Rice is nice if we get a good price.

[Grumpy John]

Something for Tik and I to consider is will we plant rice in response to  the increasing price forecast for this year.  Considering we had seen A huge drop in income from mangoes it is very tempting.   The reason we stopped rice Was the low price at the time wasn't worth the effort by my reckoning.  Plus Tik was suffering from a thyroid problem which left her drained after half a days work.  We are getting older but I think we could do it again.  And instead of off season corn do rice.   Corn is bleeding hard work dragging hoses around during watering.  And the price of corn has dropped 10% around here.  With the extra 2" pipe we have now hoses aren't so important......

[IsaanAussie]

Off season rice? Too late now, not enough water. But wait until the rains and I believe anyone who has paddy fields and doesn't plant rice this year is mad. As for the health issues, you can get it all done by others for a small cost if you can fund the preparation and plant, fertilisation and then harvest. If you get the rain, you will get a crop at potentially the best price for years. Rice is the Asian food staple and that will not change. 

[Grumpy John]

Yep,  to late.....but the rainy season is not far away and the lower 40, or 20 depending on Wifey,  awaits. Or she says as I write this "finish off the greenhouse!"  Which brings me to the 64.000 baht question....can she NOT see the potential opportunity coming???  And the greenhouse has everything waiting for a builder she has to organise...including bags of nuts,  bolts and washers and screws.  But I haven't ordered the plastic cover yet.  I even painted the wood for attaching the wiggle wire tracks!  I was bored that day! 

[kickstart]

4 hours ago, IsaanAussie said:

Off season rice? Too late now, not enough water. But wait until the rains and I believe anyone who has paddy fields and doesn't plant rice this year is mad. As for the health issues, you can get it all done by others for a small cost if you can fund the preparation and plant, fertilisation and then harvest. If you get the rain, you will get a crop at potentially the best price for years. Rice is the Asian food staple and that will not change. 

With modern day rice farming it can be all done from a tractor seat, some good TV posts about drilling rice seed  ,the days of back breaking work are  in the past ,but I  would say your costs would be higher .

As for this year being a bumper year,a few years ago the rice prices were high  we had rice fields that had not seen a plough in years , growing rice again, and this is mainly maize,cane ,and cassava area ,will the markets be flooded and the price drops .

I would say Vietnam is thinking the same thing ,and India if they can get over they problems could ramp up production .  

[Vigilante]

12 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

Yep,  to late.....but the rainy season is not far away and the lower 40, or 20 depending on Wifey,  awaits. Or she says as I write this "finish off the greenhouse!"  Which brings me to the 64.000 baht question....can she NOT see the potential opportunity coming???  And the greenhouse has everything waiting for a builder she has to organise...including bags of nuts,  bolts and washers and screws.  But I haven't ordered the plastic cover yet.  I even painted the wood for attaching the wiggle wire tracks!  I was bored that day! 

A greenhouse in Thailand?

What for?

[IsaanAussie]

11 hours ago, kickstart said:

With modern day rice farming it can be all done from a tractor seat, some good TV posts about drilling rice seed  ,the days of back breaking work are  in the past ,but I  would say your costs would be higher .

Compared with the old days (ten years ago) when harvesting was by hand then a thresher, from my experience using a combine is cheaper. Definitely quicker. The rest is pretty much the same cost wise. Seed drilling hasn't taken off here yet and it will be interesting to see if the saving in seed volume justifies the cost of equipment hire. We plough, then broadcast seed with the rotary hoe following up.

[Grumpy John]

We get the guy to do it.  You may know him.  He has a backpack blower that shots the seeds out with the wind it generates.  The first time we seeded he arrived with his mate and off they went doing a bay each.   I said to the wife if I  had one of those things I  could do it myself.   When they came back to refill,  dripping with sweat and looking well buggered I said to the wife "Their doing such a good job there is no need For me to do it!" 

[Grumpy John]

7 hours ago, Vigilante said:

A greenhouse in Thailand?

What for?

Yes.  Tricky question!  On one hand the green coloured boards symbolise an affinity with grass that I would have loved to have planted on pasture suitable land for the herd of cattle that never was.  Circumstances often dictate we make compromise.  On the other hand that was left over paint after I painted the new, a few years ago, water tanks!   You could have asked me what will we grow in the greenhouse.  It's my first greenhouse (60 sqM) and I don't have anything locked in for sure.   I will try melons, tomatoes and bell peppers to start.   Will go organic from the get go.  Using the same building design I  can do one x 12M wide by 12M long and 2 x 12M wide by 14M long on that block.  Over 500 sqM of grow space. We have electricity and a bore and main road frontage so fully developed it could provide a nice income....which is something we don't have with mangoes.