IsaanAussie

From what I've read and my own rough testing, rice husk biochar has a ph of 8-9, making it excellent for acidic soils, particularly sandy soils.

Before I realized how alkaline it was, i added quiet a lot to putting mixes, along with compost, aged manure and rice husk. I think thevph is probably to high. Does anyone know if the alkalinity will drop over time?

From what I understand, CRH pH persists for a much period than does straw or rice hulls. I use probiotic in the compost which is heavily populated with lactic acid bacteria and that should provide some balance, but I have not tested it. The CRH definitely traps much of the potential nitrogen in the composting process.

Adding CRH to a soil blend with no composting, not so sure.

What it will achieve is an alternative to adding lime that lasts longer. Sequestering carbon and adding silica. A source of Calcium is still missing however.

Hi guys,

I am looking for a few 100% purebred male piglets (not castrated)

- Duroc

- Pietrain

- Large White

- DANISH Landrace

I want to buy from different blood-lines.

I would also like to know where I can buy purebred Pietrain seamen or piglets in Thailand.

Thanks and hope I can buy from you guys so we can support eachother.

Send me a PM with your exact needs. I have not got anything to satisfy your need but know the right guy ( a young Thai) who has. Realistic, modern and excellent stock of pigs and semen. Biosecure beyond doubt!

Hi guys,

I am looking for a few 100% purebred male piglets (not castrated)

- Duroc

- Pietrain

- Large White

- DANISH Landrace

I want to buy from different blood-lines.

I would also like to know where I can buy purebred Pietrain seamen or piglets in Thailand.

Thanks and hope I can buy from you guys so we can support eachother.

Send me a PM with your exact needs. I have not got anything to satisfy your need but know the right guy ( a young Thai) who has. Realistic, modern and excellent stock of pigs and semen. Biosecure beyond doubt!

Apologies to DrTreeLove,

Just how far up your own fundamental orifices do you guys want to push your own heads. Talk to me about plant available nutrients, talk to me about root as opposited to foliar nutrition. At 46-0-0 Urea is 46% mitrogen and 64 % god knows. Where is the leech zone on your land or under each crop? How does a plant feed? What is the difference between vegetative stage and cropping? When does a legume begin consuming nitrogen as opposited to depositing it?

I make compost seriously and I sell it. Is that the whole answer? Absolutely not! Why not?

Sorry guys but this topic responses do not do anything for me.

Thanks IsaanAussie & Jompa67:

Do you mean em? We are using this in the drinking water as well. Does this kill the bacterea as well? For cleaning we use antitane disinfectant for livestock once every 3 days or if there is sickness or diarea. Antitane contains 5% w/v benzalkonium chloride and you can use it in drinking water (15-30ml/200liter) but i am hesitant to do this.

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Revar,

EM is a global trademark and manufactured under licencing agreement here in Thailand. The original product is Japanese and the result of many years of work bu Dr Higa and a little luck. That is all on the web. Check out EMRO Japan etc... the Kysei natural farm in Saraburi.

There is a difference, EM 1 is the standard commercial product and is a brew of lactic acid and photsynthetic bacteria with fungal or yeast components and is intended for agricultural use.

What I am using is focused on pigs and whilst similar, its main ingedient is a lactic acid bacteria found naturally in pigs. Pretty close to yogurt is smell. What is does is accumulate in the pigs collen and assist in digestion, hence for weaned pigletsit replaces the LAB that sows milk was giving them. no scours or diaherra. Because the digestion is improved the growing pigs get more out of the nutrients you are feeding them. That means better FCR's, less feed and faster time to market weight. Added bonus, sh1t that does not smell.

Currently I am dosing 4x1000 litre water tanks with a litre per day. A litre costs me 3 baht. Go crazy guys.

IA

A note,

Because of hot weather, many of u use allot of water for cooling pigs, and so do i. Think of using Chlorine in water to eliminate bacteria problem that are related to water and varm weather.

