TRACTORS and tractors advise

[OOTAI]

douglasspade

In your original post you said:

I've been in TH for more than a year permanently (lost my job then covid hit...) Farmed rice for the past 3 years with my wife on leased land and also on our own. I pay 600 Baht to plow and rake a Rai, and another 300฿ to mulch it after I mist it. I can not choose when to do this and have to rely on others. Kindof feeling slightly helpless knowing I can do it better and in my own/right time and enjoy it. I drop over 30K฿ on machine rental just to get the rice planted. Another 20K฿  flies just to get cover crop on, and another 20K฿  flies to re-establish the soil to support pasture for the rest of the year. 

 

Before I talk about tractors I am wondering if you can explain exactly what you mean by the following:

"plow and rake" plow I understand but rake?

"mulch it after I mist it" I don't know what you are doing here.

'machine rental to get rice planted" I am not sure how you are doing this planting as around here the seed is just casted out using a "blower"

"just to get a cover crop on" I don't understand this?

"re-establish the soil to support pasture" not sure what you are describing here.

 

Anyway the one thing I did understand was when you said "I can not choose when to do this and have to rely on others." I also had this problem and used to get upset when the people who were going to do the work didn't turn up when the said they would. So initially we (my wife and I) bought an iron buffalo for her brother to use. Later after she purchased a bit more land I convinced her to buy a tractor. So about 15 years ago we bought a "Euro 55DI" and it did a good job for several years.  When we started knocking down paddy banks to make larger paddies so the tractor had more room to manouvre etc. it took a bit of a pounding. In order to push the soil around and make the new bigger paddies more level the BIL used the tractor and he had the plough hanging off the back to use to loosen up the soil. Of course he had to show everyone what a great operator he was by going back forth as fast as he could and the plow bouncing up and down on the back actually split the cast iron housing.  The served as the hydraulic tank so it was repaired but still leaks a little. Also the tractor had a double clutch system for the PTO and this was a pig of a thing never really worked properly as I suppose it was never really used properly.

 

Anyway  about 6 or 7 years ago we bought a new tractor, a New Holland TT4.55 and it has been absolutely great so far. As both our tractors have been 4WD and 55HP I can't say what is the best size to get for a small holding such as you have but I can tell you the following facts (as I see them). My wife has a cousin whom she works very closely with and they basically share farm his land together with hers. She puts up the capital and he puts in the labour. She keeps track of the hours he works and the capital she spends and when they sell any produce these are deducted and they share ant profit.  I should point out the profit is never very much but it provides work for him and several members of the family at different time during the year.

 

They also do contract tractor work plus rice and cassava harvesting which includes truck transport to the required location i.e. the owners storage place or the mill/s.

Anyway he has a smaller Yanmar tractor which from memory is 28HP and there are times when it is used in preference to our New Holland. It seems to handle wet and boggy conditions a lot better and is easy to get out when it gets bogged. It is also more manourverable in small paddies.

 

Just as a final word I thought I would say that the New Holland has the following improvements that I love.

Flat floor rather foot wells which make it much more comfortable.

Hydraulic "switch" that allows the implement on the back to be fully raised or lowered by the press of a button.

Forward or reverse selection by one lever on the dash (requires the clutch to be used as well.

Separate clutch for the PTO and 2 speeds either controlled by ground speed or motor revs.

 

Anyway that's enough waffle from me. I also thought a few pictures would be good to help improve the post.  I almost forgot to mention that you should have a look at JSSR Auctions on google as they always have lots of secondhand tractors for sale and prior to covid they held an auction every month.

 

In the last picture the red lines show where the plough used to be connected and the welded cracks the green line shows where it gets connected now.  The reason the plough is on the back is as a counterewieght for the when the bucket is full of cassava.

 

 

 

 

[douglasspade]

On 9/2/2020 at 2:47 PM, OOTAI said:

"plow and rake" plow I understand but rake?

"mulch it after I mist it" I don't know what you are doing here.

'machine rental to get rice planted" I am not sure how you are doing this planting as around here the seed is just casted out using a "blower"

"just to get a cover crop on" I don't understand this?

"re-establish the soil to support pasture" not sure what you are describing here.

My apologies for the translation, I guess in every country there is a different way to say something similar in English.

