The Official Maize and Rotational Crops Thread

[farmerjo]

1 hour ago, Zeid said:

Yanmar might actually  work for no tillage farming

The bottom picture is similar to the local made planter i bought,i ended up modifying the press wheels and put a drag chain.

Worked fine for the April planting(direct drill) but struggled to close the furrow properly with late July and after planting with the high clay content and moisture here.

 

 

[Zeid]

Sweet, did you try to put paddles on the back instead of chains?

 

[farmerjo]

6 hours ago, Zeid said:

Sweet, did you try to put paddles on the back instead of chains?

 

Not sure what you mean by paddles.

[Zeid]

The same ones they have on back of the rice planters  to cover up

[farmerjo]

1 hour ago, Zeid said:

The same ones they have on back of the rice planters  to cover up

They were the 1st thing i took off,any loose trash and they just made a mess leaving clumps everywhere.

There has been good reports from guys on here about using them in prepared fields.

Proper furrow closing wheels would be the ideal set up but you would have to make your own here in Thailand.

 

Edited December 1, 2020 by farmerjo

[Zeid]

Yes seems a lot of DIY modifications to be done here.

 

prepared fields,

is the main reason that is driving me to buy my own tractor, initially wanted to invest in some implements only,  and outsource the tractor, since it is a small plot we are experimenting on, but after discussion with the operators, I came to the conclusion it  will be less of a headache and possibly medical bills to just buy one, and do what is in my head. also if not made the way we want it to, might not be able to really judge if it was successful or not.

 

[kickstart]

11 hours ago, farmerjo said:

They were the 1st thing i took off,any loose trash and they just made a mess leaving clumps everywhere.

There has been good reports from guys on here about using them in prepared fields.

Proper furrow closing wheels would be the ideal set up but you would have to make your own here in Thailand.

 

In the uk the drills used here in Thailand would be precision   drills ,dropping seeds at a set distance ,when I was last farming they main use was planting sugar beet seed ,and now maize ,at the back to close the rows ,the one on our farm had finger rakes ,tines in a fan ,closing the rows .

Other ones had 5-6 inch solid lumps of steel ,acting as flat rollers , some were on a spring mounted  on  arms giving more pressure,so closing the row ,and on light land giving a bit of compaction helping to retain any soil moisture.   

[farmerjo]

An update on the offset disc.

Have spent a few days using it and reasonably happy with its performance.

The old 6610 pulls it no worries in 1st high and 4th low at maximum depth although the field is relatively moist in most area's after it was ploughed and rotovated before the rainy season finished.

On a different area i water levelled for rice and was left to dry the frame is a bit light to use as primary tillage although after several passes it scratched up the surface up nicely.

It was worth the extra money to have a drawbar added to be able to turn on the run.

The only thing that takes getting used to is working the field from middle to outside to be able to fill the furrow so your looking over your left shoulder as opposed to normally your right.

I found you can get a bolt on furrow closer which may enable to work the field from outside in but no luck sourcing in Thailand so will make one to trial.

All in all it does a good job on levelling rough land and will be helpful as the chemicals get phased out in the future.

Picture of plough and tractor connection.

 

 

 

[kickstart]

10 hours ago, farmerjo said:

An update on the offset disc.

Have spent a few days using it and reasonably happy with its performance.

The old 6610 pulls it no worries in 1st high and 4th low at maximum depth although the field is relatively moist in most area's after it was ploughed and rotovated before the rainy season finished.

On a different area i water levelled for rice and was left to dry the frame is a bit light to use as primary tillage although after several passes it scratched up the surface up nicely.

It was worth the extra money to have a drawbar added to be able to turn on the run.

The only thing that takes getting used to is working the field from middle to outside to be able to fill the furrow so your looking over your left shoulder as opposed to normally your right.

I found you can get a bolt on furrow closer which may enable to work the field from outside in but no luck sourcing in Thailand so will make one to trial.

All in all it does a good job on levelling rough land and will be helpful as the chemicals get phased out in the future.

Picture of plough and tractor connection.

 

 

 

Did you buy the draw bar or make it your self ,like the scalloped discs helps bury the rubbish. 

[farmerjo]

13 hours ago, kickstart said:

Did you buy the draw bar or make it your self ,like the scalloped discs helps bury the rubbish. 

