The Official Maize and Rotational Crops Thread

[Jonathan Fairfield]

The Official Maize and Rotational Crops Thread

 

All maize and crop farming discussion here!

 

This thread continues on from the previous long running Maize and Rotational Crops topic here: https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/818965-maize-and-rotational-crops/

[kickstart]

Following on from sowing his rice crop ,to harvesting ,not the best of crops , a fair bit of grass weed  yield not that good , but you could say it is almost organic ,no sprays have been used and on this piece so the wife said, no fertilizer has been applied ,it has been a dry year and he had to pump water in ,his way is one of those water augers taking water from the local river and it just flows in to his rice field 300 meters ,it was cut by hand over the past 2 days .

So I have been told it is Hom Marlie, his thrashing method is, put the crop on to some shade cloth and run over it with the tractor it works.

He uses to get the mobile trashier in, then one year got a combine in, he was so horrified at the losses with the combine he now uses his tractor.

I would say with his low inputs he would make as much money as someone growing rice the conventionally way, ie lot of sprays and fertilizer etc  

[wayned]

What happened to the old thread?  Everybody here remains busy with the harvesting of the sorghum, the second corn crop and the beginning of the sugar cane harvest.  I can't even find someone to help me out with simple chores around the house.  Much of the cane is being mechanically harvested this year, but all of the harvesters are trucked in and they also bring rakes and balers for the silage.I looked at importing a JD3510 from the US, they're expensive and hard to find and nobody locally, including me,  is interested, no money,

[Ron19]

Previous posts can be found here.

https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/818965-maize-and-rotational-crops/

 

[kickstart]

Hi wayned

Must agree about the old thread, I wanted a quote from the old thread and the system would not let me, I had to rewrite what I wanted to say,  then re-download a photo, .....progress.

Anyway, I had a look at the JD3510 sugar cane harvester in the USA they where quoting $138000- 228000, that in Thia baht 4,1-6.8 million baht, not including shipping and import tax, as you say expensive.

Around here most machines are IH International Harvesters, so I have been told imported from Australia or Brazil, most are about 3.5-4 million baht.

They is a company in Kanchanaburi that import old secondhand ones and re-con them, Farmerjo did put in a link on this thread a while ago.

Price is now looking like 6-700 baht /ton, and around here sugar content this year is low with the government subbing 70 baht/ton and the sugar mill is doing the same 70 baht/ ton .

I have said this before we do not have any weigh stations around here it is all cut and cart straight to the mill, for a smaller grower, contractors charge about 350-380 baht /ton to machine cut and hauled to mill, that is 50% of costs, take away the rest of the growing  costs does not leave much of a  margin .

I would like to know how weigh stations make they money, thoongfoned said one weigh station is paying 680 baht ton, with there cost of having to load a haule cane to the mill cannot leave a lot of profit, I would say they would get the government subsidy? or what. 

[thoongfoned]

kickstart, my understanding of the local weigh stations around us. mainly run by families that have contacts and of course a few bahts....  they all farm cane on a large scale, 100/1000 rai ect then over the past 4/5 years? these weigh station have popped up all over the place being run by said families. they seem to get a qouta by the mill or  by one of the companies (in udon thani) that control the cane/mill?  they have to get X ton amount delivered to the mill by X date to get the price there have been promised, if they can not get enough there price per ton falls.... with the growers they have to show land titles of land and also the company come and and check the land against the paper title plus the cane in the ground, then they get the price of the cane per ton and also in some cases early payment of x percent to help with running costs, then most of the money comes when all the cane has been harvested/delivered. new company this year gps all the wifes land... i think it is similar with the guys that run these weigh stations but the land titles are not needed its money in the bank time... again i have heard that finacnce is in place for the larger weigh stations, a little like the rice/rubber buyers in large market towns, either self funding or with private backers ect... around us i have only seen 1 or 2 weigh stations up and running at the mo, the busy one (will try and get some photos) unloads and loads with 20 ton macros on mud banks, very busy last time i drove past, maybe 20 plus lrage tractors and trailers waiting to be tipped plus all the other small vehicles, its about 40/50 km to the mill from the station, lorry an drag units everywhere. 680 a ton paid in cash....

in the brother in laws village he always sells to the same station, they pay him after they get paid (so he maybe waits a month after he has cut, for his money) they always pay extra, so this year the local price is 680 he will end up with 700/720.... at this place they always close early due to filling there quota after 1 or 2 months..

its all like contract farming with livestock or even the petrol garage franchising, again just my take on it all.

the wife had some big wigs out for a farm inspection this past week and they are trying to get the wife to build another farm close by, i ask how many head sows and what basic cost, just a cheeky 6 mill baht  plus, oh yeah we will start on that build tommorrow.....

