kickstart

Having been involved with Thai farming for a lot of years, and as Thailand is still a agriculture based economy, the cuts in farm production costs not easy farmers are still reliant on buying seed ,fertilizer ect on credit and paying it back when they sell they crops ,with interest of course which goes hand in hand with debt ,mainly with the BAAC the farmers bank ,government owned, they say that with compound interest it will take 40 years plus for all the agriculture debt to be paid off. Increased use of machinery that is happening now, but it would help if import tax was reduced of imported machinery, new and second hand that would help development. Water resources, with climate change and bad management, that will take some doing, land reform, the way Thai bureaucracy works that will not happen very quickly. That should keep his in-tray full for a while.

For tea try Barrys tea look at their web site, they are in Dublin, they do a very good postal service, the tea is not bad. That is about the only thing I miss from the UK. Back to Tesco's they own tea was not bad, but like all Thai supermarkets they stock control is not good they run out of something and that is it for a long time, looking for a Pesto sauce at Big C today..............run out.

Get your machinic to put a voltmeter on the battery with the engine running, it should show 12 volts plus, meaning that it is charging, should not be a dead cell, he should be able to check the battery, to see if it is working. It is an old bike check the wiring harness, almost sounds if they is a dead short in the system, bear wire touching something metal, then it moves away and power is restored?or something like that, corroded wiring, or the rapping around wiring going. Not an easy job with all that plastic on the bike, but it is in they somewhere.

Like other posters I have had no problem using a 5- year Thai license, done it twice now . One thing, I found a 60 GBP deduction to Eurocar on my bank statement last time ,the only thing I can think of that it was for speeding ,probable doing say 40 in a 30- limit zone? but at least they cannot put 3 points on my license. The other thing they used the most expensive insurance cover ,again not being a UK license.

Do it the Thai way, put your bike at the front of the house with ขาย wrote on it, sell in Thai, sign on it no need for the phone number, I see this all the time, friend of mine sold his pickup and motorbike like this, did not take long.

Talking to a friend of mine in the know he said next year quotas and tax on imported milk power will be lifted, making it cheaper for milk companies to use milk powder than whole milk, the Thai dairy industry being so inefficient, could lead to big problems, but he did say it could be a mix say 60-40, milk powder, whole milk, watch this space.

That is because it is made from imported, from Australia and NZ. milk powder.

sawiwal They are "real cattle "Red Brahman beef bulls, breeding originally come from the USA, they will probably be used by the locals in Vietnam to improve they local stock. Yes, Thailand did import a lot of dairy cattle 30-40 years ago some from Australia dairy, not beef breeds, and a lot from New Zealand, the cattle where Sahiwal x Frisian, idea was the Sahiwal are a tropical breed, cross them with a dairy breed will give you cattle with some resistance to the heat and a big problem tic fever, had a lot in my area known in Australia, as Australian Sahiwal locally as ASKB, Australian Sahiwal kicking Bar Stewards ,and could they kick. This is not new exporting cattle from Thailand to Vietnam,10 years ago a lot of Thai dairy heifers were exported to Vietnam, to increase the dairy herds in Vietnam.

Good point, mine is in a fixed deposit, trying to do something to make the money work, no ATM card, no internet access. Looks if will have go to probate, with what I have read, Thai solicitor costs are not cheap.

I left Thailand last October, and come back in November, and they never took my old TM6, for the first time, it is still in my passport ,1-year exertion is due up in April, I will as per past 10 years, photocopy it, see what IMO has to say.

As far as I know, they will be a lot of forms to fill out, first thing they will need will be the death certificate your passport,bank passbook, marriage certificate if you have one, that will make life a lot easier, and anything else .ie yellow registration book ID card, your wife /partner should be able to sort it all out. When I asked at our locale bank, they said it will take 6 months, but that was some cashier at the bank, how reliably that information is I could not say. Note: I have a will in the UK. they will need a death certificate as well, as far as I know only one is issued, no photocopies allowed, you can see the scenario who gets the death certificate.

You are right remembering last year they as a 30 % drop in raw milk due to dairy farmers giving up, they cannot make it pay, feed cost going up and they debt to the banks going up. Ok they management could be a lot better, the average cows yield in Thailand is 12-13 kg/day per cow not a lot you need ( when I last milked cows in the UK we got an average of 23 kg/day/cow that was 25 years ago), 10-11 kg/cow/day to break even ,very few farmers produce they own feed it is all brought in ,it does not take a lot, to make a loss ,with poor quality rice straw the main sauce of forage ,that is the main cause of low yields ,and as some members have said in the past about Thai milk not having any flavor ,that is the reason why.

