Green Horizons

Through a generous, long-term loan of a portable band sawmill by Baker Products of Ellington, Missouri, the University of Missouri’s Forestry Department is now able to demonstrate sawmilling techniques at education events across the Show-Me State.

The mill is Baker’s top of the line Blue Streak™ Model 3665D powered by a 65-HP Cummins® diesel engine that effortlessly processes 36-inch diameter, 20-foot logs. Logs are hydraulically loaded, rotated and clamped. Hydraulics raise and lower front and back toe rollers and move the fence arms. It also comes with a debarker to prolong blade life and programmable computer networks enabling the production of uniform, dimensional lumber.

Since receiving the mill this past June, it has been used to train forestry students at MU’sm summer field camp in understanding the link between log quality and lumber quality. This fall over 4,000 FFA high school students and 1,000 Missouri citizens watched the mill in operation and came away with a better appreciation for all the quality wood products that come from the forest. Later this fall the mill will serve research efforts underway by Dr. Rich Guyette’s research team to document what effects fire at various stages in the life of a forest has on lumber yield and quality.

The University is also working on an agreement with the Missouri Department of Conservation that will allow their resource foresters the opportunity to use the mill for training and demonstration events.

This partnership with Baker Products is allowing MU Forestry Extension to do things we only dreamed about doing a few years back. Next on the wish list is a ¾-ton truck to transport the mill. We currently have to lease a vehicle from the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Field Operations. Any GH reader out there willing to donate a ¾-ton truck?

		Photo: Mike McNail, CEO, and David Frances, sawmill fabricator (facing left) talk with forestry students before the mill’s inaugural run at the MU field camp at University Forest.
		MU forestry students learn how to scale and grade logs and lumber, and understand the relationship between log and lumber quality.
		Dusty Walter, MU Center for Agroforestry, talks to some of the 1,500 FFA students that observed the mill in operation at the MU Bradford Research Center in Columbia
		Hank Stelzer, MU Forestry Extension, reveals the inner workings of the Baker mill to the 800 FFA students who saw the mill at the MU Southwest Research Center in Mt. Vernon.