RamdomChances

^ No probs mate, no one reads them anyway, just trying to give the links bit a bit of advertising

^There is a link to GISS in the links section, straight to the english part, but they sometimes change it.

^ I've got a couple, all bought localy. Either just the head with a wooden shaft or all steel. You should be able to get them around you somewhere

Make sure if you have plastic mat's they are'nt stuck under the accelerator pedel. This has actually happend to me in the past

If you do a day trek it will be a bit "zoo" like as you basicly just go to the more touristy and accsesible places. I did one from Chiang Dao Nest in Chiang Dao a year or so ago and it was very good about 50km north of Chaing Mai

Members in P-lock are pretty thin on the ground. In fact not many in the whole of the "central" region. I'm about 1.5 hrs south of P-lock but sorry can't help you on the where to go stuff

^ "talang" thai for square so 120 talang mt is 120 square meteres. You'll sometimes see "wa" and talang "wa" 1 "wa" is 2 meteres so 1 talang wa is 4 sq meters

I've had two of them now. I've got the one woth the top burner in the oven as well that you can use for a grill. I've never had any problems getting ours hot enough. Most regulators on the gas bottles can be adjusted to give more or less gass.

As has been said be careful if you have kids as the do get very hot

Bina

When we did the paper work, it was embassy ( for the declaration that you are free to marry), translation, MFA, Ampur. We let the translation place handle the MFA and paid them, easier and much cheaper as they just sent the paperwork up to us by registered mail so we did'nt have to stay a couple of nights in BKK.

November is coming into cold season, weather should be great, I'm exactly the same as you can eat anything and sleep any where but have to have my hot shower. Given the choice of air con or hot water the water would win hands down.

The diaphram stuff sorry can help you with

Anyway good luck and where's my invite

If you wanna try the machines out RC you would be welcome if in Sisaket sometime (although may be a bit busy during harvest time).

Thanks for the info pun, not much call for rice harvesters around here, but combines are being increasingly used. Are you out here full time now then ? I've ever I'm over that way I'll drop you a line.

Hi mixedbreed, nice to hear from you again.

^ I think they are Nile Tilapia.

Yup, if your prone floods in rainy season catfish will make a break fro freedom

Punstedt, can i ask what sort of price they are going for up there ?

MF, same question really. (approx is fine)

When I eventualy get around to it thats what I was looking at geting as well.

what a tremendous resource this site is.

Most of thats down to MF, he's really brought a new dimension to this forum

I was just looking at some of the stats for pepper from here :-

http://www.oae.go.th/statistic/yearbook/2003/indexe.html

It's under others

It shows the 2003 value at 680 kg/rai with a farm price of 79 bhat, that works out at a whopping 53,730 bhat/rai. Which is a pretty amazing fig, anyone got any ideas on the costs to grow ?

RC

Nice link issangeorge, i've put it in the links section.

Anyone growing chilli, the stats from that link look very impresive.

2003 stats ( the most up to date)

267 kg/rai and a market price of 64.24 baht/kg that works out at just over 17,000 bhat/rai

On the face of it thats pretty impresive, I wonder what the growing costs are. Planting, fertiliser ect

The other one that stood out was pepper 53,700 bhat/rai

Hello !

How much you expect money back for kilo when you sell your fish (pla nin,pla duk)?

Does it any matter how big your fish are or how many kilous (tons)your sell one time?

It's a bit of a "how long is a piece of string" question. Depends on what your stocking rates are, what type of farming you do ect. I've never really done it comercialy, just low intensity, relying heavely on natural food, but did'nt think the return was that good.

A friend of mine used to have a large fish farm (1x 5 rai and about 3-4 x 1-2 ponds) I remember him telling me that he had actually reduced his stocking rate but was making more money as the fish grew faster. For large quantities you get an "agent" come in and catch and buy the lot.

back to what I said first time round - nope, not much mileage in that

Oh well, thanks anyway....just a thought, I more or less thought as much.

Oh good link Chownah, I came up with the index for that whole publication, might stick it in the links tomorrow

Is this sweet corn/normal - as in picked when the maize stalk is still green, or are we talking about a dried and withered out maize plant from which the dried cobs are picked? - if its a dried out (brown and brittle) maize stalk, then this is not going to work - must have greeness to it and the stalk must still have mositure (some) in it.

The dried brittle stuff, this opening line I thought was something of a give away

Around here they sell the maize when it's dried, this leaves a dried and withered stalk. Can this be somehow utilised as cow food ?

the idea was that although it might not be very good there is loads of the stuff around for free and was there any way to improve it into a viable feed.

Yea the fang mak silos could be used for silage not prob, just have to take most of the front wall out (about 70 cm high)to get tractor accsess. If I can grow enough next year the three of them full will go a long way to aliviating my dry season deficite

As you know, and do not need to be told in this case RDC, this is not about an optimiun silage - this is about a comprise i.e. finding a way to utilise what is avalible - so the benefit is going to lie in been able to offset the cost of cassava as an additive in the free avaliability of the maize waste.

