The Official Maize and Rotational Crops Thread

[wayned]

After the corn was harvested in late August/ early September the normal sunflower crop was not planted as it was too wet.  The Coop actually went out and bought a tracked Thai made combine this year as the JD's couldn't handle the mud.  The next crop planted was mostly a second planting of corn with scattered other crops .  It did well for a month and then it went dry.  Some have irrigated as they did the first crop but others were waiting for the "official start" of rainy season which is the 1st of November.  We haven't had a smiggin of rain and it's now the 24th. It looks like this harvest will be a loser as the last. 

 

Speaking about the economy, since I just did my yearly extension using the new 65K/month bank deposit method I remembered in January 1998 when the exchange rate was over 56 baht/ dollar and it's now 30 and still on the downswing.  But it's still better than going home and having to live under a freeway overpass in a cardboard box with the monthly pension income that I have.

[farmerjo]

Hi Wayned,

Welcome back,not good news about the crops down your way.

A few years ago i enquired about some wheel off,bolt on tracks for my Ford.Think they were about 500,000 baht at the time.

Just having a squiz on the net this morning i could not see any for your big beasts(well not that company,jci tracks).

Do you still have some involvement in the co-op to keep you busy.

 

My sunn hemp is nearly ready to harvest,did a sample 4 days a go but still 45% moisture and 70% green seeds.

So as KS says,when you think it's ready walk away for 2 weeks and come back.

Fil starts cutting his rice today so will know a yield on that in a couple of days time.

No sugar action yet in the area.

[kickstart]

14 hours ago, farmerjo said:

Hi Wayned,

Welcome back,not good news about the crops down your way.

A few years ago i enquired about some wheel off,bolt on tracks for my Ford.Think they were about 500,000 baht at the time.

Just having a squiz on the net this morning i could not see any for your big beasts(well not that company,jci tracks).

Do you still have some involvement in the co-op to keep you busy.

 

My sunn hemp is nearly ready to harvest,did a sample 4 days a go but still 45% moisture and 70% green seeds.

So as KS says,when you think it's ready walk away for 2 weeks and come back.

Fil starts cutting his rice today so will know a yield on that in a couple of days time.

No sugar action yet in the area.

If I can say it with out getting hung drawn and quartered,can you treat it like OSR/Canola  and desiccate the crop using  Glyphosate.?

Mung beans has a problem, pods do not ripen equally ,a lot fit to combine ,and some still green ,I have heard ,but not seen ,Thai desiccating,spray gromoxone and harvest 24 hour later,I have thought a few times using Glyphosate to desiccate the crop.  

Or maybe the  2 weeks in the sun, somewhere cool, and come back and it is fit to cut,or the local pidgen population is have a good feed .

ps Our local sugar mill is due to open on the 8th of next month,2-3 weeks latter than normal, no rain low yields this year, and a lot have given up cane ,again low rain fall last year ,and low prices ,although they where subed last year ,think it was 100 baht/ton

[farmerjo]

Hi KS,

As tall as sunn hemp grows,when i did the trial besides the green seeds i have a lot of green weeds starting to be high enough to be a hinderance.

I thought about desicating but the beauty of the Kubota harvester is they have a spiked rotor so if you slow down you can get through it.

Everyday i wait pods are being stripped so it's trying to find that balance of when the biggest and best seed will be ripe.

I'm going to have another crack tomorrow as there was 5 days between starting and finishing seeding,fingers crossed but don't think i will be out there for long.

Edited November 24, 2019 by farmerjo

[farmerjo]

Today 1st harvester boxfull.

 

 

 

[farmerjo]

I wouldn't hire the mrs for a wedding video.????

 

[kickstart]

4 hours ago, farmerjo said:

Today 1st harvester boxfull.

 

 

 

Hi FJ 

        That looks a clean sample combine set up right ,is they any seed going out the back .

You said the moisture was high a few days ago ,the combine has done well to thrash it out, or  does axial flow thrash  a wetter crop out better, I have seen JD combines go in to a crop of maize drive 200 yards turn around  and go home ,just to wet.

Will you have to bring it down to 15% moisture for safe storage ,no mold  ect.  

[farmerjo]

16 minutes ago, kickstart said:

Hi FJ 

        That looks a clean sample combine set up right ,is they any seed going out the back .

You said the moisture was high a few days ago ,the combine has done well to thrash it out, or  does axial flow thrash  a wetter crop out better, I have seen JD combines go in to a crop of maize drive 200 yards turn around  and go home ,just to wet.

Will you have to bring it down to 15% moisture for safe storage ,no mold  ect.  

Hi KS,

Did a few checks in the rows and saw very little out the back of the machine,going a bit slower gives it more threshing time.I have also left the corn adaption concave in which has less angle so stays in the rotor longer.The spiked rotor pretty much enables you to harvest at whatever moisture you want,the limiting factors will be the cutter bar on the comb and the belt drive on the shaker table to get the excess out the back.