 

"plow and rake"

A rake attached to the rear of the disc tiller to rake the material evenly. It assists with the leveling of our area's clay and silt based material. This give the tractor with rotary tiller a more even work level, it prevents the tractor to run the furrows. I think this step is very overlooked in Thailand, if your land is disc tilled with furrows and windrows remaining, the rotary tiller hides that, but after the first rains you tend to see washed off rice in ow spots and high spots with no rice growing at all.

 

"mulch it after I mist it"

We rotary till after we have 'casted' the rice with a blower machine. This was my first year using the blower. It is more work than just throwing by hand.

 

"machine rental to get rice planted"

I pay over 30000 Baht on tractor rental to get the our rice paddy planted. That is plow, disc tilling (raking) and rotary tilling.

 

"just to get a cover crop on" 

After rice harvest and baling (baling only happens partially), we throw long black bean beans (seeds) on our land and run a disc tiller very shallowly through. Getting a tractor willing to do a few days of difficult (careful and responsible) work for a relative price is a major struggle. We can not seed in just one go, on some areas we disc till 2 times to get rid of the layer straw and muck.

 

"re-establish the soil to support pasture"

After about 40 days we disc till the bean plants in to the ground. Grass seed is thrown by hand immediately after. From April to June my land compared to others looks very good with excess grass cut weekly and baled manually in a tote, or to trade off to family for rice straw bales.

 

Grass seeding need to complete before mid February, else the grass will not grow as it gets too hot and dry, the cattle need at least 5 months of relatively good pasture. The bean cover crop need to happen as soon as we can pull a disc tiller through.

We have done the beans and grass for 2 years now. Honestly we struggle without our own tractor, and I have made some rookie mistakes.

We have reduced fertilizer drastically with absolutely no change in rice tonnage. I believe the cover crop and the grass tilled into the soil is will be improving my soil after in the next 3 years.

Next year we might swap the bean cover crop with Sunn Hemp. If we can get in our land sooner dependent on the shifting monsoon timetable as the hemp needs 50 to 60 days before it can be worked in.

 

I hope this clears things up a little.

 

[kickstart]

15 hours ago, douglasspade said:

re-establish the soil to support pasture"

After about 40 days we disc till the bean plants in to the ground. Grass seed is thrown by hand immediately after. From April to June my land compared to others looks very good with excess grass cut weekly and baled manually in a tote, or to trade off to family for rice straw bales.

 

Grass seeding need to complete before mid February, else the grass will not grow as it gets too hot and dry, the cattle need at least 5 months of relatively good pasture. The bean cover crop need to happen as soon as we can pull a disc tiller through.

We have done the beans and grass for 2 years now. Honestly we struggle without our own tractor, and I have made some rookie mistakes.

We have reduced fertilizer drastically with absolutely no change in rice tonnage. I believe the cover crop and the grass tilled into the soil is will be improving my soil after in the next 3 years.

Next year we might swap the bean cover crop with Sunn Hemp. If we can get in our land sooner dependent on the shifting monsoon timetable as the hemp needs 50 to 60 days before it can be worked in.

 

I hope this clears things up a little.

 

Do you have irrigation?, from April to June around here , and a lot of other areas ,basically noting grows , the hot season .our Napier grass does grow a bit .but not enough to cut ,and it will also be of  poor feed quality ,what grass seed do you use Ruize ?

A lot has been written on TV about improving fertility and organic matter of rice fields ,seems you are doing it and succeeding .

You grow  Black Beans , around here seed not easy to find ,like Sun Hemp ,but some had  been  grown last year.

Around here Mung Beans are used ,one guy harvested a crop after sowing Mung Beans after rice ,then harrowed in the plants ,another guy near me grow peanuts before his rice crop .

You have reduced fertilizer usage a lot without detrimental effect  on  crop yield, a good reduction in costs.

But I have found that Thais are not great users of fertilizer ,and I am certain that some times crop yield suffer from being short of fertilizer, was it your idea ,or the family's  idea , would it be cost effective increase the fertilizer usage and get a better crop yield ?

.

[douglasspade]

6 hours ago, kickstart said:

You grow  Black Beans , around here seed not easy to find ,like Sun Hemp

I cultivate my own seeds as well as a percentage of my chicken/duck feed per year on a 1.2 Rai piece of land behind our village using a my kubota b5001. I am able to rotate the 3 fields 4 times a year. Currently on my final rotation for the year with black and green beans, and Sun Hemp growing.

