55 Rai Near Sakaeo For Noobie

[silentnine]

HI all.

I've spent a few day just reading and listening to others .

my wife and I have acquired 55 rai of flat land, roadside, good location at the right price. with an option on another 45 rai next door.

the price was right so its a future investment however i look at it.

we plan to build a house on 1 rai of this, and keep our coastal house for visits.

i do not really know much about farming, and despite reading the forums and using Google nothing really advises what is a good idea for a plot of this size.

my wife thinks eucalyptus as its low maintainance.

I'd like something that gives returns a little sooner and needs a little more work.

i understand there are lots of things to consider such as soil type, sheltering from wind, if there's water freely available etc etc.

so I'd really like some help trying to understand what i need to know to make the decision on what to put.

current crop on the land which i do not get to keep is munsambalang ? (forgive the spelling lol)

water - we have a small lake covering about half a rai

another idea being thrown in is carnations . they seem to have a contact who sells the seeds for 1 satang, then the deal is they pay 0.50 satang per flower tip on harvest.

very open to suggestions.. hey if anyone is local to sakaoe and wants to come and look and give me some advice please do

Edited October 8, 2009 by silentnine

[thequaife]

HI all.

I've spent a few day just reading and listening to others .

my wife and I have acquired 55 rai of flat land, roadside, good location at the right price. with an option on another 45 rai next door.

the price was right so its a future investment however i look at it.

we plan to build a house on 1 rai of this, and keep our coastal house for visits.

i do not really know much about farming, and despite reading the forums and using Google nothing really advises what is a good idea for a plot of this size.

my wife thinks eucalyptus as its low maintainance.

I'd like something that gives returns a little sooner and needs a little more work.

i understand there are lots of things to consider such as soil type, sheltering from wind, if there's water freely available etc etc.

so I'd really like some help trying to understand what i need to know to make the decision on what to put.

current crop on the land which i do not get to keep is munsambalang ? (forgive the spelling lol)

water - we have a small lake covering about half a rai

another idea being thrown in is carnations . they seem to have a contact who sells the seeds for 1 satang, then the deal is they pay 0.50 satang per flower tip on harvest.

very open to suggestions.. hey if anyone is local to sakaoe and wants to come and look and give me some advice please do

Hi.. i live in sakeao too. i have some idea about what to plant. Can we discuss this further?)please PM the OP for info.

[silentnine]

i had hoped for a little more response .. but no one likes the noob i know

we've spent most of the last 2 weeks looking at what else gets grown locally, looking at prices. and carefully looking at the land.

i suggested on Saturday to the inlaws that i was considered goats for milk & cheese on a few rai. the cheese met with a strange look however the milk they said gets 300b per kilo ? is that right ? sounds quite a lot.

so we looking now at diversity . eucalyptus on say 30 rai, goats maybee (lol . i only mentioned it as a joke to them!) on a few raid .. and fruit and veg of some sort .. really I'm not sure .. we have until early December until what is on there now is harvested, so a couple of months to ponder on this

[Maizefarmer]

It's not that no one wants to help, its that the options are so wide and varied its difficult to find a starting point.

You are correct in noting that the soil conditions and water avaliability are important considerations, but so to are things like: do you want to make a commerical business out of whatever you decide to do (i.e do you want to be able to generate enough income to live off that size of land, and possibly also save), or is it just to put the land and time to use? Other things to consider, are what will you enjoy doing - many folk farm not because they enjoy doing so but because they see nothing else to do with the land, or there is nothing els eto do with it. What about investigating the viability of getting planning permission and then building low cost accomodation for rent or sale?

from a famring perspective, the thing that comes to mind for me is growing something like corn, or some other large area crop. What about keeping cattle?

... there are so many options and so many issues to consider its hard for anyone to say do this or do that without knowing what you would like to do and what you are hoping to get out of it in the long run. One thing I can tell you thats a dead cert - its going to be a lot of work and time to farm 55rai to earn a comfortable living from it.

[Ciaphas]

The best way to make a return from the land is to rent it out. You should get 1,000 per rai.

After 5 years of living with the wife and watching her plant various crops to various success, I'm slowly coming to the conclusion, that for such a small amount to land, as 55 rai is renting is the best option with the best granted return.

