Where to find beef cattle buyers?

[Hellboy75]

3 hours ago, Michael Hare said:

It is good to know that your wife Hellboy75 is in contact with a professor who can give her advice on feeding her cattle. Out of interest, if I may ask, is there a "professor" that gives her advice on how to manage her grass? Advice like which grass species to plant, how to cut to get optimum yield and quality, the interval beteween cuts, the amount and frequency of fertiliser to apply. And any advice on planting forage legumes with high protein content? 

No is the answer at the moment she has about 4 rai of grass sweet israel is the majority then a few different napier and the newest which is called superleaf she bought it all from a grass farm just outside Kalasin town which is owned by a couple in their 40's who gave up teaching they have 180 rai of grasses I'm not sure how much advice she receives from her but definitely some they have also won some farming awards in Thailand I know this because they proudly display it everywhere 

[kickstart]

On 7/25/2020 at 4:00 PM, IsaanAussie said:

Cassava waste is sold locally and we are trialing growing mulato II, ruzi and guinea as well as israel and some napier. I need to get some lessons on ensiling and fermenting. I have 6 block sided compost bins about 1.5 cubic metres each which I could use. Bags and molasses no problem, have seen yeast but need to check on type. All seems doable. 

Making silage, the Mulato II,Ruzi,and Guinea are not easy to make silage with ,but if you can make silage it would be better quality than the Napier, problem is cutting it and picking it up for chopping, in our country's mowers and pick up forage harvesters are used ,here in Thailand  difficult to find and the main problem is just not cost effective, for few cattle.

You could cut it with a grass strimmer pick it up with forks  and feed it in to a chipper ,or find a grass rake put 2-3 rows in to one and pick it up ,again not easy .

The Best thing to do with these grasses  would be either do a cut and cart system ,or better for you ,less work and better for the cattle, set up a paddock or a strip grazing system ,and use that in the wet season, and use the Napier for silage in the dry season, unless you have irrigation and then have water all the year.

As for Napier that is what we use, solely for silage ,we cut it now and most years we are still feeding it end of the hot season .

We struck lucky and got some Napier Taiwan,a verity with a high  DM dry matter ,not a lot of water ,with which we cut early in the morning , with sugar cane knifes, leave it 24 hours ,when the dew has gone ,turn it over ,then in the afternoon pick it up and chop it with our chipper, in to bags weighing about 25kg,not easy I know, but we only make 15-20 bags at a time ,used to be just me and the wife ,but now wife's daughter helps us .

Now,I got some Napier Packchn II ,which I think is now the slandered Napier in Thailand ,but it has a low DM we made some silage ,with it same method,and I noticed the bags where weighing the best part of 30 kg, left them for a month opened one ,it was 50% silage and 50% wet compost ,with the low DM a 24 -28 hour wilt was not enough, the grass was just to wet to make silage just make compost ,that would need a 2-day wilt with Turing every day ,more labour ,and as most silage is made during the wet season ,you can not guarantee say a week without rain to make silage.

As for Israel or Dwarf Napier not certain on the DM ,but I would say same as Packchon II .

You have some compost bins they would do ,you would need someone in the bin trampling down the grass ,to get the air out ,and that would give you a fermentation ,push it in to corners ,when the bin is full it needs covering with a plastic sheet and sealing. What we used to do in the UK cover the clamp in old car tyres makes a good seal stops the plastic sheet from flapping in the wind ,air gets in and it will spoil your silage ,in a lot of ways same as making compost ,as you are filling your bunker you could add some molasses helps with fermentation and makes a sweet silage ,but not EM that would lower the DM and could spoil the silage. 

[IsaanAussie]

Not convinced that EM couldn't be used. The cassava fermentation process we have been looking at is firstly fungal than yeast. LAB is also in EM and a primary way to breakdown fibre as well as get the pH in the 3.5 to 4 range. I'm a long way from deciding but no way I'm using Urea.

I am thinking about EM bokashi as a starting point. There is both aerobic and anaerobic treatments.

Hey KS this is getting interesting!

