kickstart

They is no way you could use Thai wheat to make bread ,as has been said unfavourable growing conditions ,just not enough protein in the grain for bread . I have seen Thai wheat grains,small shrivelled grains,only used for livestock feed,300-400 metric tons from 160 hectares, is 2.5 ton/hectare,in the UK in 2020 it was 7 ton/hectare and that was a bad year.down22% on 2019. Only thing you need for Thai bread is sugar ,to sweet for me.

s As has been said before they are different types of lime, in Thai I use Boon Khow ปูนขาว . If you live in/near a cattle area a local feed supply shop could well sell it ,two of our locale shops sell lime.

I noticed bread in my local 7-11 [which I use very infrequently] has increased, a half loaf is now 40 baht where it used to be 40 baht for a full loaf, a full one now is 49 Baht [wholemeal green bag] But this started middle of last month? I have my doubts as all wheat for bread flour in Thailand is imported wheat ,and they are still probable still using old stock. If it has gone up now what will it be when new supply's of wheat arrive in the country ,the wheat has to be a hard wheat verity for bread , this time coming from a new sauce ,that will put a baht or two on my morning sice of toast ,and we make our own bread.

The BBC news said medics could not revive him ,if he had a heart attack in our country his chances of survival might have been a bit higher . He will always be remembered for "That Ball ",the batsman Mike Gating has been interviewed by at least two radio stations this morning . His off field antics,made the tabloid press .......often, someone left a can of beer ,pack of cigarettes ,and a meat pie ,at his stature outside the MCG . RIP mate.

That Celikel chopper is basically the same design as a Thai one but off set ,which is better ,meaning you are not running on the crop flattening the grass, so the chopper will not pick it up,like I said ,look at the length of the chop only good for feeding in a fresh form to cattle ,you would have a job to make any good quality silage ,chop length just to long You are right about Napier grass ,how many times has it been wrote about Napier grass being way past its best when chopped for cattle ,almost better off feeding rice straw. About Class equipment ,again you are right ,I saw a big 300 hp self-propelled forage harvesters at a dairy show a few years ago ,just way to big for Thailand ,even some tractors are 100 hp plus,good tractors but just to big for LOS . In this area we have a small firm making choppers they are blue some have been around for a long time ,if you see one look at drive chain ,the 90-degree turn is done by using a differential unit from an old pick up ,Thai ingenuity

How can you do even the most simple of budget when you do not know what price you are getting for your crop . For a lot of years now when it is near corn or sugar cane harvest time I ask farmers how much are tey getting for they crop ,all they say is Mie-Roo,do not know . This year with the low rice price, who would have thought/guessed that it would be that low at planting time they are no futures market here . As the farmers pay hardy any tax, no need to do any accounts for the tax man. Dairy farmers get their tax bill from their milk collecting centre ,it was,they paid tax on income sales of over 500 000 baht of milk to the milk centre, and they do the paper work a issue a tax bill twice a year ,which the farmers pay at their local Aumphar ,our local tax office closed last year ,only opened 2 years before .

Hi IA The Orange one is the locally made one this one is the new model with the chopper mounted on a frame,this one is about 120 000 baht ,this was a year agos's price,they are a direct chop cut about 1 meter cut ,like I said good for small tractors ,but the chop is not even stems tend to get chopped up OK ,but the leaves where feed vale is tend to be a long chop ,and cattle will not eat all the feed like would a short chop that is mixed in with the rest of the chop. But,for your averge Thai cattle farmer on a cut and cart system they work ok ,locale made spear parts no problem ,shop at the end of your Soi could well fix it. The other one is the imported one from Turkey ,last I heard they were 160 000 baht ,it has a rotary drum which will give you an even shot chop good for silage ,it can cut grass or corn . This tractor I think was 36 hp the owner said it can cut grass of corn ,it would be a bit slow as it will be towing a trailer as well ,the spout can rotate to give you an even fill of the trailer . They is a 2 row model ,but you would need something like a Ford to work it.

Yes they is a market ,some small 4-5 men workshops have been making direct cut forage harvesters for 30 years plus ,again no key players we have firm near me that makes them mostly for a local market . They is a firm in Pharphutabaht in Saraburi province they make them ,they new modal has the chopper fixed to the tractor,not towed,cut grass or what ever and blows it in to a trailer towed behind. Over the past 4-5 years they have been an increase in 1or2 row harvesters,broght in to cut Napier grass ,or failed crops of maize,due to a drought ,most of these are imported from Turkey ,they seem to make a good job cut an even sample . The good thing about both these harvesters especially the Thai made one, they can be used with low HP tractors, 23 hp tractors are often used on them as well as pulling a trailer . The smaller imported ones would need a minimum of 40hp without too much strain on the tractor.

This has been the main story on Thai TV for the past 4 days, Dang-Moor ,Water Melon,her nickname at first they said she was relieving her self at the back of the boat then fell in, but the body showed her to be fully dressed ,with marks on her body where the boats' propeller caught her. Needless to say now the conspiracy theories are flying around ,as has been said it might all come out ,or it might not.

