RamdomChances

Sorry mate been off line for a while. Yea them eating a lot is good, but they get a bit greedy and most places are'nt totaly self suficent in fresh forage. You let them out into a nice field and they will just eat the lot. It's better to try and regulate it.

Fat dairy cows are'nt thet good either you get a few problems with it especialy during hot season and after calfing. Generaly they all lose weight for about 3 months after calfing when the milk production is highest and then suould geadually put some back on again for the next pregnancy.

Yea casava seems to do better in sandy soil, they grow a lot a couple of km up from me where the soil looks vewry sandy, around here nobody bothers, although a couple of people are trying it this year as the price has gone up so much. I think it's prussic acid in the leaves, supposed to be the same problem with "jumbo" if you feed young plants.

Do you think I can train my cows to come when I ring a big bell?

If you feed them the same time every day you wont even need the bell, ours are cueing at the door every morning and afternoon. I've got a fence around the paddock and just use electric wire when they are out grazing, if you let them they will just gorge themselfs on grass so it's better to strip graze using electric fencing. You can control how much they eat then and give the rest time to re-grow.

I'd like to fence around the perimiter of our land but the cost is just to high

Can you grow GM crops organicaly ? I've never really understood the problem with GM food, but apparently if you have an organic farm it has to be GM free. Are'nt virtually all crops GM due to selective breeding ect over the years ?

Sound like you have the right idea guys, just something to do mabye a bit of extra income and plenty of fresh fish. I'm still trying to learn how to use a throwing net ("swing" in thai) my neibour can throw it in a perfect circle...there must be a knack to it if you ever passing through Nakhon Sawan drop me a line and pop in.

RC

Sound like a good plan mate, very simular to what a lot of Thai small holders do.

Sweet corn (khow phood wan) would be better if your going to feed the stalks to the cows as it's harvested while the plant is still green, the normal type around here the actual plant is dryed up by the time they harvest so there is little nutritional value left. You can feed the inner husks off the corn as well, stovers I think they are called the dried plant and stover has about the same nutritional value as rice straw, which I assume you will have from the rice as well. If you machine strip the corn keep the fine powdery stuff off it as well (lamb) you can feed that to the cows.

How do you do your rice, if you just take it to somewhere for stripping then keep the outer shells (greap) and polishings (lamb) greap has virtually no nutritional value but can be mixed with other stuff to add bulk and fibre, rice lamb is as good as some bagged food concentrates.

If your growing corn seasonaly ie not using irrigation you can plant sorghum after either forage (jumbo) or grain (khow fang) sell the grain and let the cows eat the stalks. Have you thought about cassava (man) the leaves are supposed to be good as food and the tuber either sold or kept to use as feed concentrate.

I've mentioned peanuts to you before, but you did'nt have very good results our problem with then was I had too many plants at one time and had a lot of wastage. After trying a few cash crops and feeding the cows the left overs, I'm happier just growing forage for the cows as my cows are the primary income on the farm, your going for a more intergrated approch. In your position I'm not sure weather I would bother planting any pasture for the cows just put it all to crops and use the residue plus rice straw to feed the cows.

My neibour does a very simular thing, has about 20 beef cows, grows corn then grain sorghum and grazes the cows on it after harvest, he also uses the bits of land alongside the road (goverment land) for planting jumbo and generaly moves them around grazing where ever there is any thing to eat

When I think about feeding I tend to use rice straw as my baseline as they can live off it but just for maintanance ie dont expect them to put any weight on, the beans I'm not sure but should be ok.

Cheers RC

Any suggestions for something that is more commercially viable than Pla Dook in a similar sized pond i.e. half rai? Also given that Pla Dook have such a varied diet would that get in the way of stocking different species in the same pond?

Hmm, I think you will find that half a rai is'nt really big enough to provide any meaningful income,unless you really heavily stock it. I'm no expert on the matter though just going from what I've already done and talking to other people.

Pla dook sells for about 40 bhat a kg, large ammounts you can get an "agent" to come and catch them all and buy them wholesale, but when you think that fish food is 20 bhat a kg with a 50% food conversion ratio you would still need to feed tham 2 kg to gain one kg of fish meat. In a heavily stocked pond there would be much less natural food to go around plus you would have more deaths and may have to find a way to airate the pond

My mate used to have a big fish farm 3 ponds the biggest about 6 rai, he reconed he used to pull in a couple of 100 thousand a year from it keeping pla sawai and pla dook, but he a had a chicken farm as well, built over one of the ponds so the fish ate the chicken sh!t and he used to mince up and deat or injured chickens as well.

