing.

Learn more about chopping down conifers!

What You Need For Deciduous Trees

• You need a tractor to transport and operate the wood chipper. 
• You need a chainsaw to cut down the trees. You also cut branches off and separate the trunk into smaller parts.
• You need a wood chipper to collect all the cut parts of the trunk and process them into wood chips. You find it in under "forestry equipment" in the tools section of the dealership.

Our Selection (recommendation)

• Tractor: CLAAS Axion 800
• Chainsaw: Chose the brand you personally prefer!
• Wood Chipper: Heizomat HM 8-400 KLC

Let’s Go To Work!

Step 1: Cutting trees

Use the chainsaw of your choice and position yourself in front of the tree. Just turn the saw in the desired direction. When a green glowing ring pops up, you are ready to cut. Just press the respective button. The tree always falls in the direction you are sawing.

Step 2: Cutting branches 

After you cut the tree down, you have to separate the branches from the trunk. Just turn your chainsaw at the right angle and cut the branches as close to the trunk as possible. Repeat the whole process until the trunk is completely free of branches.

When you are done, you have to cut the trunk and huge branches into smaller, more handy pieces for easier processing with the wood chipper. 

Step 3: Producing wood chips

To process the logs into wood chips, you have to pick up the wood with the crane of the machine, place it onto the funnel-shaped conveyor belt and let the machine shred the wood.

Just unfold the machine, position the crane above a piece of wood, bring it down and close the gripper. Now, you lift the crane and steer its head with the piece of wood above the conveyor belt. Lower the crane and open the gripper.

The piece of wood will be automatically moved into the machine and processed into wood chips. Deliver them to the selling point when the tank is filled up.

More about transporting and selling wood chips

Well done!

Congratulations, you have successfully finished another lesson! Keep at it, and you'll be a top-notch virtual farmer in no time with Farming Simulator Academy!