kickstart

It is probable a good idea the romance has disappeared,the main problem with farming is they are no,or very few new entrants the only way new entrants are going to take up farming is to minimize the work ,as my old boss said 35 years ago "You lads want to do every thing from the seat of a tractor",he was brought up with horses . Well that time has arrived, people need food ,the average age of a farmer is now 50-55 plus,ie you and me, in Japan the average age is 65. Farming has never been sexy,low wages, long hours . Girl in pub,What do you do for a job ,answer Milk cows at 5 am ,and shove my hand up cows a#@e for AI-ing. Next guy, What do you do for a living ,I work in IT earning x0000 GBP/dollars/year,no competition. The only way youngster will take up farming is to use tractors,and drones,as for the livestock sector,old saying for the love of the job, AI-ing a cow seeing it calve that calf,well maybe a few new entrants will think that way. I know you can say with modem technology one man can now do the work of 5 ?, so as an industry you will need less staff, but you still have to find the man/woman,and pay them.

So I was told this evening cane will be 1300 baht/ton,??,a farmer friend of mine was saying tomorrow this is a meeting at our local mill ,they will be saying what the price will be ,a lot will depend on the sugar containt ,some say it will be low with all the rain we have had . That price is good ,but around here most cane is now cut by machine ,last year it was 350baht/ton to cut and haul one ton ,this year word is 400 baht/ton. Last year our local mill received 1.8 million ton of cane, this year it is looking like 3 million ton .I was on the road to the mill last month , full of potholes ,what it will be like after all this cane has been though.

Eat my words time,this crop of Sunflowers in flower ,along with a lot of other crops ,early this year ,I have said Sunflowers do not like a lot of water,these crops must have been sown at the end of the rainy season ,some fields still well wet with the rains,thay all look well. A lot of Cassava being harvested , and has been for he past 2 months ,again early ,before very little done before the New Year. Wife's daughter and son-in-law are out cutting cassava storks in to bundles for next year's root stock,a lot of cassava being planted,all will have to be irrigated,mainly drip systems ,again something you did not see a few years ago ,but saying that when I first come here 20 years ago no Cassava was grown in this area,thing certainly are changing.

Our local mill is due to open in 2 days time,like you have been asking what the price is ,no one seems to know,yet

Since the Lao -Chines railway has been built, a lot of fruit and veg is now coming in to Thailand, Our local market now has sweet peppers ,and I have brought some radishes,my daily apple comes from China. So if stuff can come from China ,in to Thailand, the reverse can be done. The Lao government will be pushing for it ,they can bearly afford to pay for the railway ,China has put them well in debt ,all part of their Belt and Road Initiative

It is not that,young people just do not "do" religion ,my mother has been going to the same church now for 30 years up to 10 years ago it was full on a Sunday ,back in May when I was they it was 40% full ,the average age of the congregation must have been 55 +,I said in 10 -15 years time it will be almost empty, every one will be dead . The C of E is a dying church ,how they can increase their number will be mission impossible ,unless someone can come up with a cool app for a Mobil phone. A church is now is Hatch, Match and sometimes Despatch. Near my flat in Northampton is a Muslim Mosque Friday morning you can not park a car anywhere near that Mosque and Northampton does not have that large Muslim population.

As the French were the first foreigners here in Thailand and presented to the king ,which was King Narai the Great 1632-1656, probably goes back to then ,or soon afterwards. Pre Covid their was the Lopburi ,Pan-Narai festival, where this meeting between the King of Thailand Pra-Narai, and a French Noble man is acted out ,complete with a couple of elephants and Thai dancers.

I think have got it right ,wife's not so happy daughter ,was saying they will not get the 1000 baht/rie government subsidy this year,the government have decided rice farmers are getting a good price for they crop ,no need for a subsidy, As for drying rice a simple floor drying system would work using a fan ,they must be large fans about that could blow air though ducts ,probable have to be PTO driven could be done . Or a continues flow drier ,using gas ,even with gas prices as they should still be economical,have seen mobile ones in the UK.

I would not rely on the locales ,you are in CM,they have Mo Jo University they, ask if they have a soil department and get the soi tested ,I would say it would be well down on organic matter. and probable some minrales.

Interesting ,my post in farm photos that guy was buying Marley in at 11000 baht ton ,off the combine .selling at 12-13000 bat/ton . I see your price 13000 baht/ton for dried 15% moisture ,what it is around here I would not know very few ,if any dry their crop before selling it. Would it be worth the hassle of drying it down for the extra 2500baht/ton ,I would say yes,but as most farmers do not have any drying area,you would need a big slab of concrete to dry say 10-15 ton . Anyone thought about importing a mobile batch drier .you could make some money.

As FJ said can you get any kit in ,if so you need to start with something like this cultivator ,this will brake up the land and brake up any hard pan,land being clay it will help with drainage, you will need to do both ways, up ad down ,then across the field ,then use a tiller/Rotavator . That is the easy bit ,finding something like this you will have to ask around the local farms , a sugar cane grower is the best bet ,if you have any near you,also 1 rie some farmers might be reluctant to do a small job like this ,or they might charge you a 3-4 rie rate. I would say you were looking for a walk behind tiler ,not a good idea ,unless the land is well moist it will just bounce all over the place without penetrating the ground especially on clay land if it is to wet ,it will be like rotavating porridge . When you are done, some cow manure would do some good.

