Abstract

Economic breeding objectives were developed for production of radiata pine (Pinus radiata D. Don) structural timber in Australia. Production systems of eight companies, including plantation growers, sawmills, and integrated-system companies, were examined. A bioeconomic model linking the breeding-objective traits mean annual increment (MAI), stem sweep, average branch size, and modulus of elasticity (MoE) with production-system components was constructed using data obtained from industry and published sources. For a plantation grower the most important trait for improvement was MAI (31% improvement of net present value after a 10% trait improvement). For a sawmill the most important trait was MoE (29% improvement of profit after a 10% trait improvement). For an integated-system company the two most important traits were MoE and MAI (24% and 21% improvement of net present value after a 10% trait improvernent, respectively). There was a high correlation between breeding objectives of plantation growers within a region (r(G) > 0.99), but a negative correlation between breeding objectives of plantation growers and sawmills (r(GS) = -0.32) and only an intermediate correlation (r(GI) < 0.65) between those of growers and integrated-system companies.

Published in

Canadian Journal of Forest Research
2006, volume: 36, number: 11, pages: 2920-2931
Publisher: CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING

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