Rodster is a non-row specific whole stick harvester for woody stems and high grasses.

The Rodster Mark II is the second version of the prime Rodster delivered in 1996. This machine is bigger and simpler than the first version shown in the video, and it uses only one conveyor. The shoots are laid horizontal by a trip step placed below and in front of the deck – under the conveyor itself. The clearance between the two conveyor chains can be adjusted manually by the action of the telescopic tow bar that connects them. This way, one can match conveyor clearance to shoot diameter and work with a broader range of stem sizes.

The machine is suitable for the harvesting of young poplar (Populus) in nurseries for re-planting to long rotation forestry, or among other grasses, giant reeds (Arundo d.) for bio-products. The machine is adjustable to a maximum diameter up to 150 mm but harvesting stems of this diameter has not yet been tested. The left side of the deck table can fold vertical and if one activates the deck conveyor chains while in this configuration, the machine will “roll” incoming stems and form a tightly packed load. Once the deck is full, one can dump the load in the field or extract to an appropriate collection site. During extraction, the conveyor assembly is raised over the trailer beam, which is then straightened up for fast travel. The non-row specific cutting mechanism cut everything in front and the cutting flank is adjustable in width to maximum 2.6 m.

While the Rodster Mark I is mainly utilized by the Swedish Salix planting material businessmen, the Rodster Mark II is utilized by a Salix grower to harvest stems as raw material for producing road sticks. The collected stems are thereafter processed by a Rodprep to meet the Swedish Road Administration road sticks dimension standards.