 

[kickstart]

14 hours ago, IsaanAussie said:

Not convinced that EM couldn't be used. The cassava fermentation process we have been looking at is firstly fungal than yeast. LAB is also in EM and a primary way to breakdown fibre as well as get the pH in the 3.5 to 4 range. I'm a long way from deciding but no way I'm using Urea.

I am thinking about EM bokashi as a starting point. There is both aerobic and anaerobic treatments.

Hey KS this is getting interesting!

 

Like I said silage and cassava are two different animals ,as research has shown molasses mixed with urea, with either cassava or the fermented rice straw does increase the feed vale of the feed ,and it will increase the production of the animal,in weight gain.

But say adding EM to cassava waste ,with cassava waste  having a DM of 25% ,or 75% water ,adding EM would lower the DM even more,I would say that would take away advantages the EM would give you.

Would you use EM neat ,or mix it with water.

Mixing EM with rice straw and fermenting it , that could work, and would make an interesting paper to read. 

But with silage ,if your grass has a low DM ,dry matter like Napier Packchon, you mix EM ,that would lower the DM even more ,OK if your grass was dry to start with, like a 3-day wilt on Napier that would work ,but with wet grass I can not see it ,to much anaerobic bacteria ,silage would spoil ,and with a low DM silage cattle will be full up with water not food so lowering production ,less weight gain. 

[IsaanAussie]

Just now, kickstart said:

Would you use EM neat ,or mix it with water.

On compost and bokashi I use extended EM (EMA) at 1 in 20 water. EMA is a litre of inert EM as purchased and activated with a litre of molasses and 18 litres of water, takes about a week. The biology is multiplied and gives off gas which has to be released. The brew is ready when it stops gassing and the pH is below 4. The surface is nearly covered with yeast.

I used EMA to "sterilise" rice straw before growing mushrooms in it. No mould ever. 

[khwaibah]

You can find beef cattle in the stew pot after last night.

 

Mom&son.

 

[Michael Hare]

On 7/26/2020 at 11:23 AM, Hellboy75 said:

No is the answer at the moment she has about 4 rai of grass sweet israel is the majority then a few different napier and the newest which is called superleaf she bought it all from a grass farm just outside Kalasin town which is owned by a couple in their 40's who gave up teaching they have 180 rai of grasses I'm not sure how much advice she receives from her but definitely some they have also won some farming awards in Thailand I know this because they proudly display it everywhere 

Thank you for your reply Hellboy. I would say the Kalasin grass farmers are making a lot of money selling the stems of the various napier grass cultivars. I doubt that they would have done any proper agronomic research. I can not find at all any research papers on Sweet napier grass. It has been promoted as grass that is sweet to eat whatever that means. High sugar content?

 

Yesterday, I visited a nearby goat farmer. The farmer used to grow both Sweet Israel grass and Pakchong napier. but the regrowth on these two cultivars was slow and also the napier grasses seem to get a rust disease on their leaves. He moved to growing Mombasa guinea grass 3 years ago but now he loves Mun River guinea grass. Both guinea grasses have superior regrowth compared to the napier grasses, are disease free and have a very high leaf to stem ratio. Verer leafy.

 

 

[IsaanAussie]

Mun is one of yours Michael isn't it? Looks interesting versus napier. Is it too late to start a small patch as a trial, say 1/2 Rai?

[Michael Hare]

3 minutes ago, IsaanAussie said:

Mun is one of yours Michael isn't it? Looks interesting versus napier. Is it too late to start a small patch as a trial, say 1/2 Rai?

Completely out of Mun River seed. New season seed will be available in January 2021. If you wanted to plant a small area, the goat farmer is selling Mun River tillers (have small roots). He will get them sent to your farm by Kerry Express. I will send you an email with his address and telephone number. He speaks good English.

 

Mun River is my latest cultivar. I did three years research on it in the field. About 49% more dry matter than Purple guinea. The paper will be published in an international journal in September.

 

Here is the abstract.

