The Official Maize and Rotational Crops Thread

[kickstart]

3 hours ago, farmerjo said:

Sold the last of the KK6 rice today,price up to 12 baht/kilo.

Will have to think whether to grow any hom mali next year.

The markets favour the domestic market and the KK6 yields better than the hom mali.

Driving passed a few sugar depots,the price has gone up a little to 1050/ton plus 70.

 

 

Looking like sugar around here is 1070 baht/ton ,yields are good ,been a wet year sugar containt not so good .

Most cane is cut by machine ,as I thought it is now 400baht/ton to cut and haul a ton of cane to the mill, up from 350 baht/ton.

Not so good for fossil fuel ,before cane was burnt then cut by hand ,and then loaded on to a truck with a Ford 6600 and a grab.

Now with a machine that has a 250 or350 hp 6-cylinder engine that uses a lot of fuel,you see a cane harvester going down the road ,behind will be a pick-up /fuel cart .

The anti-burn brigade will be happy ,very little cane is burnt now,but the  use of fossil fuel has gone up by 4-5 times with machine harvesting.........progress

[farmerjo]

On 12/22/2022 at 9:25 PM, kickstart said:

Looking like sugar around here is 1070 baht/ton ,yields are good ,been a wet year sugar containt not so good .

Most cane is cut by machine ,as I thought it is now 400baht/ton to cut and haul a ton of cane to the mill, up from 350 baht/ton.

Not so good for fossil fuel ,before cane was burnt then cut by hand ,and then loaded on to a truck with a Ford 6600 and a grab.

Now with a machine that has a 250 or350 hp 6-cylinder engine that uses a lot of fuel,you see a cane harvester going down the road ,behind will be a pick-up /fuel cart .

The anti-burn brigade will be happy ,very little cane is burnt now,but the  use of fossil fuel has gone up by 4-5 times with machine harvesting.........progress

Hi KS

Prices are similar.

As there is still more hand cut sugar than machine around here the practice is to still burn the rows after it is carted away so the fertilizer can be applied with a tyne implement.

 

Was a sad day here yesterday as my 6610 died.

Went and started slashing the back paddock,did about 400 metres and lost drive.

No bangs or noises and pto,lift arms still work so had to get the harvester out to tow it back home.

Will have to split it to find whether it's the clutch which has been sticky for a while or a snapped shaft somewhere.

Replaced the clutch about 15 years a go so if it is that i had a pretty good run.

 

[farmerjo]

Got the old Ford back up and running.

New clutch and bearings 6500 baht,fingers were damaged could of used old clutch plate but decided to replace.

The real problem was a stripped spline on the hollow shaft from clutch to gearbox.

1600 for shaft and 750 to modify length at machine shop.

3000 labour(split tractor twice) so all in all pretty happy.

Got it home and did about 4 hours of slashing,hit a small rock and snapped the pto output shaft????

Not all bad as needed changing to fix the oil leak,will be about 1400 baht for new shaft and seal and save me a lot on oil as most of its work is PTO.

First real birthday its had in 15 years so had a good run should be good for a while now.

Got to admire Thailand and their ability to carry on supplying any Ford spare parts you need and at a reasonable price.

 

[kickstart]

1 hour ago, farmerjo said:

Got the old Ford back up and running.

New clutch and bearings 6500 baht,fingers were damaged could of used old clutch plate but decided to replace.

The real problem was a stripped spline on the hollow shaft from clutch to gearbox.

1600 for shaft and 750 to modify length at machine shop.

3000 labour(split tractor twice) so all in all pretty happy.

Got it home and did about 4 hours of slashing,hit a small rock and snapped the pto output shaft????

Not all bad as needed changing to fix the oil leak,will be about 1400 baht for new shaft and seal and save me a lot on oil as most of its work is PTO.

First real birthday its had in 15 years so had a good run should be good for a while now.

Got to admire Thailand and their ability to carry on supplying any Ford spare parts you need and at a reasonable price.