Check, but I think you cannot ride in China without an escort, and I would say that would not be free. How about Yamaha SR400, simple bike been around a long time, they are available new.

The traditional way in Thailand was to plant หญ้าแฝก Yar Fark known for holding soil in place, but now not easy to find, you need to ask around, have seen it growing wild. Or easier use Yar Con in Thai, or Para Grass, you will know this grass, it grows in wet diches next to roads etc., can be grown from stems, but be wear it can take off and may need regular cutting. As FJ said, seed from Ubon Forage seed would do the job, pick one of the hardier verities, unlike Para Grass most verities are shorter growing, easier to control, but be wear not all verities like waterlogging, that if the land lies wet.

Not ignorant, just do not understand Thai customs, the tour guide, if they were one, most tours are at sights just long enough to see the sight ,not to sun bath , should have said something............that is if her English was good enough to explain about Thai customs.

Yes, someone always seems to win, remember you can buy a set of the same number you regularly hear of people wining 10 million baht plus with multiple tickets. The underground lottery is based on the last 3 numbers of the main winning ticket, the 6 million one, no betting allowed on the last 2 numbers, and they are a few different ways of playing the underground lottery as well. Wife's son in law won 60 000 baht last year on a 100-baht stake known in Thai as 100 X 100 When Covid was here they were no street sellers, it turns out the lottery is the biggest money earner for the government, they were down a good few hundred million baht.

Thanks. I will add that to my notebook. I will add that as well, but most SMS's I get from AIS are just promotions/ adverts telling me about the deals I can get on phone call and internet packages.

Neil Young, at his best. Got to agree with sirineou, with Mark Knopfler

Funny you should say that, I had the first Amazon coffee for while 2 weeks ago, and I am sure that the cup I had was small than before, working out price versus amount, is there anything in it.

I might be old fashioned, but I do like my tea/coffee in a chine cup and saucer, sitting at a table reading my book for half an hour, not in a plastic cup (non- recyclable), perched on something, my cappuccino is only 45 baht from Amazon.

I would say 60%of our delivers the driver will phone asking for directions to our house, and you have to tell them more than once ,as I have done on many occasions, now we live in a rural area a standalone house beside a road, not difficulty to find ,but they still struggle, if it was a Moo Bann, housing estate in a city ,I would they would most certainly phone for directions. Thai's and finding directions are not two words you find in a sentence very often.

Good point, how many farangs have brought a big tractor for more as a "boys toy", also what are going to grow, we rented some land a few years ago to grow maize, we used local guys to do the work, for maize you would need a 3 and 7 plough for land work, a drill machine for applying fertilizer and ridging up, and may be a sprayer. Like you we only had 17 rie they is no way buying even very secondhand equipment would it be viable so as I said we used local guys for the work just used our own tractor for harrowing after the 3-disc plough and for harvesting the corn and when needed on a water pump for some irrigating, our 20 hp tractor is more than adequate for the job. If the OP is going to grow some rice then say a 40 hp tractor could pay for itself equipment needed is less, but saying that our neighbor grows rice does all the work himself with his old 25 hp Kubota and a 2 wheeled Kwie Lec, walk behind tractor. If you had all your own equipment, you would need 100 rie ,which in English money is 40 acers, to make it pay, they are some bargains out they a dairy farmer friend I know has just brought a Ford 6600 and a 3 disc plough for 260k baht, that was cheap, but he also grows 50 rie of sugar cane so he could make it pay. A lot of farmers will buy a big Ford then go contracting to help pay for the thing.

You have a MIG I have an ark welder, yes co2 will burn the GA off try it with an ark rod it sticks, and it will not ark well, and it will spatter more than on bear metal. Most GA I weld is pipe 3 mm pipe, last job was a gate for our cattle yard.

I Know what you mean my Hino was made between 1976-1979, that would be classed as vintage now in the UK, along with all the Ford 5000's you see about. It is 4-wheel drive, I have had problems with some bits, front wheel drive universal joint splines went on one side, so I just got the splined shaft, and my mate and his lathe sorted it out, a few things, like you, bearings and oil seals no problem, my local guy just puts his measuring calipers on them and comes back with the bits.

And as I have found welding galvanized steel is not easy to weld , weld will not stick to it you have to take the galvanizing off first, as you said the gas is toxic and it spits so wear gloves. With the above problem I have soaked the ends in caustic soda, that removes the galvanizing gives you clean metal to weld or use an angle grinder, you can re paint afterwards. I have seen a lot of welded galvanized steel mainly pipe work some are very Dubus and not a strong weld.