 

Here is the 250sqm of black beans that so far yield the 2 rice bags of seed needed for the cover crop and some to spare. The seed was 3 tins bought from my local farm store for 100 Baht a tin.

 

Here I'm checking the first Sunn Hemp flowers developing on 650 sqm. 1 sqm yield me average 0.15 kg of dry seed on the last crop. I seed thick at 4kg per Rai. The mid trunks we dry and tie as bales for the cows, the base 150mm with the roots dry on land and becomes cover foliage.

 

 

5 hours ago, kickstart said:

what grass seed do you use Ruize

Yes it the 'Ruzi' cultivar. My leaves are not as broad and long as the African Ruzi. I buy it from a Chinese guy who ships them from Laos. He is cheaper than my local farm shop.

We rotate our cattle pasture every 3 to 4 weeks as soon as the the grass (Ruzi) leaves get max 400mm long, the reason is the cattle tend to grab he leaves together and pull the stems from the root shoots when grazing and a new shoot has to grow a month before a new shoot stem and leaf appears. The grass grows well with other natural Thai grasses and weeds in the paddy. We sow the grass sparingly as it is still expensive and it does grow sparsely on our paddy +/-0.7m to 1m apart with no irrigation needed if it is planted in February. They do grow slower from April but by then still outgrow all other natural grasses on the paddy.

 

Here is a pic of some growing in my back yard now, seeded accidentally when cleaning the ATV trailer this year after seeding the paddy.

 

5 hours ago, kickstart said:

about improving fertility and organic matter of rice fields ,seems you are doing it and succeeding

Well not just yet. I need another 3 years as I only sampled my material last year I need to see the effects over some time. I feel it is the right thing to do, if I can only cut cost down more.

 

5 hours ago, kickstart said:

would it be cost effective increase the fertilizer usage and get a better crop yield

No, I believe the opposite. They (my fellow farmers) keep throwing more fertilizer thinking that they get much higher crop yields. Fertilizer cost a lot of money and damages the soil and the environment. Herding cattle (produces manure) does not restore the soil in the dry months, especially if it is not tilled in to decompose to enrich the soil.

Fertilizing is just one of the elements needed in producing a good/larger crop yield, but in Thailand it seems to me is the 'only' element.

 

Here is something outdated but still relative:

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Growth-of-Fertilizer-Utilisation-in-comparison-with-Growth-of-Rice-and-Maize-Yields-from_fig1_228496676

 

In short Thailand is using massive amounts of fertilizer for a minimum increase in crop yields.

 

But rather do not believe me,I am just on my 3rd year farming, learning as I go along.

 

I will look into mung bean nutrients if it could be a viable rotational cover crop. Ground nuts I tried before and failed, my material have "root knot nematodes" but that was on the small farm. I have never seen them planted in Paddies though.

[douglasspade]

On 9/2/2020 at 2:47 PM, OOTAI said:

So about 15 years ago we bought a "Euro 55DI" and it did a good job for several years.

Not familiar with this tractor brand. Are they still available in TH? Parts and specs?

[kickstart]

13 hours ago, douglasspade said:

 

In short Thailand is using massive amounts of fertilizer for a minimum increase in crop yields.

Interesting  graph ,but as has been said on this forum before ,organic matter is the problem or lack of .the monoculture of rice ,rice being a cereal crop just takes nutrients from the land ,puts nothing back in .

A good few years ago I read a paper from Phitsanalock Provence ,an extension office trying to get farms to grow Soya bean instead of rice for a few years ,a few farmers try it but what I know ,most went back to rice ,made more money especially n a year  with government subsidies. 

[kickstart]

On 9/2/2020 at 2:47 PM, OOTAI said:

So about 15 years ago we bought a "Euro 55DI" and it did a good

 

2 hours ago, douglasspade said:

Not familiar with this tractor brand. Are they still available in TH? Parts and specs?

What I can find from Google they are made in India?   under licence from Valtra an AGGO brand.

I would be worried about spear parts . 

[OOTAI]

4 hours ago, douglasspade said:

Not familiar with this tractor brand. Are they still available in TH? Parts and specs?

 

1 hour ago, kickstart said:

 

What I can find from Google they are made in India?   under licence from Valtra an AGGO brand.