Hi KS

I got some pictures of the internet and the machinery dealer had it made at an engineering shop.

The attachment on tractor was from the dealer.

It makes for easy transport by removing drawbar and just hooking up top link on 3ph,no need to connect lower arms.

Could actually do with scalloped discs on the back row as well in this country.

Spent a few hours yesterday getting the Morooka back in service.

Had a mechanic come and replace the seal and bearings in the planetary travel motor but on 1st use oil leaked out of the seal,he must of damaged it on installation so not wanting to go through the whole process of track off etc(pay twice for the job) i made a mix of 140 oil and grease in a bucket then filled it up.So far so good and only runs about 3 degrees hotter than the other side with oil.

Will just have to be a bit more picky on what jobs i do with it.

Neighbours are busy cutting their Rosella and all the rice done and dusted around here.

An old friend whom has a sugar weigh station called in the other day and said he's opening on the 15th of this month,time for a bit of black snow.

 

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by farmerjo

[kickstart]

On 12/7/2020 at 9:07 AM, farmerjo said:

Hi KS

I got some pictures of the internet and the machinery dealer had it made at an engineering shop.

The attachment on tractor was from the dealer.

It makes for easy transport by removing drawbar and just hooking up top link on 3ph,no need to connect lower arms.

Could actually do with scalloped discs on the back row as well in this country.

Spent a few hours yesterday getting the Morooka back in service.

Had a mechanic come and replace the seal and bearings in the planetary travel motor but on 1st use oil leaked out of the seal,he must of damaged it on installation so not wanting to go through the whole process of track off etc(pay twice for the job) i made a mix of 140 oil and grease in a bucket then filled it up.So far so good and only runs about 3 degrees hotter than the other side with oil.

Will just have to be a bit more picky on what jobs i do with it.

Neighbours are busy cutting their Rosella and all the rice done and dusted around here.

An old friend whom has a sugar weigh station called in the other day and said he's opening on the 15th of this month,time for a bit of black snow.

 

 

You can buy scalloped discs ,I think they are about 1800 baht each an expensive job to change them over .

Change of subject ,60-70 years ago Burman and old English company use to make motorcycle gear boxes ,other bike manufactures use to use them on their  bikes ,and they had had grease in them not oil, and they run ok ,so in theory ,your Morooka should do OK on your brew.

In this area Rosella is being cut ,our neighbours are doing some they get a load delivered, and they cut the heads off and take the heads off from the seed pod, all labour-intensive  they are getting paid 5 baht /kg ,then dry the heads from 10 kg of fresh heads you get 1 kg of dried heads .

Our sugar mill opens on the 16th, last year very little burning ,more cane is being cut by machine ,may be the case now in your area?, only time cane got burned last year  was near the end of the season ,queue for the machine for cutting getting long ,growers afraid the  mill will close before the cane is cut ,hence the  burning and using cutters .

Will they be a shortage of cutters this year with the virus ?, I said this to one farmer he said issan cuts will do the job ,we shall see, around here it is mainly Burmese and Cambodians .

Any idea of the price of cane some say the Kwam-Whun ,sugar containt  will be low again ,not a lot of rain ,but the late rain should push it up a point or two ,my mate said 900-1000 baht ton ,I think he is being over optimistic.  

[thoongfoned]

weigh stations not open around us yet, but the main one in the area has a sign out front saying 1000 baht, people been cutting (for re-planting) for around a month already, are cleaning lady is back into cutting most days now, lucky to earn 200 baht for most of the day... thats 150 baht less the when she was cutting rice.

as ever the cane in are area looks *hit, 4/5 ton per rai is top standard.555

[farmerjo]

On 12/8/2020 at 9:15 PM, kickstart said:

Change of subject ,60-70 years ago Burman and old English company use to make motorcycle gear boxes ,other bike manufactures use to use them on their  bikes ,and they had had grease in them not oil, and they run ok ,so in theory ,your Morooka should do OK on your brew.

In this area Rosella is being cut ,our neighbours are doing some they get a load delivered, and they cut the heads off and take the heads off from the seed pod, all labour-intensive  they are getting paid 5 baht /kg ,then dry the heads from 10 kg of fresh heads you get 1 kg of dried heads .