 

A field trial in Northeast Thailand during 2015‒2018 evaluated the forage accumulation and nutritive value of 5 Megathyrsus cultivars, Mombasa, Tanzania, Massai, Zuri and Mun River. Mombasa and Tanzania are commonly grown in Thailand, but Massai, Zuri and Mun River had not been evaluated in Thailand before. Overall accumulated DM yields for the various cultivars over the 3 years were 24,550 kg/ha for Tanzania, 30,900 kg/ha for Massai, 32,700 kg/ha for Mombasa, 35,600 kg/ha for Mun River and 35,700 kg/ha for Zuri. Over 3 wet seasons, Mun River and Zuri accumulated 49% more total DM and Mombasa 35% more total DM than Tanzania. Massai accumulated lower total DM yields than Zuri and Mun River in the second and third wet seasons, similar yields to Mombasa, and higher yields than Tanzania in those 2 seasons. Crude protein concentrations in forage were higher in the dry season than in the wet season and in leaves than in stems. There were no consistent differences in CP% of the various cultivars in wet or dry seasons. ADF and NDF concentrations in the dry season were lower than those in the wet season and leaf ADF and NDF concentrations were lower than concentrations in stems. There were no consistent differences of ADF and NDF concentrations between cultivars throughout the study. This trial showed that both Zuri and Mun River would be ideal replacements for Mombasa and Tanzania in Northeast Thailand, as they would appeal to smallholder farmers for cut-and-carry forage with their upright, broad leaves, and at least similar DM production to Mombasa and superior DM production to Tanzania.

[IsaanAussie]

Just now, Michael Hare said:

If you wanted to plant a small area, the goat farmer is selling Mun River tillers (have small roots).

Sounds good, speed things up a bit.

[kickstart]

A while ago a guy in Singapore e-mailed me about Alfalfa hay in Thailand .got talking about Dwarf Napier, he got some analysed at a lab in New York, he was surprised at the protein content got it analysed again ,the results are good with a protein of 21%.

But it still has to be managed well ,good fertile soil and regular applications of urea.,and cut at no more that 45 days old

We have some in a nursery bed awaiting planting out ,when we get some rain, two things ,not as drought resistant as my Napier Taiwan and still gets rust .

Well impressed with your Mun river especially the Dry Matter, ADF and NDF both good ,I see from the goat farm that they irrigate, dose it have good drought resistant  properties. 

But for me how tolerant is it to waterlogging ,our biggest problem with growing grass .

 

2005400541_GreenfieldsNapierSample (1).pdf

[Michael Hare]

2 hours ago, kickstart said:

A while ago a guy in Singapore e-mailed me about Alfalfa hay in Thailand .got talking about Dwarf Napier, he got some analysed at a lab in New York, he was surprised at the protein content got it analysed again ,the results are good with a protein of 21%.

But it still has to be managed well ,good fertile soil and regular applications of urea.,and cut at no more that 45 days old

We have some in a nursery bed awaiting planting out ,when we get some rain, two things ,not as drought resistant as my Napier Taiwan and still gets rust .

Well impressed with your Mun river especially the Dry Matter, ADF and NDF both good ,I see from the goat farm that they irrigate, dose it have good drought resistant  properties. 

But for me how tolerant is it to waterlogging ,our biggest problem with growing grass .

 

2005400541_GreenfieldsNapierSample (1).pdf 49.05 kB · 3 downloads

Over the years I have had crude protein levels in many of the guinea grasses range from 8% up to 20%. Depends on soil fertility, fertiliser application, age of the plants and cutting interval. The best criteria for comparsions is to test in replicated trials.

 

I would like to see Sweet Israel grass and Napier Taiwan grass, evaluated alongside the other grasses currently available in Thailand. Trials to be replicated, spread over several sites and at leasst for 3 years.  

 

Alfafa hay in Thailand must be imported from the USA or maybe Canada. As far as I know, alfafa does not grow well in the humid, hot tropics. 

 

Generally, the drought tolerance of the guinea grasses, Mun River included, are average, and no where as good as Mulato II. The goat farmer irrigates to get a constant supply of fresh green forage throughout the year.

 

I have not tested the waterlogging tolerance of Mun River, but it probably is fairly intolerant. Like Mulato II. Not tolerant to waterlogging at all. The best water-tolerant grasses in Thailand are Ubon paspalum and para grass. The latter has very poor drought tolerance. 

 

I wrote a few papers on waterlogging tolerance a few years ago. They are attached.