Yep, I'm just looking for a cheap/better alternative to rice straw or treated rice straw so we are looking for something about 6-8% protien (more is better) and less then 1-1.5 bhat/kg. If the base mix (dried maize stalks) is free it gives me a lot of scope for additives.

a) Possible to get this maize leftover as soon as it is harvested i.e. find out where it comes from and go and have a word with farmer. Get it the same day it is cut down, and chip it the same day - a chipper is easy to make (can be made for Bht 5k - 10K - and I can send you plans on how to make one) - portable and capable of processing about 1.5ton and hour.

I can get it the same day it's picked although its pretty much dryed and withered by then anyway. I'm looking at where they still pick the mazie by hand so the rest of the plant is still standing, I'd harvest then with a mechanical "chop" which would give me a course chip. (we used to have a chop but sold it cos we were'nt using it I'm now looking for a second hand one again).

I've got 3 concrete troughs I used to use for doing "fang mak" about 10m x 3m x 2m, they have drainage as well so was thinking about using one of those as a test. I estimate they hold about 7-8 ton of straw (dry) 10-12 ton wet (each). So we are probably looking at about 10 ton of silage. for making fang mak, they hold about 360 bails@20bhat (approx 20kg), I can buy cheaper than this depending on the time of year but we'll talk ball park fig's so that's 7200 bhat for the straw and about 800 for the urea. So we are looking at producing a viable silage for less than 8,000 bhat that gives around 8% protien. I'd have to hire a "chop" (not much) and probaly get in some casual labour (still not much) plus any additives

Lets get to specifics, what do you think would be good additives and quantities, I was thinking cassava chips and molasis, what was the acid you mentioned how a bout water. The sort of thing I had in mind was mabye layering it. A bed of choped maize, sprinkle some cassava, molasis, water, then onto the next layer. How long should it be cooked for ?

Yea if you have plans for a chipper i'd be interested, please send (I'll PM you my e-mail adress).

Oh there was'nt a "b"

Nignoy, yes fresh maize is good for silage, I'm sure I've seen forage maize. I'm not sure on the economics of maize as a silage, I know MF makes it, but i've always though it a bit expencive to plant with regaurdes other crops.

I've seen an other post here about worms, mabye in the chang mai section, you could do a search.

Cheers Chownah, I think they are talking about the whole plant, but it's just dried out a bit. I'm talking about the leftover stalk and leaves.

Around here they sell the maize when it's dried, this leaves a dried and withered stalk. Can this be somehow utilised as cow food ?

I've often thought about this, I assume the dried stalk has little nutritional value, but it's avalible in huge qantities and basicaly free. It's probably too dry to make silage out of but I was thinking about putting additives in it, mabye molasis to increase the moisture, and something to increace the nutritional value like cassava (man), lamb, or even soy, peanuts or something.

I relise its not going to be as good as "grass" silage but it's compitition is rice straw(fang) about 2-4% protien and around 1 bhat/kg, or treated rice straw (fang mak) around 6-8% protien and 1.5 bhat/kg.

Just and idea anyone with any thoughts ?

RC

http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/X4565E/x4565e00.htm#TopOfPage

Heres a good link for teak, including a scheme they were runing here in Nakhon sawan

If you have purchased the barn you can simply dismantle it and

take it where you will.

Not quite right, transporting wood without any paper work is illegal and you will get stoped by every police check point on the way.

For fresh cut wood it has to be registered with the forestry commision first and you get the paperwork from them when you cut it. For "second hand wood" probaly the poo yai ban, or the local ampour office would be the best place to start.

Failing that stick to the back roads when you move it, make sure its covered and have plenty of cash on you

Well the land seems a good price whatever you do with it. I don't really know anything about rubber, it seems a loooooong wait fro your return to me, but would probaly suit someone who will move out here eventually or already has an income. There is a big big difference in seeing land in the wet and dry seasons, but you asked the questions and seemed happy with the replies.

Oh you don't actually have to kill the beef yourself

RC

How much area do you need to farm fish?

Just depends on how many fish you want to keep and how "intensive you want to do it. I have a half rai pond and we stocked it with 1000 pla dook(catfish) and 500 pla nin, last year, I get the run off from the dairy paddock into it so the water is pretty rich. They grew pretty well with not much food, ate some, gave some away and sold some in the shop.

I have been told that I could stock it with 6-10,000 (depending on who you belive) but I would of had to feed at much higher levels and thought about things like airation of the pond.

Feed much the same as any other type of farming is the most importent, you have to try and create an eco-system in the pond so the fish have "natural" food to eat, a lot of fish farms add cow manure to the ponds to promote algei (sp) and the like, a light strung over it will attract insects. They used to do fish farms underneath chicken farms so the fish can eat the chicken manure, but I belive the big aggro companies have put a stop to this. Still many of the larger chicken farms will have pla chon farms as well as they get a lot of dead bird's and just mince them up and throw in the pond.

We were buying baby fish from the market, 50 satang or 1 bhat each depending on the size. Obviously water supply is crutial as well, you would need your own bore.

Anyone got any tips on best bait for catching catfish ?

Use a net