We have had 22 mm of rain this week ,not a lot ,but I come across this yesterday ,rain?wind ?has flattened this sugar cane,first time I have seen it ,it was a very good crop as well . Will, have to be cut by hand ,no way a machine can do it. So I have been told our local cane factory will open 6 December ,I said that is late ,wife's granddaughters other half works they ,he said they are still boiling the juice from last year's crop ,and they have some more maintenance to do .

Um,is this just another version of the NHS Direct ,where you would ring up, and they would ask your systems ,and give you advice etc, that was/is still, around 15 ?years ago,and it worked to.

And now we will have The Royal College of Nursing coming out on strike, two 12 hour strikes the 15-20 of December ,for the first time ever,main reason ,pay and unsafe staffing levels. With their industry running a shortfall of 50 000 nurses. and getting worse,do you blame them. Winter of our discontent on its way.

Did you get them to do a compression test.

Ok,you say it is water ,check the hoses ,soon see if they are any leaks ,on a bike that is 13 years they could well be perished,has the water level dropped in the header tank. Still not addressed the problem of high oil consumption ,still say piston rings.

Just asking,would/could he be arrested ??? for war crimes, and sent to The Hague,they is no way he could be arrested in his home country. I know as of yet they are no proceedings against him. but even so.

Is that water or oil?if it is oil it is coming from the breather pipe ,excess crankcase pressure ,coming from worn piston rings as when ridden hard?.

That beef on the right with that marbling looks more like Wagyu beef. than a Charolais X. But what do I know.

You might have to wait for a good offer ,the main problem is they is a very small market for quality cattle,a lot depends on where you live ,most cattle buyers will only pay market price ,they are thinking how can I make my money on this animal,unless they have a high price outlet it is market price only. As for lower quality not being sought after ,if they are cheap enough someone will buy them ,if only to sell them on if a dealer can make 500baht/head on buying and selling say 10 cattle he would be happy with that. You want to ask around ,other cattle farmers might know of someone ,probably be outside your area. Like I said cattle prices are dropping,we have this 11-month-old Angus X ,nice animal ,local dealer said 25000 baht,that is mum behind. Our feed costs are not that high ,so we are keeping him for a bit longer.

One of our local rice buyer ,first off farmer weighs his load in ,then tipped ,a big pay loader loads it on to a truck and trailer and away to the rice mill ,which is about 30 km away.a quick almost same day turn around . The rice is Hom Marli,he is paying 11000baht/ton,mosture is not checked he says he sells it at 12-13000baht/ton,but some loads he only gets 9500baht/ton,the rice not being Hom Marli,the rice mill knows .the farmers selling ordinary rice saying it is Hom Marli. Looking at the heap of rice, a lot of trash in it, some combines need setting up . He also buys in maize and cassava ,maize in the shed in the background.

Has it been said yet ,why not use debit cards,as UK members know,at the till one swipe of your card job done,with a set limit on your card. The Thai system of this QR codes at the till is nothing but a pain in the backside.

You beat me to it,Bat Gauano can be strong stuff and burn plants. You would be better off getting some cow manure ,ask around for cattle farms ,for what you need should not be too difficult. A Thai friend of mine has a small dairy farm ,he has around 10-120 sorted plants ,when I last looked at them, they were really looking good some now 6 foot tall, all growing outside ,been feed lots of cow manure.

Hi FJ Yes and no re selling beef ,you have your Thai /French set up in Sakhonkhon,pluss one or two similar set-ups , about ,where you are a member of a co-op providing beef to the co-op /company . As has been said in the past they beef is good quality,they use Charolais X Brahman cattle ,same as the other co-op's /company's. But on the hole ,and in my area the selling farmer sells his cattle to a local cattle buyer, and he will sell it on to the slaughterhouse who will then sell it on to who ever wants to buy some beef . One member on here a few years ago was selling direct to the slaughterhouse ,he was in Issan, and they again would sell it on . We have one slaughterhouse near here they will buy direct from the farms ,but they only buy good quality fat beef ,and normaly pay over market price for it.

In a nutshell FJ No,asking around beef on the hoof is about 100 baht/kg , that chart is basically a load of BS,unless you are selling 100% Wagyu cattle ,which a very, very small percent of Thai beef producers are doing. The price has dropped a lot this year ,inflation ,the economy not good, high fuel prices and feed prices going up all the time. rice straw prices have been at an all-time high but now dropping back with rice harvest,and Lumpy Skin disease has not helped We sold 13-month-old Beef master X bull at the new year got 39000 baht for him ,sold one very similar 2 weeks ago got 30000 baht. The OP quoted 40-60K for breeding cattle ,they will be for Red Brahmans , and now to some extent Indo Brazil ,but their prices have dropped, their prices have always been high ,,for Red Brahman the heifers going for breeding ,most of their breeding comes from the USA ,the bulls will go for stud bulls ,they are a market on they own , They will not be an over supply with the low prices and the above problems farmers are getting out,when prices rise more farmers will star rearing beef cattle again. Most Thai beef cattle are sold when they are 2 years plus ,with the poor diet growth rates are slow ,your average animal at 12-18 months old will be no where fit for beef ,some buyers buy cattle at this age to finish ,they will have to keep them for a year. Thai cattle price have always gone up and down ,for the past 3-4 years they have been high, but now dropping a lot . Now could be the time to buy a few cattle ..........if you can find some good quality cattle ,I have been looking for some Beefmaster or Angus X cattle ,just nothing about in our area lopburi ,will have to move to Issan where most of the best herds are .