RamdomChances

Been chucking it down the night before last and a good steady drizzle today......great managed to get a crop of forage Sorgham in for the cow yesterday, as long as theres enough moisture in the soil for it to start it should grow ok.

RC

I think you should sell me your 24 HP and buy a bigger one. biggrin.gif Can you tell me where the 2nd hand kubota dealer is located

Sorry missed that earlier, you must of been posting the same time as me . There's usually a lot of 2nd hand Kubota dealers around, thay buy in from Japan, clean them up a bit put some new/second hand parts on then and mabye re-tread tyres and sell them on. Theres a really big one here they deal in Isuzuki (SP i think thats what they are called) as well, same sort of thing. Drop me a line if you fancy coming down for a look.

I bought mine 2nd hand about 4 years ago, I would 'nt say its been trouble free, but parts and labour are'nt expensive, had an engine rebuild done for 15,000 bhat about a year ago and I probably could do with putting new tyres on the back now. I probably will be selling it in a few months time. If you want a fron bucket seriously think about getting a 4wd as when you lift anything it takes all the traction off the back wheels, mines 2wd and with hindsight I should of got a 4wd. The front bucket is really handy though, just dont expect to do major land re-profiling ith it as they just are'nt up to it ( although a 30-40 hp 4wd would probably do most things)

Chownah

I think the differance in fuel consumption woulkd be negligable between a 28 and 35 Hp and if you use less disc's but take longer you use less fuel/hour but take more hours, which is why when paying for ploughing to be done it more expensive for the 3 disc than 7 disc as it takes twice as long to do. I think I paid about 500 bhat a rai this year for the two lots (3 and 7 disc the 7 disc was 185 bhat a rai and the 3 something like 250) spraying was about 50 bhat a rai.

At the end of the day a 28 hp will probably do anything a 35 would, but it would be a shame to scrimp a bit initialy (like I did ) and then find that it's not quite up to what you want it to do saying that if my 24 hp was new and 4wd I be happy with it , but I dont intend to do any ploughing.

I don't know how you could justify having a tractor big enough to plow unless you had a hundred rai or so

I've worked the math out on getting a big tractor and you are about right, without contracting out you would need a minimum of 100 rai doing two crops a year for it to be worth it.

RC

According to my wife you plant at the start of the rainy season and the ample rainfall during the rainy season gets the cane off to a good start. She says the starter shoots are not that big of a problem. Planting is VERY labor intensive also but she says the herbicides and insecticide are the expensive items.

Snip

They usually get a machine in to plant them here, just after the first rains as you need the rain to soften the soil after the hot season. I'm not sure on the herbicides/insecticide and fertiliser requirments. I thought that it was relitivley small compared with other crops (peanut, maize ect), usually around here I think they spray herbicides after a couple of months when the plant is a few feet tall, just to keep the competing vegitation down. One of the main reasons people grow it around here is the ease of it, you can get a better return doing two crops (maize, sogham/sunflower or peanuts) but they take much more looking after in terms of ground work (ploughing ect) and herbicides/insecticide/fertiliser.

Here they usually just pull the 10 wheelers directly onto the land.

I'm a bit confused now. Last year there was a man who people hired around here to plow the rice fields. He used a 28 horsepower Kubota 4 wheel drive...I think it was a five bottom disc plow....maybe 6...I can't remember.

Random when you talk about a 60 hp tractor for ploughing are you talking about mould board plows? Could the difference be that mould board plowing in dry land takes the 60 hp and that disc plowing in moist earth can be done with less power?.....for instance, my 9 hp two wheel Kubota can pull one bottom in dry earth but it can pull a two disc plow in moist earth.

Whats a "mould board plow" ?

I'm talking about the "disc" ploughs, mabye called "harrows" unfortunatly I'm noy much good on the lingo

We don't really grow rice around here, well not this part of Nakorn anyway, but I have been told that the kubota"s are fine for rice, so it's probably something to do with the moist earth being easier to get through. I'm not even sure what the process is for rice in reguards to ploughing ect...your the rice expert on this forum For Maize, Peanuts ect they usually plough twice here 3 disc (deep) then 7 disc (fine), probably the big Ford's are'nt as suited to rice fields being too big and heavy (and thirsty). I think the 5 disc Kubuta ploughs are only the same dia as the 7 disc Ford ones and the Kubuta is not able to do the deep 3 disc (I'll try and find out the dia's of the disc's)

RC

Edit

Just had a look at a ford with the "3 disc" on, the guy did'nt know the dia, but I recon it was about 50cm with the 7 disc probably more like 30 cm, he reconed that the kubuta's cant handle the deep discs and the 5 disc you get for them is the same dia as the 7 disc ford.