 

They are good at keeping these old Fords going ,we still have a few old Ford 5000 about still working  ,first manufacture in 1968.

As you say they are not expensive,I know of 2–3 farmers who have had their Ford's rebuilt from the ground up ,engine ,backend etc  even a new paint job and Ford stickers,cost about 40-50000 baht bar routine maintenance no major work needed for 10-15 years .

Dealer near me sells re-con imported 6600's for about 400 000 baht, 

When I first come to LOS about half of our sugar cane was hauled to our local mill by Fords and trailers ,trailers being cut down 10 wheel trucks ,total weight about 20 ton not bad for a late 80's 75-85hp tractor.

[CLW]

On 12/4/2022 at 10:18 AM, farmerjo said:

The sugar mill must of opened a couple of days a go.

One of our neighbours has started cutting.

The cane cutters have got a wrestle on this year with the height of the cane.

Looks like a 15 or 16 ton crop,it is 1st year sugar.

Haven't seen or heard any prices yet.

 

 

Burning before harvest? Or using harvester

[kickstart]

6 hours ago, CLW said:

Burning before harvest? Or using harvester

In this area it is now cut with a machine ,straight in to a trailer ,then to the mill ,most farmers can not afford a machine upwards of 2 million baht ,second hand imports ,this year they are being charged 380-400 baht/ton,cut haul to the mill.

,Last year right at the end of the season some fields were burnt,the queue for the machine too long, growers afraid the mill would close before they got they crop in ,so they burnt their crop and cut it by hand ,but the mill pays a reduced price on burnt cane, so they would not make a lot on burnt cane .

We were saying last week how they are cracking on this year,a lot of machines about, so probably not a lot of cane will be burnt,wife's granddaughters husband work at the local mill ,he said this year they estimate processing 3 million ton of cane ,last year it was 1.5 million ton,alot of rain last year ,a lot of cane,but it seems sugar containt is low. 

[farmerjo]

8 hours ago, CLW said:

Burning before harvest? Or using harvester

Around here burning the stubble,left over leaves from hand cutting.

After harvest so they can then use a duel straight shank tyne behind tractor to incorporate fertilizer for the next growing season before applying water.

Not so many harvesters here but bailing the stubble is picking up slowly.

Price up to 1400 baht a ton for sugar now.

[kickstart]

For us this is the second year of baling cane stubble,it still goes to our local mill where it is used as fuel for boiling up molasses ,as far as I know the mill is paying about 900 baht/ton.

Last year one guy had a round baler ,not seen it this year,i would say he could not get the weight in a bale,with haulage could not make it pay.,these square bales weigh about 350 kg 

The second set of photos is a first for us ,this guy is chopping cane stubble using a self-propelled forage harvester ,the double acrobat row's the stubble up then he chops it ,he said it goes for bio mass not so far from us .

The numbers ,this chopper was 5 million baht a second hand import  from Germany ,where they are made,he had two working in this field the following day he is getting 1000 baht/ton ,he said he uses 5000 baht's worth of diesel a day.

What I forgot to ask what was the weight he got on the sip law and trailer,I would say 10-12 ton very dry ,as you can see ,and from a long way off ,an awful  lot of dust.

[CLW]

14 hours ago, kickstart said:

For us this is the second year of baling cane stubble,it still goes to our local mill where it is used as fuel for boiling up molasses ,as far as I know the mill is paying about 900 baht/ton.

Last year one guy had a round baler ,not seen it this year,i would say he could not get the weight in a bale,with haulage could not make it pay.,these square bales weigh about 350 kg 

The second set of photos is a first for us ,this guy is chopping cane stubble using a self-propelled forage harvester ,the double acrobat row's the stubble up then he chops it ,he said it goes for bio mass not so far from us .

The numbers ,this chopper was 5 million baht a second hand import  from Germany ,where they are made,he had two working in this field the following day he is getting 1000 baht/ton ,he said he uses 5000 baht's worth of diesel a day.