Has low,medium and high speed,i run flat out in low speed.

It's at 30% moisture so will dry for a few days down to 10% then start cleaning, grading and germination test.

Will get this right then continue harvesting.

The days are still quite hot here so good for drying down,the high moisture will be coming from that 5-10% of immature grain.

 

 

 

[farmerjo]

Ordered a little gravity table from surin and it turned up late yesty arvo.

After a few trials today,will duck into town in the morning and see if i can get some different size apertures for the screens.

Doesn't do a bad job but getting a bit of plugging on the screens and the last load i got with the harvester was a lot drier so more chaff than before.Put some seeds in some wet paper towel after lunch so will know a germination rate hopefully tomorrow arvo.

 

 

[IsaanAussie]

How would a table like that go for taking the junk out of milled rice? My missus spends ages every day picking out the "stones" before she cooks our rice. 

 

Supplementary question, do the multigrip pliers come as standard?

Edited December 8, 2019 by IsaanAussie

[farmerjo]

28 minutes ago, IsaanAussie said:

How would a table like that go for taking the junk out of milled rice? My missus spends ages every day picking out the "stones" before she cooks our rice. 

 

Supplementary question, do the multigrip pliers come as standard?

I had to provide the vicegrips????

It is actually for rice destoning,that's why i have to tinker a bit.

Built solid enough for the price but it irks me when Thai's weld  bearings to shafts,drill a pilot hole in the shaft a loctite the screw if they have to????.It will get a set of adjustable legs as well for levelling.

But will beat sitting down with a pan sieve. 

Edited December 8, 2019 by farmerjo

[IsaanAussie]

What sort of price FJ?

[farmerjo]

5 minutes ago, IsaanAussie said:

What sort of price FJ?

11,000 COD.

[IsaanAussie]

WOW but the idea is good. Will have a look around in town. I might have another look at a small rice mill. Been there before and for under 20K can buy one. When I think of all the bran that our miller keeps that may be another option if it separates the junk. Wouldn't mind and odd seed or stone in with the bran and husk. 

 

By the way, you remember our discussions on the market for sun hemp seeds? Well the original cleaning gear that John used was just sitting outside his barn. If you are interested in housing it for him, I can ask.

[farmerjo]

TBH this machine i bought is a pain at the moment,there was another small seed "cleaner" for 20,000 elsewhere but with air and separation of the seeds.As usual i wanted that one,the better half didn't want to hand sieve or spend a lot so it was a tradeoff.I only spent 12,000 to grow and harvest the crop. I built an airseeder so this should be pretty simple to sort out.

That cleaner was 250tph?

Not sure what's happening at the moment,i want to sell in bulk,mrs thinks she can sell it and make more.

So she gets the benefit of the doubt for about a month,then i will strike into action.???? 

[IsaanAussie]

The original cleaner was a normal Thai build no way 250tph. The new one was a couple of million baht. 

[farmerjo]

9 minutes ago, IsaanAussie said:

The original cleaner was a normal Thai build no way 250tph. The new one was a couple of million baht. 

Sorry typo 250kg/hr.

Give me a couple of days on this and will get back to you on it.????

[farmerjo]

On 12/8/2019 at 6:19 PM, farmerjo said:

Ordered a little gravity table from surin and it turned up late yesty arvo.

After a few trials today,will duck into town in the morning and see if i can get some different size apertures for the screens.

Doesn't do a bad job but getting a bit of plugging on the screens and the last load i got with the harvester was a lot drier so more chaff than before.Put some seeds in some wet paper towel after lunch so will know a germination rate hopefully tomorrow arvo.

 

 

Been going ok,had trouble with the eccentric setup.

They welded the shaker rod straight to the outer case of a bearing,it lasted 20 bags so changed it to hook up to a pillar block housing and working fine now,added some air from a blower and sample coming out is a lot better.Doing about 70 kg/hour.About half way through.

 

 

[farmerjo]

On 11/19/2019 at 4:15 PM, farmerjo said:

Have been contemplating what to grow on 15 rai this dry season as i left it to rest for a year from rice.

Have corn seed and sunn hemp seed in the shed.

Wandered over to the neighbours sweet corn earlier this arvo and now think sunn hemp will be planted.

His plants are getting hammered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update on the neighbours sweet corn,i thought it was dead and buried but has fought back well,won't be anything special but at least something to sell and get some money back.

 

 

[farmerjo]

Finally finished grading this afternoon,glad that's over as used a few muscles that have been stagnant for a while.Mrs is happy she gets her under cover yard area back,itch free from the dust.

Ended up with four and a half ton off the 65 rai so all in all pretty pleased.

So 70 kilo/rai grown on 10"s of rain,glyphosate knockdown 15 days prior to seeding,no other chemicals or fertilizers(just shut the gate till harvest time)

Tomorrow is cleaning the harvester(a job you have to build up to) then look at 18 rai of other land that's capable to plant under irrigation for the dry season.

