MeNutsAreOnFire

Thankyou also for the lessons on your country's history and achievements to date.

No worries mate. It looked like some people needed educating. If you need any more information please get back to me.

What a crock of shit. It was a crap response. You might as well go to the guy telling the blonde jokes, "well I heard it was a brunette." The joke doesn't work.

It doesn't work with the Uk coz you just have to look at just a few of the people that have come from the UK:

Newton

Shakespere

Wellington

Bell

Nelson

Churchill

The industrial and agricultural revolutions started in the UK

Most popular sports originate there (football, rugby, tennis, golf, cricket)

The British Empire was the biggest the world has ever seen.

At the moment the UKs economy is one of the best in the world and we have the highest growth in Europe. You want some of my pounds do ya?

I could go on. But I'll finish by saying I didn't leave England coz I was getting laid by gorgeous women every night...

Why do redheads wear panties. To keep their ancles warm. - You see it just doesn't work.

I advise against catfish, unless you have access to large amounts of cheap animal protein, as they're carnivores and won't nibble on leaves and crap, like the local carps (pla tapien, pla nai, pla yeesok, etc). which are easy to grow, so long as the water is green and fertile (from animal crap).

www.earth-policy.org/Alerts/Alert9.htm

It said:

A world that is reaching the limits with both oceanic fisheries and rangelands while adding 80 million people each year needs efficient new sources of animal protein. Herbivorous species of fish, such as carp grown in polycultures, carp grown in combination with rice, or catfish grown in ponds, offer a highly efficient way of expanding animal protein supplies in a protein-hungry world. Fish farming is not a solution to the world food problem, but as China has demonstrated, it does offer a potential source of low-cost animal protein for lower income populations.

Take a read of the whole thing it's probably right up your ally. Very eco friendly. You might even be advising people to farm catfish...

I'm pretty sure that the animals that fech high prices are for breeding, I dont know if you can sell the sperm (how do you collect it, its a picture I cant get out of my head  ) I know that sperm has to be kept frozen.

Someone told me that :

"The collection (of sperm) from what I have read involved inserting a probe up the bulls rectum...touching his prostate...zapping it and the bull ejaculates. A very stout cattle chute (US term for a metal holding cage) that captures a bull and then squeezes them to hold them still would be needed."

Sounds messy!! But maybe there are people who can come round and do it for me.

Whatever. It was only a joke mate. I heard it once and told it to a few people here in thailand and they all laughed and said it was funny.

My brother in law is encourging us to consider something larger and putting in fish ponds or rubber trees.

What does your brother suggest you do with the fish once you have something up and running? Is it going to be for your own consuption? Are you going to sell it it locals from your house? Sell them to the local market? Be a regular supplier for someone?

Fish seem like an easy way to go, does anyone have a fish farm. Are there many pitfalls?

Fish farming has interested me as well. Catfish seem to be popular. The first time I went back with my wife her family drained a pond and aload of boys grabbed all the fish as they had less and less water. Got loads of fish, all quite small. I'm keen on constructing a few more of these ponds and getting some feed and making it a more comercial venture. I don't think there is a very good market for fish in terms of making a profit but at least the family/village can eat them.

I was reading that fishing was taking over from cattle for supplying the population with protien as it takes 5-6 times less feed to make the same weught.

If you are interested in building something I found quite a good website which will sell you everything you need and probably give you all the advise you want. It's based in Chang Mia tho so you may want to find something closer.

http://www.thaisuperfish.com/index.html

Hope that helps. If anyone can tell us about the market for fish - it would be useful. Is there any money to be made? You you have to have a load of buyers (llike restaurants) before you want to go ahead and build something like this.

Anyone know any more on the price of Brahman cattle and what makes a good one and how to go about setting up cattle farming?

Just a quickie...

Why wasn't Jesus born in Thailand?

Coz they couldn't find 3 wise men and a virgin.

Thanks for your input Random you seem to know alot about the stuff that goes on in these parts. I was thinking that they may have paid so much for the shot because it was from really good bull - that and the fact that they aren't giving the seller regular business and he may have had to come from a place quite far away, all of which might bump the price up. I very much doubt the family were trying to scam me out of money as I gave them 4000bt to get the cow pregnant and told them to buy food and vitimins with what was left over.

They are probably being over charged but don't know any better. They only have two cows remember.

With regards to the calf the weigh was just the pure meat - I saw the carcus sitting in the middle of the room looking up at me. Plus dairy cow meat is not as tasty apparently - not my words.