[kickstart]

Thanks for that ,interesting read ,now I know how they work ,interesting that grower have to show land titles ,around here most large growers rent land ,one of the biggest growers ,use to rent 40 ,20-25 rie blocks ,some other biger growers will be renting land on a similar scale one time 8-9 years ago big growers were renting a 25 rie block 1000 baht /rie paid up front for 3 years, a lot of small farmers thought this was a good deal 75k for doing nothing, but what state was the land in by the time sugar cane farmers have done with it and handed it back to the owners .

You said about your pig company wanting your wife to build another farm, again around here it is the broiler farms that are being built, drove up a road last week not been they for a while, and spotted a new broiler farm 8 big sheds that must have been a few million baht, land alone 2 mill plus , drove past another piece of land must have been 2-300 concrete posts in the ground ,asked a nearby farmer ,she said another broiler farm, both, independent farmers, will be on contract to the big boys ,they must think the poultry industry has a future.

We have 2-3 big pig farms around here owned by CP , been going for a few years. 

 

[wayned]

On 12/15/2018 at 9:00 PM, kickstart said:

Hi wayned

Must agree about the old thread, I wanted a quote from the old thread and the system would not let me, I had to rewrite what I wanted to say,  then re-download a photo, .....progress.

Anyway, I had a look at the JD3510 sugar cane harvester in the USA they where quoting $138000- 228000, that in Thia baht 4,1-6.8 million baht, not including shipping and import tax, as you say expensive.

Around here most machines are IH International Harvesters, so I have been told imported from Australia or Brazil, most are about 3.5-4 million baht.

They is a company in Kanchanaburi that import old secondhand ones and re-con them, Farmerjo did put in a link on this thread a while ago.

Price is now looking like 6-700 baht /ton, and around here sugar content this year is low with the government subbing 70 baht/ton and the sugar mill is doing the same 70 baht/ ton .

I have said this before we do not have any weigh stations around here it is all cut and cart straight to the mill, for a smaller grower, contractors charge about 350-380 baht /ton to machine cut and hauled to mill, that is 50% of costs, take away the rest of the growing  costs does not leave much of a  margin .

I would like to know how weigh stations make they money, thoongfoned said one weigh station is paying 680 baht ton, with there cost of having to load a haule cane to the mill cannot leave a lot of profit, I would say they would get the government subsidy? or what. 

We have the only weigh station in the area, all of the roadside drive through ones closed years ago,  We do not buy cane and most is hauled directly to the mill.  We are currently harvesting sorghum and the last of the second corn crop but will weigh anything.

 

I did talk to the people that I use to disassemble and pack combines in containers and they told me that they had quoted in the past but had never disassembled one.  It will fit in one 40' container and the cost of disassembly and packing is $4000.  The shipping would be around $4000 to Bangkok not including the trucking to the disassembly facility  or paying them to disassemble at the purchase place.  The duty is 5%, and VAT at 7% plus port charges and internal shipping here.  Then the fun would begin, putting together the multi-piece erector set with no instructions and no one ever having seen one before.  Not in the cards for me!

 

One new hiccups with the new thread is that you don't get notifications when new posts are made! As you said, PROGRESS!!!  Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[thoongfoned]

10 hours ago, kickstart said:

Thanks for that ,interesting read ,now I know how they work ,interesting that grower have to show land titles ,around here most large growers rent land ,one of the biggest growers ,use to rent 40 ,20-25 rie blocks ,some other biger growers will be renting land on a similar scale one time 8-9 years ago big growers were renting a 25 rie block 1000 baht /rie paid up front for 3 years, a lot of small farmers thought this was a good deal 75k for doing nothing, but what state was the land in by the time sugar cane farmers have done with it and handed it back to the owners .

You said about your pig company wanting your wife to build another farm, again around here it is the broiler farms that are being built, drove up a road last week not been they for a while, and spotted a new broiler farm 8 big sheds that must have been a few million baht, land alone 2 mill plus , drove past another piece of land must have been 2-300 concrete posts in the ground ,asked a nearby farmer ,she said another broiler farm, both, independent farmers, will be on contract to the big boys ,they must think the poultry industry has a future.

