Kubota Dc-60 Harvesters

[Dario]

Has anyone heard of a rice Harvester producer from Nakhon Pathom with the name of To Charoen? Apparently the fastest machine on the market making 80 rais a day. Can't find anything on the Internet.

[Dario]

dam_n, at our place they charged 700 THB/Rai last season!

It really depends. 590 Baht was the average price, but some places which are far from a road sometimes more than 700 Baht is charged. Small plots also pay more than large lots as it is difficult to maneuver in small lots. We still see some Kubotas around but for larger lots thee farmers over here definitely prefer the large powerful Thai combines. We have received already lots of bookings for the coming season, which is still about 7 months away. I guess for the farmers here to know that we're coming with a brand new machine is very attractive for them.

Instead of going up the price declined, this is due to the too many machines now on the market each wanting to have a piece of the cake. Here it's 550 Baht per rai.

[Isee]

Its a common (and frequent) mistake made by people who have no idea what their per rai costs and are worried of others getting work from them. Its common to hear them short changing their workers when they realise how little profit they have made at the end of the season.

Stand your ground and say X is our cut price. We have been more then prepared to park the machines if people think we are too expensive and to date we have always had full seasons where we couldn't cut for everyone. Once the others find out (won't be long) how much you are cutting at and realise people are paying it, they will up their price. The other way the locals trick farmers is to say a low price and when they get to the land find whatever reason to up the price...some rice lies down, long way to bring machine, ground soft, expensive to repair machine etc etc. Other way is they just agree on a fixed rate rather than a per rai rate and some don't realise they are paying more per rai.

The only thing you can do to set yourself apart is to do the right thing by the farmers and make sure your machine does a good job cutting. Just remember like everywhere, there will be some that can't be pleased so its a balance from your perspective.

Edit: Just realised I said basically the same thing in an earlier post...

Instead of going up the price declined, this is due to the too many machines now on the market each wanting to have a piece of the cake. Here it's 550 Baht per rai.

Edited November 13, 2012 by Isee

[Isee]

That sounds like a theoretical rate as opposed to the actual cutting rate in field conditions that some would blindly accept rather than question. Remember, time is lost in your first and second circuit of the paddy, unloading, moving to next customer etc. The other thing is that a "day" of cutting can be anywhere from around 7am to midnight. I heard from a worker from one thai boss who would run his machines frequently into the night and as late as 2am if he had rice to cut.

1 x 80 rai or even 2 x 40 rai paddies, yeah it probably is possible but I would have to see it.

Has anyone heard of a rice Harvester producer from Nakhon Pathom with the name of To Charoen? Apparently the fastest machine on the market making 80 rais a day. Can't find anything on the Internet.

[Dario]

Its a common (and frequent) mistake made by people who have no idea what their per rai costs and are worried of others getting work from them. Its common to hear them short changing their workers when they realise how little profit they have made at the end of the season.

Stand your ground and say X is our cut price. We have been more then prepared to park the machines if people think we are too expensive and to date we have always had full seasons where we couldn't cut for everyone. Once the others find out (won't be long) how much you are cutting at and realise people are paying it, they will up their price. The other way the locals trick farmers is to say a low price and when they get to the land find whatever reason to up the price...some rice lies down, long way to bring machine, ground soft, expensive to repair machine etc etc. Other way is they just agree on a fixed rate rather than a per rai rate and some don't realise they are paying more per rai.

The only thing you can do to set yourself apart is to do the right thing by the farmers and make sure your machine does a good job cutting. Just remember like everywhere, there will be some that can't be pleased so its a balance from your perspective.

Edit: Just realised I said basically the same thing in an earlier post...

Instead of going up the price declined, this is due to the too many machines now on the market each wanting to have a piece of the cake. Here it's 550 Baht per rai.

That might work in your area, but not here. If outsiders cut for 550 and we offer 600 Baht, MOST of the farmers go and cut for 550. There are enough machines from the central plains and from our own area which/who cut for 550. We have seen this happen last year. The one who "Stand your ground and say X is our cut price" was left out in the cold and made no money compared to all others. Very simple and straight forward.

If you apply the same price like the competition, you might have an edge over others, because you have fast, reliable machines and/or good drivers. Right now, many customers cue up with us to get the next available slot, even while we're cutting at night.