I don't really think anyone is going to try and scam me. I think the price might be higher as soon as someone sees my face but I don't think it's some scheme that my wife family are trying to pull off. They could be trying to get me interested by telling me there's more money to be made than there is but at the end of the day I'm trying to help them.

My wife said that the 50,000 offer on the bull was given so that someone could enter it into some kind of show or something. I suppose if it wins a prize loads of people will want it to bread with their cows. I will know more once I arrive and ask more questions to the actual people I'll be dealing with. The misses said her dad was going to take me to a market...

I would be interested in why the 250,000 was paid? What gender was it? Was it a cow sold coz it was going to give great offspring or was it a bull intending to sell it's seman?

I may have got it wrong a little. I think it was 100,000 for the pregnant cow and the bull. But still it's lots of money.

I know that the price of native Thai cows isn't high but if we are dealing in Brahman cows that yeild much more meat isn't it feasable? I know they paid 7500 for killing a calf for our wedding (about 40kg meat) and I've heard that big fully grown cows go for 20,000 for their meat. So I'm thinking that a female who's capable of producing more cows is going to be worth at least 30-40k - three calves grown to maturity would pay that back easily.

What breed were these cow and calf for 17,000bt. Does that make a difference?

Do they have shows here where you can win prices for the bet of bread - that kind of thing?

I'm going to be living near Maha Chai Chana, 20kms away from Yasothon. My wife says they do not have a phone line yet but they can have one put in for roughly 2000bt. Does that sound right - does anyone know exactly?

She says that it will only take a couple of days for them to come round and do it, but I know what thailand's like and it will probably take 2 weeks!!

This extreme card looks good - I'm only going to be there 5 months so I'll try and give that a go. I live just opporsite Plantip Plaza so they should have it there.

Thanks guys for your help. Any more info always welcome...

I'm in Bkk at the mo but I will be moving to Issan in a couple of days. In my appartment now I have a laptop and a land line to connect to the internet - I buy time from an ISP and put the password in and I'm connected.

Will it be that simple in Issan - I know some of the ISP only work in Bkk and I have been told that I can buy one that's national. Will this work if my wifes parents get a landline fitted in their house or will I have problems?

Cheers guys and girls

Sorry to take the thread away from dairy farming for a moment but I have a few questions and need some infomation on rearing cattle for meat.

I am going up to Issan on Wednesday for 5 weeks while my wife and I wait for our visa interview. I have been there twice before and she has I really nice family who live in a poor-ish village about 20km from Yasolthon. Her parents have signed over their land to her and they have quite a bit by all accounts, although there are desputes about her father's land. I will find out how much exactly when I'm there next. They grow rice on it while it's raining and let their cows eat the rice hay and shit on the paddy feilds. They also supliment this with grass brought from the road side and hay.

They only have 2 cows but they both seem to be in their prime of life, strong fit and big (lots of meat). They recently had a calf (bull) born which they "gave" to me when we had the wedding. It's seems like the bull is growing to be big and strong (I think its a brahnam - it has a lovely dark brown coat) and my wife says there have been offers for it first 30k then 40k and now 50k. They haven't sold it coz they say it's not there's. My friend seems dubious that cattle are really worth that much in Issan. One of the cows is now pregnant (I paid for AI - 1000 a shot took two times to work). They say that they are getting offers of 100,000 for this cow! Is this realistic?

I have a bit of spare cash to invest and was thinking about buying a couple more cows and try to bread them a little. If these are the price that are being used right now it seems like it could be quite lucretive. My wife says that now is the best time to sell as everyone needs lots of money for their rice crops and once the crop is harvested the price will go up as everyone has a bit of cash to plash.

I really want my girlfriends family to be more self sufficient and am not really looking to make a masive personal gain. If I can set them up with 5 or 6 cows that are producing other cows then they can start selling them or holding on to them and letting them get bigger.

Basically they could start making money and living off this business insted of worrying about the crops and I could get my money back? I really don't know anything about farming but I wouold like to help my new family out.

Can anyone give me some more info on this whole subject of cattle raising (for meat), especially with regards to prices and what I should expect to be paying and for what. Ideally I'd like to buy 3 more females of varying ages.

Plus is there money to be made?

Also is there like a market were people go and buy n sell cows near my area?

With regards to the bull should I just sell it and buy females, use it to stud (it's about 4 months old) - is selling it's seman viable? How long will it be before it can start breeding? Will it get too aggresive to keep or control? Why are people offering so much for it - coz they want to use it's seman or to kill it for it's meat?

Any help would be appreciated.