As for pla dook eating stuff I think they are mainly botton feeders/insects they seem to go well with the "vegitarian" types of fish pla nin, pla lat, bla tap tin (pla tap tin prefer running water apparently). Pla chon I'd like to do but they are meat eaters.Last year we had loads of baby fish, in the pond after a few months, so this year i'm going to try about 200 pla dook, 200 pla lat and then after about a month, when they are big enough put in about 20 pla chon, I recon the other fish will be to big for the pla chon to eat by then. I want to try and get a light put over the pond as well to atract insects. Some people who keep fish use those UV insect trap lights and then throw the insects in.

Pla dook are just about the easiest fish to keep and grow, they eat almost anything. They dont do so well in clean sterile water, our pond gets run off from the farm so it's rich in cow manure, and "stuff" plants and insects thrive in it so therefore so do the fish.

You can buy comercial fish food in most towns and villages about 20-25 bhat/kg it comes in 3 sizes (S,M,L) for the fish while they are growing.

Comercialy pla dook are not that good as they sell cheap as they are so easy to grow. I did about 3000 pla dook and pla nin last year (my pond is about half a rai) ate a lot and just sold some from the shop and gave some away. I only fed them about half a kg a day if that. If your pond has no ecosystem you have to feed a lot more, we get quite a few fish farms buying cow manure from us to put in the ponds. I'm probably going to do a couple of hundred this year of assorted fish just for my own consumption, but wont bother with feed.

RC

the main reason for getting the cows is to have an easy manure supply (since I'm organic) but I'm sort of hesitant about having cows cause I look at them like having children..

Would'nt just buying cow manure or chicken be easier, we sell loads of the stuff 10 bhat a bag (30kg bag) about 5 bhat if you have your own bags and fill them yourself. I'm not sure about ruzzi neding lots of nitrogen, I've read it does well with it and you get better nutritional value from it if you apply nitrogen, but as your not really intrested in fattening the cows up then it should not really matter.

If you dont want calfs just keep all females (or bulls) and dont inseminate them. We are probably looking at feeding from different aspects, I feed for milk production and if I kept beef cattle I would feed for weight gain, you seem to just want something to feed them on, to be honest probably the best for ton/rai would be jumbo, some of the grasses and espesialy leugems are much higher in protien, but you dont really need it if your just keeping them for manure.

RandomChances,

I got some para grass from Mae Jo University and am starting to propogate it for fodder and pasture. I believe that you mentioned it a long time ago but haven't mentioned it lately. Is my memory correct and if some can you comment on para grass? I decided on para grass over pangola grass because here in the north it is rather cool at night for about 3 months and I read that pangola grass grows very slowly when the temperature is lower. I'm also wondering about para grass becoming a pest.

Chownah

I can't remember commenting on para grass, we used to feed ours with Pangola, but it's not that easy to grow and I've been told requires a lot of water. Para grass is very invasive, are you planing on grasing them? To be honest I would stick with ruzzi for grasing and "jumbo" for cut'n' carry. I've got about 7 rai with ruzzi which did'nt take that well so is just mixed in with local "grass" we graze the cows on it and cut'n'carry the jumbo.

I'm having really good results this year,in fact our yields/cow are the higest they have ever been, we have more jumbo than we can cut and the cows eat. We are doing some grazing of the jumbo as I have so much of it but the regrowth is much slower than cuting it by hand. We actually planted the jumbo in the hot season, we had one downpour so ploughed the land and just chucked the seeds in, they have come on really well in fact we've been feeding it since april it does'nt need much water so I recon I'm going to be fine until about jan/feb. I'm planning about an other 10-15 rai of ruzzi for grasing, we do strip grasing using electric wire.

I dont know which is the best for weight gain, but we are getting better milk yields with Jumbo/Ruzzi than we were when we were giving pangola, a lot will depend on the climate/earth where you are but jumbo seems to thrive anywhere is cheap to buy and easy to grow. The only downside is having to cut it and young plants are supposed to have high levels of prussic acid. I'd worry about the para grass invading the rice paddies.

RC

Ditto

My favourite poision is Sang Som. My missus compalins thats it's lo-so.

Like thats gonna stop me

Same here. Similan is probably slightly smoother, made by the same company, someone told me it was supposed to be the export version of Sang Som, but not sure.