[Isee]

That might work in your area, but not here. If outsiders cut for 550 and we offer 600 Baht, MOST of the farmers go and cut for 550. There are enough machines from the central plains and from our own area which/who cut for 550. We have seen this happen last year. The one who "Stand your ground and say X is our cut price" was left out in the cold and made no money compared to all others. Very simple and straight forward.

If you apply the same price like the competition, you might have an edge over others, because you have fast, reliable machines and/or good drivers. Right now, many customers cue up with us to get the next available slot, even while we're cutting at night.

If you have a glut of machines coming into your area all scrambling to cut rice, then what I said won't stand because too many options for the locals. On the second and sometimes third cut of a year in our area, we are faced with machines coming from other areas to get some work and we always cut substantially more rai then the others and we have set the local price. We've had machines under cut us in the past and we tell the locals to go for it and cut with them. I can recall about 4 or 5 occasions where they have regretted that decision. The ones that cut too cheap will stop halfway and take the machine away if its too much trouble or they have a problem with the machine. They always promise to come back to finish but never do and next day the farmer is on our doorstep begging to finish cutting for them While I don't hold a grudge, sometimes our workload means we have to tell them no or they are at the rock bottom of the list which might be too long for them. The locals know full well that if we tell them we will cut, its guaranteed their rice will be cut regardless.

My attitude is to cut at the price that makes it worthwhile to take the risk of sending machines out everyday. The farmer isn't going to pay anymore if the machine goes BANG! in their rice paddy. If we are doing barely more than break even, I'll park the machines and that will be the end of it for the season and let the local mugs cut for nothing when you factor in maintenance and repairs. I know what the line in the sand is for it to be worthwhile or not, a lot of the locals have no idea what their break even costs are. We've had 3 guys this season offer us 1000 baht a rai to come out and cut their rice so I'm not a real believer that 50 baht is a deal breaker, unless of course you have a glut of machines hanging around.

Edited November 19, 2012 by Isee

[Isee]

Dario,

How's your first cut going, will be interesting to hear your experiences.

As way of providing an example of the point I was making above, wife had an interesting discussion with a lady we were collecting money from last night. Her son married and as usual moved over to the news wife's area. FIL gave him a Thai harvester that had been sitting out the last two cuts. Spent some baht getting it up and running agin - new belts, service etc.

Long story short, machine had money spent on it just about everyday to keep it running. Mum is helping the son out to the tune of 40,000 baht being the loss he took on the machine so he can settle the gas bill. The story is that he has returned the machine - but not sure if that means back to the FIL or he has just taken it back and parked it. The maximum he was told by the farmers was 550 baht per rai. His mother wanted to know how we could get what we charged and her son couldn't.

The above is just an example of:

1) Son had no idea what it was costing him to cut until it was too late; and

2) Son was conned about max price he could cut for.

The stupid thing is that he was the only machine in the area. The area isn't that far from us, just a couple of moobaans over. I believe that the cutting price is artificially low, there will be an eventual adjustment but that will depend on how soon these machine owners get a clue. We've had people who have said, too expensive and they will cut by hand. We've done a fair few jobs of cutting half cut paddies - but at that time, the cutting price goes up to make it worthwhile to send the machine over.

[Dario]

Dario,

How's your first cut going, will be interesting to hear your experiences.

As way of providing an example of the point I was making above, wife had an interesting discussion with a lady we were collecting money from last night. Her son married and as usual moved over to the news wife's area. FIL gave him a Thai harvester that had been sitting out the last two cuts. Spent some baht getting it up and running agin - new belts, service etc.

Long story short, machine had money spent on it just about everyday to keep it running. Mum is helping the son out to the tune of 40,000 baht being the loss he took on the machine so he can settle the gas bill. The story is that he has returned the machine - but not sure if that means back to the FIL or he has just taken it back and parked it. The maximum he was told by the farmers was 550 baht per rai. His mother wanted to know how we could get what we charged and her son couldn't.

The above is just an example of:

1) Son had no idea what it was costing him to cut until it was too late; and

2) Son was conned about max price he could cut for.

The stupid thing is that he was the only machine in the area. The area isn't that far from us, just a couple of moobaans over. I believe that the cutting price is artificially low, there will be an eventual adjustment but that will depend on how soon these machine owners get a clue. We've had people who have said, too expensive and they will cut by hand. We've done a fair few jobs of cutting half cut paddies - but at that time, the cutting price goes up to make it worthwhile to send the machine over.

