The AHWI RT400 mulcher has been kept busy since its recent arrival in South Africa. The RT400 is a big, powerful and versatile machine that is capable of doing the business in the tough South African conditions, and it has been brought into the country by Steve Glutz and Horst Hellberg of Enviro Mulch to prove to timber growers and contractors that mulching is the way to go.

The RT400 has already been mulching some 107 hectares of Sappi-owned timberland that had recently been clearfalled near Kwambonambi. Some of the compartments were harvested with a semi-mechanised single grip harvester, and some were manually harvested.

On the day that SA Forestry magazine visited, the AHWI was effortlessly gobbling up the slash and old stumps on the Sappi land, leaving behing a fairly even layer of mulched material that would protect the soil from the harsh Zululand sun.

The machine then performed some trials for Mondi on a compartment that had been clearfelled with a multi-stem harvesting system. The objective was to see how the mulcher would perform on the large piles of slash that inevitably build up on the landings where the stems are processed.

According to Steve, both Mondi and Sappi are eager to gauge the mulcher`s capabilites in preparing clearfelled compartments for quick and easy planting, and also for its usefulness in preparing and collecting biomass material. Plans are in the pipeline to bring in a biomass  harvesting head that can be fitted to the AHWI RT400 for further trials in future.

Meanwhile, Enviro Mulch has secured a trhee-year contract for mulching and mechanical pitting in the Highflats area for Sappi, utilising the RT400 and tractor-powered mechanical pitters.