Mechanized planting seems to be the thing nowadays and now, yet another planter is underway. The Finnish company Risutuec joins the trend by introducing a new planter. It’s a prototype based on a Sampo FR48 forwarder. The colleagues at Skogsforum.se had a look at the machine.
Yet another planter underway
The prototype is a scarifier and planter, equipped with an advanced automated plant feed, called Risutec Forest Maker. It’s intended for homogeneous soils such as abandoned agricultural land or forest plantations and only one operator is needed.
Risutec points out that this is a concept machine that will be subject to further development before it hits the market. 
Many planters underway
The forestry business seems to have realized that the usage of cheap labor for forest planting can’t go on forever. First, the Covid-19 pandemic and then the war in Ukraine made it clear that to keep the costs for forest planting down, something must be done – again. The development of machines for mechanized planting was well underway by the end of the 80s, but when the Iron Curtain went down masses of willing manual planters came to Western Europe to plant making the machines unnecessary. But now, that has changed.
Plantma X (or PlantMax), Autoplant, and the Komatsu D61EM planter with planting heads from Bracke Forest are just a few examples of machines for forest planting that are more or less ready for the market.
It’s not a joke
Some may smile when they see the attempts to create planting machines saying, “That will never work in our forest”, especially people in the Northern Hemisphere. But bear in mind that the largest market for such machines is for the moment plantation forestry in the Southern Hemisphere. This is a market where machines like the Bracke P12/P22, PlantMax, and Komatsu D61EM are already sold.
So, there’s no wonder that others want to join in on that.
Film clip
Here is a short film clip of the Risutec Forest Maker working on a field:
