In laws have 10-15 rai in rice . They hire out the machine work. Is it economically prudent to buy them a machine. Bro in law was a quality local handyman until he was ejected head of mooban. It's a small Isaan village. I just feel like giving a gift. Been taking 140$/ hr off these USA millennials, trust fund kids, and retirees. What is a good brand of iron Buffalo and where to buy in Sisaket?

Edited July 12Jul 12 by Elkski

13 minutes ago, Elkski said:

In laws have 10-15 rai in rice . They hire out the machine work. Is it economically prudent to buy them a machine. Bro in law was a quality local handyman until he was ejected head of mooban. It's a small Isaan village. I just feel like giving a gift. Been taking 140$/ hr off these USA millennials, trust fund kids, and retirees. What is a good brand of iron Buffalo and where to buy in Sisaket?

USA millennials, trust fund kids, good brand of iron Buffalo... found this a bit difficult to understand.

Google is quite amazing for us old farts. The iron Buffalo is a water plow it can be walk behind or have a riding platform. Probably a 20 hp engine. This is used before planting. I understand many people have them because they are not nearly as expensive as a harvester.

waste of money unless he intends to hire it and himself out to other small farmers.

Is it economically prudent to buy them a machine

How to say you have no idea how a BUSINESS PLAN works without saying you have no idea how a BUSINESS PLAN works. 👌

First of all, have you asked them if they wanted one. Are you prepared to follow up with fuel and Maintenance ( not big here)?

As I ( sorry my wife), has a similar plot which I ( sorry again, my wife) grows rice as well.

If my wife didn’t have a tractor, it would cost us about 1000 baht per Rai per year. ( 2x Plough and 1 Rotary) . Your folks will have to find about 15K baht per year to hire someone.

Given that a new mid range Kubota with both implements is about 600-700K baht, can you see this as an investment for the long term or just giving them 15K baht per year instead.

Yes, if they had a tractor, they could contract it out for income. Is there a market for those contracts in their area?

Food for thought, cheers.

On 7/12/2026 at 7:03 AM, Elkski said:

Been taking 140$/ hr off these USA millennials, trust fund kids, and retirees.

We have no idea what this is about, what it means, and how it might be relevant. Care to enlighten us?

On 7/12/2026 at 7:19 AM, ravip said:

USA millennials, trust fund kids, good brand of iron Buffalo... found this a bit difficult to understand.

Means he's been earning plenty of money for ' old rope ' and it's come so easily to him, he feels like helping out in the village.

22 hours ago, Phantom57 said:

First of all, have you asked them if they wanted one. Are you prepared to follow up with fuel and Maintenance ( not big here)?

As I ( sorry my wife), has a similar plot which I ( sorry again, my wife) grows rice as well.

Rice

If my wife didn’t have a tractor, it would cost us about 1000 baht per Rai per year. ( 2x Plough and 1 Rotary) . Your folks will have to find about 15K baht per year to hire someone.

Given that a new mid range Kubota with both implements is about 600-700K baht, can you see this as an investment for the long term or just giving them 15K baht per year instead.

Yes, if they had a tractor, they could contract it out for income. Is there a market for those contracts in their area?

Food for thought, cheers.

Just give the money a year(15K) and do without the brothers borrowing it, renting it out and breaking it and then walking away.

Why have that headache?

These items will be appreciated by the wife, but she won't be operating or maintaining them, it will fall to some irresponsible member of her, or her extended family who hasn't bought or paid for it, so won;'t respect it.

Easy come, easy go.

Edited July 14Jul 14 by Scouse123

Might get more responses if you post in the Farming Forum, ideally without the irrelevant details.

You can find used two-wheeled walking tractors on Facebook Marketplace, or there's the lower cost Chinese versions on AliExpress. Are the probable users fairly fit, as using a walking tractor is quite physical? Also, is there a secure place for them to keep it?

A small Kubota 4 wheeled tractor is a better bet, but significantly more expensive.

However, unless you know and trust them, it's likely they will sell the tractor -as cash is king when you're on the breadline.

I came up with a business plan on an envelope kind of thing this morning for organic free range chickens for about a retail price of 2000 thb per mature chicken, organic free range. Not sure what organic eggs would go for maybe 65 thb, which would yield 9 packs in 3 months or 585 thb. The eggs alone is a tough sell because of competition from the factories and you could probably count the number of customers in Thailand that would pay 2000thb for a chicken on one hand.

I'm out. 😂

If you don't have a business plan, it's a hobby gone out of control by a smart person who thinks they're good at something they have no experience in, not a business. ✅

Edited July 14Jul 14 by SiSePuede419
Hobbyist

7 minutes ago, SiSePuede419 said:

I came up with a business plan on an envelope kind of thing this morning for organic free range chickens for about a retail price of 2000 thb per mature chicken, organic free range. Not sure what organic eggs would go for maybe 65 thb, which would yield 9 packs in 3 months or 585 thb. The eggs alone is a tough sell because of competition from the factories and you could probably count the number of customers in Thailand that would pay 2000thb for a chicken on one hand.

I'm out. 😂

If you don't have a business plan, it's a hobby gone out of control by a smart person who thinks they're good at something they have no experience in, not a business. ✅

I think your business plan might need more work. Or not. I can’t remember from when I was a kid and we had chickens. Research required and I’m not that curious.

How old should the birds be before you sell them? An old chicken is like eating mutton vs lamb.

At what age do chickens start laying? They might be not produce any eggs before they’re the right age to sell.

Are you selling them alive or dead?

If dead, who is going to pluck them and what are you going to do with all those feathers?

/s

16 minutes ago, Front Row said:

I think your business plan might need more work. Or not. I can’t remember from when I was a kid and we had chickens. Research required and I’m not that curious.

How old should the birds be before you sell them? An old chicken is like eating mutton vs lamb.

At what age do chickens start laying? They might be not produce any eggs before they’re the right age to sell.

Are you selling them alive or dead?

If dead, who is going to pluck them and what are you going to do with all those feathers?

/s

Well, my point is a business needs a plan or else it's just a crazy rich person's hobby.

Maybe the op should work on a rice farm one season planting rice.

You need to learn the business from the bottom up, not the top down 😄

I'm gonna start out with only 1 or 2 chickens to limit my potential business losses. 😂

What type of "machine"are you talking about?
A rotary hoe (kubota two-wheeled/paddle-bladed) to till the earth?
A tractor from which (many) will drag large tractor tires to level out the tilled earth?
A seed-spreader; a two-stroke backpack pump used for spreading seed more efficiently?
A harvester for actually reaping what you sow?
or A rice husker to peel the "grap" (rice husk) off the germ to leave you the white rice?

If the in-laws (I assume you mean your wife's siblings, not her parents) are happy doing what they're doing, don't change it.

It's only 10-15 rai which equates to roughly 4 to 6 -ish acres / 1.6 to 2.4 hectares.

The most versatile piece of equiment is the two-wheeled rotary hoe i n Thai called a "rot eegong" which I think is what you're referring to as an "iron buffalo.

They have all sorts of attachments and belts for the engine to run pumps and saws and whatnot, attach a (often hand built) dray or flatbed to the back of it and you have a fairly handy (but unwieldy to steer as the handlebars are more like a ship's tiller and you have to swing waaaay out to go around a corner) form of transportation. You must have seen them around the village.
New ones (only buy Kubota, any Thai man over 40 in teh village knows how to fix them blindfolded) are sold with bladed front wheels (toop) which till the field , grip the mud and pull you along. Behind you, you can attach a plough for your furrows. A plough is called a "kunn tai" or just "tai" - which is why tractors are called "rot-tai" (plough vehicle).

The next beneficial machine, and a possible income earner, is the rice husker. You can do your own husking and also then rent out the service to other local small farmers (on-site; they come to you. don't let it out of your sight) and charge by the ton/tonne.
You can also (if the farmer surprisingly doesn't take it with them) sell the "grap"- the rice husks - for pig/chicken/fish feed or, as is used a lot around here, because they waste nothing it is used to slow-burn logs to make charcoal "tahn" which is sold for 20-30 baht a bag ~5kg or so for firepot cooking.

Rice harvesters are extremely expensive and sit around for half the year but can be quite lucrative for the harvesting season when it does come around. Repairs are horrendously expensive - especially during high harvest when demand is high.
Backpack seed-spreaders are cheap and your in-laws, for the 10-15 rai, would surely already use them.
And a tractor? If that 10-15 rai is all you have, and you don't plant corn or cucumber in the rice off-season, it's a waste of money.

Edited July 14Jul 14 by The Oracle
Post-post proofreading lol

On 7/12/2026 at 2:03 AM, Elkski said:

In laws have 10-15 rai in rice . They hire out the machine work. Is it economically prudent to buy them a machine. Bro in law was a quality local handyman until he was ejected head of mooban. It's a small Isaan village. I just feel like giving a gift. Been taking 140$/ hr off these USA millennials, trust fund kids, and retirees. What is a good brand of iron Buffalo and where to buy in Sisaket?

If I understand you right, you are simply asking for which brand of 'iron buffalo' that should be bought. My reply then is: Let the family themselves decide that. In Thailand the colour can be more important than the brand name; this advice also apply to larger machinery like tractors etc. An iron buffalo is not that expensive, the machine itself ranks from about 30,000 baht up to around 50,000 baht; but with all kinds of equipment included, it can be more than 100,000 baht.

10-15 rai of rice-farmland is a relative small plot — 16,000m² to 24,000² — with can produce from 4,000 kg and up to 10,000 kg of rice harvest. The sales price is depending of the type of rice and quality, it might be from the 30,000 baht level (10 rai, white rice and low outcome) and up to around 175,000 baht (15 rai, best quality and good harvest). You need to deduct expenses — like rice seeds and fertilizer — before you know the profit level. Have that in mind when calculating the benefits of buying a machine compared to rent the machine work.

5 hours ago, SiSePuede419 said:

Well, my point is a business needs a plan or else it's just a crazy rich person's hobby.

Maybe the op should work on a rice farm one season planting rice.

You need to learn the business from the bottom up, not the top down 😄

I'm gonna start out with only 1 or 2 chickens to limit my potential business losses. 😂

Good idea!

and try not to eat all your inventory in the first month.

(And hopefully you noticed the “/s” in my previous post. /s = sarcasm.)

5 hours ago, Scouse123 said:

Means he's been earning plenty of money for ' old rope ' and it's come so easily to him, he feels like helping out in the village.

“Money for old rope”. I’d never heard that one before. Had to warm up my search engine again.

Wife has 20 rai. Contract rotary hoeing with NPK prior to planting. Sons spread seed followed by another rotary hoeing.

If needed weeding by sons. Contract insecticide spraying when needed. Contract harvesting.

85 year old MIL has a dehusker.

Total outlay around 25,000 baht more or less.

Keeps the extended family in rice for the year and maybe makes 10,000 baht in sales of excess rice.

Hobby farm in reality.

Keeps them happy but not a real business proposition. Wife (i.e. me of late) outlays more than the return, less than the edible rice portion. Of course I get bugger all, and I'm not a fan of rice.

Still it's an ok thing to do, everyone's happy and they think they have status.

Personally I'd just go to Lotus's and buy rice when needed, but I'm not Thai.

Edited July 14Jul 14 by emptypockets

43 minutes ago, emptypockets said:

Wife has 20 rai. Contract rotary hoeing with NPK prior to planting. Sons spread seed followed by another rotary hoeing.

If needed weeding by sons. Contract insecticide spraying when needed. Contract harvesting.

85 year old MIL has a dehusker.

Total outlay around 25,000 baht more or less.

Keeps the extended family in rice for the year and maybe makes 10,000 baht in sales of excess rice.

Rice

Hobby farm in reality.

Keeps them happy but not a real business proposition. Wife (i.e. me of late) outlays more than the return, less than the edible rice portion. Of course I get bugger all, and I'm not a fan of rice.

Still it's an ok thing to do, everyone's happy and they think they have status.

Personally I'd just go to Lotus's and buy rice when needed, but I'm not Thai.

We have six Rai of rice land from the MIL.

Same story, I said if you cost it out with the labour, planting, harvesting, milling, etc it's cheaper for us to buy it fresh at Lotus.

They've never costed it out.

But of course, they won't hear of it as' We've always done it this way' and they've the broken teeth from the pebbles that milling misses, to prove it.

On 7/13/2026 at 11:02 PM, The Oracle said:

What type of "machine"are you talking about?
A rotary hoe (kubota two-wheeled/paddle-bladed) to till the earth?
A tractor from which (many) will drag large tractor tires to level out the tilled earth?
A seed-spreader; a two-stroke backpack pump used for spreading seed more efficiently?
A harvester for actually reaping what you sow?
or A rice husker to peel the "grap" (rice husk) off the germ to leave you the white rice?

If the in-laws (I assume you mean your wife's siblings, not her parents) are happy doing what they're doing, don't change it.

It's only 10-15 rai which equates to roughly 4 to 6 -ish acres / 1.6 to 2.4 hectares.

The most versatile piece of equiment is the two-wheeled rotary hoe i n Thai called a "rot eegong" which I think is what you're referring to as an "iron buffalo.

They have all sorts of attachments and belts for the engine to run pumps and saws and whatnot, attach a (often hand built) dray or flatbed to the back of it and you have a fairly handy (but unwieldy to steer as the handlebars are more like a ship's tiller and you have to swing waaaay out to go around a corner) form of transportation. You must have seen them around the village.
New ones (only buy Kubota, any Thai man over 40 in teh village knows how to fix them blindfolded) are sold with bladed front wheels (toop) which till the field , grip the mud and pull you along. Behind you, you can attach a plough for your furrows. A plough is called a "kunn tai" or just "tai" - which is why tractors are called "rot-tai" (plough vehicle).

The next beneficial machine, and a possible income earner, is the rice husker. You can do your own husking and also then rent out the service to other local small farmers (on-site; they come to you. don't let it out of your sight) and charge by the ton/tonne.
You can also (if the farmer surprisingly doesn't take it with them) sell the "grap"- the rice husks - for pig/chicken/fish feed or, as is used a lot around here, because they waste nothing it is used to slow-burn logs to make charcoal "tahn" which is sold for 20-30 baht a bag ~5kg or so for firepot cooking.

Rice harvesters are extremely expensive and sit around for half the year but can be quite lucrative for the harvesting season when it does come around. Repairs are horrendously expensive - especially during high harvest when demand is high.
Backpack seed-spreaders are cheap and your in-laws, for the 10-15 rai, would surely already use them.
And a tractor? If that 10-15 rai is all you have, and you don't plant corn or cucumber in the rice off-season, it's a waste of money.

Best reply yet. Sorry to include extra irrelevant info. There is a relative in the village with a husker. I have watched him run it and he does it for free but he keeps the silage for his two cows and big fish pond. It is noisy dusty and slow and requires hands and eyes all day. I think I will abort this idea.

I didn't know the cost was 600k baht. I do understand how careful they are about protecting their stuff. Cows are brought up to the pen just across the soi every night. Oh and yes I have planted rice. For about an hour and at 6' that was a strain on my back plus all the ladies smoked me but had a good laugh and always enjoy my participation. I got kicked out of the kitchen when I was showing them I could clean a chickend and was about to discard all the inners.

10 hours ago, Elkski said:

Best reply yet. Sorry to include extra irrelevant info. There is a relative in the village with a husker. I have watched him run it and he does it for free but he keeps the silage for his two cows and big fish pond. It is noisy dusty and slow and requires hands and eyes all day. I think I will abort this idea.

I didn't know the cost was 600k baht. I do understand how careful they are about protecting their stuff. Cows are brought up to the pen just across the soi every night. Oh and yes I have planted rice. For about an hour and at 6' that was a strain on my back plus all the ladies smoked me but had a good laugh and always enjoy my participation. I got kicked out of the kitchen when I was showing them I could clean a chickend and was about to discard all the inners.

They hand-plant rice? As in bending over and putting little sprouted rice plants into flooded plains? Wow! I assume that the fields must be terraced on the sides of a hill or somewhere where machinery can't get to. So, they hand-harvest, too? (little sickle, then lay out all the stalks to dry, and then hand-pick the rice off the stems? Some people do it here because they only have a rai or two. But I've never actually seen it done because they live far from here as, well, read on...

The landlady's (TLL) oldest aunt - she has to be ninety plus - is bent at 90 degrees from hand harvesting that alongside her borthers, sisters, and wives/husbands for probably forty years and TLL's father and another uncle weren't much better.
When the property started to get too big - even with the extended family and paid labourers pitching in - they abandoned that around thirty years ago. [The discussion actually came about because my VPN was set to Vietnam and a holiday ad came on on You Tube showing the typical terraced paddies with women hand-planting rice]
Everything is now mechanised - although I think one of the tractors has been dong the same fields for so long it's become sentient - and almost no double-handling apart from the husking of the "good" rice grown for this immediate family, and storing it the rice shed. (The family's personal rice is grown and harvested separately from the "normal" rice which is all sold in bulk.

From what I gather - I'm not involved in any of the process apart from as an observer - some arbitrary feeling that it "seems like a good time to strt preparations", some phone calls to contractors are made are made.

Local to this house and immediate family: TLL's brothers, a couple of BiLs and sons get the tractors out and dig in the field from last season (they don't burn off) giving off an, er, "interesting" aroma, then they change the discs to chains with two or three old tractor tyres lashed to them and level the field by dragging them behind the tractor, then the hard part they wait for the first decent rain and then go out and using backpack seed spreaders seed about 100 acres of rice fields (I'll take a photo today, I can here one operating as I type, as an edit). They don't use pesticide but will often use fertiliser depending on the soil, this is added during the ploughing. Then sit back and wait for the rain. Harvesters come and leave. That's it. Done. And then money appears some time later. However, the family's personal (about 10 rai) rice plot is done separately sent away in the harvester and returns some time later on the back of two ee-gongs husked, about four-five tonnes, as well as the dried husk.

This *whole*farm - accounting for the wider extended family (so surviving aunts and uncles and their kids, grandkids and in-laws) including various other crops like cassava, corn, cucumber, bananas, and tobacco is in the thousands of rai bought over a period of sixty-plus years of back-breaking hard work - and not spending a satang on anything else.

Not all of it is contiguous. A lot is spread over sections interspersed with other owners' holdings. But, due to rice in particular all being sold to the rice board (or whomever is the governing, main wholesaler) the owners all work in harmony, with the harvest costs being apportioned to the ratio of land ownership, and the profits also applied using the same ratio. TLL's and her brothers and sisters only work the immediate 300 rai or so surrounding their houses; cousins have cassava, corn, and tobacco as well as rice, one of TLL's sister also grows cucumber and TLL herself has about 10 rai under bananas. All the rest is managed by others as TLL's immediate family all have day jobs.

And money just appears in bank accounts once all has been weighed and contractors paid.

Phots added.
First one 10 metres from where I'm sitting, that was sown a few weeks ago and could be an issue as we haven't had as much water as expected. The other three show recently levelled fiends taken from a path 50m from where I'm sitting. I zoomed in and you can see a guy on a tractor? He's got pelleted fertisliser and is spraying it over the field. Waay in the background you can see some corn owned by a cousin.

Edited July 17Jul 17 by The Oracle
Added photos

Farming in Thailand can be tough, especially in Isaan, Soil quality is poor. My father-in-law used to grow rice, but as a business not a good idea. Rarely enough to sell, sometimes not enough to feed family. Little or no fertiliser used, and yield was under 10 sacks a rai. Some years to dry, and lower crop, others flooding meant little or no harvest, the ploughing, harrowing and harvesting (machine sometimes, other times still too wet and had to harvest by hand) all cost more than the rice was worth. As manual labour got more expensive and younger people no longer willing to do the work, family eventually gave up growing rice.

