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Forest machine entrepreneur Rauno Matikainen: Productivity and year-round employment
Brothers Rauno and Veini Matikainen, owners of Itämoto Oy, do contract work for Stora Enso and private forest owners. Their versatile equipment was acquired with a view to productivity and year-round employment.
Rauno Matikainen completed the last tillage contract of 2019 in late November. It was time to equip the Doosan 140 excavator with a Kesla harvester head again and head for the boglands for winter thinning.
“During the summer season, the excavator is used for tillage work, and during winter the excavator harvester is used for timber harvest- ing in soft boglands. The excavator harvester is gentler on the forest floor. Forest owners also prefer the excavator harvester. The Xtender makes it possible to work in rather difficult places,” says Rauno Matikainen.
Kitee-based Itämoto Oy started its operations in 2014. The Matikainen brothers’ entrepreneurship dates back to 1994, when they helped found Kone-Korpi Oy. Before that, they worked as machine drivers.
Entrepreneurship has led to growth. In addition to the pair of brothers, Itämoto employs three machine drivers and one contractor during the winter season. Their logging sites are located within a radius of about 60 km from the centre of Kitee. They have a separate pallet for transporting the equipment. The smallest contracts are completed in a few hours, the larger logging jobs last several weeks.
“There are stands marked for cutting in the coming winter, but due to the mild autumn, we now have to choose them carefully. We look forward to the winter,” says Rauno Matikainen in late November.
At Itämoto, machine choices are not made out of pure brand loyalty – productivity and reliability are crucial. The excavator is typically used for tillage for six months out of twelve, a little longer in a mild year. After that, the investment is kept profitable with bog thinning. In addition to the excavator harvester, the equipment includes two John Deere harvesters and a Sampo-Rosenlew forwarder.
“The investments are big but unavoidable. Equipment must be kept relatively new, because you can’t cope with this kind of work with unreliable equipment. During the winter season, work is done in two shifts, also on Saturdays. In summer, working hours are the normal eight hours with no weekend work.”
Itämoto’s first excavator harvester was a New Holland, also equipped with a Kesla harvester head. The current Doosan was acquired in 2016.
“We were already using a Kesla harvester head in our early wheeled harvesters. We’ve had good experiences with them; the servicing and spare parts service work well.”
Working in a machine in the middle of the woods is a lonely and independent job. Matikainen says that he has come across bears a few times over the course of his career – although bears have probably come across him more often without him noticing.
The Matikainen brothers, Veini and Rauno, harvest timber with an excavator harvester.