What I forgot to ask what was the weight he got on the sip law and trailer,I would say 10-12 ton very dry ,as you can see ,and from a long way off ,an awful  lot of dust.

Claas (the German manufacturer of the harvester) seems to have a roaring trade in Thailand. Many square balers sold to contractors, that rent them out to farmers or the sugar mill.

Also Claas recently introduced a small series of combines, popular in India and the Philippines, to Thailand. They are multipurpose and can (with changing the front piece) used for cereal, beans, oilseeds and corn.

[kickstart]

9 hours ago, CLW said:

Claas (the German manufacturer of the harvester) seems to have a roaring trade in Thailand. Many square balers sold to contractors, that rent them out to farmers or the sugar mill.

Also Claas recently introduced a small series of combines, popular in India and the Philippines, to Thailand. They are multipurpose and can (with changing the front piece) used for cereal, beans, oilseeds and corn.

They are a Claas dealership selling tractors ,have seen one in this area,cost would be the biggest draw back ,import tax,when the owner of that Claas forage harvester said 5 million baht I said a lot of that would be import tax he said yes.

Again I can not see the combines taking off over here to expensive,in this area we have a few second Claas Dominator combines ,they have now been around for 50 years,the ones here are probable 20 ears old plus?.

Also, we have a few John Deer combines ,again second hand.

Most are the Thai made combines ,they can do rice, corn and sunflowers, mung beans,with a  change of head.

And a fair number of Kubota combines about, some the same as Farmerjo uses.

Also the 

[CLW]

14 hours ago, kickstart said:

They are a Claas dealership selling tractors ,have seen one in this area,cost would be the biggest draw back ,import tax,when the owner of that Claas forage harvester said 5 million baht I said a lot of that would be import tax he said yes.

Again I can not see the combines taking off over here to expensive,in this area we have a few second Claas Dominator combines ,they have now been around for 50 years,the ones here are probable 20 ears old plus?.

Also, we have a few John Deer combines ,again second hand.

Most are the Thai made combines ,they can do rice, corn and sunflowers, mung beans,with a  change of head.

And a fair number of Kubota combines about, some the same as Farmerjo uses.

Also the 

I have a vague recollection that some time ago the Thai government waived taxes for imported large agricultural machinery such as harvesters. But could also apply to sugar can harvesters only to reduce burning and PM2.5

[farmerjo]

On 1/25/2023 at 8:19 PM, kickstart said:

For us this is the second year of baling cane stubble,it still goes to our local mill where it is used as fuel for boiling up molasses ,as far as I know the mill is paying about 900 baht/ton.

Hi KS

A mate told me the other day around here bailing contractors are offering 100 baht/rai for the straw.

Sounds about right as their costs add up.

 

We had 58mm of rain over the weekend so been doing some maint. work on the offset disc putting scrapers on front row of disc's and a bit of grease.

To wet today but will have another go tomorrow,just want to skim the surface over ready to plant some sunn hemp.

 

[kickstart]

Hi FJ

        This thing was working just up the road from us ,field was sugar cane ,been ploughed ,now this rotary harrow  has been over it ,the soil is our blak land this time of year very hard no rain .you can see the ploughed land on the left the harrowed  land on the right ,he made a good job .

The JD tractor is 135 hp the rotary harrow  is 3 meters ,the guy said it cost 180 000 baht ,new they are 420 000 baht.

This was last Friday ,I said a good rainstorm you could drill in to that ,then on Sunday like you, we had 10 mm of rain,even after 10 mm, if more rain was due ,which it will not be ,you could have drilled in to that field .

Our farming press in the UK and others is and as has been for a while now, saying about direct drilling ,mainly  for Maize ,Wheat, Barley  and Canola ,OSR  the reason less environmental impact on the land ,less soi disturbance ,and more cost efferent.

This is the first time I have seen the above set-up ,he said the guy will be planting cane again ,the owner ploughed the field himself, Ford 7740, this guy was contracting  450-500 baht/rie ,the cost of the two together900- 1000 baht/Rie??, diesel at 35 baht plus /litre.