14 hp is a bit low for anything serious and the lack of a PTO shaft is a big draw back, but then again at 14 hp theres not much it could actually power even if it had one, the only thing I could see it being usful for is pulling a trailer, you could use it for spraying if it had a PTO shaft.

I've never seen Yanmar, but it sound's comparable with the Kubuta's (20-40 hp) even a 35 hp 4wd Kubuts is not much use for ploughing although you can do most other things with it. I was looking at some a few weeks ago with Billd766. There is a big second hand Kubuta place near me and even they said that if you want to be able to plough then buy a ford. The second hand ones (reverbished) where going for 180,000 if I remember correctly thats with a front blade and a 5 disc harrow. People do plough with them around here but only small plots. For serious stuff( ploughing, land re-work) you need a big one minimum of about 60 hp like the Fords.

Personaly if I was buying a new one (I've a 24 hp 2 wd Kubuta with a front bucket) I'd go for a 40 odd HP kubuta 4wd(or simular) with a front bucket, blade, rear rake and a pressure pump mounted for spraying and then I'd just sub out any ploughing work that I had to be done.

Something like this

http://www.siamkubota.co.th/menu/group_e.asp?roomid=4

But I'd but 2nd hand

My 4 door 4wd Isuzu is terrible on fuel I get about just under 9 km/l and thats mainly on fairly long runs out in the sticks, I have got a pretty heavy foot though. If I use the brother-in-laws 3L Vigo on the same run I get more like 12 km/l. I've also a nissan frontier (3L 2wd) that gets just over 11 km/l mainly on shortish runs.

Anyone with a Jazz here, I'm thinking of changing the Isuzu and buying an economical car as I do lots of Km's and although the Isuzu is great with 2 other pick-up's in the house I dont really need it, would you get over 14/l. I used to have a toyota salona which I found more economical than the pick-up's

RC

Well I live out in the sticks, so it would be a bit difficult if I felt "a bit nervous or threatened"

Don't leave anything on a table that you don't want to share with others

Actually this is true, usually when drinking together, anything left on the table is usually for all to share. Dont worry have a few drinks , buy some beer or whiskey.....it's cheap enough and your on holiday.

To be 50 min from the nearest police, or hospital you would have to be extremly remote (unless your walking ), there are small police boxes, and local medical centers most places you probably just have'nt seen them. All in all there is far less crime and you should be a lot safer out in the sticks.

RC

I think I get where Neeranam is coming from, ie that if you want to pick up "whores, bar girls, prostitutes, hookers" ect (whatever you want to call them really I really dont care) that if you know your way around Thailand a bit there are better places to go. Actually I think the originol question was a bit wider than that, but you know how these things end up

As an aside, Nerranam, you say you dont like being treated like a tourist in these areas, what are you actually doing there then, whenever I visit the "tourist" places its usually as a tourist as I dont live there, someone like Davethailand probably does'nt get treated so much like a tourisy as he's fairly well know'n out and about and has a buissenes and lives there.

Oh was that a thai packed of cigarettes or a falang one

and timing your posts will not make anyone think that you actually have a life

Well I live out in the sticks but can certianly see the appeal of living in a "touristy" area, although I prefer just to visit occasionaly. You have the hustle and busel of Pattaya with its wide range of bars, shops resteraunts and facilities and loads of other falangs (which is either a blessing or a curse depending on your view point ) or the beautiful beaches down south or even busy cities like BKK or Chiang Mai. The thing is you can get everything in the "tourist" areas if you want to, many people would just feel isolated "up-country".

When you think of Pattaya and the girls there, there must be loads of girls just working normal jobs (waitress, maid, office, shop ect) for every one that works a bar same with Phuket ect. I must admit that if I lived in BKK I probably would'nt hang out in Nana or Cowboy ect but they are ok for a fun night out if theres a group of you or if you have some visitors in town.

I chose to live where I am and it suites me, but its not for every one...each to their own and all that.

I still get treated like a tourist when I'm in Pattaya/Phuket because thats what I am when I go there a tourist even though I speak pretty good Thai. I lived in Phuket for a while and was probably treated less like a tourist even though my thai then was'nt so good but people just get to know you.

I must admit that without the farm, I think life here would get pretty boring, idealy the house here, a town house in BKK and an apartment in Phuket would be nice......one day mabye

RC

Has anyone ventured into the rearing of baby buffalos? I know farangs can't own land in Thailand but is it possible to lease some fields to rear the baby buffs and will they need their moms with them? Another big factor would be insurance for vetenenary fees ( I have heard many a story about sick buffalos and I never had them down as sickly animals ). This is a probaly a difficult subject to research and even bigger one to get off the ground but I thought of the usual bar etc business but I just couldn't drink enough to be a bar owner

I hope some people can give me a reasonable response as the only thing I know about buffalos are that the African ones when wounded are the only animal in the world that will back track you ( a subject in itself ) and stick it's horn where it is not needed unless you are of the ladyboy persuasion

Unless you buy weaned calfs they would probably need the mother with them as powdered calf milk replacment is expensive over 1000 bhat a bag, a baby cow will go through about 2-3 bags before its weaned, so if you were keeping buffalo, that would be a fair chunk out of your profit. I'm not sure that cow calf milk replacment would be that god for baby buffalo's anyway.