No no no, use probiotic in the drinking and wash water to eliminate smell, increase nutrient take up when diet is suppressed, and it has antioxidant that will eliminate or slow rust. High populations of beneficial bacteria will out compete the nasties. Chlorine, not for me, I'm a sea salt man

Sounds nice but is it really possibly to use in a farm with more than 500 units? I guess it cost much more than Chlorine. We use allot of water in these warm days. I would say more than 10 cubic meter(m3) a day.

I believe it is. I have 4,000 litres of water storage and dose each 1,000 litre tank with 1 litre of the probiotic. Use a medication doser in the drinking water lines. As for cost, about 3 baht per litre once it is established.

A note,

Because of hot weather, many of u use allot of water for cooling pigs, and so do i. Think of using Chlorine in water to eliminate bacteria problem that are related to water and varm weather.

No no no, use probiotic in the drinking and wash water to eliminate smell, increase nutrient take up when diet is suppressed, and it has antioxidant that will eliminate or slow rust. High populations of beneficial bacteria will out compete the nasties. Chlorine, not for me, I'm a sea salt man

http://www.unapcaem.org/publication/pub_MM.htm

This manual is well worth reading. It explains the processes used by various harvestor, threshing and milling machines.

IA

Obviously this offer is not based on western wages. It is the opportunity that is the attraction. All of us that are hands on involved know that the returns are tiny and it is often just hard work. For those who dream of giving it a go here, this is the perfect chance to experience it without spending the money first. See just how hard it is physical and how hard marketing and the rest is ontop of that.

Look at the training based co-operatives here, people pay to come and gain experience. There are those type of people about who value the experience above the reward and will even pay for it.

I have a graduate vet student coming for a couple of weeks to gain knowledge on husbandry of pigs. Not a financial transaction but he will teach me things as well.

Great temperature for new piglets now (except for the wind chill before rain), not so for the sows. My sty has good ventilation and makes good use of the light breezes we get here. I only have one sow that is suffering from the heat in the afternoons, but a good hose down and a scrub and she stops panting.

My breeding herd are large pigs and they dont make the mess that the growers and finishers make.

Yesterday I had a friend drop by to give me a hand and we weighed a few pigs. One got she head stuck in between the bars of the transport box and we had to stand the box on its end and bounce it to get her free. She was literally hanging in the box for a few seconds, not in danger but definitely stuck by the jowls.

I have watched this post for weeks to see what would happen. I have no idea of the details but to me the concept is great. There are many people here who have acquired property but cannot work it themselves. There are also many people who wish to live the dream without the means or are just looking to catch a breathe.

Not Shangrila stuff but a simple lifestyle of happiness.

Hope it works.

Today I had a new friend just drop in to help as he had nothing better to do. We didnt achieve much more than I would have by myself but had a great day.

This time of year is a real challenge. Rushing about with a hose to cool down panting pigs. They are drinking twice as much water and eating less. I am cleaning in the afternoon because the sty is the coolest place to be at that time of day and it gives the best effect for the then hot pigs.

But there is a cost! Having excreted most of they daily does in the morning there is a window of opportunity for them to then wallow in it and then smear it all over the walls. Grower pigs seem the worst offenders.

So added to the usual cleaning of the floors are the walls and the pigs.

At this same glorious day one of my Landrace-sows gave for the first time birth to 7 healthy piglets. I know it's a small number but it's her first litter and I will give her another chance. I hope next time the number will be higher,

A similar story to one of mine three weeks ago, only 6 piglets from her first litter but all healthy and heavier than the norm, And this sow is more like some of my male neighbours ( likes to eat drink & sleep ) and nothing more.

As a matter of interest, how many times did you mate these two gilts?

Sleep on floor? Bluudy luxury, I slept in "ole in road"

Well done Jim, we all have a clearer "vision" now as well. Will you be holding any demonstrations? Fish stunning with a motorbike battery? Or perhaps major personal injury treatments?

For the non Aussies, this is called taken the p1ss. For those who are growing rubber, Jims operation includes processing it as well. Don't miss the chance to see how it is done.