We have 2-3 big pig farms around here owned by CP , been going for a few years. 

 

renting the land, around here people pay one year at a time, some at the beginning say october/nov some at the end jan/feb, one of the largest families pay in april time... most will pay 1000 baht per rai, around here the land is not good, full of large rocks and or loads of clay... when the farmer rents the land he will ask for copies of land title and also the id card of the owner, all this then gets checked by the company he will be selling to.. having looked at cane for many years around the area i would say if you could average 6/7 ton per rai you have a very high end crop, for here...

pigs is big business here, over 2000 sows in say 6/7 villages plus all the finisher farms, 200 head sow farm  will suply 4800/5500 piglets per year, finish farm 700 head so alot of finishing farms here too. also in the past few year people have starting to  contract fish farm, all for the same company. i know of 3 new finishers farms being built at the mo in/around the village. 700 head basic build would be from 2.5 ish million depending on spec. 200 head sow farm build from 4 million again depending on spec. plus maybe dragging electric,buiding a home more back fill ect... last time i was ask what to budjet for a  200 head sow farm by a local guy i said 6 million all in to pay day. farm will be up and running for 6 months before the first pay cheque hits the bank. he ended up building a finisher farm.555

on one of my travels the other week i came across a very large cpf chicken farm setup, 3/4 high apartment blocks for the workers and from what i could see more than 10 barns...  a guy that buys most of the pig poo from us also buys from this set up. in this area there is only 1 cpf finisher farm and a growing number of thai foods finishers farms coming on line.

[kickstart]

What is it ?,back in November this field of maize was harvested ,since then we have had 46 mm of rain ,you can see that the combine was not set up right ,and more than likely he was going to fast, and a lot of the grain went straight out the back of the combine ,you can see the rows, and all the self-set grains have grown.

A good few kgs of corn and a good few baht, the combines where a couple of old Class ones,  owned by a local buyer of maize who has a couple of combines.

You could say it would make a much needed green manure when ploughed in. 

[farmerjo]

Had a storm come through about 4 days ago flattening what sugar crops that are left.

Many lost roofs off their houses.

The country side looks as barren as i've seen it in a long time with a heavy haze in the air.

Let's hope we get a few early rains to clear the air and get the season off to a good start.

Most of the sugar in the district will go around again leaving what land that is left to mainly rice.

 

 

[IsaanAussie]

Back after 5 years in OZ. Could not agree more with FJ opinion on conditions. I have never seen the land looking as desolate, nor the ponds and lakes as low. Hoping that this year's rains are both early and consistent. 

Does anyone have a decent weather forecast? 

[KRAY63]

 No Rain in Korat ..Very Hot ..Had to install 50 sprinklers...Corn was planted January 10 ...It is coming along pretty good ..15 Rai....

[marke985]

A quick question for the corn/maize farmers.  Is there a consensus on the best seed supplier in Thailand?  

I only have 2 rai I like to spend time at and the familk I live with keep telling me to grow more sweet corn and they have eager buyers.

 

However, the 10.baht bags at the local shops have burned me twice now with seeds showing about 10% germination.  Nothing as disheartening  for me than spending the time and strain on my back for a day or two just to start over.

 

I'd be a buyer up to 5 kilos of seed if there is a reliable  source I can go to.

 

Thanks for any help.

[kickstart]

1 hour ago, marke985 said:

A quick question for the corn/maize farmers.  Is there a consensus on the best seed supplier in Thailand?  

I only have 2 rai I like to spend time at and the familk I live with keep telling me to grow more sweet corn and they have eager buyers.

 

However, the 10.baht bags at the local shops have burned me twice now with seeds showing about 10% germination.  Nothing as disheartening  for me than spending the time and strain on my back for a day or two just to start over.

 

I'd be a buyer up to 5 kilos of seed if there is a reliable  source I can go to.

 

Thanks for any help.

It did not grow, was it getting near the sell-by date, local shops are not always bothered about sell-by dates.

What type of seed bed was it sown in, a rough lumpy one will give you low germination, the seed will germinate, then it will die in a rough seedbed, soil drys out, was it drilled at the right depth,by hand or by machine, plenty of water?