Farming methods in Thailand are changing ,they still have a long way to go to catch up with the west ,the two photos are new here to me ,but in our countries they are on the way out.   

[farmerjo]

Hi KS

That harrow leaves a nice finish.

At the start of the year i was going back to no-till but have now decided to disc everything.

Reason is i think i can mow then disc the land twice for half of the price of using chemicals.

I run the risk of rutting up the fields with heavy rain but input costs come 1st.

Here is a picture of some offset discing yesterday taken this morning(phone camera on way out)

One pass and a little clumpy,another pass in a week or so will leave it good enough to seed into.

That was done at 10kph.

 

 

[farmerjo]

Was pinning my hopes on some rain this weekend to no avail

Last week started to do a second pass with offset disc but conditions not quite right.(80% ok)

That with getting lazier with age to sit on tractor for long periods it was back to the workshop to do some modifications to couple the offset disc to seeder so can seed in one pass when the rain eventually comes.

To fill in a bit more time put all the sunn hemp seed back through the seed cleaner and doing a germination test.

Ready to rock n roll,6mm of rain will get me started.

In the meantime,back to the cricket.

 

 

 

[kickstart]

10 hours ago, farmerjo said:

Was pinning my hopes on some rain this weekend to no avail

Last week started to do a second pass with offset disc but conditions not quite right.(80% ok)

That with getting lazier with age to sit on tractor for long periods it was back to the workshop to do some modifications to couple the offset disc to seeder so can seed in one pass when the rain eventually comes.

To fill in a bit more time put all the sunn hemp seed back through the seed cleaner and doing a germination test.

Ready to rock n roll,6mm of rain will get me started.

In the meantime,back to the cricket.

 

 

 

I see you have got some scalloped discs on their do they help to cut though the rubbish, we have a few farmers that that use them on they 3-disc ploughs, mainly for ploughing in cane straw/stubble. 

Do you really want to watch the cricket ..........may be ( yesterday) in NZ.????

[farmerjo]

34 minutes ago, kickstart said:

I see you have got some scalloped discs on their do they help to cut though the rubbish, we have a few farmers that that use them on they 3-disc ploughs, mainly for ploughing in cane straw/stubble. 

Do you really want to watch the cricket ..........may be ( yesterday) in NZ.????

Yes good win by your boys KS,my boys thought they were playing baseball and payed the price.

The scalloped disc helps but being a 3 point linkage frame it's a bit light and needs extra weight to penetrate the trash evenly.

Also i've learnt being on 9" spacings it would be better on 7.5" spacing for better weed control.

Hopefully pulling the seeder will help keep the offset disc at a consistent depth the way i've set the drawbar arrangement up.

Have done a quick trial and seems to work ok with the Ford 6610 having 200kg of ballast over the front end for traction.

 

 

[kickstart]

Our local big farming company growing some irrigated maize, this block is about 50 rie ,about 3 km away is another block of about 50 rie .

Someone at the company does not know a lot about growing corn, this is about 3-4 foot high and in flower, chances of it producing any cobs is about nil, not even enough to cut for maize silage, just plough it in for green manure.

The money they have invested in this crop they are watering it most days, a bit like they whole operation they rent all the land 1000 baht/,rie plus, some blocks they have drilled bore holes all they own equipment, they seem only to get one crop a year.

We think they days are numbered they might have all the equipment; they have another 4-5 irrigation reels like this one, but they seem to lack the management skills. 

I know most of their land is 20-30 km up the road, not certain what that is like, but I would it is the same as here. 

[farmerjo]

Yep too cold this dry season KS.

I guess that would be a hybrid seed designed for a longer growing season.

 

 

[CLW]

17 hours ago, kickstart said:

Our local big farming company growing some irrigated maize, this block is about 50 rie ,about 3 km away is another block of about 50 rie .

