Growing Sugarcane

[bannork]

One of the brother-in-law's has offered the wife 16 rai at rent of 3,000 baht a year or crop to grow sugar cane. It's good land on a hill, I was wondering if anyone could give me an idea of the fertiliser cost for that.

Cheers,

Bannork

[teletiger]

One of the brother-in-law's has offered the wife 16 rai at rent of 3,000 baht a year or crop to grow sugar cane. It's good land on a hill, I was wondering if anyone could give me an idea of the fertiliser cost for that.

Cheers,

Bannork

If that's 3,000 Baht for the whole plot, then it's cheap. Around me, decent land goes for 500 baht per year, per Rai. Below is a site that should point you towards the fertiliser needs of sugar-cane. If you calculate 12 Baht per kilo for NPK, then you won't be far out. Composted cattle manure will be 7/8 Baht per 30 kilo bag + transport.

http://www.fertilizer.org/ifa/publicat/htm...man/sugcane.htm

This site is in the pinned section of this forum and covers almost all agricultural crops.

Sugar-cane is a favorite of absentee landlords, as very little maintainence is required. One planting should last for 3+years. One plantation in the West-Indies is still going strong, 25 years after the initial planting.

Regards.

[pallasaide]

Dear Teletiger

Tim asks me to tell you (I am with him at the moment), that their is no fixed fertiliser regime for cane in Thailand as both the varieties and soil conditions vary so much that it needs to be considered on a case by case basis.

But he adds a few practical considerations for you to keep in mind.

The first is a general consideration that is all about logistics. Cane as you know is not a crop that is taken in a pickup to the local market. It requires transportation to a mill for crushing, and unless you have a mill lined up to recieve your crop, you are going to land up stuck in a queue of trucks come harvest time. Some of these trucks land up waiting as much as 3 or 4 days to get unloaded. The logistics of cut cane in Thailand is a problem every year which costs farmers a lot of money and time and can totally mess up your harvesting crew (having to pay them to sit around for days before they can cut and load up the next truck, and then having to deal with an irate truck owner who wants more payment because he has to sit in a queue waiting to be weighed, all of this hassle through no fault of your own but just the way the system works.

It may sound a trivial problem. It is not. It causes big grief every year for cane farmers.

Also keep in mind how far you are from the nearest mill versus what they are offering per ton, as transporters charge by the metric ton x kilometer. It quickly adds up if you are anything more than 5 - 10 km form a mill and can impact significantly on wht you net (prices for cut trash free cane are, like most Thai crops, not very high and margins can are tight)

Also keep in mind that this years coming dry season (if you do plant) is anticipated to be very dry season indeed, much more so then usual. Ask a lot of questions and give careful consideration to using a variety that is drought tolerent, as opposed to just the usualy high yield variety (they usualy rely on good irrigation or rainfall at the right time. Tim listed shortly before his accident somewhere on the forum a list of common Thai cane varities, and some detail on their yield and drought tolerance. He grows around 100 acres of it. Take a look at that list. Speak to cane farmers around you for input on what they intend to grow, the soil they are "setting" in (i.e. planting in), and what fertiliser they use. Your nearby cane farmers can be an invaluble source of practical information.

You will do well to do some reading up on good "sets" from bad "sets". "Sets" are the segments of cane planted to grow the crop from. In Thailand you get "sets" and you get "sets", and the usual Thai caveat emptor applies. When it comes to selecting the "sets" for whatever variety you decide to cultivate, it will pay to get an exprianced opinion on what you are been offered, so you dont get sold some junk.

AS others have already said, you land cost is quite reasonable. Your big costs wil come with harvesting and transport versus what you get paid, which if you get it right has the potential to be good as the first harvest for 2007/2008 is expected to be low (so the price is going to go up).

for Tim

D.V.

[Somtham]

Dear Teletiger

Tim asks me to tell you (I am with him at the moment), that their is no fixed fertiliser regime for cane in Thailand as both the varieties and soil conditions vary so much that it needs to be considered on a case by case basis.

But he adds a few practical considerations for you to keep in mind.

The first is a general consideration that is all about logistics. Cane as you know is not a crop that is taken in a pickup to the local market. It requires transportation to a mill for crushing, and unless you have a mill lined up to recieve your crop, you are going to land up stuck in a queue of trucks come harvest time. Some of these trucks land up waiting as much as 3 or 4 days to get unloaded. The logistics of cut cane in Thailand is a problem every year which costs farmers a lot of money and time and can totally mess up your harvesting crew (having to pay them to sit around for days before they can cut and load up the next truck, and then having to deal with an irate truck owner who wants more payment because he has to sit in a queue waiting to be weighed, all of this hassle through no fault of your own but just the way the system works.

It may sound a trivial problem. It is not. It causes big grief every year for cane farmers.

Also keep in mind how far you are from the nearest mill versus what they are offering per ton, as transporters charge by the metric ton x kilometer. It quickly adds up if you are anything more than 5 - 10 km form a mill and can impact significantly on wht you net (prices for cut trash free cane are, like most Thai crops, not very high and margins can are tight)

Also keep in mind that this years coming dry season (if you do plant) is anticipated to be very dry season indeed, much more so then usual. Ask a lot of questions and give careful consideration to using a variety that is drought tolerent, as opposed to just the usualy high yield variety (they usualy rely on good irrigation or rainfall at the right time. Tim listed shortly before his accident somewhere on the forum a list of common Thai cane varities, and some detail on their yield and drought tolerance. He grows around 100 acres of it. Take a look at that list. Speak to cane farmers around you for input on what they intend to grow, the soil they are "setting" in (i.e. planting in), and what fertiliser they use. Your nearby cane farmers can be an invaluble source of practical information.

You will do well to do some reading up on good "sets" from bad "sets". "Sets" are the segments of cane planted to grow the crop from. In Thailand you get "sets" and you get "sets", and the usual Thai caveat emptor applies. When it comes to selecting the "sets" for whatever variety you decide to cultivate, it will pay to get an exprianced opinion on what you are been offered, so you dont get sold some junk.

AS others have already said, you land cost is quite reasonable. Your big costs wil come with harvesting and transport versus what you get paid, which if you get it right has the potential to be good as the first harvest for 2007/2008 is expected to be low (so the price is going to go up).

for Tim

D.V.

There is a sugar cane processing plant just down the road from us and the trucks are nonstop all day long. When I drive by the factory they must have a 20 rai parking lot filled with trucks waiting to get weighed and off load their cargo.

Here's maybe a better idea than growing sugar cane. The guy across the street has a truck tire, or is that tyre, repair shop. I think during the cane harvest season he throws nails down in the road and when the cane trucks pass by and hit them "BOOM" the tire blows and he has more work. The guy is busy as heck repairing 10 and 6 wheeler tires all day long.

rgds