Canada

Have you got an "iron buffalo"? If you do, I'd recommend a turbine pump rather than a submersible....unless you need to service multiple wells. Turbine pump goes down the hole and just the head of it is above ground and you hook your iron buffalo up to it. They work pretty good from what I can see. You still have to run your motor at little high, so your fuel consumption is higher than it would be of you were running a centrifugal pump, but you are pushing water up, not sucking it. A generator in itself is expensive if you are dedicating a motor to it, cheaper if you can rig up a generator to an iron buffalo if you already have one and overall expensive on fuel. You do not want to power your submersible with a gasoline powered generator for any length of time. They consume a lot of fuel. I have one and have tried it.

How much irrigation do you have to do??

Thanks. I was thinking that a submersible pump was the answer? We have enough rain for one crop of rice usually but I was thinking about a follow on leguminous crop as soil improver and ground cover, followed by something or another. We already have a vegetable garden that is about 4 meters below the surrounding ground, and this is where I was thinking about putting the hole.

Doesn't that low spot fill with water during the rains? Why would you drill there? Do you have electricity?

Oh. I misunderstood your post. You want to LIVE here. Ohhhhhh.

You can probably do what you are thinking, but I wouldn't talk about out much on this forum. Working is illegal here without a work permit. Any kind of work, it does't matter.

VISA. Make a plan about a VISA. There are options, but not many. Both of you can get "learning Thai language" based visas (Education Visa) through a language school. That will limit your choices of where to stay. You could get married pretty easy to a Thai girl and get a "marriage" based visa. It'd be a headache, but could be done if your gf would let you. She could probably snag a thai guy too and do the same. Seriously, Visa problems will be your biggest problems like everyone else's here. Don't forget medical insurance. Good luck.

Thailand is a great visit. To be honest, read up a little more on destinations in Thailand. Phuket is a shit hole. So is Phi Phi... Just tourist traps. Up north has a different flavour but no beaches. Try Koh Lanta or Koh Chang. Nice places. You'll find somewhere to stay within your budget easily. If you are bringing your girlfriend, don' t bother with Pattaya. Lots of girlfriends there.

Have a fun trip.

I have read through this thread. I am wondering why nobody around here (between buriram and Lamplaimat) has boreholes in the fields. Our domestic water certainly comes from a borehole.

I am told that on the other side of the road, in the rice fields, boreholes don't work, although no one can explain why they don't work. Outside of the rainy season, things get very dry, no rivers nearby, the reservoir gets emptied and you have to sleep beside the pumps so they don't get nicked.

What reason could there be that 'they don't work, nobody do'? Some time in August/September I will be going into this seriously but although I am acquainted with the Thai mentality I hesitate to spend a lot of money on something 'that don't work'. Thanks

The only reason that I can think of that is "does not work" is that what they mean is that it is not "economically feasible" to farm rice with a well for water. Another thought is that during an extended drought in our area, the static water level in the wells drop beyond what a surface pump can pull up. There comes a point around here where there just is no water to be had. Farmers in our area use surface pumps almost exclusively. Some people will manually dig the well down another 3-4 meters to get their pump down closer to the water level. We've recently done that for two of our holes, but haven't tried them yet. The rains have started. There are a couple who are installing turbine pumps, but they are expensive for your average thai farmer, and you need a pump per well.....as far as I know, whereas a submersible can be moved relatively easy (but require electricity).

That's all I've on this one.

Are the trees no longer producing? Or it's just become a hassle? I can see the locals thai's perspective.

What is your long term plan for the land?

I think that you could speed up the land reclamation product by panting green manure crops and tilling them in. Or remove the trees as you say and start farming other crops on a crop rotation plan.

Concerned Expat

No. They are not targeting tourists.

I guess that the companies that are hiring w/o work permits will be affected then, like schools that will hire a foreigner but not support a work permit. There are many of these. Has the right hand thought about how it's actions will affect the left? Not likely.

hub of hubs

That point is relatively easy to see. The one that is harder and that most people miss is that the system is flawed; here and everywhere else that we vote for the next idiot. "Here" is a more extreme example of the flaw. I only ever voted once in my life when I turned 18. SInce then I have never seen the logic in it. All you do is pick who pisses on you, but you get pissed on nonetheless.

