thoongfoned

have you ever worked/or been in a poly tunnel?

the plastic will let the heat in and not let alot out, the leaf or grass roof will let heat in and out, same will the shade netting. on a cheap sala people tend to use the grass roof as cooler then say a tin roof?

try sit under a grass/leaf roof, then try a plastic roof or even cheap tin roof.

when we did the mushroom house we used black plastic,good stuff(have differents grades/prices), if you buy by the roll 125cm ish wide 100m lenght 5000/6000 baht depending were you buy. we used this on the roof and all sides, sort if rapped it around all the bamboo, makes it very hot in there... alot of the large builder merchants will stock the black plastic and sell it by the metre lenght, used as damp course. or like us as a sub ceiling in a farm building for animals.

the money that is made from these farms goes to the people who work there, some sort of government insentive me things to help the rural poor. 

around the wifes village the local governmet have set up a layer farm,  and around other nearby villlages too, paid the locals to build-set up ect and the then stocked the farm. now they sell eggs by the 30 one tray, for 80 baht, the wife even gets them to deliver too..... the eggs are a litte smaller than the ones we used to buy in the village shops but are alot cheaper, i think the shops charge 120-130  baht per 30. we get through an unhealthy amount of eggs..

i really like the idea of having free range layers but the dogs we keep like the idea more....

mr kie, the progress/work you and your family have done so far is very inspiring..... good luck for the future......

around us I see a lot of second year cane that is just burnt off then ploughed into the ground coz it is that bad. over the past week I have been watching people try and burn off the cane,

that simply will not burn, again really bad harvest, some of this stuff is not even 2 meters high, hate to think what the average per rai would be.........people who the wife has rented land

out to farm on a massive scale, but to me even there sugar is a long way short of 10 ton rai.

around us people are getting into second gear at the mo, loads of burning off at night then cutting the next day, grab tractors picking up most straight into the large lorries and drag units. after new year

people were mainly just cutting (not burning) brother in law made a bit of money off his third year sugar (mainly cos he cuts transports himself and the wife has been letting him use land for free) have even heard

people admitting to loosing money this year.......... loads of weigh stations about, only one is really busy, always many vehicles waiting day and night to be tipped.

have been looking at the possibility of doing sugar for a number of years now, not going down that road...... wife is managing to rent land out at 1000 baht a rai per year now, so this is good.

most of the sugar in are area is very sub standard (udon thani) still some people must be making money, only the ones that look are the crop.

hi wife has a farm that runs 6 big industrial fans (for cooling). each fan has its own dynamo, single 25amp switch (to turn on) said dynamo (hascon 1hp single phase 4 pole 0.75kw 5.4amp running) which are powered by a separate trip (2 x 50amp safe t cut) each trip for 3 fans.

have been using these dynamos for 3 plus years now, good units that work well ect.... have recently started to replace some.

new dynamo installed the other day, worked well for 2 hours, had a power drop (every thing in the farm almost stopped) then came back to pull power, new dynamo would not reach full power after this. other dynamos ( older ones) all good. took new one back, got a replacement. installed new one, worked for 1 day no problem, then electric stop for 10 seconds (happens here from time to time) now the new dynamo will not reach full power again. again old ones all good. had other "sensitive" electrics plugged in as well (computer ect.) no problems with any thing only the second new motor........... any ideas....

over the past year have replaced other dynamos with no problems, I know the shop is going to be a bit funny when I turn up moaning again.

had a 47hp Kubota for a couple of years, paying monthly ect... not cheap this way or paying cash outright........ tractor ok on light work, but still had a lot of problems with small things breaking here and there, maybe down to my driving, but got the impression that the dealers do ok on fixing these tractors. labour is very cheap, it only on the parts that you would make any money.for the money you mention don't buy one, just continue to rent as you need. when I was bored with said tractor the wife managed to "sell" it on to (some else took over the payment every month) by sell I got a drink out of it......... but kept some attachments. still have said tractor work the land for us, new owner is doing ok out of working the machine, but the running cost ect do eat into any profit. buying second hand this way would be good for you, loads of tractor out there now and no money to pay the repayments every month......... if I were to buy it would be 100 percent a ford.