Yes i think it should work ok as gave it a good workout this morning and no leaks,having new bearings in it gives piece of mind plus i've ran the 6610 front planetaries on just grease for more than 10 years.

On the Rosella,there is a lot of dissappointed neighbours here.

Apparently the buyers who supplied the seed are picking and choosing when and how much they take even though the crops are ready to be cut.Not garanteeing to buy the whole crop.There was a mad scramble on yesterday with no notice for a certain quantity forcing the farmers to pay people 2 baht/kilo to pick it and deliver on time.

I'm wondering if the buyer only wants fresh and will dry down themselves to increase their margin.

Do you know how much the buyers are paying for the dried kilo down your way KS   

 

[kickstart]

On 12/10/2020 at 12:55 PM, farmerjo said:

Yes i think it should work ok as gave it a good workout this morning and no leaks,having new bearings in it gives piece of mind plus i've ran the 6610 front planetaries on just grease for more than 10 years.

On the Rosella,there is a lot of dissappointed neighbours here.

Apparently the buyers who supplied the seed are picking and choosing when and how much they take even though the crops are ready to be cut.Not garanteeing to buy the whole crop.There was a mad scramble on yesterday with no notice for a certain quantity forcing the farmers to pay people 2 baht/kilo to pick it and deliver on time.

I'm wondering if the buyer only wants fresh and will dry down themselves to increase their margin.

Do you know how much the buyers are paying for the dried kilo down your way KS   

 

Asking today I was told 90-100 baht/kg ,but that would not be a guaranteed price.

Never known a buyer  ,buy fresh and dry them themselves ,a lot of hassall.and he would need a big area to dry the heads down.

Again around here some farmer keep back the seed pods and keep the seed for the next year ,our local agriculture buying  and selling shop has sold Rosella seed, not asked for a good few years if they do still sell .

any seed ,so the farmers can not have any problems with the buyer over seed ,just over price .

The main buyer is /was , near where you brought your Morooka  40-50 km from here ,he has a bit of running around to do .  

[farmerjo]

Had to do a run to Khon Kaen so 1st day out for a while.

Some lovely sugar crops on the way.

Local weighbridges are opening and 3 prices advertised at 870 plus 30,900 and 1000 plus 50 so a bit of variety and i guess prices vary on contract quota's.  

Thanks KS for the rundown on the Rosella,haven't got back to my mate here to find out what the in and outs ended up being but will let you know.

[kickstart]

Load of cane cut by machine ,first of the year ,ready for tomorrow's mill  opening .

Cane cut by machine is not burnt ,only cane cut by hand is burnt. 

[farmerjo]

If farming isn't hard enough,the fall army worm are making decisions difficult on future crops.

Was hoping to put some corn in next year.

They have taken a likening to the sunn hemp seed pods at the moment,this plant is by the house but on inspection along the road the field has plenty along the border.

 

 

Edited December 17, 2020 by farmerjo

[kickstart]

39 minutes ago, farmerjo said:

If farming isn't hard enough,the fall army worm are making decisions difficult on future crops.

Was hoping to put some corn in next year.

They have taken a likening to the sunn hemp seed pods at the moment,this plant is by the house but on inspection along the road the field has plenty along the border.

 

 

That is a bit of a surprise ,I thought they went for mainly maize ,is it because they is nothing else for them to eat ? no maize crops .

As far as I know they do not go for Mung beans,not certain about Soya bean ,both pod crops ,why Sun hemp .

You can use a Integrated crop system against Fall Army worm ,would it work in Thailand. 

[farmerjo]

Hope the new year treats everyone well,got a little excited about the good rice season this year so decided to start getting some land ready for next year while waiting for my sunn hemp to mature in about 1-2 weeks time.

 

[JungleBiker]

Hi Farmerjoe, I thought you were a fan of zero or minimal tillage!? 

 

Seriously, some people I know would say what you are doing there is a waste of good soil, water and diesel, not to mention your time. 

Edited January 4, 2021 by JungleBiker
Added more

[farmerjo]

4 hours ago, JungleBiker said:

Hi Farmerjoe, I thought you were a fan of zero or minimal tillage!? 

 

Seriously, some people I know would say what you are doing there is a waste of good soil, water and diesel, not to mention your time. 