 

 

 

Pacific seed, CP produce they own seed corn , plus other companies you need to find a large shop selling seeds fertilizers sprays etc, we have 2 in our area, they would sell all the seeds from companies in Thailand. They would have the stock turnover and should be able to give you some advice.                             We grew some sweet corn  Supper Sweet verity about 90 baht /kg never any problem with germination .you can get sweet corn seed costing 700 baht plus a kg, grows well and has big cobs. 

[farmerjo]

Very hot here but with a few showers passing through there was quite a bit of activity last week with corn plantings.

A couple of neighbours are in and away.

[CLW]

Very hot here but with a few showers passing through there was quite a bit of activity last week with corn plantings.
A couple of neighbours are in and away.

That seedbed on the second picture gives me nightmares [emoji23]

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[kickstart]

Hi FJ 

        You beat me to it ,I was going to post some pictures of sown corn crops, again done about 10 days ago, after we had 23mm of rain one afternoon.

  It is like playing the Thai lottery ,get the crop in early and get a good price by selling the crop early ,but if it dose not rain, Rip-Roy ,it will be an ex-crop , and ploughed in , wait for the rains, like a lot of farmers, but you will get a lower price, as the market becomes full .

When we grew corn it was the 3ed week in May before we sowed the seed, and then we lost a crop no rain in Augst. 

CLW, Well looking at that seedbed and that light land if they is no rain for a while, they will be a big soil moisture deficit, and it will die, the land looks very stoney looks if he went into the old stubble with a 7 disc plough, and then drilled the crop.

What that lands needs is a good subsoiling and get it opened up, then a one pass cultivator (non-existent in LOS but on a wish list ), then drill, or dirct drill after some rain , last year 50% of our local crops were direct drilled for the second crop.  

[CLW]

Could probably be a good idea for contracting? !



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[kickstart]

16 hours ago, CLW said:

Could probably be a good idea for contracting? !



Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
 

1

Hi CLW

         That would be on my wishlist, I was thinking more something like this, it would be more suitable for Thailand, trailed one would be better, those tines would do the land  some good, but with Kubota tractors not fitted with spool valves, it would have to be mounted ,but saying that Ford's still rule the waves regarding land work in this area .and they all have spool valves 

Like you said this would be a contractors tool, you would have to charge450 baht /rie but, with a 3 disc plough charging about 450/rie, then a 7 disc, I think about 300 baht/rie, you would be better off with a one pass.

[IsaanAussie]

Does that thing paint white lines as well? What a beast.

[kickstart]

2 hours ago, IsaanAussie said:

Does that thing paint white lines as well? What a beast.

A bit over the top for LOS, I would say it need 200hp to pull the thing.

For Thailand, a well scaled down version would work all the bits to make one are available,

The biggest problem, will be getting a Thai farmer to change his ways, but you could say that is happening, with a lot of farmers now direct drilling they second crop of corn, and nearly all sunflowers are direct drilled.

[IsaanAussie]

I was going to ask if that was a bit too big for my 28Hp Iseki. What a shame, the hydraulics on mine are stuffed and just towing it would have been good. LOL

 

[JungleBiker]

Hi All,

 

This thread seems quiet these days. ????

 

1. The other day, I read the old thread up to about page 35 and then gave up! It started in 2015 when FJ was experimenting with zero tillage corn. I think it takes 2 or 3 years for the impact of zero-tillage on soil fertility to kick in, so now, 4 years later, how is it going?  

 

2. My main reason for writing: Can anyone give me a more recent contractor price for corn harvesting than the 600 baht/rai that I found mentioned by Wayned in 2015?

 

3. FJ mentioned that a Kubota DC70 combine was dropping a lot of corn on the floor, FJ said he would like to get a corn header. Is that the same thing as the "corn kit" mentioned at Siam Kubota's website, priced 39,900 baht? http://www.siamkubota.co.th/agriculture/product/55

 

4. Does anyone know a contractor price for corn drilling, either direct into rice stubble or into cultivated soil? 

 

Thanks.

JB.  

 

 

 

[farmerjo]

Hi JB,

I did end up with the corn kit from Kubota,does a reasonable job once i modified the fingers to face more upwards.

It didn't like a field with lots of green growing up through it (nothing to do with the corn kit)as it would build up on the belt driven sizing screen causing belt slippage and internal blockages.Slow and steady wins.

I'm still a no till believer. at this stage i'm  not looking to plant a crop(sunn hemp) on that land till mid october this year. 