You can't get insurance for livestock in Thailand, but vets bills are very cheap anyway and most medicens you can buy and inject yourself and buffalo's are'nt really very sickly despite all the stories

I'd suggest that if you are interested in it you need to go and look at some buffalo farm's (wherever they are) and talk to the people running them, see how they do it and what sort of market the is for the fully reared animals.

RC

One of my nieces is getting married next month, she finished M3, sinsot 70,000 baht. Her older sister who's a bit brighter, finished M6, had someone interested but her parents wanted 100,000 baht. He didn't have it so that was the end of that, or rather him. Another brother in law's daughter got married for the second time, sinsot, 40,000 baht.

In my experience the girls who come from secure and stable families will usually require sinsot. Orphans or those from broken homes are another story.

You are completely offbase about stable/secure families require sinsot infact direct opposite from my experience and btw there is no second sinsot for a lady who has been married previously.

Correcto

Well anyone who lives out in the sticks and goes to lots of Thai weddings will tell you differently, unless of course everyone comes from unstable/unsecure families as there is sin sot shown at every wedding. What actually happens to the money after is an other thing and you are unlikly to know unless you are a very close friend of the family or actually family. Most stable and secure families want some sin sot, to actually show that the groom is "stable and secure" and is prepared to show some commitment to their daughter

As for the second marrige bit I've personaly never seen it, but then again I've never been to a wedding where its the brides second marrage, around here they would usually not bother and just live with each other, but obviously there is sin sot for second marrages as Bannorks neice is getting some, I would asume that she was still quite young and that it was the grooms first marrage.

RC

Sounds like its actually in Nakhon town, hence the district "muang".

I might be wrong but I read it as two seperate subjects and that Gary is going to plant sugar cane because he does'nt have enough water for irrigateion.

Anyway, sugar cane does'nt need irrigation, its a once a year plant and forget crop (more or less), harvested around this time of yearsupposed to be relitivly expencive to put in but will last 3-4 years, just cut and let it re-grow. It popular with absentie farmers as it requires very little looking after.

I would'nt of thought a wind generated pump to be enough for irrigation, but may well be enough to keep a leaky pond toped up

RC

Moo roughly translates to village or hamlet, its the smallest sub division usually just given a number i.e moo 4

an adress will go like this.....

Jangway....Province

Ampour.....Sub province, Large Town

Tombun....Sub of Ampour..Village

Moo.... Sub of village

House No

If you have the Ampour I could tell you where it is, but Nongkhrot is'nt an ampour in Nakhon, if its in town it will be Ampour, Muang Nakhon Sawan.

Dont worry you will probably be recived very well, there are'nt many falangs around these parts, so a lot of novelty value

I've been told its 4 around here, but your right it does get progressively smaller. How about a windmill for pumping water, I've seen a few about but dont know how effective they are, we had to go down 60 meters for ours so I dont think it would of been any good here.

All the guy's with sugar cane in are walking around with smiles on their faces this year, I was chatting to one the other day and he reconed the price has doubled over last year (he did tell me the price/ton but I can remember off the top of my head). Wether it will hold at this price I could'nt tell you....time will tell, but it's not a bad crop anyway with minimul work required to grow it.

Some good posts by Soju. I've been to loads of Thai weddings, and there is allways Sin Sot, unless you are really close with the groom, you never really know if this is just for "show" or actually paid, then comes the question of who paid for the wedding, from what I can gather (thai/thai weddings) it seems that if the sin sot is to be kept, that the wifes family pays for the wedding although this is not a definitive statment.

The average around here seems to be about 100,000 bhat and 10 bhat gold. The few people I know well enough to know the truth of where the money goes is mixed, my brother-in-law did'nt get any back, but her mother paid for the wedding, an other friend got his back but paid for the most of wedding, yet an other is still waiting to get married as he does'nt have the money yet although they have signed at the ampour so are legaly married.

Undoubtedly there are some scams around, I've seen some first hand but for many Thais, espesially living in rural areas it is very much the custom. It beats my why someone who pays say about 200,000 bhat, some gold and the wedding complains so much, add up the cost of getting married back home with out the sin sot and I think you'll find its still cheaper in Thailand even with it.

