kickstart

Surprised that your farmers are planting corn, would have thought it was to early no reliable rain. We have a guy, end of our soi who plants Soya like you he gets gangs in and harvests when still green they bundle them up and load them on to a pick up, and away where to I have yet to found out ,will find out one day. Never seen them dried and harvested, weather they are dried and harvested in other parts of the country I would not know, I asked as thay are a main ingredient in livestock feed especially pig and poultry, is that imported for them? We are like you Sun Hemp has not caught on around here, I would say it is not a main cash crop like corn, I know it can be crushed for oil, but finding a buyer for it no one seems to want to take the risk. Could be a specialist market for someone willing to take the risk, especially the heath food market. Same as I posted what 2 years ago now, one guy growing millet seems an easy crop to grow seems drought tolerant a combinable crop, no one else tried to grow it again problem is finding a buyer, not a crop used in Thailand as it is used in Africa. One thing, our Soya guy has a special drill for drilling Soya, narrower row spacings, do your farmers use one, or use a corn drill up the field then back down the middle for anther row, a dairy farmer near here did that to drill grass seed did well too.

A yes and no, yes as it give you a instant heard, buying g a cow and calf, but you then have to get that cow back in calf. All cows when they calve will lose weight ,they use all they energy resorces to produce milk for the calf ,hens the loss of weight, you buy a cow and calf in she could well be thin ,will not come on heat ,just not fertile ,if she is a first calving heifer makes the job even harder ,first calvers need feed for producing milk for the calf and for her self to grow and to become fertile ,producing milk and growing can be done becoming fertile not easy ,same problem the dairy heifers ,getting some back in calf is mission impossible. If you buy in some heifer's you can feed them ,also pick the breed of bull to use ,when they calve you can feed them prevent them from the weight loss .in theory she has calved for 3 months she should come on heat and hold to service . Looking back at our records our heifers are calving at 26-28 months of age, getting them calving earlier makes them more productive . I read a paper a long while ago saying heifers calving at 3 years old, some are even older makes them more difficult to get back in calf, reason why did they calve at 3 years plus ,just not fertile to get in calf ?,and it carrey's on in future years . As I said growing some good quality grass is more than half the problem.

I read an article in The Nation must have been 20 years ago, saying then with compound interest it would be 50 years before all the farmers paid back all of, they debt. I live in a bid dairy cow area I know a few farmers who are in debt to the BAAC to the tune of 800 000 baht ,I would say others are the same, some more Also we have a lot of sugar cane in our area a high investment crop a lot of farmers are in debt to the same tune ,a lot get their sugar cane cheque ,pay off some of their debt ,then borrow some more ,the debt never comes down ,it will take a lot more than 15 years to pay off most of these debts. And remember in our countries farmers are subsidized by the govenment ,here in Thailand it is only the rice farmers that get any subsidies

Sure, no problem, a good idea, where to start, first off breed of cattle, Angus, Beefmaster or Charolais would be ideal, but anything above 75% of one of these breeds will result in heat stress, Beefmaster is the exception they originated from the hot parts of the USA and can stand the heat. The easy way is what we do. find some Thai Native X Brahman heifer's they are about you will know them they have short ears, from the Thai Natives, do not buy any long-eared cattle/ things, they just do not get fat, then ask your local Department of Livestock Development or in Thai Gom -Pa-sue-Sat to AI your cattle with the above semen, they should have it. Then feeding your cattle look at the DLD web site they have different varieties of grass seed, Mulato II, Mombasa Guinea, plus other varieties or look at Ubon Grass Seeds, the owner is Michal Hare, who has posted on here knows all about grass seed., a lot depends on your soil type. You could do a cut and cart system -hard work -cattle have feet and can walk, you could use a grazing system, I use to do a strip grazing system using electric fences worked well. with water you should be ok in the dry season by irrigating the grass You will need some concentrate feed should be able to sauce it locale and some cattle minerals. The main question how many cattle, I would start off with say 3-4 heifers with their calves, remember cattle grow, 3-4 cows plus fully grow heifers or bulls will soon shift a lot of feed.

Where to start, first cows are not loaded with antibiotics, all farms are tested for antibiotics in their milk any farm found with antibiotics in the milk will get fined 30-40 times they daily income, basically a month supply of milk, with some farms that would be enough to put them out of business. Not many grass feed cows especially now in tie dry season no grass, most cows get feed rice straw. A lot will get feed rice straw 365 day a year. With the rice straw diet not so many heathy cows about all are shot of energy in the diet leading to poor quality milk, and a major infertility problem. Most farms use a brought in feed not a good quality feed company's trying to keep the prices of feed down, a lot of the raw ingredients are imported, not cheap, unlike the US of A, home grown, not a lot of corn and soya is used to expensive. No "industrial "cows in Thailand the average daily milk yield is about 12-14 kg/day a few good farms will do 8-20 kg/day, see above for reason. Ethically friendly suppliers very few and far between.