Para grass and Ubon paspalum 1999.pdf Pasture species on waterlogged soils 1999.pdf Waterlogging paper 2016.pdf Waterlogging tolerance 2004.pdf

[Hellboy75]

9 hours ago, Michael Hare said:

Thank you for your reply Hellboy. I would say the Kalasin grass farmers are making a lot of money selling the stems of the various napier grass cultivars. I doubt that they would have done any proper agronomic research. I can not find at all any research papers on Sweet napier grass. It has been promoted as grass that is sweet to eat whatever that means. High sugar content?

 

Yesterday, I visited a nearby goat farmer. The farmer used to grow both Sweet Israel grass and Pakchong napier. but the regrowth on these two cultivars was slow and also the napier grasses seem to get a rust disease on their leaves. He moved to growing Mombasa guinea grass 3 years ago but now he loves Mun River guinea grass. Both guinea grasses have superior regrowth compared to the napier grasses, are disease free and have a very high leaf to stem ratio. Verer leafy.

 

 

Thanks for the info Michael, Kick-start and IA. Michael my wife has informed me that the owner of the farm we buy grass from gives her advice on all stages of the grass and its all been lab tested at Mahasarakham uni also the new super leaf hybrid has a protein level of 14% I can testify that it's huge as well and very fast growing the cattle absolutely love it, its very new and was created by a professor at Mahasarakham. Here is a study on sweet israel it's in thai

PDF.pdf

[kickstart]

6 hours ago, Michael Hare said:

Over the years I have had crude protein levels in many of the guinea grasses range from 8% up to 20%. Depends on soil fertility, fertiliser application, age of the plants and cutting interval. The best criteria for comparsions is to test in replicated trials.

 

I would like to see Sweet Israel grass and Napier Taiwan grass, evaluated alongside the other grasses currently available in Thailand. Trials to be replicated, spread over several sites and at leasst for 3 years.  

 

Alfafa hay in Thailand must be imported from the USA or maybe Canada. As far as I know, alfafa does not grow well in the humid, hot tropics. 

 

Generally, the drought tolerance of the guinea grasses, Mun River included, are average, and no where as good as Mulato II. The goat farmer irrigates to get a constant supply of fresh green forage throughout the year.

 

I have not tested the waterlogging tolerance of Mun River, but it probably is fairly intolerant. Like Mulato II. Not tolerant to waterlogging at all. The best water-tolerant grasses in Thailand are Ubon paspalum and para grass. The latter has very poor drought tolerance. 

 

I wrote a few papers on waterlogging tolerance a few years ago. They are attached.

Para grass and Ubon paspalum 1999.pdf 64.85 kB · 1 download Pasture species on waterlogged soils 1999.pdf 71.15 kB · 0 downloads Waterlogging paper 2016.pdf 743.08 kB · 1 download Waterlogging tolerance 2004.pdf 127.49 kB · 0 downloads

Thanks for those links on waterlogging I have tried Paspalum .takes some managing ,soon gets unpalatable and cattle will not eat it,but as you say has very good waterlogging properties

Para Grass or Yar Conn ,is the most widely cut and cart grass in this area,I cut some in our dried up pond, must be cut young soon gets old and cattle will not eat it ,as you said very water tolerant  stands water logging well .

Grass trails  with Dwarf Napier and Taiwan Napier would be interesting ,if you can find some Taiwan Napier, the Packchon and Packchon II have just about taken over around here,I have a few stems of a Pupal Napier what ever that is ,not very promising ,leaves soon get course ,I would say the protein would be low.

The bales of Alfafa where at our local feed shop they were imported from the USA ,this was 2 years go ,not seen any since ,one bale was 140 baht ,seem expensive ,but when a very average bale of  Pangola   hay ,all stem and no leafs, sells for 110-120 baht/bale in this area that Alfafa does not seem so expensive 

 

[Michael Hare]

13 hours ago, Hellboy75 said:

Thanks for the info Michael, Kick-start and IA. Michael my wife has informed me that the owner of the farm we buy grass from gives her advice on all stages of the grass and its all been lab tested at Mahasarakham uni also the new super leaf hybrid has a protein level of 14% I can testify that it's huge as well and very fast growing the cattle absolutely love it, its very new and was created by a professor at Mahasarakham. Here is a study on sweet israel it's in thai