Isee,

Yes, the cutting price is artificially low, I second that. Too early to say much. We had expected more, but times change. The competition cut a lot. Next season we'll be better prepaired. Will be visiting all puyai baans with some money in hand before cutting. Made about 1'500 rai so far with 2 machines at 550/rai. Most of the farmers from our moobaan cut with our machines, except two who couldn't wait. We refused some, coz either they were known as very bad payers or their farmland was too low. Good for the kubotas. 2 TSY machines from the central plains got stuck in their fields, somnana. With one single machine we would have enough this year. Last night the father of one of the drivers died, we replaced him with family of ours , young chap doing pretty well. Can drive, but repair is another question. In 2/3 days the initial driver will return. We were told, we'll have more paddies to cut outside until the end of this year, sounds pretty good. For repairs: we had some minor repairs with the brand new one, sometimes technicians were here within 2/3 hours (fabulous!), never left us in the cold. All free of charge, of course. we had some regular repairs with the second hand one, but it looks now that everything is repaired. That one cutting usually 42-45 rais/day (if no repairs), the new one 45-50+, Not bad for a start, I guess ... One thing which slows us down: soil is too dry this year.

Edited November 23, 2012 by Dario

[Isee]

Dario,

Good for you, the trick is setting yourself apart from the others. Various methods available depending on the locals. Not sure about what value you will get out of the puyai's as you mentioned and doubt it can be openly discussed. I suspect you could achieve the same by just telling them they are V-VIP when they want to cut their rice.

We for the first time ever had to refer a matter to the local puyai. Another machine left a field half cut for whatever reason - something to do with soft soil I think - thai machine as usual. We added an extra 100 baht per rai to finish the cut which was agreed by both husband and wife before we sent a machine over. Come time to pay and the wife no longer wants to pay the agreed rate and wants to pay the same as everyone else. Told no at 3 different levels before sending it to the puyai. She paid the agreed rate at the end of the puyai meeting which was quite short. No special treatment by the puyai, rate was agreed and its was as simple as that because we wouldn't have cut at standard.

This is the first time we've cut in this moobaan and except for another incident of the farmer telling fibs about there being no tree stump in the paddy, its been going well. With that incident, was another first for us in leaving the paddy without finishing. I've drilled into each guy that controls a machine a number of things must be made clear before starting - one of which are questions about tree stumps. I have zero sympathy for someone who "forgets" that they have a stump in their paddy that can cause a huge amount of damage to a machine and it was only drilled in training by the guys working the machine that they spotted it before the machine reached it.

Good luck with it

[tomjerry]

Hi.I have aDC68 and best day was just under 30 rai. What kind of machine do you have that is cutting

40 +

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[Isee]

Hi.I have aDC68 and best day was just under 30 rai. What kind of machine do you have that is cutting

40 +

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I think if you look at reply #52 you will find your answer there.

Cutting 40+ per rai would be minimum expected on a thai machine. Our best cut in one day for a machine was just this season of 44 rai for a DC70.

You might be going, how the %*(&! did you do that? Well, the answer is that it was over two paddies next to each other and there was a ton of grass there, more so than rice. Farmer ended up with 70 bags in total. We measure on area so, full of rice or no rice, they still pay per rai. This is why I'm somewhat sceptical of claimed high cutting rates - in the right conditions, you can cut well past what your average would be in normal conditions. Further, cut/day rate will also depend on how many hours you run the machine in that day.

[Dario]

Hi.I have aDC68 and best day was just under 30 rai. What kind of machine do you have that is cutting

40 +

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Sorry, not been on this thread for quite some time. We use harvesters from Thai Sengyont.

[tokiomx3]

Hi everyone i wonder where to buy second kubota combine harvester dc60 in thailand in Good Condition and Price right any leads will be greatly appreciate..Thanks

[tomjerry]

I know of good price dc 68. Pm me for info

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[khwaibah]

Hi everyone i wonder where to buy second kubota combine harvester dc60 in thailand in Good Condition and Price right any leads will be greatly appreciate..Thanks

http://www.siamkubota.co.th/en/kubotamax

http://www.siamkubota.co.th/en

[farmerjo]

Thanks for the link.

Been looking for years but now see kits to harvest corn and beans.

Now to search for second hand dc-68 harvester.

Anyone up to date with prices for these,ie age and hours roughly or is going to an auction a few times to get a handle the best way.

[tomjerry]

What area are you in

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[farmerjo]

Chumphae