As maize farmer points out it will take an incredible amount of hard work to make any profit out of 55 rai, especially if you don't have equipment like tractors, pumps etc.

I would advise against corn, we planted 25 rai this year and after paying for tractor hire, seed, fertiliser and staff. We only made about 15,000 profit. We are based in Sa Kaeo also and I would recommend growing sugar cane as there is a ethanol factory here which offers a guaranteed price, which is around 10,000 per rai. But again this has it's own problems, the main one being that you are competing against sugar farmers that own 800-1,000 rai and for such a small amount of land you might not get such a good price or a guarantee from the factory.

I recently meet a Dutch framer in the area and he spent the night trying to convince the wife and I to grow rubber trees, telling us what a great return he will get it five years when the tree have matured. It's not an crop

[Ciaphas]

The best way to make a return from the land is to rent it out. You should get 1,000 per rai.

After 5 years of living with the wife and watching her plant various crops to various success, I'm slowly coming to the conclusion, that for such a small amount to land, as 55 rai is renting is the best option with the best granted return.

As maize farmer points out it will take an incredible amount of hard work to make any profit out of 55 rai, especially if you don't have equipment like tractors, pumps etc.

I would advise against corn, we planted 25 rai this year and after paying for tractor hire, seed, fertiliser and staff. We only made about 15,000 profit. We are based in Sa Kaeo also and I would recommend growing sugar cane as there is a ethanol factory here which offers a guaranteed price, which is around 10,000 per rai. But again this has it's own problems, the main one being that you are competing against sugar farmers that own 800-1,000 rai and for such a small amount of land you might not get such a good price or a guarantee from the factory.

I recently meet a Dutch framer in the area and he spent the night trying to convince the wife and I to grow rubber trees, telling us what a great return he will get it five years when the tree have matured.

[Mosha]

Our rubber is about 6 years old, and my wife won't even think of tapping yet.

[slapout]

As maize mentioned, what would you like to do with the land? You have spent a couple of weeks looking and hopefully visiting with local farmers (hopefully well established and long time caretakers of the soil). What are their suggestions/ideas? The people I would tend to question and listen to would be the older heads or if you run across a younger fellow (educated) who has taken over for his family, or rented/purchased a larger plot, remained for several years, and made a go of it, get his advice and suggestions. In this latter case he will most likely have ongoing contact with a University ag dept as well as government support groups. To find this type of person may be like locating a honest politician, but they must be out there in small numbers. Renting the land out for a while until you can get a good, practical, plan, with sold input may be the best option. I have seen many farang and Thai who committed land, money and effort to unproven ventures that 3 or 4 years later were abandoned. There are also several success stories for those who made a time consuming and longer term effort to determine what most fit their individual needs, requirements, and long term goals. Good luck to you in whatever your decision.

[finner]

Eucalyptus is not a bad idea in your location with only 55 rai. Lots of water and the AA trucks are trundling along on the main hwy going to their factory near the junction of HWY 359 and 304. Plant as much as you like, hobby farm the rest, and enjoy watching the money trees grow. They keep the mosquitos away too. Haven't done the math but people aren't planting rice there any more...........

[silentnine]

Eucalyptus is not a bad idea in your location with only 55 rai. Lots of water and the AA trucks are trundling along on the main hwy going to their factory near the junction of HWY 359 and 304. Plant as much as you like, hobby farm the rest, and enjoy watching the money trees grow. They keep the mosquitos away too. Haven't done the math but people aren't planting rice there any more...........

this is exactly waht the mrs keeps saying.

i try saying goats & cheese, cows & cheese, i've even suggested frog farming ! lol

but all of deaf ears. it keeps coming back to euca, plant it, forget it, harvest it.

i'm sure it cannot be that easy.

and prices seem low for sale now, not as good as it was a few years ago.

is there a calculation that can be applied to work out cost & return .

[finner]

There's lots of info in this section, just search for "eucalyptus". I got this one you might want to read for numbers.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Eucalyptus-P...p;hl=eucalyptus

I like the euca because it provides shade, privacy, and has a nice whishhing sound when the wind blows. Spoken like a true city boy eh? As long as you've got water, they grow like stink and when they are big enough, you can put your goats in with them (or will they eat the bark?).