Hi JB,

That is a different project.

Totally agree except there is a 12" fall on the field i'm trying to take out so i don't have to pump water uphill,once achieved and level it won't be touched in that way again.

If my laser still worked with the box scraper it would of been a different story but even though trimble have dealers here who i bought my GPS off they won't attempt to fix faulty equipment. 

This year on the undulating field out the back of this one i'm going back to 50/50 with minimum till and worked land.

After all the years of minimum till i've seen a huge advantage on fertilizer costs but weed control has always been a stumbling block.With covid around and the possibility of no outside work for 12-24 months it's time to cash in and make some money.

Harvesting some sunn hemp tomorrow which wasn't planted till 18 September so will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Edited January 4, 2021 by farmerjo

[JungleBiker]

On 1/4/2021 at 7:51 PM, farmerjo said:

Hi JB,

That is a different project.

Totally agree except there is a 12" fall on the field i'm trying to take out so i don't have to pump water uphill,once achieved and level it won't be touched in that way again.

If my laser still worked with the box scraper it would of been a different story but even though trimble have dealers here who i bought my GPS off they won't attempt to fix faulty equipment. 

This year on the undulating field out the back of this one i'm going back to 50/50 with minimum till and worked land.

After all the years of minimum till i've seen a huge advantage on fertilizer costs but weed control has always been a stumbling block.With covid around and the possibility of no outside work for 12-24 months it's time to cash in and make some money.

Harvesting some sunn hemp tomorrow which wasn't planted till 18 September so will be interesting to see how it plays out.

 

Hi Farmerjo,

 

I was expecting you to tell me "you can't grow rice without puddling the soil", and then I was going to share this with you (and it may help with your weed issues):

 

http://www.crf.org.kh/imgs/S4 - 2_ Sustainable Farming Practice by Dr_ Florent Tivet.pdf

 

Perhaps you've seen it before but if not I hope you find it as interesting as I did. 

 

Cheers,

JB. 

 

 

 

 

[farmerjo]

Thanks for that JB,a good read.

After all these years i'm still the only one around here with a no-till seeder.

It just hasn't caught onto the locals as not many farmers have their own machines and the contractors are happy to continue with tyne seeders to pick up the extra work for ploughing and field preparation so not leaving the farmers a choice.

Started harvesting some sunn hemp yesterday, moisture level is good to go.

Should come up ok after grading.Will take my time taking it off as after about 3 hours on the harvester the itchiness has me off for a shower.

 

 

 

[farmerjo]

Had better weeks farming.

1st was making some bunds for levelling rice fields and snapped a rubber track on my Morooka,managed to tow it out of the field with a quick induction to the wife on how the levers work.

Next got 20mm of rain out of the weather that passed on the 9th,you beauty.

Get the 6610 out with offset disc behind and rip up 80 rai,all going good.

Today still 15 rai to do and wake up to a flat tyre on the back of the 6610,15 years i've got out of them and i know i only got a flat because the pressure was low and i think i pinched the tube going over some fallow land.

Okay,in the car and drive 20 km's to where i've seen a mobile tyre repair truck.Thinking i don't know the condition of old tube i say bring a new one.All good 2300 baht for new tube and 1000 to come and do the job.

Comes,does the job and leaves.After he left i heard a hissing noise in the tyre thinking it was just air caught between the tube and tyre releasing.

Go have lunch and come back to see it flat.Mrs calls and he comes again,when he pulled the tube out the tit was damaged and leaking,anyone who has repaired or installed tubes knows this was from miss alignment on installation.

Needing to get going i got him to put a patch on the old tube which is working fine now at the cost of an extra 1000 baht.

Okay stung for 4300 baht all up for a patch and service,can live with that.

The hide that got me was he was going to take the new tube and charge 400 baht to repair the damaged tit and look for other holes to repair.

Must of thought i was born on a monday,i took the tube out of his truck.

He is off the christmas list lol.

Hope tomorrow is better????

 

 

 

 

 

[kickstart]

In another forum I posted it has been a few years since we have had some rain at Songkram ,,this year last Sunday we 83 mm ,with it threatening to rain most days .

A lot of farmers are out in force drilling maize ,these are two very near me from yesterday .