RC

I'd go with cdnvic, try to get something that they cant get here, nice chocolates, my folk's often bring flece's out as it does get quite chilly in the cold season...although you are coming out during the hottest part of the year and it does get really hot up here.

There are big bat caves in the northen part of Nakhon, if you driving past at sunset itsa like a big balck cloud coming out of the caves. Are you going to be staying in town itself ? I'm not aware of Nongkroht, it's not an ampour ( the next one down from province), so I'm not supprised that you did'nt find anything on the internet for it.

Nakorn town itself is a pretty standered provincial capital, dont get your hopes set too high . The Pimarn hotel is the best in town, theres a Big C supermarket with most western fast food outlets. A nice park in the center and Bung Bora Pet (a big lake) just outside town. The Wat on the hill overlooking town is supposed to have some nice views, but I've never been up there. I'm not sure about waterfalls, but unless there has been some early rain they might be pretty dry thet time of year, although the western part of Nakhon around Mae Wong national park is quite mountinaus so there could well be some there.

Here a few links on Nakhon, but theres not reall much on them

http://thailand.sawadee.com/nakhonsawan/index.html

http://www.thailandguidebook.com/provinces/nakhon_sawan.html

RC

One of my male staff often wears make up, but then again he often wears a skirt as well and ribbons in his hair and has a lovely bright yellow parisol to keep the sun off..........but he can lift a 65kg milk urn onto the back of a pick-up on his own

Depends on the quality of the earth as well, around here good red earth will cost about 500/ truck where black or clay earth is about 250, thats a full 10 wheeler, no idea on how many cubic meters.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone... Nobody seems bothered about it here in the village, however I did see some preperations being made in town yesterday.

Hope you like the avatar.. (hope the chinese character says something nice ?)

Why the cooked chickens and strips of pork ?

totster

Your in the wrong part of Thailand mate, its really big up here, everyone was up about 4:30 this morning, doing the "tam boon" thing, the Chicken and Pork is to make offerings to your ancestors and spirits, we had fruit, cakes, and a drop of whiskey and a ciggarette for my dead father-in-law. As the spirits dont eat much...guess what we'll be eating for the next few days

Usually there will be 3 days (although it can go on for longer) before the cremation where the monks and mourners come to the house (if the body is at a house) every morning and evening. The monks do a bit of chanting while the moruners sit and listen/chant along with them, afterwards there will be food and soft drink for everyone and usually some of the men will stay around to drink whiskey and play cards(night time). Dont ask me why but every funeral I've been to after the monks have gone in the night there is card playing.

When the mourners first arive they usually go and pay their respects to the dead body and often place flowers or a wreath. After the 3 days the body will be taken in pressesion to the wat for cremation. Generally at the cremation there will be a few speaches and more wreathes given, then everyone will be given a paper flower and they flie passed the body putting the flower into the coffin, after this is the actual burning, say about 2-3 hrs in total. I've never been to a funeral where people are drinking (alchol) during the actual cremation. After the cremation some people may got back to the deseased's house for food and drinks.

If the body is at the wat the same procedure applies but at the wat rather than the house. As has been said, put some money in an envelpoe to give to the deceased's family and where black/white or dark coulours.

RC

Thai/Chinese heritage are definitely more frugal than ethnic Thai - by a country mile.

Without a doubt, this comment hits the nail on the head.

This is the exact reason why the Thai-Chinese, over the period of just a couple of generations - generated the majorty of the country's wealth.

There is a huge mentatility difference between Thais and those of Thai-Chinese ancestory (though we are currently seeing change).

A rural Thai gets his salary; he is genrally seen as waltzing off to some karaoke bar, buying bevvies for everyone, paying garlands for a few dancers and within a few days he is broke til the next pay packet. He enjoys spending his money and life this way. May be he is happy with a monthly routine like this. It can be argued that this is part of 'impermanace' and 'living in the moment'.

As for the Thai-Chinese, they are the opposite (or definetely used to be!)

Whichever side you judge best - well...thats up to you. But quite obviously - there are pros and cons to which ever way you wish to spend your money.

So, as for answering Nokia's question, first you will have to differentiate between two very different peoples in this regard,..... and that is the Thais and the Thai-Chinese.

Whats a "rural thai" then...bit of a news flash, not all Thai/Chinese, live in cities with shops and buissinesses. I live in Nakorn Sawan and nearly everyone is Thai/Chinese and guess what? They are much the same as most other Thais, some will go our spending and others save.

I really don't believe UV is that big a factor when the pipes are well covered with paint. But I haven't made any tests.

Well get out there Lop and get some paint on them. I'll expect a full report in 3-5 years

The problem with external pipes is that the UV of the sun rots the blue piping after a few years.

Yea but they are soooooo easy to replace or repair. If your out in the "sticks" the biggest worry you have with putting them suspended cielings is mice chewing through them