I would be worried about spear parts . 

douglasspade

Regarding the Euro tractor I assume they are still available in TH but not sure.

We bought it from SPT Tractor, they have a dealership on Hwy24 near Non Bun Maak west of Nong Ki.  We also bought the New Holland from them but from their Nang Rong dealership also on Hwy24.

 

They also run a John Deere dealership just north of Buriram city and that is where I got parts for the Euro last time I needed some. The guy there spoke very good English and ordered the parts from wherever they had them in Bangkok.

 

My understanding of this brand name is that it  came to Thailand as parts in a container and was rebuilt here and sold as a "used" tractor, it had 4 hours on the clock. I believe this method was/is used to avoid import taxes.

So "Euro" as a name might be a made up one for Thailand.

 

Also thanks for the detailed reply post#32 to my questions I appreciate it. I will no doubt post again asking more question about what you are doing as it sounds similar to what I wanted to do when I first came here.

Unfortunately I then went to work in Indonesia and things got left to my wife and everything reverted to doing things the "Thai way".

[OOTAI]

On 9/3/2020 at 9:19 PM, douglasspade said:

My apologies for the translation, I guess in every country there is a different way to say something similar in English.

 

"plow and rake"

A rake attached to the rear of the disc tiller to rake the material evenly. It assists with the leveling of our area's clay and silt based material. This give the tractor with rotary tiller a more even work level, it prevents the tractor to run the furrows. I think this step is very overlooked in Thailand, if your land is disc tilled with furrows and windrows remaining, the rotary tiller hides that, but after the first rains you tend to see washed off rice in ow spots and high spots with no rice growing at all.

 

"mulch it after I mist it"

We rotary till after we have 'casted' the rice with a blower machine. This was my first year using the blower. It is more work than just throwing by hand.

 

"machine rental to get rice planted"

I pay over 30000 Baht on tractor rental to get the our rice paddy planted. That is plow, disc tilling (raking) and rotary tilling.

 

"just to get a cover crop on" 

After rice harvest and baling (baling only happens partially), we throw long black bean beans (seeds) on our land and run a disc tiller very shallowly through. Getting a tractor willing to do a few days of difficult (careful and responsible) work for a relative price is a major struggle. We can not seed in just one go, on some areas we disc till 2 times to get rid of the layer straw and muck.

 

"re-establish the soil to support pasture"

After about 40 days we disc till the bean plants in to the ground. Grass seed is thrown by hand immediately after. From April to June my land compared to others looks very good with excess grass cut weekly and baled manually in a tote, or to trade off to family for rice straw bales.

 

Grass seeding need to complete before mid February, else the grass will not grow as it gets too hot and dry, the cattle need at least 5 months of relatively good pasture. The bean cover crop need to happen as soon as we can pull a disc tiller through.

We have done the beans and grass for 2 years now. Honestly we struggle without our own tractor, and I have made some rookie mistakes.

We have reduced fertilizer drastically with absolutely no change in rice tonnage. I believe the cover crop and the grass tilled into the soil is will be improving my soil after in the next 3 years.

Next year we might swap the bean cover crop with Sunn Hemp. If we can get in our land sooner dependent on the shifting monsoon timetable as the hemp needs 50 to 60 days before it can be worked in.

 

I hope this clears things up a little.

 

No need to apologise as it is easy to use words that convey different meanings to different people that's why I sought clarification.

 

Anyway you used "rake" I would use "harrows". Is the rake rigidly fixed to the rear of the disc tiller/plough?

I had wanted to be able to use a harrow behind the plough but have never been able to work out how to reverse with one on the back of the plough. The harrows I have seen used in Australia are not rigid and are just dragged around behind the plough.

 

I now understand what you meant by "mulch and mist" as we do the same i.e. spread the seed using a backpack blower and then we rotary till to bury the seed a little. We spread the seed onto the roughly ploughed paddies. I personally would like to disc plough then rotary till before seeding and then rotary till again after seeding. However if hiring someone else to do the work the cost goes up.  I just think the if the paddy is disc ploughed and then left a while so the weeds/grass turned over dies and some re-germinate then these new weeds/grass would be killed by the rotary tiller then once the rice is spread again use the rotary which not buries the seed  but again kills more of the re-germinating weeds/grass. I think it should help reduce the weeds in the rice and the use of weed killer.