 

[farmerjo]

For the people interested in the soil mate range,i found a bag we got some charcoal in.

 

[farmerjo]

Just finished giving the sunn hemp harvested field a haircut.

Cost = 35 baht/rai.

 

 

[farmerjo]

Little seed separator i made off you tube to do a final clean on some seed.

 

 

[farmerjo]

On 1/13/2020 at 9:23 PM, farmerjo said:

Little seed separator i made off you tube to do a final clean on some seed.

 

 

Needed that tractor back so the tripod came in handy for the mark 2 version.

 

[farmerjo]

Plugging away doing some subsoiling before the rains come.

Generally doing about 2 metres apart going down 15 inches.

Where the ground is tight and not much grew last year i went back to a half metre spacing.

Time for a new digger tip on the shank too.

 

 

[farmerjo]

Bit going on at the moment.

Spreading some gypsum.

Then back to pumping water onto some sunn hemp for green manure on a rice field.

Decided to rotovate stubble in instead of burning,will be interested in the result.

 

[farmerjo]

A question about power harrows,does anyone have experience with these machines.

After a few years of no-till here and some subsoiling the land becomes rough and unpleasant to drive on.(mainly spraying)

Going with the theory on non inversion of the soil,these implements fit the criteria.

 

 

[IsaanAussie]

15 hours ago, farmerjo said:

A question about power harrows,does anyone have experience with these machines.

After a few years of no-till here and some subsoiling the land becomes rough and unpleasant to drive on.(mainly spraying)

Going with the theory on non inversion of the soil,these implements fit the criteria.

Well given enough weight it should break up the lumps and smooth things out a bit. But all I see it doing is adding to the compaction.

Sorry but in this climate and soil conditions I cannot agree no-till is relevant. Where the top couple of inches is as dry as a bone the biology is either dead or spores ready to start again when the moisture content is at least 10%. So you do microscopic life no damage by fluffing it up. With compacted soil as with 10"of water in a rice paddy there is no oxygen so the only biology that could thrive is anaerobic and not the stuff I want.

No contest on covering the soil or on deep ripping if only to get moisture deep quickly and along with it roots!

To me, God invented deep ploughs and rotary hoes to produce good seed beds in these conditions

There. That should put the cat among the pigeons!

 

 

[farmerjo]

4 hours ago, IsaanAussie said:

Well given enough weight it should break up the lumps and smooth things out a bit. But all I see it doing is adding to the compaction.

Sorry but in this climate and soil conditions I cannot agree no-till is relevant. Where the top couple of inches is as dry as a bone the biology is either dead or spores ready to start again when the moisture content is at least 10%. So you do microscopic life no damage by fluffing it up. With compacted soil as with 10"of water in a rice paddy there is no oxygen so the only biology that could thrive is anaerobic and not the stuff I want.

No contest on covering the soil or on deep ripping if only to get moisture deep quickly and along with it roots!

To me, God invented deep ploughs and rotary hoes to produce good seed beds in these conditions

There. That should put the cat among the pigeons!

 

 

Hi I/A,

Thanks for the comments.

No-till is starting to treat me better after a few years at it.

Main reasons being,timing,input costs and ability for a second crop.

I'm down to 2.5 rai of planned rice planting this year so in that situation ploughing and rotovating can still serve a purpose on that land although i find ploughing would then require water puddling to level the field again (maybe my operating skill)and just about out of water required to do that before the season.

I just rotovated a small field direct after subsoiling to try to maintain a levelish area and was very harsh on the equipment without ploughing prior.

Looking at these power harrows and a few demonstrations on youtube most seem to plough first before using,there are a couple of examples of using straight into stubble and look excellent to deal with some rocky country.They require horsepower and can go down 10"s but i would be looking at only 2"s of depth.

This year along with sunn hemp i'm looking to trial some sesame seed and possibly sorghum which will require a decent seed bed.

The thing with the power harrows is they are expensive so need to consider all aspects before diving in.Some say rotovators are better for incorporating fertilizer and green manure but power harrows don't mix your layers of soil.

 

    

  

[kickstart]

IA is right , the farm I use to work on in the UK  used rotary hoes ,the  farm  was  a cereal  seed rape , canola  farm very light land ,a good bit of kit ,does what  it says on the tin, gives you an instant seed bed .after ploughing 

As for FJ thinking of using it on unworked land would not work ,unless you have had a few nights heavy rain , even then if the land is to hard it will not penetrate ,and rotate  just brake shear bolts or bounce over the hard lumps .

A machinery dealer near me had a few for sale a few years ago ,all imported ,I think they where 3 meter ,they wanted 100 000 baht ,not cheap .

You could use your rotavator at a depth of no more than 6 inches ,that would do the job ,but when the rains come that would turn to porridge ,they would be a smer where the rotavator has been and could well prevent water draining though the land .

What would work ,but is against your no-till policy a spring tine cultivator ,with a crumble bar.