PDF.pdf 206.72 kB · 0 downloads

Thank you for the paper. I read through it and it is a wonder it even got published. The research was over one cool season. The cuts were at 4, 6, 8 and 10 weeks. One cut only. Now that is a basic mistake. The interval must be even for all cuts. If one cuts at 4 weeks, then 8 weeks, then 16 weeks, one will then get 4 x 4 week cuts, 2 x 8 week cuts and 1 x 16 week cuts. And only one season and one site? To really test the worth of Sweet Israel grass it must be evaluated alongside other grasses commonly available in Thailand. Most cutting trials use a day interval of 30 days, 45 days and 60 days spread over 180 days, to give 6 x 30 day cuts, 4 x 45 day cuts and 2 x 60 day cuts. 

[Michael Hare]

11 hours ago, kickstart said:

Thanks for those links on waterlogging I have tried Paspalum .takes some managing ,soon gets unpalatable and cattle will not eat it,but as you say has very good waterlogging properties

Para Grass or Yar Conn ,is the most widely cut and cart grass in this area,I cut some in our dried up pond, must be cut young soon gets old and cattle will not eat it ,as you said very water tolerant  stands water logging well .

Grass trails  with Dwarf Napier and Taiwan Napier would be interesting ,if you can find some Taiwan Napier, the Packchon and Packchon II have just about taken over around here,I have a few stems of a Pupal Napier what ever that is ,not very promising ,leaves soon get course ,I would say the protein would be low.

The bales of Alfafa where at our local feed shop they were imported from the USA ,this was 2 years go ,not seen any since ,one bale was 140 baht ,seem expensive ,but when a very average bale of  Pangola   hay ,all stem and no leafs, sells for 110-120 baht/bale in this area that Alfafa does not seem so expensive 

 

Alfafa hay is the King of hays. No other hay can compete with it. I was in Sabah last year advising on grasses to a dairy farm. The farm regularly purchases container loads of alfafa hay from the USA in tightly compressed small bales, weighing about 40-50 kg in weight. Photo attached. 

 

I think I will have to put down some long-term trials to evaluate all these napier grass cultivars alongside our other grasses. For the trial to be fair to all species, they must be planted in the same way. As the napier grasses do not have seeds, they must be planted with stems. For the guinea grasses and Mulato II, we will have to produce seedlings to transplant into the plots. Too late to start this year. Maybe next year.

[JungleBiker]

23 hours ago, Michael Hare said:

 

 

A field trial in Northeast Thailand during 2015‒2018 evaluated the forage accumulation and nutritive value of 5 Megathyrsus cultivars, Mombasa, Tanzania, Massai, Zuri and Mun River.

 

This trial showed that both Zuri and Mun River would be ideal replacements for Mombasa and Tanzania in Northeast Thailand, as they would appeal to smallholder farmers for cut-and-carry forage with their upright, broad leaves, and at least similar DM production to Mombasa and superior DM production to Tanzania.

Hello Michael,

 

You did not include Mulato II in the trial - might that be because Mulato II is not popular for cut-and-carry due to it not being so upright in growth habit? Or is there another reason?

 

What about the upright-growing Brachiaria variety Cobra - what happened to it? I think you started trials but did not commercialise the seed production? 

 

JB

 

 

[Michael Hare]

16 minutes ago, JungleBiker said:

Hello Michael,

 

You did not include Mulato II in the trial - might that be because Mulato II is not popular for cut-and-carry due to it not being so upright in growth habit? Or is there another reason?

 

What about the upright-growing Brachiaria variety Cobra - what happened to it? I think you started trials but did not commercialise the seed production? 

 

JB

 

 

No, we did not include Mulato II in the trial, because the purpose of the trial was to evaluate only guinea grasses alongside one another. However, at the same time, we put down a brachiaria grass trial with 12 cultivars. These included Mulato II, ruzi grass, Cobra, Cayman and other new cultivars from Brazil. The trial went for 3 years. I am in the process of writing this research up for publication. 

 

Some years, we did compare purple guinea with other grasses. Paper attached. That was before Mombasa had even arrived in Thailand.