This may just make things more confusing, but the fish that my mother in law calls 'plaa kraphong daeng' is known as 'plaa thap thim' in most restaurants.

It is very possible mother in law confuses the two, but I thought I should mention it all the same.

I've seen 'plaa thap thim'for sale in resteraunts as "red snapper" but as SBK said they are two different species but do look very simular. I usually let the wife order "plaa kraphong" if we are eating it as I usually get it confused with "plaa ga bong" (tinned sardines)

My house is a renovated "tthai" wooden house about 40 plus years old. Dont worry about the clading, it can be replaced easily and is usually the first to go. Check the floor, and all the joists plus the posts. Mine were all sound. Had to do a complete re-wire, plumbing, new roof, put some rooms in as it was just one big room upstairs. Put a ground floor in, concreted the base, car port, new windows, proper toilet but all in all it cost me about 2-300,000 bhat done over stages and its a big house.

The nice thing about wooden houses is that you can change or add to them easily, as long as you have decent wood for the structual stuff you should'nt get many probs with termites. The downside's are that if you want aircon there is virtually no insalulation and the house expands and contracts in the wet/dry season leading to ill fitting doors and windows. Altogether though I'm fairly happy with mine for the money I spent

I bought mine in a place called Tha Muang about 10 km outside Kanchanaburi.

Ok thanks.

really messy trees teak are but hey if you got like many rais of nothing to grow, why not? get your permission and then harvest it when you want to. if you want to.

I want to plant them around the perimiter of our land about 65 rai, they then dont take up any space for crops, and if needs be can always be cut later, they will also help as wind breaks.

I am all for grazing but my father in law is afraid that someone will steal the cows if we let them graze without anyone watching them.

Well it's not unheard of Usually if grazing away from "home" there is someone with them. We use electric wire to "fence off parts of the farm for grazing, but its all around the house and we keep them in the paddok at night. I would of thought corn would'nt be avalible this time of year ? its pretty seasonal with a long growing cycle.

Now, if we at some point want do grow something else, will any of these types of grass act as a weed? (is it easy to get rid of without using any kind of herbicides) Or is there any chance that they will spread uncontrollably and take over nearby rice paddies?

Of the two the Ruzzi grass is the most invasive, but you should'nt have too many problems and it wont grow in submerged rice paddies anyway. Jumbo, you get the odd stalk splatered around but not very invasive at all, one good ploughing and thats more or less it. Its also very easy to spot and just cut out. With smalled herds cut and carry makes much better use of the land IMO well apart from the need to cut and carry it anyway you'll get a much better yield/rai time after time.

another question, how legal is it to buy some little teak trees and plant them in the house? i live in chiang mai and have a house on 1 rai of land. can spare a big part of it growing 2-3 teak trees. are they available for sale in the local markets?

Planting teak is no problem, harvesting them can be a problem if you don't register with the forestry department when you plant them. Plants are B2 each for 30-40 cm tall ones in central thailand, not sure if they are cheaper up in your area. But they leave a lot of "garbage" (dried fallen leaves that takes a long time to decompose because many bugs won't eat them). If the conditions are right they will grow very tall in no time at all.

Where about exactly was that mate, I'm in central and have been looking for some to plant around the perimiter of our land....your right about having to register them first if you want to sell them later.

Ok your raising for beef then are you looking for weight gain or just to breed ? Chopped corn leaves and storks are good if you can get them, are you growing corn just to give to them? If you grow "sweet corn" (khow phood wan) you can sell the corn (Maize) and still feed the plant to the cows. A lot depends on how many cows you want to feed.

If you are only going to a couple of rai and are happy with cut"n"carry I'd go with Forage Sorghum (yaa jumbo or khow fang wan in thai) Its readly avalible, cheap and easy to grow. If you cut it by hand it will just keep growing back. It will grow back after grazing but takes a lot longer as the cows trample it in and destroy many of the plants. My neibour planted some he recons is a new strain, fast growing, it was about a meter tall in less than a month. All varieties look very simular to maize, but with out the heads, can grow up to 2 meters+ in hight, but best cut about a meter when the stalks are still soft and juciy. We dont bother chopping ours and there is not much wastage. Get it in as soon as you can, you only need to scatter it over the land and then plough over with a small disc plough (7 disc on the large fords) a bit of urea (nitrogen fertiliser) when it starts coming though at about 30 kg/rai works well but is'nt essential

If you want to graze them I'd go for Ruzzi grass (Brachiaria ruziziensis is the latin if you want to do a search, the Thais just call it "Lucy") It's often mixed in with some sort of lugume "cento" is popular (Centrosema pubescens). I've tried it before but did'nt get it to grow that well, but I took a short cut and the "weeds" sort of out grew it. The land needs turning over first (large 3 disc plough), spread the seed then small disc (7 disc or 3-5 disc on a small tractor). It will take a while to grow but the regrowth after grazing is supposed to be very good. You would need to strip graze it really.