3 neighbours had a contractor in to plant corn,tyne machine,cultivated land 300/rai.

 

  

 

 

[JungleBiker]

7 hours ago, farmerjo said:

Hi JB,

I did end up with the corn kit from Kubota,does a reasonable job once i modified the fingers to face more upwards.

It didn't like a field with lots of green growing up through it (nothing to do with the corn kit)as it would build up on the belt driven sizing screen causing belt slippage and internal blockages.Slow and steady wins.

I'm still a no till believer. at this stage i'm  not looking to plant a crop(sunn hemp) on that land till mid october this year. 

3 neighbours had a contractor in to plant corn,tyne machine,cultivated land 300/rai.

 

  

 

 

 

Thank you FJ.

 

Good to hear you're still going with the no till.  

 

I hope Wayned may chip in with a more up to date price for combining corn. 

 

[kickstart]

On ‎6‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 12:03 AM, JungleBiker said:

 

Thank you FJ.

 

Good to hear you're still going with the no till.  

 

I hope Wayned may chip in with a more up to date price for combining corn. 

 

Where I am last year it was  still 600 baht/rie for combing a crop, the combine is either an imported wheeled combine ,or a Thai track one .

I think the price have  been stable for a while because fuel prices have not gone up much.

As for drilling corn a small tractor and a 2row drill .drilling in to cultivated land 150 baht/rie.,last year a lot of the second crop maize was direct drilled ,not certain on the priced will find out .I think it is about the same price.   

[JungleBiker]

On 6/28/2019 at 10:39 PM, kickstart said:

Where I am last year it was  still 600 baht/rie for combing a crop, the combine is either an imported wheeled combine ,or a Thai track one .

I think the price have  been stable for a while because fuel prices have not gone up much.

As for drilling corn a small tractor and a 2row drill .drilling in to cultivated land 150 baht/rie.,last year a lot of the second crop maize was direct drilled ,not certain on the priced will find out .I think it is about the same price.   

Thank you KS ????

[farmerjo]

Thought i give an update of the no-till sunn hemp and how it's going.

Slashed the overgrowth weeds,sprayed with roundup and seeded between 12-16 August.

We have had 188mm of rain since planting,81mm of that came in 3 days 2 weeks after planting which was not ideal. Really need one more good rain to finish it off but think the gods have shut shop this year and will have to rely on the due factor.

It was the 1st time using my modified air seeder so plenty of improvements can be made there.

10" spacings and 1.75 kg/rai(rate).

I guess the biggest mistake i made was worrying to much about cutting through the residue left on top.

Where germination was poor i buried the seed to deep,it germinated but got tangled in the thick mulch and didn't break through the surface.On the opposite,where the seed was left on top turning around on the rows and just prickle chained it grew fine.Lesson learnt.

No fertilizer or in crop herbicides or pesticides have been used,just plain seed.

A few caterpillars and aphids but not enough damage to worry at this stage.

Seems to be some bee action but anyone with mobile houses are welcome.

 

To put it in perspective a farmer using tillage has leased 4 rai next to me,1st crop was corn(not to bad).

He then tried to follow up with a dryland rice crop,this was planted one week before my sunn hemp.

 

 

  

 

[miras]

Hi everyone!

 

My name is Miras, I am a startup founder from Hong-Kong. Our company is developing a solution that will help farmers to save 50-90% of their herbicide use. Long story short, it detects weeds inside the crop row and applies herbicides on them, instead of spraying everything. It does everything in real-time and does not require internet access. 

It is not finished yet. But we working really hard to deliver it to the market ASAP. We also heard a lot about herbicide ban in Thailand and are willing to work with Thai farmers to help them maintain their yields along with decreasing their herbicide use. We plan to roll out the first version by Spring 2020-21. 

We would be super happy to talk with farmers who grow corn or sunflower and discuss what features would need to be in the end product. We will also be in Thailand for a week in the end of November. Will be happy to meet as much people as we can. If you know someone who grows corn and has problems with herbicides, please share them our contacts or give us theirs.

 

I would be happy to have a Skype call with anyone interested in our solution. Please do not hesitate contact me here, through email ([email protected]), or via WhatsApp (+77471088637).

 

Any suggestion on how much would you pay for the product would also be very appreciated (assuming it can cover 10 hectares per day and save at least 50% of herbicides).

 

Thank you!:)