Someone at the company does not know a lot about growing corn, this is about 3-4 foot high and in flower, chances of it producing any cobs is about nil, not even enough to cut for maize silage, just plough it in for green manure.

The money they have invested in this crop they are watering it most days, a bit like they whole operation they rent all the land 1000 baht/,rie plus, some blocks they have drilled bore holes all they own equipment, they seem only to get one crop a year.

We think they days are numbered they might have all the equipment; they have another 4-5 irrigation reels like this one, but they seem to lack the management skills. 

I know most of their land is 20-30 km up the road, not certain what that is like, but I would it is the same as here. 

plant look very poor for irrigated land and all the relatively high tech equipment. 

Problem about the variety, soil conditions, fertilizer?

[farmerjo]

On 1/25/2023 at 8:19 PM, kickstart said:

For us this is the second year of baling cane stubble,it still goes to our local mill where it is used as fuel for boiling up molasses ,as far as I know the mill is paying about 900 baht/ton.

Last year one guy had a round baler ,not seen it this year,i would say he could not get the weight in a bale,with haulage could not make it pay.,these square bales weigh about 350 kg 

The second set of photos is a first for us ,this guy is chopping cane stubble using a self-propelled forage harvester ,the double acrobat row's the stubble up then he chops it ,he said it goes for bio mass not so far from us .

The numbers ,this chopper was 5 million baht a second hand import  from Germany ,where they are made,he had two working in this field the following day he is getting 1000 baht/ton ,he said he uses 5000 baht's worth of diesel a day.

What I forgot to ask what was the weight he got on the sip law and trailer,I would say 10-12 ton very dry ,as you can see ,and from a long way off ,an awful  lot of dust.

On a follow up from this well informed post from KS i decided to visit a biomass plant i had heard about 28km's from home.

1st thing learnt,biomass is what the sugar companies do with agricultural waste,burn,heat,steam to create power.

The place i visited is a biogas plant fed by napier grass(and possibly maize later) to produce methane that runs(don't laugh)2 x german submarine engines coupled to 1.5 MW genies to feed the PEA power grid.

It is set up in parallel with 2 digesters that agitate vertical, horizontal(mix of napier grass and water with heat supplied from the engines) and a dome for methane storage =1.5 MW so two sets of equipment enabling 3 MW production.

Impressive,just one problem.It was built six years a go and is positioned next to a large quarry but hasn't even been commissioned for operation yet.

Talk about red tape,got to be careful as it's a public listed company.

The handling of materials(napier grass) is sub contracted and the plant buy it at 450 baht/ton off sub contractor so don't know exactly how much the contracted farmers would make.

I think the guy said the plant could handle 350 ton a day but dont quote me on that as was bit overwelmed taking it all in.

Anyway an interesting day and by the size of the pile of napier fermenting under a tarp someone must have a cow shed not far away.

 

 

[kickstart]

Interesting post FJ, pity I live so far from you I would like to have gone with you.

Those engines I would say would not be cheap coming from Germany. but saying that well maintained they should last a good few years.

The plant can produce 3 MW any idea, to put it in to perspective how many homes /buildings that could provide power for.

Those choppers for the Nappier grass look like the type some of our farmers use to cut Nappier grass or maize, single and double rows.

The price of 450 baht/ton seems cheap to me, the Nappier they use will probably be well grown yielding 2-3 ton /rie ,how they would get on this time of year without any irrigation I would not know and taking that machinery over wet fields during the wet season could leave the field in a mess with ruts and poaching. 

[kickstart]

22 hours ago, farmerjo said:

Yep too cold this dry season KS.

I guess that would be a hybrid seed designed for a longer growing season.

 

 

Good point did not think of that it has been cool for a good few weeks up to last week.

The second block they have is near us the soil is old volcanic land with tiny pieces lava and stones, as you say not fertile at the best of times soon dries out one guy tried growing cane on that land a few years ago did not make a lot of money if any.