It is not so that it last a long time ,but saying that the acreage machinery dose in Thailand would be less than done in our countries, so it will last longer it is all to do with the cost of the machinery Like I said a second hand combine would be 3 million baht ,a new one plus taxes ect 5-6 million baht ,no way could anyone make that pay interest charges on borrowed money and running cost would eat the profits . Like a sugar cane harvester 2-3million baht second hand new cost ??,and remember it is only used for 3-4 months of the year . It is not the Farmer's Bank that buys the machinery, like all banks they loan out money ,they can see that a new combine/cane harvester would not make financial sense for them.

Most rice farmers will only grow rice ,remember a rice field is wet the who;e time any corn planted will just rot,like corn farmers will only grow corn. Growing season normaly starts in April/May depending on the rains ,corn is a 110 day crop ,so harvest will be about August /September time ,then some farmers will plant a second crop ,that will be harvested November/December time . Most of Thailand is the same ,but I am in Lopburi province a big buyer near me has had corn come from the Northern provinces this time of year ,not certain if it has just harvested ,or been in store. A combine most are 12 foot cut's can do a 25 rie block in a morning ,if it all goes well ,most combines go to fast ,they what to get the job done and losses can be high .cost is 600 baht/rie. Before farmers used to "Hack Khowport",that is just harvest the cobs put them in sacks and take them to the buyer ,but now I would say 80?? % is harvested by a combine,some small growers know it is not viable to get the combine in ,so they harvest by hand the pickers are paid per sack it was 30-50baht /sack harvested ,then for loading and unloading .a few baht/sack. The residue after the combine is left in the field and ploughed in ,crops harvested by hand the buyer trashes the cobs ,in our area we have a company that dries seed corn for other company's ,they often buy the spent cobs and use them as fuel for their corn drying ovens . A good few years ago some farmers kept they picked crop and got the mobile thrasher in they sold the corn ,and a few use to make charcoal from the spent cobs ,not seen this for a long time, the wife did it when she was a kid.

No rented equipment ,Normaly a contractor comes with his combine and harvests the crop in my area for corn and rice this year it was 600/baht/ria . Balling it is done on price the baling guy also sells the straw ,the rice farmer will sell his straw to the balling guy for a few hundred baht /rie

Try reading my post ,and as IA said do some research in to Thai farming,I said Thais buy second-hand kit for it is cheaper than buying new IA has a second-hand compact tractor Farmerjo has one I have one a 20hp tractor we brought 15 years ago 72000 baht it does a us OK noway could we justifi 300k on a new tractor,we are farmers not looking for Boys Toys. Look around why do you see so many Ford tractors ,one can be brought for 400k ,a simple tractor can be fixed easily and not that expensive,to rebuild one from the ground up about 70-80k baht ,then the amount they get used, no more problems for the next 10 years ,a cheap tractor. Of course they is finance support ,it is called Tor-Kor-Sor in Thai ,the Bank of Farmers and Farming Co-op's ,they will give loans to buy tractors and equipment.

Beer brewed in your country like mine ,uses barley and hops grown in the country ,here in Thailand it all has to be imported ,that is where your Thai Bev etc win ,they would buy their barley by the boat load ,and hops by the multi container load. As spidermike said the cost of getting the paper work sorted is off-putting ,a craft beer set up would have to buy his barley and hops by a container load ,in bags with the cost of shipping containers going up ,it would not just be viable to make a craft beer.

Fruit trees are OK ,but it's finding a market for the fruit ,this year with the cool weather our Mango trees are full ,they will be a glut of Mangos ,ie no market to sell them .one member last year said he was down 25k on selling his Mangos ,and he had several verities to sell . Top fruit for the past few years have been loss making ,last year Lum-Rie they were a glut ,no market ,growers asked the government for help, government said no. A lot of members say grow Durian ,not easy they only grow in certain areas, and they take a good few years before they is any fruit to sell.

Carrying on from IA . corn row spacings are 30 inches ,as for the big players ,they are basicly CP and Betagro ,but no farmer is contracted out to them, they are all on they own ,they sell they crop to the middle man who will dry and clean the corn ,it is them that will sell it on to the feed mills. As for combine harvesters all are second hand imports ,they will still cost a few million baht ,we have two corn buyers in my area who have combines one runs JD'John Deer's the other has 3 Class combines ,with the cost of buying a new one haulage and import tax ,they would be way out of reach of most corn buyers . Will the corn market increase ?how long is a piece of string ,Thailand has been growing corn for 60 years ,it all depends on price and weather ,for the past few years I would say the market has been static ,price has not been good ,a few year's ago corn was coming in from Cambodia cheaper than Thailand could grow it ,also we have had a few drought years a lot of corn farmers lost they entire first crop,a lot of farmers can not grow anything else ,to bigger investment ie, this year 100 k baht to plough and plant 25 rie of sugar cane As for balers the first balers in Thailand were second hand imported New Holland ,but now Italian Cicoria are popular along with Kubota ,the Kubota are getting more popular probably due to Kubota doing good deals on HP. I would say 90% of bales are small balers mainly because no one can handle big bales ,your Thai dairy farmer with his 15 cows would not want and 1/2 ton big bales to move with no tractor. Will the market increase I would say no ,all the dairy farmers buy in their rice straw the straw merchants will buy,bale and transport the straw and sell it to the dairy farmers . They are no big players, all are just small businesses . Over the past 3 years baling sugar cane straw has become popular ,for this second hand imported big high density balers are used ,one will cost about 650K baht,the straw is sold to our local sugar mill used as a biofuel to boil molasses for ethylal alcohol. Government policy ,they say stop burning around here no sugar cane has been burned ,one reason the sugar mill will deduct about 200 baht ton for burnt cane being delivered to the mill ,that is the profit for a cane farmer ,now 50-60 % ? of cane is harvested using again second cane harvester imported a lot come from Brazil and Australia one machine is about 2.5-3 million baht ,one locale farmer this year got one from the sugar mill for 1.7 million baht a bargain .