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.

― Edward R. Murrow

What I don't get is why people don't get it.

All Thai rice farmers have 4 or 5 other sources of income. Fruit trees, growing garlic, growing mushrooms, raising fish or frogs, etc. This is common.

You're right. It's very common and absolutely necessary in our area. Nobody around here has enough land to live off the earnings of it, regardless of the crop. That they didn't get paid means that their "bonus" didn't come through. All of the farmers that I know work all year round for living and the farm income is what they call their savings. It's what they use to build the walls finally on the first floor of their house, or put new wood siding on the second floor this year, or extend the roof, or rebuild the iron buffalo....

really,

ok well all the Thai rice farmers I know have always had "side line jobs" so just what is this story is supposed to be about?

The point of it is simple.

720,000 rice farmers have NOT BEEN PAID since before September last year.

They are owed about 82 Bn baht by the incompetent caretaker goverment who are too busy scurrying around like rats deserting a sinking ship to care about the people who put them in power.

And you want the PTP to be back in power again? They cannot even explain where 800 Bn baht went missing let alone finding a measly 10% of that to pay the farmers.

That point is relatively easy to see. The one that is harder and that most people miss is that the system is flawed; here and everywhere else that we vote for the next idiot. "Here" is a more extreme example of the flaw. I only ever voted once in my life when I turned 18. SInce then I have never seen the logic in it. All you do is pick who pisses on you, but you get pissed on nonetheless.

you voted once in your life and you think you have a right to moan..many people around the world dont have that luxury..you abuse yours and rant on about it...how ironic.

You go ahead and keep voting. See what comes of it. You are probably a fan of the war on drugs too aren't you?

Hardly a rant, just a simple statement.

The wife is from sakon nakhon and reckons no thais eat dog...it's only the vietnamese and chinese in that area. I don't know if she's correct (certainly true though for her village area).

Thais eat dogs in my neighbourhood. Usually the younger generation (Thais, not dogs)

Canada, my wife rented our 11rai plot to a cane farmer for 3 years for ฿20,000. I guess he didn't do too well, because I notice after two years the cane is torn out and this year he is planting casava.

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That's a cheap rental price. Works out to 600 per rai. She obviously is not taking the 4th year crop either. You won't find that around our area. People are paying 1500 now. In some cases 2300....go figure. If I could get 2300 per rai for my land, on a contract rental basis, I'd take it in a heartbeat. That's good money for doing nothing and still holding the land.

really,

ok well all the Thai rice farmers I know have always had "side line jobs" so just what is this story is supposed to be about?

The point of it is simple.

720,000 rice farmers have NOT BEEN PAID since before September last year.

They are owed about 82 Bn baht by the incompetent caretaker goverment who are too busy scurrying around like rats deserting a sinking ship to care about the people who put them in power.

And you want the PTP to be back in power again? They cannot even explain where 800 Bn baht went missing let alone finding a measly 10% of that to pay the farmers.

That point is relatively easy to see. The one that is harder and that most people miss is that the system is flawed; here and everywhere else that we vote for the next idiot. "Here" is a more extreme example of the flaw. I only ever voted once in my life when I turned 18. SInce then I have never seen the logic in it. All you do is pick who pisses on you, but you get pissed on nonetheless.

Well, it didn't work well for us, but we bought too much and tried to do too much. Damn near killed the in laws. They are farmers, not managers.

Probably depends on what you choose to do, how much of it that you do, and the availability of labour in that area. Labour is hard to find in our village because it's so small and people don't like to go to neighbouring villages looking for help.

You could get lucky, or really unlucky. Speaking thai would be a huge asset or you will understand nothing. Don't expect good record keeping.

As the other guys said, you could lease it out for easy small money until you move to it yourself.

Or profit sharing, but that would depend on the ability of your crew. Incentives work pretty good with Thais. It'll still depend on their ability.