The biggest thing I have noticed in recent years is due to the lack of rain the paddies are more likely to be drier than in the past and this allows the weeds to grow. Before when there was standing water in the paddies the weeds were drowned and not so prevalent.

 

When you said "machine rental to get rice planted" I didn't realise that you were speaking about the whole process I thought you just meant only planting and I wondered what machine you would be renting.

 As for the "cover crop" I would love to do it as I think the soil here needs all the help it can get. We tried growing Mung beans one year and even bought the required attachment to fit to our harvester to harvest the mung beans. However there was very little rain so the crop wasn't great.  We still have several bins of seeds stored but whether they will germinate if we try again to grow them again, I don't know.

 

As to planting grass to re-establish pasture I think kickstart asked whether you had access to irrigation water as I would think it would be needed. Around here we would require water for anything to grow beyond about November.

 

Finally I can see why you want to have your own equipment as trying to organise Thai contractors to do that work would be almost impossible and then there is the need to get it done to the standard you want not what they think they can get away with.  As for tractor hire costs I don't believe 300B per rai is unreasonable as it costs about 50B/rai for fuel alone then there is money to pay for any other maintenance, the cost of purchasing the tractor and then wages for the driver. If you ever do buy a tractor don't even worry about the return on investment calculations as you would be turned off, just think about being your own master in terms of when you do the work and how you do the work that is the payback.

 

I don't know if you have said where you are located but if you don't mind send me a PM and if you're not to far away I would love to come and take a look at your farm.

[Dumbastheycome]

From reading through the  above I am of the opinion that given the intensity of your farming that buying a tractor would be a  no brainer !

[douglasspade]

17 hours ago, Dumbastheycome said:

From reading through the  above I am of the opinion that given the intensity of your farming that buying a tractor would be a  no brainer !

Indeed the main reason for this thread. On the border of the Buriram-Surin Chi river, rain is looking grim this year and I might lean to insurance to pay out. So I might only purchase a tractor later in next year.

I will also skip the cover crop and pasture this coming year as soil moisture will not allow it, and just cut and manually bale the rice (and grasses) as is in the paddy as we have 3 months of cool weather to get that done.

 

I am not religious, but I have found myself in the middle of the night talking rain strategies to the starry night skies.

 

 

[Dumbastheycome]

9 hours ago, douglasspade said:

Indeed the main reason for this thread. On the border of the Buriram-Surin Chi river, rain is looking grim this year and I might lean to insurance to pay out. So I might only purchase a tractor later in next year.

I will also skip the cover crop and pasture this coming year as soil moisture will not allow it, and just cut and manually bale the rice (and grasses) as is in the paddy as we have 3 months of cool weather to get that done.

 

I am not religious, but I have found myself in the middle of the night talking rain strategies to the starry night skies.

 

 

I appreciate the  genuosity of that. Over the  last 7 years in particular the seasonal variations  have been an irregular  phenomenon. In my initial introduction to farming in Thailand as an involved  participant it was not difficult  to confound  local derision by adopting  some of the practices you have implemented. (soil management) which to my experience as the son of a  farmer was a given.

Due to the complications of/and re-allocation in division of family land use I have  stepped  back from any  direct attempts to influence the revival of a  flogged horse. Co-incidental to that is the shift in environmental/climatic impact. Not because I have no interest  but because in the  very near future the land  area which rightly  is  my  wife's to use  may be  again  re-allocated . It is a  sad  factor of the rural fractionization and  disposal of such to  un-interested  urbanized extended  family who  care  not where what they eat  comes from so long as they can  forestall repossession of  their devaluing over  priced  vehicles ! Banks are  currently  desparately selling off land with  burdened  Chanotes at an alarming rate !

So I congratulate and admire you  on  your efforts  to maximize and  enhance  the land you are currently the joint  custodian of .

 

 

 

 

[douglasspade]

On 9/2/2020 at 2:47 PM, OOTAI said:

So about 15 years ago we bought a "Euro 55DI" and it did a good job for several years. 

 

I have found a link to a Thailand site you posted in 2010 http://www.eurotrac.co.th/ Here's a pic on their site, she looks pretty mean with those rice paddy tires on.