Depends on how badly pitted they are ,if they are not to bad ,some fine wire wool might do the job ,if you can find it . They are leaking badly because the pitt's have damaged the seals ,just renew the seals ,your locale bike shop can help you they ,one member doing an old bike up got some stuff from Lazada

It's a small world, the wife cooked a green banana and chicken curry this evening ,she used a Thai curry paste and coconut milk, very nice it was too. We have been given green bananas as it has been said give them a few days and they will ripen ,it will also depend on the variety on how long they will ripen.

You beat me to it ,when I used to do visa runs I use to brig back BOH tea with me ,not bad tea ,must be the fact Malaysia was a British Colonie, grew tea for the ex-pats ,did they ever export any .

I am with Heath Care International,a Uk based company ,but only last Autumn they "Hub" for SE Asia is now Bangkok ,which will make life easier . But,they have a 1400GBP excess , keeps yearly premiums down ,I have had one claim 4 years ago ,hip replacement ,the hospital I used would not use any insurance company ,afraid they will not get paid ,so I had to pay up front and clam back afterwards,took the company almost 6 months to pay up.

I had two Pfizer jabs last August and September ,they are saying around here wait 6 months for a booster ,which seems a long time to me ,as other countries are saying 3 months for the booster. The last roll-out,around here two weeks ago had AZ and Pfizer vaccines. Will have one when the time comes.

We have been the same ,so far this month we have had 73 mm of rain ,first that I know we have had so much rain in February ,slowing down cane harvest ,and cassava harvest .hope next week?to cut some Napier grass for silage first time done that in February. Our local mill has now received one million ton of cane so far this year .still a lot to harvest One thing ,I was wrong ,the baled cane straw is going to our local mill not to a power station,used for boiling up the molasses ,part of the process of making ethylal alcohol,for gasahol fuel,farmers are getting 800 baht/ton for baled cane straw Lot of small plots of maize growing ,most on a drip tape of irrigation system ,growers are happy with the rain no need to irrigate ,the corn will be going for maize silage for the local dairy farms ,I said a while ago a bag of maize silage was selling for 80 baht ,now down to 60 baht/bag ,when all this corn is chopped price will come down to a more realistic 45-50baht bag . Most dairy farmers are not happy ,price of feed is going up ,even our not so good 12% protein feed has just gone up 20baht/bag a lot, when it went up before it was normal 5-10baht bag ,rice straw is still about 29 baht/bale ,this time last year 23-25 baht/bale .if you are buying in a few hundred at a time ,a big increase . But,as I have been saying for a lot of years ,if they grew some grass they could reduce they brought in feed ,so making more money , but even the wife said most are to laze to grow a manage some grass land easier to just buy in feed . FJ you said you were watching the cricket ,was it your lot playing our poor excuse of a team . Your Cameron Green is going to be a good player .

Soon it will be no such thing as a free lunch ,as you say those Thais who get their 6-800 baht/month have probably paid no tax in years ,if ever ,my wife has not paid any tax for 20 years plus, but now gets her 600 baht/month ,not a lot (but neither is the 175 GBP/week,uk pension after paying tax for 35 years ). As has been said ,it will have to be done by the Thai Social security,somehow? a new law will have to be made, making it compulsory to pay a SS stamp each month , even farmers, building site workers etc, from the age say 20 all going towards the pension . How long before the pension age goes up in line with other countries to 65/66.

They are not company's,most have just a yard ,often next to a road ,like I said they sell Eucalyptus polls as well as bamboo. One near me also sells building blocks ,sand and cement. Like I said put your Thai to the test get out they and ask ,or if you what a 300 km round trip come up to me in Lopburi . And why a Thai school teacher would know, beats me.

You have some weed in the pond ,but what weed ,if it is Pack-Boong,Morming Glory they will eat that . The grass is a meter above the surface it could well be Yar-Con,in Thai or Para Grass ,Tilapia will eat the very young shots ,but as you are pulling it ,it must be well established ,and old as FL said, I would doubt if any fish will eat it ,we have Yar-Con in our pond ,we have a few Bla-Nin's Tilapia ,but they are not going to have any effect on the grass weed . As FJ said they are some chemicals that can be used .y