I thought about the amount of fertilizer used, that I would not know, even if they used the right amount with the poor soil and cool weather it would not have done a lot of good. 

[farmerjo]

56 minutes ago, kickstart said:

Interesting post FJ, pity I live so far from you I would like to have gone with you.

Those engines I would say would not be cheap coming from Germany. but saying that well maintained they should last a good few years.

The plant can produce 3 MW any idea, to put it in to perspective how many homes /buildings that could provide power for.

Those choppers for the Nappier grass look like the type some of our farmers use to cut Nappier grass or maize, single and double rows.

The price of 450 baht/ton seems cheap to me, the Nappier they use will probably be well grown yielding 2-3 ton /rie ,how they would get on this time of year without any irrigation I would not know and taking that machinery over wet fields during the wet season could leave the field in a mess with ruts and poaching. 

Hi KS

Those engines come in at about 20 million baht each so at a guess i would think the whole infrastructure commissioned would be around 150 million.

The size of the quarry which i didn't visit could use at a guess again 1 MW with crushers etc.no idea how many houses.

From my rough calculations if going by the renewable energy sub forum here and getting 2 baht a kilowatt from PEA they could turnover a 1 million baht a week.

There is a bit of napier grown but without the go ahead i think farmers are still waiting.

Once again guessing where it is located,EGAT have a hydro dam 40 km's away.

The area is full of sugar so dealing with the big boys to get a slice of the pie may be difficult looking from the outside in.

They should of built it on our side of town as we have a smaller quarry too.

The two guys on site besides the gate man looked like a project manager and a chemical engineer.

I mentioned i grow sunn hemp so they are welcome for me to take a sample and they will run it through the lab there to see how it stacks up against napier and maize for methane.

On the napier grass he said you only have to plant it once every seven years but i guess that is in the ideal world.

 

 

[CLW]

18 hours ago, farmerjo said:

On a follow up from this well informed post from KS i decided to visit a biomass plant i had heard about 28km's from home.

1st thing learnt,biomass is what the sugar companies do with agricultural waste,burn,heat,steam to create power.

The place i visited is a biogas plant fed by napier grass(and possibly maize later) to produce methane that runs(don't laugh)2 x german submarine engines coupled to 1.5 MW genies to feed the PEA power grid.

It is set up in parallel with 2 digesters that agitate vertical, horizontal(mix of napier grass and water with heat supplied from the engines) and a dome for methane storage =1.5 MW so two sets of equipment enabling 3 MW production.

Impressive,just one problem.It was built six years a go and is positioned next to a large quarry but hasn't even been commissioned for operation yet.

Talk about red tape,got to be careful as it's a public listed company.

The handling of materials(napier grass) is sub contracted and the plant buy it at 450 baht/ton off sub contractor so don't know exactly how much the contracted farmers would make.

I think the guy said the plant could handle 350 ton a day but dont quote me on that as was bit overwelmed taking it all in.

Anyway an interesting day and by the size of the pile of napier fermenting under a tarp someone must have a cow shed not far away.

 

 

nice report about this project. do you think there is any money to be made growing the napier grass for selling to the power plant?

[farmerjo]

1 hour ago, CLW said:

nice report about this project. do you think there is any money to be made growing the napier grass for selling to the power plant?

At this stage i think not CLW,others may know better.

When i look around it tells me sugar is out performing growing napier otherwise these plants would be popping up everywhere.

As i mentioned earlier it is good for communities but your coming up against EGAT,a state owned enterprise.

In a feesability study i just read said Packchong variety is favoured as can grow up to 70-80 ton a rai per year with 5-6 cuts at 60 days.

Also the garanteed price was going to be 300 baht/ton.

That is to good for any farmer to pass on so something is amiss.

 

 

 

[farmerjo]

3 hours ago, farmerjo said:

At this stage i think not CLW,

Just to add because they are community based projects.

3000 rai,200 farmers so that's an allocation of 15 rai per farmer.