 

Both Cobra and Cayman did not go very far in Thailand with commercial seed production. We tried for 3 years but the seed yields were so low that our farmers preferred Mulato II. But not before they cheated us by mixing in large amounts of cheap ruzi seed into the Cayman seed. Both seeds look similar and only after the seed was sown and the plants growing, could we see the ruzi plants. There was over 90% contamination with ruzi seeds and so we had had to sell as ruzi seed. We lost a lot of money there.

 

A pity we could not get Cayman going as it has very good water-logging tolerance. 

 

Both Cobra and Cayman seeds are only produced by Papalotla in Mexico.

 http://www.grupopapalotla.com/pastos-hibridos.html

 

You will notice a new cultivar there called Camello. We also did foundation research on Camello in Thailand, mainly up in Amart Charoen. A low growing dense grass, suitable for intensive grazing. But to get seed was headache. Flowered and set seed through the latter part of the wet season. 

 

Brachiaria 2009.pdf

[Hellboy75]

Kickstart I forgot to ask were you still able to buy gut beer during the alcohol ban? Because here we couldn't get any for about 5 weeks. 

[kickstart]

10 hours ago, Hellboy75 said:

Kickstart I forgot to ask were you still able to buy gut beer during the alcohol ban? Because here we couldn't get any for about 5 weeks. 

Good question .I am about 150 km from Bangkok ,there is Beer Chang  at Wang Noi just north of Bangkok, and Leo is produced is Bangkok ,so we were not to bad ,and we have two big sellers in this area ,but I did not have any Gut Beer, brewers grains, at one time for just a few days ,but I did have to ration it out at times ,one seller was getting  it from Khampangpet ,a Chang brewery .

I think where  you are you're  limited to just  Khon Khen a Leo brewery, hence not  having  any for a long time.

When the floods were here ,one seller was get his Gut Beer from Cambodia, but be was charging 100 baht bag instead of his usually  80 baht bag , 

But now no shortage, both our seller always have plenty in stock ,Thai's must be drinking a lot of beer, and it is the Thai lent ,when a a good few Thai's give up alcohol for 3 months. 

[IsaanAussie]

This has been an interesting week. Monday I went to the Surin cattle sale and checked out prices for both cattle and fodder. Wednesday BIL announces he has purchased some cows and calfs, BAAC finance organised without myself or my wife on the hook. Yesterday I got introduced to a guy that claims to be selling Charolais to China and wants to do a deal based on a four month grow-out period. This is worth a further look, his beast/my fodder.

It will all have to wait until I see if we can grow Mulato II etc.. 

[Hellboy75]

On 8/2/2020 at 7:33 PM, IsaanAussie said:

This has been an interesting week. Monday I went to the Surin cattle sale and checked out prices for both cattle and fodder. Wednesday BIL announces he has purchased some cows and calfs, BAAC finance organised without myself or my wife on the hook. Yesterday I got introduced to a guy that claims to be selling Charolais to China and wants to do a deal based on a four month grow-out period. This is worth a further look, his beast/my fodder.

It will all have to wait until I see if we can grow Mulato II etc.. 

I'm going Surin market this coming weekend what we're the prices like high, low or normal? 

[kickstart]

54 minutes ago, Hellboy75 said:

I'm going Surin market this coming weekend what we're the prices like high, low or normal? 

If what I hear round here I think the prices will be high ,why I do not know with the Covid-19 , uncertain economy ,and in this area a drought ,it does not make sense.

Even cull dairy  cow prices  are on the up, again  for some reason .

Some photos would be interesting.  

[thoongfoned]

1 hour ago, kickstart said:

If what I hear round here I think the prices will be high ,why I do not know with the Covid-19 , uncertain economy ,and in this area a drought ,it does not make sense.

Even cull dairy  cow prices  are on the up, again  for some reason .