This Garry Lineker story is steeling all the headlines over the past two days, but I found this: The Prime Minister announced the creation of a new detention centre in Northern France, a new command centre bringing enforcement teams together in one place for the first time and an extra 500 new officers patrolling French beaches. The measures will be funded by Britain as part of a £500 million three-year Anglo-French deal, from the Telegraph. Is I see it why should the Uk taxpays pay money to France, when the French could stop them boarding the boats, as we know the French want them out the way, so they do not have to look after them in their detention camps. Does anyone know how the French stop illegals coming into France, I know they have a problem on the boarder with Italy, if the French stopped more of them entering France it would help everyone.

Ture, but the football related programs and a boxing program are off the air.

Talk on the radio today, with no presenters and pundits on MOTD ,what happens if audience figures go up, this might happen as a one off, what happens if it continues.

That loan is also making big news the guy, Richard Sharp is only Chairman of the BBC, and he did declare that he facilitated the loan during the appointment prosses, and he has given money to the Tory party in the past, that is being looked in to, but do not hold your breath on any outcome. Note. A lot of BBC Radio 5 programs are off the air this afternoon, presenters coming out in sympathy.

Weather forecast is for Monday for the storms, been getting warm around here, but the wind breeze is starting to come from the south, meaning hot season is on its way. Will test my new rain gauge, we had a 360 backhoe in doing some work widening our driveway, he swung round .............exit rain gauge, got a new one from Shopee. We would like some rain, but sugarcane harvesters would not like a lot, still a fair bit to cut. Any rain, someone will try drilling some corn, last year it worked, drilling early and they got a full crop, some years, gets to two-foot-high no rain, local cows are happy they get the plants, makes a change from rice straw. One thing, cassava price around here is now 3.40baht/kg the highest I have known, it is almost the end of the season, and the market is short, one local buyer is getting 4 baht/kg, he sends it to a factory that makes cassava flour.

Thay have been though the meat grinder, back in 1997 then they borrowed a record amount from then World bank and IMF, it was our Tony that finished paying it back, and in record time. Then bank lending was 58% of GDP, highest in SE Asia at the time, now its 62%of GDP, about the same, but then inflation was not a problem. A case of we shall see.

That is your weigh stations, how much is the mill paying them? Around here our mill is paying about 1100 baht depending on sugar containt friend of mine got 14% sugar from 2 fields well happy and they yielded 10-12 ton/ rie ,good for around here, but after a wet rainy season last year a lot of other farmers are doing the same. We have said bout this before price discrepancy between areas, our mill is one of seven about the country, part of the TRR Group, Thai Roong Ruang Sugar Group. As they buy direct from the farmers, they price will be lower, but that is 5-600 baht/ton, that's a lot, makes you think if they do that so they make more money which they will, when they could pay more, and they have a monopoly only mill in the area two others about 50 km up the road. but with haulage cost it would not be economical

In the UK the high speed train or HS2,is well behind time, phase one was due to finish in 2026, now2029-33, second phase due2032-33 now due 2035-40. Budget was 55 billon GBP now 72-98 billon GBP. Let's hope the Thai one will be a bit better managed.

That grass looks like Yar -Con in Thai, or Para Grass ,not a very high protein grass at best when shoots are young 4-5% protein ,and you are feeding rice straw protein 3-4%,your diet will be well down on energy ,those two together will provide the cattle with maintenance ,for production ie weight gain you will have to feed some concentrate ,can you get brewers grains were you are a good feed. That Wagyu looks well not the best of breeds for confirmation say compared with say Charolais or a Beefmaster, but as you say they seem popular where you are, as I said not so around here. One thing our local DLD AI men and women around here have Wagyu semen, it will not be 100 %, ask where you might be the same. You are right with low inputs and low outputs you can make just as much money as a guy with his high inputs and high outputs, and you will have less to go wrong.

You would be better off getting some cow manure, that contains most trace elements. plus, some NPK. Where I am dairy farmers are selling dry cow manure for about 20/bag for, we use it on all our fruit trees, and they seem to do well on it, we do have our own cattle as well.

