MrMr

We had a nest of them under our old sofa, they all came out 2 days ago, I guess I killed 40 baby centipedes, when lifting the sofa we also found 1 adult under there. Killed it also. I have been watching the floor like a hawk the last 2 days lol

Just sold cup rubber here in Suwannakuha amphoe, 24 THB/ KILO. If it goes down much more, it will be not worth the work any more...

I have followed the 1st season that my in laws have done sugarcane closely now. (I loaded and transported 50 tonnes in my Tata).

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Early calculations showed a yield of around 25 tonnes/rai. with a price of 1300 baht for a tonne.The inlaws are over the moon and already started ripping up paddy fields to put sugarcane and renting more land to grow sugarcane. They haven't really worked in a very specilized way on it. just plowed, put the cane in the ground, watered it, fertilized it and harvested.

In some places it was more than 4 meters high and the best quality got around 20 baht for each "mat"(bundle of 10 canes).

The more cars run on ethanol, the more popular sugarcane will become. I see sugar cane overtaking rice here in the next years, with rice automatically gaining in price as a result

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hi,

Suwannakuha area here. a very dry season with only 3 days of rain worth mentioning and all in the beginning of the season. yield down 40% compared to normal. no idea about prices though.

we only plant sticky rice for own consumption but the 57 bags are not going to be enough for the year.

Check out the System of Rice intensification. I dabbled a bit with it this year. it wasnt spectacular, but we made many mistakes and still had a better result than the paddies next to the test field.

Check out the videos on youtube.

I do have the diesel version.

Remember the early toyota pick-ups. They were entering the market and made the cars no-nonsense and very reliable.That is what I see in their diesel version. with their CNG version they are trying to be fancy, but their diesel engine has been used for years in India.

Quite a bit of power too...

I have bought the Xenon without the extra cab in Udon last year in December. Perfect workhorse for the farm (and carrying construction materials for the house we are building) and very happy with the car. My BIL broke one of the indicator lights and the dealer asked 20baht to replace it.

Like I said, Very happy with it. It easily carries 2 tonnes. (giant model) (gonna check its limits soon as the sugar cane season started here)

1 minor thing: when empty, the back suspension is very hard. When heavily loaded, my lights blind oncoming traffic.

HOWEVER, it looks like the 1 year insurance that was promised (and confirmed on the invoice) never materialized. When in Thailand I have asked a number of times for a copy of the insurance,but I have never received it.

I am starting to think that I am driving around without insurance, but with a promise from Tata that they would get me one.

so in short: if you want a work horse and a good excuse not to have to play taxi for the inlaws all the time (mai mee cab), this is a very good value for the price.

Last time I saw a heavy duty version of the giant model (probably even better)

How's the pond clearing going.?

Would love to see an update on how things are now and if the mix of fish used turned out to be a succes!

Thanks

Hi,

I would also be very interested in any replies.

Maybe you would find it interesting to try to find the episode of Planet Mechanics (National Geographic) on Water generated power (about a remote Bed and Breakfast in the lake district in the UK)

I guess if you could have water power and solar power, you would be pretty much self sufficient.

I just heard from my GF that in the region of Suwannakuha (Isaan) 12 kg of sticky rice only sold for 70 Baht ...

Hi

We started tapping this year and I wish we had not. The agro man said 46 cm 1 metre up for my type of tree RM 261 We had about 1000 trees that would be big enough to cut at the start of this year. The wife and I returned to OZ to have another baby. I had left instructions to cut one rest two. Well got back 3 months ago, the tappers are tapping 1600 trees [600 undersize] and cutting two and resting one. I honestly believe if we had not got back when we did they woud have killed most of the trees. Unfortunatly I can not fire them as they do tap very well and there is no one else in the area who has any experience in rubber tapping.

Lesson learned don't go away for any lenght of time. jim

I am very sorry to hear that. I actually was watching all of your movies on Youtube yesterday with my Thai GF. She is over on a 3 month visa here with me and her family has started a rubber plantation 3 years ago. They now have about 3000 trees of varying ages as they can only plant new ones when they have some money and time.

We were actually getting quite excited by your success and entrepeneurship we saw in your videos, so it is a very wise lesson you share with everyone.

Many thanks for sharing all of this.

I have already learnt how the poor farmers are getting screwed over by the mills and government, by all of the promises of guaranteed prices, but not delivering on any of it. (Today the first people in my GF's village in Isaan went to sell some newly harvested rice and got less then 6 baht for 1 kilo of sticky rice, these people have no choice but to sell, as the government loaned them money last year to be able to plant rice and such, which they have to pay back now)

It all looks very unjust to me and I don't know if I would ever learn to live with it, but from other posts it seemd to me that the ordinary Thai people or doing their best to cheat and betray others as well...

I will need to do a lot of reading on this forum before deciding to invest heavily in any business in Thailand.

But I wish you all the luck in your further endeavours ...

Luc