All told I'd go for the jumbo if I we you and only doing a couple of rai although if looked after and not over grazed the Ruzzi grass should come back year after year. The jumbo does alledgedly, but I've previously grazed mine and it ruins it, on the other hand its so cheap and easy to grow, it's not much of a problem

If anyone around you grows peanuts the left over plant is good, fresh or dried, but dont feed it as a sole source rather as a suplement to other forage. Man (cassava root/tuber) is pretty good for weight gain, but has gone up in price a lot this year, again a couple of kg's a day as a suplement (if you are feeding them bagged food no need)

RC

Bina I'm not sure on the manure issue, we usually just skim the paddock a couple of times in the dry season then rent a spreader. It's more dry and powdery then like compost by then fresh manure.

Can't fault your observations, although would question your methods over some issues. Like all that spraying herbicides on your nuts! Do you feed the cattle the leaves and sell the nuts or keep the nuts themselves for feed supplements?

Hi Pla, Sell the nuts and feed the plants to the cattle. Peanuts do require a lot of looking after, and I was'nt happy with the ammout of "stuff" we were using, but probably for different reasons from you. I was'nt happy as I was concerned with the levels of pestiside for feeding the plants to the cows, on top of that I sub all of the work out so it really does cut into the profits and I had no way of really storing and using all the plants, so I had a glut for a while and a lot of wastage, you cant feed just peanut plants as all the cows get the runs It's good as a suplenent for forage at about 10-20%. After trying various cash crops, I've finaly just gone over to growing forage sohgram (yaa jumbo), no pestiside/fungiside cow manure and a bit of urea as fertiliser. I think I'll try some ruzi grass next year for grazing as the Jumbo does'nt lend itself well to grazing but is great for "cut and carry".

I think I warned you a long time back about what was happening with pulling the subsidies on domestic milk and how small Thai dairy farmers were going to get screwed by Australian imports.

Yes I remember, we've never had any subsidies on the milk so thats not the problem and to be honest the prob with the Austrailian milk has'nt goten any worse than before, the real prob has been the rise in fuel costs. It's driven the price of food and hay up cutting into profits, while we still have to compete price wise with the imported stuff that has stayed the same price, plus the fuel cost to get your milk to the co-op. At our local co-op there have been about 25 farms close down this year, many of them the larger operations. The price of milking cows has droped to about 20,000 a head from 35,000 a year or so ago and thats for prime milkers anything less than prime now usually being sold for beef.

The problem with the bigger operations is the reliance on hay (rice straw) or bought in fresh forage Fresh forage has all but priced itself out of the market IMO, and if just feeding hay the milk yield drops buy about 30% making the large farms less profitable/head than the smaller ones who can usuall find some grass either from a few rai of their own or just cut and carry from the roadside.

Last year we were at our peak in terms of the ammount of cows we had, but due to the reliance on hay and the increased price of fuel we were actually running at a loss for a large percentage of the year, the first time ever since opening. We've had to downsize to the ammount that we can grow our own food for hence the conversion to growing forage, luckly we have a fair ammount of land to do it and can support about 50-60 head ourselfs (I recon you need about 1 rai/head for dairy to produce enogh forage). Actually at the moment we are the most profitable/head of cattle that we have ever been, although with less cows.

A worrying aspect is that virtually no farms are raising cattle any more, with the glut of cow's on the market it's just not worth it, it takes about 3 years to raise a milker to its first calf and would cost about 20,000 bhat in food to do so. You can buy in prime milkers second or third calf for 20,000 at the moment, and young cows in their first pregnancy say about 6-7 months in for about 14-17,000. with older cows going just for the price of the beef. The price will probably shoot up in a couple of years as the ammount of dairy cattle on the market dries up.