 

 

That badge in front of the tractor looked so familiar to me. After some general tractor browsing I have found out that it a Foton Lovo Tractor. This led me to some sites around the world selling Eurotrac Tractors as well as the Tractor wiki with all the Foton Lovo tractors listed and under what name they are selling for in what country.

https://tractors.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Tractors_built_by_Foton_Lovol_for_other_companies

 

This is also a Foton Lovo tractor similar to the Eurotrac selling under the name Thaifarm FMC, model 484

 

Some of Foton Lovo tractors sport Perkins motors, Cummins, Deutz, YTO, Weichai and Laidong  - the latter two is from the maker of the original 'Iron Horse' motors.  Parts are relative easy to find with Alibaba shipping as Foton Lovo is in based in China.

 

On 9/5/2020 at 1:49 PM, OOTAI said:

Regarding the Euro tractor I assume they are still available in TH but not sure.

I will call and find out, price as well. Thanks OOTAI for your original tractor upload.

 

 

[farmerjo]

20 minutes ago, douglasspade said:

she looks pretty mean with those rice paddy tires on.

 

Those paddy tires wear out quickly when put to work.

Interested in your ruzi picture,looks more like a guinea grass.

Your sunn hemp looks healthy along with the beans.

[IsaanAussie]

Check out Mahindra and other Indian tractor companies. I remember a "knockoff" running shoe factory owner in Indonesia who told me "If I can make the shoe, why do your think the label would present a problem?"

 

[OOTAI]

44 minutes ago, douglasspade said:

 

I have found a link to a Thailand site you posted in 2010 http://www.eurotrac.co.th/ Here's a pic on their site, she looks pretty mean with those rice paddy tires on.

 

 

That badge in front of the tractor looked so familiar to me. After some general tractor browsing I have found out that it a Foton Lovo Tractor.

I have no idea about the Foton Lovo name so i can't argue with what you have said and I was going to say that I like the "paddy tyres" and wish I had them on my tractor/s. At least that was until farmerjo pointed out that they wear out pretty quickly. The last few years the paddies here have been pretty dry so those mud tryes really aren't needed right now.  I was thinking about getting dual tyres put on the New Holland but couldn't work out how to get the plough or rotary moved over to go along the edge of the paddies. 

 

I also thought about trying to make some steel wheels to put on the outside of the rubber tyres which were maybe 3-4 inches smaller in diameter than the rubber tyres so that they only engaged when the wheels actually sunk into the mud a little.  Again the problem is they would push the tractor away from the edge of the paddies.

 

Just wondering if you had a look at the auction site I mentioned earlier on and what you thought. I have seen hay rakes and balers on there a few times which if you are doing baling or straw or grass they would be handy.

 

Let us know what you eventually decide to do and good luck in all your endeavours.

 

[Grumpy John]

On 9/1/2020 at 7:48 PM, douglasspade said:

Recap:

I pay 70K Baht yearly for about 60Hrs of shoddy tractor work done. (Although rethinking it might be half those hours!)

If in Five years at a cost of 350K Baht with 300 Hrs of work done, how is that not viable to buy a tractor in the 250K Range with lower hours as advertised? Why will the investment not return?

 

I will also work land for my mom in law and some family in the nearby village when and if needed. This may  reduce my investment period dramatically.

 

Besides at 40 jrs old I have another 20 jrs to earn it back, knock wood!

I don't know why you are paying by the hour.  Around here we pay by the rai.  Plowing or rotovating is 450 to 500 baht depending on soil type.  Seeding is done with a blower for rice and 4 corn with a 2 wheeled tractor pulling planter box.

 

Judging from the way Thai's treat their equipment you are most probably buying a pig in a poke.  Yes I've seen the sexed up pictures of 10-12 year old tractors but I live in a rural village and nothing here over 6 months old looks like the pix in post #16!

 

As well as your regular running costs Expect to spend money on a regular basis to do repairs.

 

A new Kubota 45 will set you back around 900K....which seems a lot???   Makes the second hand unit look like a bargain, ay!

 

As for doing work for other people, family or otherwise...there could be a serious downside to that if some of the locals get their nose out of joint!   Or do you mean someone who is Thai that you employ will be doing the work?

 

Lots of things to be wary of in Thailand.  As the old saying goes "Buyer Beware".