[CLW]

4 hours ago, farmerjo said:

At this stage i think not CLW,others may know better.

When i look around it tells me sugar is out performing growing napier otherwise these plants would be popping up everywhere.

As i mentioned earlier it is good for communities but your coming up against EGAT,a state owned enterprise.

In a feesability study i just read said Packchong variety is favoured as can grow up to 70-80 ton a rai per year with 5-6 cuts at 60 days.

Also the garanteed price was going to be 300 baht/ton.

That is to good for any farmer to pass on so something is amiss.

 

 

 

Yes, main issue is the trouble with state owned EGAT, PEA or MEA. They won't allow you to feed into the net unless they get a piece of this cake. See issue with solar panel owners that can't feed their power into the net and being rewarded for it (or at least spinning the meter backwards)

[kickstart]

7 hours ago, farmerjo said:

At this stage i think not CLW,others may know better.

When i look around it tells me sugar is out performing growing napier otherwise these plants would be popping up everywhere.

As i mentioned earlier it is good for communities but your coming up against EGAT,a state owned enterprise.

In a feesability study i just read said Packchong variety is favoured as can grow up to 70-80 ton a rai per year with 5-6 cuts at 60 days.

Also the garanteed price was going to be 300 baht/ton.

That is to good for any farmer to pass on so something is amiss.

 

We grow Nappier grass and a few farmers in the area grow it as well ,I would say they figures are a bit out 70-80 ton with 5-6 cuts/year at 60 day ,that is 11 ton/rie at 60 days growth ,I would say no way during the dry season it would have to be irrigated ,and the fertilizer that would have to be used  urea and the price, as you know Thai land is not over fertile to start with ,can not see farmers making any money just growing Nappier for the plant 

Looking at that photo you posted of Nappier grass, that looks about 60-70 days old, no way would that yield 11 ton/rie ,again  you know what sugar can do 11 ton/rie, a lot in our area this year has done that, compare a crop of sugar to that Nappier photo, that at a guess would do 2-3 ton/rie?, you are right sugar out preforms Nappier.

With that big bunker that have they could get a good few tons of cane straw in they roll it with a tractor, like you would with silage you could get a good few hundred ton in there.

How cane straw would compare to Nappier grass in a digester I would not know, in this area a lot of cassava waist is feed to dairy cattle, that could go into a digester, probable do more good in a digester than as a cattle feed.  

[CLW]

14 hours ago, kickstart said:

We grow Nappier grass and a few farmers in the area grow it as well ,I would say they figures are a bit out 70-80 ton with 5-6 cuts/year at 60 day ,that is 11 ton/rie at 60 days growth ,I would say no way during the dry season it would have to be irrigated ,and the fertilizer that would have to be used  urea and the price, as you know Thai land is not over fertile to start with ,can not see farmers making any money just growing Nappier for the plant 

Looking at that photo you posted of Nappier grass, that looks about 60-70 days old, no way would that yield 11 ton/rie ,again  you know what sugar can do 11 ton/rie, a lot in our area this year has done that, compare a crop of sugar to that Nappier photo, that at a guess would do 2-3 ton/rie?, you are right sugar out preforms Nappier.

With that big bunker that have they could get a good few tons of cane straw in they roll it with a tractor, like you would with silage you could get a good few hundred ton in there.

How cane straw would compare to Nappier grass in a digester I would not know, in this area a lot of cassava waist is feed to dairy cattle, that could go into a digester, probable do more good in a digester than as a cattle feed.  

cane straw probably too high in lignin content, but a good mix of straw and cassava waste could probably work.

I'm having also one professor from my uni that works on a research using fast growing tree plantations to feed biomass power plants. Here in Thailand he is using Katinn (Leuceana) trees. I don't know if they are using the dried biomass to fire the power plant or digest it to biogas. Huge benefit of Leuceana being a legume tree is that it doesn't require nitrogen fertilizer. Besides that I could also see other legume crops/grasses or even hemp biomass being suitable for bioenergy in Thailand