The only downside of Euca for me is harvest time when all kinds of people come around with dull chainsaws and really old trucks and make a mess of the place. It's only once every 3-5 years though. Then once you've collected all your profits and blown it at the Billion Bar, you have to get the stumps out!

[Somrak]

eucalyptus on say 30 rai

Eucalyptus is not a local plant and will destroy the land for decades! (=> there are a lot of informations about this in the internet)

If you like to grow trees, may plant "tapuu ?". They grow fast to and do not destroy the land for ever.

Good luck and do not forget that the law don't allows you to work on "your" land yourself!

PS: another idea being thrown in is carnations . they seem to have a contact who sells the seeds for 1 satang, then the deal is they pay 0.50 satang per flower tip on harvest.

This is not real! They only like to have you money!!

Edited October 20, 2009 by Somrak

[finner]

Actually Somrak, the Tapoo or Tagoo is what my gf suggested because it grows very quickly, again, as long as you have lots of water. She likes it because furniture can apparently be made of it as well as paper. Double A do not provide seedlings for this plant, they come from another company, sorry don't know who.

silentnine, I happened across an old post of yours where you were investigating the nightlife in Wang Nam Yen.(Found any yet?). I thought you were in Sa Kaew and was blabbing all my advice under that assumption. I've driven on that road a couple of times going from Chantaburi to Surin and from what I've seen, the soil there is very different from Sa Kaew. It's higher and a bit more mountainous with that very red soil. I did see euca there but it seems to me that the soil should be able to support a better quality crop than that. Are you in that area?

[slapout]

While reading and sometimes posting on the farm forum on a regular basis, I have to remember the advice of the old heads, you invest in a venture, in which you have a real interest, using knowledge and experiences from the past, along with knowledge gained from other sources. If you seek advice, you look closely at the experience and knowledge of that source. If the advice is offered free, without your inquiry, the big question is how much of their own money they would like to contribute to get the project off the ground. In other cases, the advice may come from a negative Nellie who has had little success in past ventures. There are some real successful and very knowledgeable people who are long /short time members on TV who give solicited advice, after asking pertinent questions (I do not consider myself one of these people). I know of no product produced on a farm that you can plant and forget until harvest time. I will make another observation on most husband/wife business I have observed. In the long haul, its not conducive to the business to sleep with the boss/hired help. Partners in a business may work around this old adage due to joint investment of money/time etc, but the latter seems to be the exception rather than the rule. The last observation could be construed as a troll statement, not intended that way at all.

[silentnine]

Actually Somrak, the Tapoo or Tagoo is what my gf suggested because it grows very quickly, again, as long as you have lots of water. She likes it because furniture can apparently be made of it as well as paper. Double A do not provide seedlings for this plant, they come from another company, sorry don't know who.

silentnine, I happened across an old post of yours where you were investigating the nightlife in Wang Nam Yen.(Found any yet?). I thought you were in Sa Kaew and was blabbing all my advice under that assumption. I've driven on that road a couple of times going from Chantaburi to Surin and from what I've seen, the soil there is very different from Sa Kaew. It's higher and a bit more mountainous with that very red soil. I did see euca there but it seems to me that the soil should be able to support a better quality crop than that. Are you in that area?

we're in Ta Lang Nai i think it is called or Wang loo-am. off to the right of cowchicken and wangnamyen 500metres off the 3434 road

or from wangnamyen out towards Chantaburi for about 15km then turn right for 4km .

soil looks good to me but i'm no expert.

as far as nightlife goes.. found some yes. but not investigated as i decided to cut of my wings for the greater good.

Edited October 20, 2009 by silentnine

[silentnine]

found this info on a news page on another site. (www.trf.or.th/News)

does anyone know if this is accurate ? and are the prices about right ? i though it was per ton , not per tree

and how many trees would go on 50 rai ?

As part of its eucalyptus promotion strategy, AA provides farmers with 101 free saplings each and guarantees to buy back the trees three years after planting for 30 baht each.

The company will also allow farmers with bigger land plots to take as many free saplings as they like, to be bought back at 30 baht each three years later.

But the most popular scheme for is to buy saplings at five baht each, and sell the wood back to AA at prices guaranteed between 55 and 70 baht per tree.

"Participants of the first two schemes bear no cost but have used their workforce to take care of the trees. However,all participants get technical assistance from the company," said Mr Charnvit.