 

 

[douglasspade]

1 hour ago, farmerjo said:

Those paddy tires wear out quickly when put to work.

I changed my Kubota B5001 front tires recently. I now run a wider general AG tire, the brand is called 'SIAMES'. They do feel a bit soft though. Wonder what tires are the top brand for tractors. Deestone?

 

1 hour ago, farmerjo said:

Interested in your ruzi picture,looks more like a guinea grass.

Local bought Ruzi grass grows about 1.5m leaf length. The 'hybrid' I get grows not more than 0.8m. (it is also cheaper) Ruzi is for direct grazing while Guinea and Napier is feed grass. Check out https://www.feedipedia.org is worth a bookmark!

[douglasspade]

2 hours ago, IsaanAussie said:

other Indian tractor companies

Sonalika is an Indian multinational company headquartered in Hoshiarpur, India. I see Yanmar has their 'Solis' range on the floor. Parts and continuation of the brand is my worry there.

Mahindra looks like a solid tractor. I don't think they are in Thailand. I owned a Mahindra pickup's in my home country and although they ride like a ox wagons, they are extremely reliable and old school easy to fix.

YTO is also in Thailand, will look into them.

[farmerjo]

10 hours ago, OOTAI said:

also thought about trying to make some steel wheels

In the farm pictures section Kickstart put a picture of some steel wheels on a little sprayer.Looks like they are made from old slew rings out of different size excavators?

[farmerjo]

8 hours ago, douglasspade said:

I changed my Kubota B5001 front tires recently. I now run a wider general AG tire, the brand is called 'SIAMES'. They do feel a bit soft though. Wonder what tires are the top brand for tractors. Deestone?

There all pretty similar i think. 

I run Superstone on my little Kubota which are ok,the front tyres wear quickly if i do a lot of blade work.

On the 6610 i've never changed the original rears(goodyear) but replaced the fronts with Otani which am getting a good run now i've added extra weight over the front axle.

[farmerjo]

13 hours ago, douglasspade said:

Local bought Ruzi grass grows about 1.5m leaf length. The 'hybrid' I get grows not more than 0.8m.

I purchased some Ruzi seeds about 15 years ago,not sure what variety.

Has a lot of stem and shorter leaves.Bloody hard to kill.

 

[douglasspade]

2 hours ago, farmerjo said:

Bloody hard to kill.

Indeed. You have to remove the whole damn root system. So far tilled before the rice season they tend to compost very well without growing in the paddies. I might have misjudged the Ruzi as a suitable single cover crop ass well.

 

2 hours ago, farmerjo said:

not sure what variety

According to the clever internet there are many species of it with 40 million hectares growing naturally in Brazil.

[Grumpy John]

17 hours ago, douglasspade said:

I changed my Kubota B5001 front tires recently. I now run a wider general AG tire, the brand is called 'SIAMES'. They do feel a bit soft though. Wonder what tires are the top brand for tractors. Deestone?

 

Local bought Ruzi grass grows about 1.5m leaf length. The 'hybrid' I get grows not more than 0.8m. (it is also cheaper) Ruzi is for direct grazing while Guinea and Napier is feed grass. Check out https://www.feedipedia.org is worth a bookmark!

Siames knobbies on my Suzuki lasted 25k km.   I don't understand why the both tyres wore out at the same rate, but they did!  Good brand.  Could you upload a pix of the ones you have?  I will be replacing the front pair on the Kubota B2420 and would like a wider wheel rim combo.   Out at #2 orchard we have a steep hill and I  cannot get the trailer and a full IBC up even in 4 wheel drive!  I put extra weight on the front but the standard tyres just skip and slide. Thanks 

[kickstart]

On 9/4/2020 at 9:45 PM, douglasspade said:

 

On 9/4/2020 at 1:21 PM, kickstart said:

what grass seed do you use Ruize

Yes it the 'Ruzi' cultivar. My leaves are not as broad and long as the African Ruzi. I buy it from a Chinese guy who ships them from Laos. He is cheaper than my local farm shop.

We rotate our cattle pasture every 3 to 4 weeks as soon as the the grass (Ruzi) leaves get max 400mm long, the reason is the cattle tend to grab he leaves together and pull the stems from the root shoots when grazing and a new shoot has to grow a month before a new shoot stem and leaf appears. The grass grows well with other natural Thai grasses and weeds in the paddy. We sow the grass sparingly as it is still expensive and it does grow sparsely on our paddy +/-0.7m to 1m apart with no irrigation needed if it is planted in February. They do grow slower from April but by then still outgrow all other natural grasses on the paddy.