First two photos a guy with his relatively new outfit ,the tractor is a Kubota? ,he is also applying some fertilizer ,not often that is done around here at drilling time ,third photo ,more traditional for around here old Hino tractor and a 2 row drill, drilling seed only .

The first guy said to will it rain ?,or do you know the winning lottery numbers for the 16th of this month ,about the same thing weather very unpredictable.

Saying around here the  maize seed is Pan-Whoar-Yim ,smiling  cow verity of seed , it grows then no rain crop starts to die back ,of if in flower crop  has no cobs ,the locale dairy farmers cut the pants for their cows ,gives them a change of diet from rice straw . 

Could be a quite Songkran for us , with the rain the wife's family are planting cassava ,a lot grown  around here ,500 baht /rie they earn ,that includes cutting the long stems in  to root stock for planting. 

[farmerjo]

Hi KS

Don't see many of those Kubota models,most likely an import.

One neighbour at the back of our land has about 5 rai of corn in but only planting i've seen around here.

Most took advantage of the early rains and all the cassava and new sugar has been planted and growing.

Just the rice land left idle for now.

I planted sunn hemp on all our rice land to test out the method JB pointed out in an earlier post.

The rest of land i've just sprayed 2 laps around outside and waiting the 14 days to see if i've got the glyphosate mixture right before proceeding. 

Would love some rain over next couple of days.

Your farm drainage looks a winner,did you mole plough towards the drain or is it the natural runoff area.  

[kickstart]

Hi FJ 

         I did think that Kubota was imported ,it has a cab on ,unlike Thai made ones .

This is what I am try to stop this corner sits low any heavy rain this happens ,and during the rainy season water can sit they for some weeks ,all to do with the field being ex rice fields ,I would like to put in another two lines about 20 meters  apart ,it covers about 2 rie altogether 

It was all natural run off ,I did think instead  of the other 2 lines as you said use a mole plough ,I have the subsoiler ,I could soon make another tine with a mole plough parts ,which would basically be a short length  4inch solid round bar ,welded on to the tine 

When digging the trench for the new drain  which I did back in January ,to say the soil was hard 2 foot down was putting it mildly ,so I am certain the land can take a mole drain without it collapsing in on its self when it gets wet ,like it would on sand land .

Had 7 mm  of rain this afternoon ,the newly drilled crops of maize will be happy ,lets hope we get some more .

Change subject ,how it the oil seed crushing going. 

[farmerjo]

14 hours ago, kickstart said:

Change subject ,how it the oil seed crushing going.

Hi KS

Oil seed crushing on hold till next sesame seed crop which this year i'm looking at planting in mid july for an end of october harvest.

Will put sunn hemp in at end of may as a cover to help weed control with the sesame.

Trying to extract oil from the sunn hemp seed was a fail with the cold oilpress,did a good job of making powdered pellets(not sure what i could use for) but no oil.

A different apparatus using solvent extraction is required for low oil seeds.

On a good note i did process some sesame as a trial and it came up well.The hurdle is with the filtering as using cloth is a slow process. 

Picture of a sesame oil i produced as a trial.

28 mm rain yesterday here will keep us going another week or two. 

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2021 by farmerjo

[kickstart]

Hi FJ

          Impressed with the sesame seed oil ,would make a good salad dressing, or forget the heathy bit ,fry some fish and chips ????.

You have your reasons I know ,why the late drilling of the sesame seed ,around here it is drilled this time of year ,some rice farmers have drilled  it as a catch crop before they plant their rice crop , like you sowing sun hemp now before  the rains come in July time ish ,or maize as the second crop .

Also, sesame seed does not like wet conditions shallow root system if it is sat in water roots will rot out ,unless your land is Kee -Pet ,very light/sandy and free draining .

What about growing soya bean for oil crushing . 

[farmerjo]

On 4/14/2021 at 1:01 PM, kickstart said:

What about growing soya bean for oil crushing

Hi KS

Soya beans would be good to grow to clean the land from weeds as it's one of the few broadleaf crops that has registered chemicals to spray post emergence.

As for making oil my set up would be to small to justify the difference in selling seed price and converting to oil, have no actual figures to base it on(just cost of buying soy oil).

The sesame if grown organically and cold pressed brings more of a premium price.