Not sure who is going to carry on all these small Issaan farms (<25 rai) when the current generation get too old to farm, but am sure there is a crisis creeping up here, especially if they are taken over by agribusiness-related interests who are only interested in strip-mine crop farming or super-intensive livestock farms. What's the average size of farm in your area these days and are villages depopulating?

Around here I'd say the average was more like 50-60 rai, either owned or rented (or a bit of both). Most people with smaller ammounts of land working elswhere as well to suplement their income. I was talking to a few of my mate the other day (all with land) and they reconed that to live "sabai sabai" just off farming then you would need around 120 rai working it yourself with your own tractor. We dont seem to get that much involvment for the large agribuisiness here although they do give credit for buying seed/fertiliser most farms are'nt "contracted" to them still being able to sell their produce at best price.

I would'nt say the the villiges are depopulating, but they are'nt growing either, most people I know want their children to get a uni education and a good job. That invariably means leaving although one of the offspring will usually take over the farm. Talking to a lot of people around here, if you go back 50 odd years there were many large farms 2-300 rai (back when you just cleared the land and grew stuff on it) most have just been split down to the remaining children, but there is only so many times that split can occur and still be left with a viable farm.

We are probably in a better position than many areas of thailand, large flat fields, no flooding (no rice production), enough regular rain for two crops a year. Most of the people without land finding seasonal work, in fact most of the actual farm labour having to be "imported" from Issarn during the harvesting seasons, there is an increasing amount of mechnisation ie combine harvesters being used at harvest time, but at the moment these are'nt really any cheaper that labor teams and there is a higher percentage of wastage with them the only benifit is speed. The rice producing areas around Nakhorn, Chia Nat, Supan seem to be pretty affulant many areas doing three crops a year as most of the land has irrigation. The big agri companies seem to be pushing pig farming now, with many new pig farms opening, in lieu of chicken farms which are still pretty big buissines here.

It's only a matter of time I'm afraid before the small farms get sucked up, unless the owner is using it to suplement his income/grow food fro personal use. Most people I know with thier own land have some sort of morgage on it and there is always land avalible at knock down prices where the bank is due to reposses. What can be done, I dont know. I can't see how growing bulk crops on <25 rai farms will ever produce a sustanible income the profit/rai just is'nt there. Diversification, niche markets i.e organic (in some circumstances), fresh fruit and veg may help(better profit/rai), better water managment more irrigation, more education on farm managment.

RC

Hmmm, Iv'e been reading this from the stard but have'nt commented until now. I think both Plachon and korat Correct have some valid points. Any way heres some of my views.

Pesticides there's very little awarness of how much, when to use and the application measures are appauling. We don't used much of it unless we are growing peanuts, which seem to require lots of the stuff. Saying that we've done 3 peanut crops, the first just 10 rai as a trial, did everything "wrong" very little weed killer and hardly any pesticide/fungiside about 2000 bhat/rai profit. 2nd/3rd time 50 odd rai, had advice off one of the more sucsessful peanut growers on what to put on the land, regular pesticide/fungiside spraying, about 3 lots of fertiliser ended up with about 1000 bhat/rai profit. We sub all the spraying out as I dont want my own staff getting sick !!

I must add that most other farms had poor crops that year as well, maily blamed on the rain, to much/little at the wrong times. As I wanted to use the plants to supplement my cow food I was'nt really happy with the level of spraying required or the returns againts the cost of growing it cost about 3 times as much to grow peanuts than Maize. So by no means take it as some sort of study. So in summary there's probably too much used, with to little knowlage as next to no saftey precautions for application.

Fertiliser, I dont really see as that much of a problem. Most of the farms here make pretty heavy use of chicken manure and also use urea and one of those proprietory phosporous/nitrogen/and something else things. There seems to be little training on what/when to use. Crop rotation is not really that practical for many areas, non irrigated land will only have one possibly two growing season's a year and the crop planted has to be sutible for the soil and the ammount of rainfall in the season. Rice paddies dont really lend themselfs to crop rotation. Maize/sunflower seems to be the most popular around here, with sugar cane second (I'n not in a rice growing area)

Market's/certification. At present there is next to no local market for organic produce,the vast majority of it going for export. There is no market for organic meat. From what I can see of the organic sector in Thailand, it is little better, than some of the stuff the big agro componies try to pull off. You have to join some sort of scheme/consortium with the relevent companiy, who will stipulate how you have to grow "stuff" and you will be obliged to sell your produce to, seems very much like "contract farming" to me. There is to my knowlage no Goverment standerds for organic farming. There seems to be a lot writen on the net about organic farming in thailand, but mainly by various NGO's who seem to have little feel for the plight of the average farmer. Organic farming IMO is always going to be a niche market as the majority of people want cheap redily avalible produce and are unwliing to pay a premium.