Thanks Ian. Cruel timing is definitely was but the rest is more a matter of less haste and more speed. I should have checked my records and she should have spent a few days on her own. Definitely a poor management lesson.

Well this week was not a kind one. I have lost my trusted helper to the whiskey bottle so the last month has been hard work. I had a sow approaching farrowing and pigs to rehouse as they grew. That meant I had to convert a nursery pen into a multi-purpose room and install a barrier to create both a creep at the front and a feeder frame and bowl for the sow.

So one up it was all A-holes and elbows in the lead up. The barrier was finished and so was I so all I had to do was move the sow from her communal pen into the new room first thing in the morning.

This sow has produced some good litters in the past but in my haste I forget to check her gestation times and of course, early in the morning was too late. Eight very good and unfortunately very mobile piglets had been crushed by gestation sisters and nearby boars. Of those that perished seven were female and they averaged 1.9 kg, I was left with 3 viable but small females and two runty males.

At times you just cannot help bad luck! Or is that bad management?

Just sold 4 gilts @ 66 BHT / Kg. Location Sisaket.

Well at last the market seems to be improving for we humble pig farmers. The price of pork is on the up again as well. Doubt we will see the highs on last year but at least Brabo's return should be above cost of production.

Well there was a productive response today! One member who isn't available on an unspecified date, and of course, "Our" Andy the "bridge" builder.

Come on guys, hand up somebody!

OK guys, we have to get the next one organised. Seems like I need to keep the ball rolling. Do you have a potential host on the forum, do we have a new topic or direction to talk about? Do we have a date or location in mind?

Give it a go... ideas please.

Loong,

You have the knowledge to grow vegetables the difference here is scale. Most people can keep up a backyard veggie patch but 8 rai is a different matter. If you are going to reserve a small piece and grow cassava on the rest then fine as long as either you or someone else will actually be there and do the work.

Cassava grown around here is like rice all backside and elbows for a brief period at the start and finish and little else. Daily watering, weeding and harvesting is not on the agenda for most Thais.

The second point you make about the time to condition the soil is a simple one. My land is very fine clay and either rock or soup in consistency, but add good compost to it and your can grow anything immediately.

Third issue about getting screwed over if you develop the land. The answer is you probably will but so what? If you want the cake and eat it too solution, then but the plot. I started growing veggies on a plot that I rented and I believe it is a good first step. You get to see what happens cropwise and who amongst the family members pushing you to invest is actually prepared to put in the hard yards and who is just mouth.

The days of the organic farm are numbered, the chemical giants are engulfing the fields spreading their poisons. But a small group of vegetables are fighting back.

It was some time ago when I looked at this pyrolisis burning technology looking for a better way to produce biochar from rice hulls, do not have wood. You can find the pictures and even building details on the web, I did, if not let me know and this magpie will hunt around. Just maybe I kept a copy.

What are you on about.....you listen to too many wives tales.

Our land is chanote titled.....they will not be pulling anything down.

Because....there is a way about most things.......although we did not get a build permit or permission.....we had the electric connected before we even built and we now have an address book.

samaiam, not old wives tales plan law of usage. Charnote is not an open tile to do as you wish. Permission to build needs to be obtain from what ever Government agency controls the land. With charnote the controlling agency is not the local Government, but the lands department in BKK. Just because the wifes 2 cousin works in the Amphor office and says everythings OK doesn't mean the Amphor has control of the land. Believe me if the Government or some one with pull wants a building gone, it's gone. I have land thats zoned industrial and had to get 3 different agencys to approve it, guy next door put in a gas station, no permission. Knocked down before he finished. Jim

Definitely not a one eyed statement Jimbo. Well put.

Will have 2 eyes next month and on the first plane out, this is no land for old men. Jim

Reminds me of an old story about a one eyed cat walking backwards. "A" over apex. Good luck with the second eye. Perhaps a little insurance? Buy an eye patch and a parrot? Would fit right in your neck of the woods...