Articulo
A hedonic approach to value pinus radiata log traits for appearance-grade lumber production
FOREST SCIENCE;
For. Sci.
Registro en:
0
D00I1159
D00I1159
WOS:000278716000005
0015-749X
Autor
Alzamora-Mallea, Rosa
Apiolaza, Luis
Institución
Resumen
This study used a hedonic approach to estimate the economic value of radiata pine log attributes (small-end diameter, form, and internode length) for appearance-grade lumber, including molding and better, shop, and industrial finger joint. Models were also built at the tree level to investigate the effect of selection as conducted by breeders. A Chilean sawing study provided information on wood traits and log out-turn for 156 logs divided into three classes: pruned butt log, second log, and third log. The conversion return of logs, instead of log prices, was used as the measure of log economic value. The economic values of log small-end diameter were 0.33, 0.19, and 0.10 US$/mm for the first, second, and third log, respectively. Concerning form, those values were US$2.6. US$1.4, and US$0.63 for a marginal improvement of this characteristic. The value of mean internode length was 0.19 US$/cm for second unpruned logs. Values for other internode length indices are also presented in this article. Branch variables were not statistically significant to explain the log recovery value. Finally, log recovery value was found to be elastic to the changes in small-end diameter and form, but inelastic to changes in the mean internode length. FOR. SCI. 56(3):281-289. R.M. Alzamora was funded by the New Zealand Radiata Pine Breeding Company. The Chilean sawing study was funded by FONDEF grant #D0011159. We thank Mario Meneses and Victor Mena for providing access to the dataset and valuable comments, and Jean Pierre Laserre and Random Lengths Publications Inc. for providing economic information. We also thank David Evison, Jeff Tombleson, and Antonio Pinto for their helpful comments and suggestions. Finally, the authors acknowledge the constructive comments from two anonymous reviewers. 2 FONDEF rmm103@student.canterbury.ac.nz; luis.apiolaza@canterbury.ac.nz FONDEF [D0011159] 3 FONDEF 56