you will not have a problem with the company, only if you can not get the pigs to said weight at said time using said amount of food. the good thing with the contract farming is you will always get paid for your work on time. check what the average piglet weight would be and how much food allocation you are allowed. cpf would only not renew the contract if the farm was "bad". I would try for a longer contract time, not sure you would break even at 3 years, say doing 2.4 cycles a year. 5 baht a kilo is about right. check on the penalties you could en cur with light pigs ect.... there will be some if not a lot. any bonus system? ie. for good work ect....

yes the farm would be an evaporated farm system, the building costs can be very varied..... simply enough build though.

first step get the company out to check the land, then off to the local amper for classification all in writing. these farms are classed as high impact on the local environment.

just my 2 bahts worth..........

hi, wife has friends who used to contract "mum pig" (breeding piglets) farming for cpf. 10 plus years ect.. in the last few years they have all changed over to betagro. what sort of farm would it be finishing or farrowing?

good to work with the big boys coz you will always get paid for what you produce, but if the work is sub standard you will not do so well........ can make good money but have also heard horror stories, first hand from the owners.

look around you (should already have people farming for them in your area) if not ask yourself why? and talk to them....

the set up cost are high in this game, even if it only a finishing farm.

as always pros and cons, but if you have the experience and the cash it could be a good thing to do............. or not?

finding good reliable help is not always easy too.

if you go for it have the "locals" give you a price for the build, then ask the professionals for a quote, the pros will give you and all in price for up and running farm. far less stress with the pros but added costs. the finishing build is very simple, but if you go for the farrowing farm there is a lot to get right, or its a pain in the arse going back when the farms up and running and fixing the levels of floors ect.......... plus make sure you get the bio gas working asap you will save loads on electric.

the wife has been contract farming for a number of years now (betagro) and we are just waiting for the ok to build another unit. speaks for itself...................

good luck.

we rent a small amount of land out that has sugar growing on it, a couple of different plots. the better land this year produced just over 10 ton a rai - sort of looked after ie flooding afew times but no weeding. the other land produced a little over 4 ton a rai - no flooding/ weeding. both plots were tractor planted/ vits applied. vits only applied when planting.

after you take out all the cost - planting, vits, cutting and transport you do not have that much left.

in our area (udon thani) I know of a family that has loads of land and all the machines ect to farm on large scale, been in the sugar game for along while and he still stays that sugar can be hit and miss. ie water/rain not enough, said that the 10 ton a rai was good. better then rice profits me thinks but still not that great when you cannot or will not do all the harvesting yourself.

all you sugar cane farmers out there, what did you manage this year per rai? happy with it or gona try and improve? or just aint gonna do again?

next year gonna get some land cleared and plant some sugar - got land that is not being used and has access to water so want to see what we can get back from it, not a lot of land about 10 rai at first just to see how we can do. (get the children out weeding! time to earn their pocket money)

that's a good return for size of the size of land me thinks.

in our village one family has some of these trees about a rai under plant, only one year old but giving fruit, all be it very small, people buying all the time 20 baht a kg - sort of pick your own. they have sort of trellised the branches, looks ok.

always good to hear people making some money.

thankyou.

hi, male mid 30's from uk. currently on non o visa multi entry, married, visa from the uk last year.

current visa runs out soon (2 months time) my wife works and earns 40,000 plus every month (pays tax ect........) can i use my wifes income to get my next visa? if so whats the do's/ needs. will be applying in the udon immigration office.

thanks....

i was hoping it would be a switch. will get it checked out.

hi i had my strada for ages......... over the past week or so i have noticed that the four wheel display is flashing now and them. does anyone know why this would be. i have not changed in to four wheel drive. to stop the flashing i just nugde the gear stick. the four wheel drive high and low both work perfectly.

thanks...........