 

Have you thought of growing a grass legume ,higher protein than Ruize grass ,likeStylo  Hamata

or Centrosema.or grow Stylo with Ruize.

For seed try TV's Michael Hare ,or your local DLD office ,Department of Livestock Development, Gom-Pasue-Sat.in Thai .

[douglasspade]

18 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

I don't know why you are paying by the hour. 

Not paying by the hour, paying per Rai. I estimated the total hourly production to estimate the hours I will utilize if I eventually buy a tractor to be able to cover the cost of fuel and general repairs.

 

18 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

4 corn with a 2 wheeled tractor pulling planter box

Some guys in my village still plant rice with some sort of wheel driven planter box also pulled by a two wheel tractor. Their rice is always looking good and neat, but the work involved looks backbreaking and time consuming.

18 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

I live in a rural village and nothing here over 6 months old looks like the pix in post #16!

I also respect people who value their equipment, in Thailand it is a bit rough going and tractors were not made to go shopping with. But yes I have notice there are some people who just pull everything through their ass, be it a tractor, bike, truck, chainsaw ... I do not lend or allow anyone to use anything I own.

18 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

Lots of things to be wary of in Thailand.

Indeed. So far my village people are used to see me on the farm doing something. I have helped searching for lost cattle in the rain, cut and pull eucalyptus closing the roads, unstuck a buffalo cow, some welding on a rake, sharpen a cutting disc, straighten a pickup diff, advise about something - the most basic gestures to the people cost me some minutes and a laugh at most but people see who you are and what your attitude is. Sometimes you have to forgive the stupidity and accept a slight bit of responsibility.

 

[douglasspade]

33 minutes ago, kickstart said:

Have you thought of growing a grass legume ,higher protein than Ruize grass ,likeStylo  Hamata

or Centrosema.or grow Stylo with Ruize.

For seed try TV's Michael Hare ,or your local DLD office ,Department of Livestock Development, Gom-Pasue-Sat.in Thai .

I will need to research it fully. Performance during the dry season in the rice paddy in Isaan without irrigation is the biggest hurdle. And my paddy material also does not help. Also some cattle are slightly picky what they eat, in fact some of our cows do not eat freshly cut rice leaves, they pull it on the floor for fodder and sleep on it. It has to be dry baled before they eat.

[IsaanAussie]

Just now, douglasspade said:

the most basic gestures to the people cost me some minutes and a laugh at most but people see who you are and what your attitude is. Sometimes you have to forgive the stupidity and accept a slight bit of responsibility.

The principle of Lost Face, a must avoid causing this. I'm an Aussie and have to catch myself calling out Flaming Stupid Drongoes. I try to remember to "Cop it sweet". It is my gear so obviously breakages are my problem, simple.

I bought a heavy duty 16" drop saw to build trusses etc for the farm. One guy using it managed to break two discs in the first few minutes that cost more than the day rate I was paying him plus they were hard to find. The <deleted> statement didn't happen. I asked what the problem was. "Too much power!" Really, thought of using the vice to hold the tubing? And cutting one at a time? "Too slow! I never keep job when I work too slow."  

[douglasspade]

3 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

Could you upload a pix of the ones you have?

Originally I had Continental 4.00-10's. These are he new 5.00-10 SIAMES AG-613's and fit well on the rims.

The thing was to find a tire to fit the rim and not interfere with the 4x4 ratio. My ratio is 1:50 and it runs currently lagging as new tires are little over diameter size. It is still in spec though, and I feel steering is better.

 

[Grumpy John]

12 hours ago, douglasspade said:

Originally I had Continental 4.00-10's. These are he new 5.00-10 SIAMES AG-613's and fit well on the rims.

The thing was to find a tire to fit the rim and not interfere with the 4x4 ratio. My ratio is 1:50 and it runs currently lagging as new tires are little over diameter size. It is still in spec though, and I feel steering is better.

 

Thanks for the pixs.  Probably the same width we have at the mo.  Ours are Bridgstone 185/65/12.  Back home I have seen wider rims and tires so it maybe my best option.