One of the hardest things I've had to deal with is the inability of thais to just tell the straight facts in an understandable way. No means no. Maybe means no. And yes means no. You need to be perceptive and have good intuition. You'll probably still be wrong.

Anyways, having tried that route already, I wouldn't do it again. But that's me.

I think "gift tax" and "inheritance tax" are criminal. What a load of crap that you can't give your loot to whoever you want without having to pay off the government for the pleasure of doing so.

Hi guys,

First of all, Canada, thanks alot for this post, it's very informative in many ways.

I have to comment on something though. Based on your calculations, you have the following numbers:

Profit per rai:

Year 1: 850 Baht

Year 2: 6150 Baht

Year 3: 3900 Baht

Year 4: 2400 Baht

Average per year: 3325 Baht.

Your calculations on profit didn't involve some things though:

Rent of land per rai per year: 500 baht(or more)

Transport: 13 MT x 150 Baht(average) = 1950 Baht

Harvest per rai: 250 Baht

This leaves us with: 625 Baht per rai per year (which is 2 or 3 days worth of food)

If this is really it, I'm wondering why people even bother?

No. You'll have to read it again more carefully.

But you are right about the lack of a number for the land and that is addressed in the post. BTW in our area you would be lucky to find land for rent for 1500. The days of 500 are long gone as is 1000. Nowadays, the standard seems to be 1500 for 3 years and the land owner takes the fourth year crop. The local land baron is now renting for 2300. I don't know how many takers he has, but thats pretty much any profit that you could actually count on.

As far as your other numbers, yes, but again addressed in the post, in the harvest numbers, we are selling to a middleman who comes and cuts it and trucks it off himself. Those costs that you refer to are his, not ours. And my profit figures are based on selling to the middleman in our field.

Like I said in the post, this is probably a worse case scenario for costs to plant and grow but probably not a worse case for harvest per rai. Like anything else in farming there are variables that you can control, ones that you can't, one's that you think you can and try but fail, and then good luck happens too. So none of the figures are etched in stone. They are approximations based on my experience.

Clearer?

Not yet, but we are looking at few things. I was looking at fish, but I don't think we can do it on a large enough scale, as we've no running water close by and would depend on a well. We are now thinking of a combination of pigs, vegetables and fish (aquaculture) and feed the veggies to rabbits which we would grow for sale and for meat at home. We have 3 rai on our home plot which we re going to doing something with. But nothings certain right now except cane.

Hi Cobbler,

Were a you a cobbler? In a past life?

We are in province of Nong Bua Lamphu.

Sugar is labour intensive, but only for about 6 months of the year if you are planting too. If not planting, it's not that bad. 6 months of the year is spent just sitting watching it grow. Need comfy chair for that.

How much rubber are you farming and how old are your trees?

Cheers.

BTW. In our first successful year on our 50 rai piece we got 16.5 tonnes per rai. We call it 48 rai because that's what it is on chanote. Then we called it 50 to even it out. Reality is that it has a road around it on it's inner perimeter, an access road through the middle of it and there is about 2 rai not planted. So I'd say it's more like 42 rai, and that may be a little generous. It's probably closer to 17.5 tones per rai actual planted land. We fertilised 3 bags per rai including the planting. Everyone said we were crazy wasting our money. Last year we fertilised 1 1/2 bags, we got significantly less when we should have got close to the same. We had other problems last year too though. Water was scarce, weeds did well against the cane...

There is probably a point of diminishing returns with the fertiliser, but I think we were within it on the first year at 3 bags. Last year we didn't even approach it.

Personally I think with some TLC close to 20 is achievable. But it'd have to start right on the planting (read- before the planting). Green manure crop tilled in combined with molasses and bagasse, then plant. Drip irrigate at least until plant is well established. If we do not sell and move on, I will likely do this one our 50 rai piece in two years. I've learned enough now to be able to do it right. I think.

Well done Mr Canada.Wow u r a patient man.

Love to get up your way 1 day and check out what you are doing.Its a real credit to you.

Cheers Cobbler

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Thanks for noticing.

give me a "heads up" if you'll be around, happy to share.

I take it that you are considering starting to farm rabbits.