Iron Tester; Tony Hill Today we are climbing into Willow Flat Rd, near Wairoa,to see Razors Edge Contracting’s new Waratah FL90 felling head riding on a John Deere 959 leveller with Starlink sharing harvest data.

The FL90 is a new mid- to large-size head designed for demanding operations but without the added weight of heavier class felling heads. It’s certainly in a demanding situation here with big ex-farm fertilised stems, but seems to be handling it well.

Razors Edge owner Guy Hogan is carrying a massive 2m “don’t argue” pipe wrench back to his truck after fixing one of his diggers. This bloke is a hands-on boss that’s for sure, having risen up from the skids and sub-contracting to now owning two busy ground-based crews and a hauler on the water heading his way for the more challenging ground in the area.

We have heard about this Willow Flat place often and worked on three sides of it, plus driven past the fourth, so it’s good to venture down this road and see what all the hype is about.

And it doesn’t disappoint. The quality of the road is surprisingly good and as the terrain it covers gets steeper and windier, we can see why. There are some really big hills and steep grades to the point where they have gone to zig zagging in a few places. We pass the historic settlement, established here around 1909 after a single willow tree was found in the riverbed, possibly an abandoned horse whip from the native logging days, which was discarded and washed downstream to take root. Prior to this, some of the biggest kahikatea and totara logs ever milled were harvested off this country, so it’s a well-known high quality tree growing area. While big country, it has some nice terrain which is still being farmed, but quite a bit has been returned to trees of the radiata variety.

We cross the long one-lane bridge and climb along the bottom of a limestone bluff before the ground changes to mud and pumice country. We are not far from the edge of Kaingaroa’s Waipunga area, and the soil types are hinting at that – a little bit like grease and so, when you find some pumice, it’s a good thing. 

Built and tested in New Zealand

For Waratah, the FL90 has been a work in progress since 2020 when they released the FL100 weighing in at 2995kg, their high production felling head for 30+ tonne carriers.

This latest FL90 fills a targeted mid- to large-size gap for 20+ tonne carriers, offering a lighter alternative to the FL100. The FL90 weighs in at 2265kg, so over 700kgs lighter than the 100 model. That’s a whole heap of kgs less to be swinging around under diesel power. The FL90 has a maximum grapple opening of 1300mm and a maximum cut of 960mm. It was designed, built and tested in New Zealand to handle big timber worldwide, with New Zealand trees as the benchmark.

Waratah has manufacturing facilities in New Zealand and Finland and each head is...