I have had various plans for the farm, but none made a profit. Kept ducks for eggs, only broke even if you have to buy all the food. Planted fruit trees, most died because of the poor soil or because of waterlogging (only mangoes survived). Other crops were tried, like sweet potato, they died as well!

Dug out ponds and stocked and fed fish - most grew only slowly, certainly the food cost more than the fish we harvested. Now only feed waste food, weeds, etc. and fish grow just as well - enough for family and let out occasionally for angling - get a small return.

Family will probably ignore any advice given. Let them make their own decisions, just offer to help financially (a bit).

Edited July 17Jul 17 by rickudon
add more

12 minutes ago, rickudon said:

Farming in Thailand can be tough, especially in Isaan, Soil quality is poor. My father-in-law used to grow rice, but as a business not a good idea. Rarely enough to sell, sometimes not enough to feed family. Little or no fertiliser used, and yield was under 10 sacks a rai. Some years to dry, and lower crop, others flooding meant little or no harvest, the ploughing, harrowing and harvesting (machine sometimes, other times still too wet and had to harvest by hand) all cost more than the rice was worth. As manual labour got more expensive and younger people no longer willing to do the work, family eventually gave up growing rice.

I have had various plans for the farm, but none made a profit. Kept ducks for eggs, only broke even if you have to buy all the food. Planted fruit trees, most died because of the poor soil or because of waterlogging (only mangoes survived). Other crops were tried, like sweet potato, they died as well!

Dug out ponds and stocked and fed fish - most grew only slowly, certainly the food cost more than the fish we harvested. Now only feed waste food, weeds, etc. and fish grow just as well - enough for family and let out occasionally for angling - get a small return.

Family will probably ignore any advice given. Let them make their own decisions, just offer to help financially (a bit).

I am "Isaan Adjacent" in almost the dead centre of Phetchabun province.

The Lads are finding it a bit that way this year, soil here is generally fine but because even this part of the family's holdings covers miles and miles of land - with a river going through it - it can be patchy: clay, loam, or just cruddy lifeless sand. (For the latter, I suggested they grow some "mun farang" (potatoes) but they looked at me as if I had two heads.
Some places need fertiliser every year, some every third. This patch (if you look at my photos above) generally doesn't require a dose but with a poor start to the seson it was on the cards. Hence my comment in my post above.

The photo of the growing rice is it at a few weeks. The dried ground with the guy spreading "growth accelerant medicine" whatver that is... (i thought it NPK fertiliser but apparently it's some yellow power) after they had to dig in the first seeding as there hasn't been enough rain for it to shoot. So they're re-preparing it.
I honestly don't take much notice any more and probably get the process order wrong or even miss steps in explainations but people in the farming areas are really struggling, arent they'?
In 2016 it absolutely pelted down and they got two full harvests and a small-yield third one.
In 2022(?) they almost ha no yield at, this house (that'd be me) LOL had to buy rice for about four months - even the other brothers and sisters that share the 10-rai yield bought for the last six weeks/two months.
This year, the 2025 harvest gave out in May. And planting hasn't even been completed!
Fortunately, apart from whatever they have hoarded in bank accounts, they all have other work. And, of course, even though I'm only a tenant, my landlady and her family aren't going to go hungry if I'm around.

As for other ides for unused land, you had fish, I thought of goats! I explained that they'll clear all the bushalnd between the ricefields and we can sell them Down South to wholesaler to Hotels Indian Restaurants.
"Raise goats to kill them?"
"Er, yeah. Your sisters have 100 chicks at any given time running around and they get sold"
"Yes, but I don't. Not good."
Okaaay. Some more Buddhist than others. It explains why she asks me to kill any live fish that are brought to us by some well-meaning nephew . I suppose, spending time at the dam or river with a net or rod after a hard morning of cucumber picking and packing is relaxing.

Edited July 17Jul 17 by The Oracle