2017 International Forest Industries Magazines April May 2017 | Page 74

James Foster operating one of the two 630E skidders for J & R Logging.
CTW Equipment. In addition, he
still has his eleven-year-old 620C
skidder and a 2014 630E. Soon
he plans to replace an older 2006
model 250B with a second track
loader for additional shovel logging
capability. Between the three
Cahoon companies, they try to
upgrade five to six machines each
year.
Joedy has a crew of eleven
employees on his site. Foreman,
Jeff Bell zeroes in on why he thinks
Tigercat equipment lasts so long,
“It’s the hydraulic equipment.
Tigercat runs so cool,” he says.
“You get off a Prentice and you
lay your hand on a cylinder and
it would be scalding hot and the
o-rings would be cooked hard. But
with Tigercat, you could touch the
cylinder for a while. You can really
tell the difference.”
Eastern North Carolina – wet
and muddy
Unlike the frozen ground in cold
and snowy Canada – which Joedy
likes to visit in winter to hunt
whitetail deer – J & R Logging cuts
tracts along the coast of North
Carolina, an area often hit with
tropical storms that bring along
massive amounts of precipitation,
causing river and coastal flooding.
Based on their many years of
experience logging in the area,
the Cahoon brothers know how
to survive the wet conditions
with traditional shovel logging
techniques.
They will use a track feller
buncher and track loader to build
roads to the landing. Once they
are finished logging a sector, the
skidders will remove the temporary
road and skid those logs to
roadside as well. Their trick when
building log roads is to put the
butts of the trees toward the deck,
making it easier for the skidder to
remove them when they are done.
“You can either sit at home and
wait for the rain to dry up or you
can get yourself a shovel and keep
moving timber,” says Joedy.
Joedy’s mother, Christine
“Mama” Cahoon, logs most of her
tracts for Weyerhaeuser. Earlier
this year they got word from
Weyerhaeuser that they were the
only company that did not have
to stop operations due to rain so
far in 2016. Other contractors had
72 International Forest Industries | APRIL / MAY 2017
Now that my operators have tried Tigercat, that
is all they want to run
Joedy Cahoon, owner of J & R
multiple tracts that they started but
couldn’t finish due to wet weather.
Going back later to finish and clean
up once conditions improve can be
a waste of time and money. “You
never go in and cut all the front of
your timber out. That is a no-no,”
says Joedy. “If it gets wet, you have
no wood close by to build a road to
your deck. Continuously cut front
to back,” he explains.
These days, Joedy’s wood
averages 46 cm (18 in) in diameter.
The chips are sent to the Enviva
pellet mill in Ahoskie, North
Carolina. Round wood goes to
North Hampton County, North
Carolina. Joedy aims for 25 loads
per day whereas his mom aims for
about 50 to 60 loads per day. “It’s
a different beast with the bigger
timber on Mama’s job,” says Joedy.
“All the trees are in nice neat rows
but you get paid less so you have
to move more wood.”
40 years later
Looking back Joedy is happy
he took the chance on that new
Tigercat 726 feller buncher soon
after it was introduced to the
market. This year marks Joedy
Cahoon’s 40th year in the
logging business. It took hard
work, careful planning and the
right equipment to get to where he
is now.
This article originally appeared in
Between the Branches, November
2016, the official publication of
Tigercat Industries Inc.