Prairie Wood Products of Prairie City, Oregon recently added an optimized headrig carriage as part of a series of upgrades that will enable the operation to continue its growth and remain competitive in the marketplace.

Looking to increase production and recovery, the mill installed a double-cut carriage with a USNR Yield Master G3 StereoScan system in August 2007. The new carriage line has allowed Prairie Wood Products to handle larger logs which greatly expands its timber procurement options.

Prairie Wood Products processes between 6500 and 7000 stems per day, producing green and kiln dried 2x4 and 2x6 studs, and shorts down to four foot of Douglas Fir, Larch, White Fir and SPF.

The mill runs the YieldMaster G3 system in minimum opening face mode (MOF) with optimized sawing patterns, a technique that has dramatically increased production and recovery at the mill.

“We are very pleased with the results we’re getting from our Yield Master G3 StereoScan system,” said Don Bodewig, who is the Eastern Oregon Regional Manager for DR Johnson Lumber Company, the parent company of Prairie Wood Products. “It has given us the added value we were looking for.”

“It was a sensational start-up,” declared Don Bodewig. “We were up and running at full production in just a few days.”

According to USNR Project Manager Jeff Storey, “It was a challenging project because of the minimal travel before the slabber set points.” The line is very close coupled from the point where the log is loaded onto the carriage to the point where it meets the slabber. The optimizer needs to operate very efficiently in order to achieve the final solution in time.

The YieldMaster G3 StereoScan system has proven to be the right answer for Prairie Wood Products. “Its ability to scan on the fly makes it very fast, and the high-speed data transfer allows for rapid solution generation. These factors made it possible for us to achieve such a tight set point,” Don explained.

Prairie Wood Products chose USNR for this project because of product quality, relationship history, and the consistently high level of service over the years.

“It was a sensational start-up,” declared Don Bodewig. “We were up and running at full production in just a few days.” The short start up time made the project feasible with a limited impact on mill production.

Mill personnel were able to get up to speed in record time and begin to make effective use of the new optimization system, a feat that Don attributed to the user-friendly system. “It’s the most user friendly optimizer I know of,” he said.

Other upgrades at Prairie Wood Products included adding a debarker for the new carriage line, and more recently upgrading the existing sharp chain system with USNR 3D Smart TriCam scanning and MillExpert optimization.

DR Johnson Lumber Company was founded in 1951 with the inception of its mill in Riddle, OR. That mill originally employed 10 workers and generated a daily production of 30,000 board feet of lumber.

Today, the organization consists of six affiliated companies staffed by 400 employees and daily produces 1,000,000 board feet of lumber. The company uses USNR equipment in many of its operations.

During summers, while attending college at the Oregon Technical Institute, Vern worked at Simpson Timber in Klamath, CA pulling green chain and setting chokers. After receiving a degree in Electronics and Engineering Technology, he began his professional career.

Over the course of the next 30 years, Vern worked for a handful of companies in various capacities including engineering, project management and sales. Then in 1997, he went to work for Perceptron Forest Products Division which was later acquired by USNR.