hi i would like some help/advise in how to turn pig poo into good fertilizer/manure ect....... call it what you want.

we collect the poo "dry" from the pigs (collected from pig housing floor) this then gets put out in the sun. at present i let the poo sit in the sun for around 15-20 days. then put into bags.

i have been told to then mix this with the rice husk and water. leave again for awhile then boom good fertilizer???

i want the poo to go on my rubber trees. in the past we have always just dug in dry cow poo. now we have alot more pig poo then we have ever had cow poo, so i thought it was time i learnt how to make the most of what we have on offer.

thanks in advance , sorry if its been covered before...............

sorry to hear this. over the years we have lost a couple of dogs to this air born disease. the only way to stop is make sure the dogs have their jabs as soon as old enough. we have one dog that survived having distemper at 1 or 2 months old. (brothers and sister dog died) she now has little or no teeth and very dodgy bones. distemper stripped the calcuim from her body.

<br>It seems your are talking about getting this legalisation (authentication) of your signature done by mail, in which case it does indeed get a bit complicated -- and expensive -- with each instance authenticating the signature of the previous instance. In other words, you erred when you asked the Commonwealth Office if they can "legalise" a Thai document. The correct question would have been if they can authenticate (legalise) the signature of the UK public official who will authenticate your signature.<br><br>It is simpler if you go personally to a Thai consulate, if that is not too inconvenient for you. It does not have to be the consular section of the Thai embassy but can be any consulate, ie any of the various honorary Thai consuls in the UK. There you have to identify yourself, eg with your passpoort, sign the document in the presence of the consular official, and you get the authentication of your signature directly from the consulate. At least this is how it worked when I went to get my signature on a document authenticated at a Thai consulate in Switzerland.<br>

thanks,<br>yes i went to the embassy in london yesterday and was told the rules have changed, got to get my signatures authenticated, then the embassy can do its bit. im waiting on an email responce from the commwealth office, but was told on the phone yesterday can not do.<br><br>looks like i might have to fly back for a day or so! gotta love it!<br>

hi,

i have had some paper work sent over from thailand to the uk from my thai bank. (im in uk) i need to get it "legalised" ie: stamp from thai embassy to show that my signature is good. the embassy say cos im british i have to get a uk public official to witness sign stamp ect. for me. (no prob) then i need to send this off to the uk foreign and commonwealth office to sign and stamp ect. then the embassy can do its work.

problem is the commonwealth office says it can not legalise a foreign document! anyone dealt with this before???

im back on the case tommorrow what ever.

I use a Nokia phone and USB cable, too.

1-2-Call has a few different plans -- you have to buy them seperately.

100 hours 350 B + tax

250 hours 500 B + tax

Unused hours expire one month from activation. I've been using this setup for about a year and I'm satisfied with it.

hi,

excellent. thankyou all.

well, you can get connection from CAT (CDMA) or AIS DTAC from your existing mobile (if capable).

hi,

i use a nokia n95, this should do the job? what equipment would i need to buy?

cheers.

Nothing, just run the Nokia PC Suite that comes with the phone, install it on your PC, then connect the Nokia N95 to your PC via USB cable.

Setup the internet connection, GPRS/EDGE and you are done!

It will be recognized as dial up connection by Windows.

If you are lucky to get EDGE signal, then you should be able to run up to 480 kb/s, decent speed to surf the net and chat, but not enough to support video calls.

hi, thanks,

sounds simple, even for me!

will i have to get a different sim card - we use one 2 call - or will this do? how is the internet time charged?

thanks again.

well, you can get connection from CAT (CDMA) or AIS DTAC from your existing mobile (if capable).

hi,

i use a nokia n95, this should do the job? what equipment would i need to buy?

cheers.

hi, i used to have an ipstar connection for my house in the village - east udon thani.

i will be going back to the village soon and would like some advice on what are my options on getting connected again. i don't really want to go back to ipstar. we have no land line. a reasonable mobile signal. i have a pc that runs windows vista.

i'm no computer expert so please if you could help............

thanks.