Any chance of some photo, these prices seem cheap to me, it sometimes makes me think that dealers get together, but saying that if one dealer finds some cheap cattle, he will certainly not let anyone else know. What are you feeding your cattle, that is where the money is made, or loss. A bit off topic I live in a big dairy cow area about 100 ton /day of milk is produced ,a lot of dairy farmers are giving up ,main reason is the high price of concentrate feed as I said before the cows diet being concentrate and rice straw as a main roughage sauce ,rice straw being a very low quality feed they is a high concentrate usage to get the milk yield ,hence famers selling up. Milk, farm gate price, is about depending on quality, 19 baht/kg @12kg day 228baht day concentrate is 11-12 baht/kg cows can eat on average 6 kg? day =72baht plus rice straw minerals, water electric, then the big cost feeding dry cows, heifers, calves, vet/med and AI, bank borrowing. I have said for some years grow some good quality grass, you can reduce your concentrate costs, cow should give some more milk (now the average yield per cow is 12-14kg /day) and it will improve the big, big infertility problem. Back to beef, same thing, grows good quality grass not Nappier or Ruize, plenty more verities about your growth rates will increase, you get to sell the cattle quicker for less imputes. As I was told 30+ years ago grass is the cheapest form of feed for cattle.

Because they are on their mobile phones all the time, the things are almost ruling people's lives.

We sold our 13-month-old Angus X Brahman/Thai Native for 33K, last month. January last year we sold Beefmaster X Brahman/Thia Native, older brother to the above, about same age and condition we got 39k for him . Shows how the market has dropped, dairy cattle have dropped even more, that is all to do with feed cost going up.

Not only in Thailand ,Japan is very protective about they Wagyu cattle, getting any 100 %Wagyu outside of Japan not easy. Most Wagyu in Thailand come from Australia, and even they a lot of Heard's are not 100 %, a guy near me has an Australian Wagyu bull even that is not 100% he is putting it on to his dairy cows and some Wagyu cross breads it will be a good few years before he will be anywhere near 100 %Wagyu. A few years ago, they were some Wagyu semen from an ET(embery transfer) bull, that was supposed to be 100 % but I had my doubts, I did see a few calves Crossed with dairy cows, you could most certainly see the Wagyu in them. But they never really took off Thai farmers said they are too small a Thais like big cattle, hence Indo Brazil cattle that were popular a few years ago. Wagyu beef at 85baht/kg that is cheap, that is the same price as your cross breeds Brahman cattle, all cattle prices have dropped a lot over the past year, see past post on this thread. Wagyu cattle should be a market on they own commanding high price, but for most cattle farms it is finding that market not easy, your 50-50 crosses will not make so much, if you get up to 80%+ then you should get that good price .............as I said if you can find a buyer.

My wife, well 50+ often says Noo when talking to some official Poo-Yai Bann/Gam-Nan, being two. She is just an ordinary person, and that is just because they are a bit higher up the ladder than her, even when they do not have, they Poo-Yai-Bann /Gam-Nan hat on, they are just farmers like us, I put down to the Thai class society. It might change in in places like city offices, but in rural areas I would say no way.

No, hot season meaning we did not have temperatures of 39c for days on end just a few days of it. And we have a small holding rearing a few cattle, working out in the fields it was not as hot as in past years, that is where you notice it, also the past 2 years have been drought years, hot.

From about November to about the end January is called the cool season, ask anyone in the hills above Chiang Mai, or come out with me on the motor bike at 6.30 am, I am in Lopburi in a rural area. needed my bike jacket on. Farmer near me tried to grow a crop of maize, irrigated it as well, did not grow to cool for the hybrid seed. Last year we never really had a hot season, the rains come early cooled the place down. let's see if this year is the same.

Wifes niece got married last week she is a nurse, he was qualified as a teacher, found no money in it do milks the family heard of cows .to dowry was 400k baht,and 4 baht's worth of gold about 120k.baht I thought milking cows was a good paying business but no, the niece being a nurse borrowed 1 million baht from the nurse's fund, to fund the whole wedding, to pay back when.? Having heard about police and teachers being in debt and now nurses, and who else. It is going to be a slow action train wreck .......soon.

Have you thought about getting the stanchion straitened, I had a set done in the UK on a BMW, the guy used V blocks and a dial gauge to check the stanchion, he used a fly press the do the straightening, it was only a few mm, but it worked. I know this is Thailand, but they must be a shop that could do them, a case of asking around, if they can be done, cheaper than buying a new set.

I know a Thai guy in to scrambling bikes his first was Honda Dash, he had a set of front folks off a Honda CB250, with spacers in the fork tubes, made the forks longer, also the Honda 250 folks where longer than one's from a Dash jacked the front end up a long way. First thing I said what about fitting the 250 forks on to a Dash ie head stock/ yokes the same, he said it was a straight fit 250 tubes same diameter as the Dash. So, will the Honda 250 forks fit on to Wave, you would have thought not, but maybe worth getting a tape measure out, or may be the old Honda Wing 110cc, basically same as our old CG 125?.