Whats needed IMO is better education on the use/application of pesticides/fertilisers, better water managment, more irrigation schemes and a willingness of the goverment to try to help the farmer rather than the intrests of big business and potential exports.

I could lay a pretty good claim to producing organic milk, no growth hormones, production enhancers, feeding fresh pestiside free forage ect and most other farms could claim the same thing, is there a market ....no way, we still have to compete with cheap powdered milk imports from Austrailia.

I often borrow our neighbors tractor, or farm tools, they borrow our a lot as well.....saves everyone buying the same thing

Always invite dirtydog to a TV pissup I'm sure he'll make an appearance!

He's claims to be wanted for a bunch of unsolved murders all over the world.

I wouldn't imagine that he's too worried about a bunch of over-moderated TV nerds with macho TD members like SS sTROLL and Butterfly the swishy Thai-boxer backing him up.

Maybe they will all show for the pissup.

Well, it's supposed to take place in CM so maybe you can pop in and give us a first-hand account, Ulysses G?

He he, just seen this thread, it's linked from that other evil forum I might well be going to their piss up in Chaing Mai if any one fancies a beer

About 2 million should take care of it

Is alfalfa a suitable crop for this climate? Any link to info about growing it here, or tips from anyone who have tried? (and where can one buy the seeds for it?)

Its supposed to be great as cow food, but I've never seen it grown, or noticed any seeds for sale. What sort of cows do you want to feed ? and how many, how much land have you got. What type of soil is it ect

We are growing forage sohgram (yaa jumbo in thai) and are getting excelent results this year, but it lends itself to cut and carry so is hard work, although I think we will have a surplus this year so might run a tractor over it and do some silage.

Ruzi grass is popular they have started mixing it with "centro verona" to improve the pasture. This is sutible for grazing. Pangola grass is very good as well if you an grow it.

Try getting in touch with these people there should be somewhere near you

http://www.dld.go.th/nutrition/ANIMAL_NUTR...ON_DIVISION.htm

If you plant the jumbo now it would be ready in a month or two, you shoould be able to get seeds anywhere (seed shop) Ruzi would probably take about 3 months and some people recon it's best not to graze the cows the first year as they tend to pull the route up.

"They're cheaper, more environmentally friendly and better for our income," Prawat Khamphakdi, [b]chairman of the Roi Et Thai Buffalo Conservation Club[/b], said yesterday.

Well he is the Chairman what do you think he would say!. I think the only part of the statment that hold any water is the "enviromentaly friendly" bit, I'm not sure how much a mature, trained buffalo for ploughing would be. Do you need one or two?

The one guy spent a month ploughing 20 rai, when he would of spent a day with a "walk behind" tractor and used mabye 200 bhat of fuel. Buffalos need to eat and they need to eat every day all year, there is usually not enough forage so feeding rice straw at half a bail a day (minimum) would set you back 10 bhat a day, 300 a month. Plus the value of extra labour, possibility of not getting the crops in on time

"It takes a longer time to prepare the soil for planting rice, but the natural fertiliser from buffaloes means farmers pay less for chemical fertilisers.

The ammount of "fertiliser" from a buffalo plouging would be negligible, in fact so negligible its laughable. If I took the whole years manure production from our farm (say 70 head) it still would not be enough to fertilise 30 rai also the fertiliser is geared to the production of specific crops and applied at specific times ( mabye one type before planting, an other when the crop is starting to grow ect) obviously you dont get this with buffalo. Usually chicken or cow manure is applied before plouging as a soli preperation/improver and then specific fertilisers are then used as the crop develepes

Plouging by tractor depends on the type of plouging being done. Around here is up to 350 bhat/rai for the big 3 disc ploughing (needs a big ford type tractor) and 185 bhat/rai for the small disc (7 disc's on large tractor or 3 on small) No one really uses the hand helds around here as we dont really grow that much rice and they are'nt sutible for heavy duty plouging.

No way need to learn to read Thai, I speak it just fine, keep meaning to getting round to reading, but can't be bothered/find the time.

Me to, although I think my Thai would improve if I took the time to learn how to read and write. My mother-in-law can't read or write Thai, but speaks it perfectly.