Some photos would be interesting.  

interesting read this thread...

around us people seem to have the cow buying buzz again, few of the wifes friends have bought mum with a calf in tow and preggers again, long ear type, high ish body, brown colour, 50/60,000 seems about the price here for said set up. we still have a couple of people cutting grass daily to haul to their cattle (more so when its dry season) helps to keep some of the weeds downs....

the wife has also been on about maybe buying some cattle..., (i just laugh at her) like i said it seems to be the "thing" to buy around here at the mo, wife said her friends have some spare cash and have just put it into some livestock (these are not farming type village folk)

a  few people that farm pigs (like we do)  have been buying cattle this year, seems to be plenty of cash about in and around the villages...

around here beef per kg at the "road side stalls" is still 280/320. in the village shops 350/370.  people still cutting up cows in the village and selling it in 500,1000 ect lots most weeks... the beef biz seems busy all round...

[Hellboy75]

12 hours ago, kickstart said:

If what I hear round here I think the prices will be high ,why I do not know with the Covid-19 , uncertain economy ,and in this area a drought ,it does not make sense.

Even cull dairy  cow prices  are on the up, again  for some reason .

Some photos would be interesting.  

We visited mahasarakham last weekend went to a couple of farms one was completely closed to visitors because in the province they have haemmoragic septacemia (forgive my spelling) I don't know if this would effect things

[IsaanAussie]

13 hours ago, Hellboy75 said:

I'm going Surin market this coming weekend what we're the prices like high, low or normal? 

They were higher than I expected but I have no base to comment. I looked at a Charolais cow and heifer calf and the price was 39K.

[Michael Hare]

11 hours ago, thoongfoned said:

interesting read this thread...

around us people seem to have the cow buying buzz again, few of the wifes friends have bought mum with a calf in tow and preggers again, long ear type, high ish body, brown colour, 50/60,000 seems about the price here for said set up. we still have a couple of people cutting grass daily to haul to their cattle (more so when its dry season) helps to keep some of the weeds downs....

the wife has also been on about maybe buying some cattle..., (i just laugh at her) like i said it seems to be the "thing" to buy around here at the mo, wife said her friends have some spare cash and have just put it into some livestock (these are not farming type village folk)

a  few people that farm pigs (like we do)  have been buying cattle this year, seems to be plenty of cash about in and around the villages...

around here beef per kg at the "road side stalls" is still 280/320. in the village shops 350/370.  people still cutting up cows in the village and selling it in 500,1000 ect lots most weeks... the beef biz seems busy all round...

Make sure you plant your grass before buying any cattle. 

[IsaanAussie]

Just now, Michael Hare said:

Make sure you plant your grass before buying any cattle. 

Come around here and tell that to my BIL. He has bought 4 beasts, two of which are pregnant (so he says). He can't tell me what breed they are or even how old they are. Also bought a new brushcutter. We have planted some trial patches of fodder but it is a month off cutting.

Just now, Michael Hare said:

seems to be plenty of cash about in and around the villages...

Seems indeed, BIL has borrowed 100% from BAAC based on a chanote for 7 ria.

There seems something familiar here. Lets all start growing more rubber trees, more sugar, corn and cassava. Bound to get rich and can learn how to do it along the way. The only experience BIL has, is helping his father out feeding rice straw to the little Thai cows they had years ago.

Tick, tick boom!

[thoongfoned]

26 minutes ago, Michael Hare said:

Make sure you plant your grass before buying any cattle. 

if the wife buys i would like to try some of your seeds....

around our house we have a round 7/8 rai of grass all year round, ground is always wet cos we have so much sitting water from the fish ponds and the aeration ponds from the pigs.... people cut and cart grass all year long.

since this covid business has started the wife now keeps ducks, turkeys and has gone back into bamboo in quiet a large way... just gotta get her doing the washing up in her spare time 555

[Hellboy75]

On 8/2/2020 at 7:33 PM, IsaanAussie said:

This has been an interesting week. Monday I went to the Surin cattle sale and checked out prices for both cattle and fodder. Wednesday BIL announces he has purchased some cows and calfs, BAAC finance organised without myself or my wife on the hook. Yesterday I got introduced to a guy that claims to be selling Charolais to China and wants to do a deal based on a four month grow-out period. This is worth a further look, his beast/my fodder.

It will all have to wait until I see if we can grow Mulato II etc.. 

This bloke who exports is it he supplies you the cattle then you feed it his food and recipe which he deducts at the end?