Rubber Trees

[cobbler]

Paklian is a vegie which grows on a bush.South people seem to love them.I love your story mate about your finger/ring bananas..Some things just crack me up

Cheers Cobbler

Edited June 4, 2012 by cobbler

[ad61]

Cobbler, we don't grow the pakrian for commercial purposes, just for ourselves the family and our Burma. So it's picked as needed.

ok so what is Pakrian?

Re bananas on a rubber farm...we (me) have planted about 50 suckers ( dug from aunties farm between young almost mature rubber trees... ) about 3 years ago on the periphery of the trees..along our road and around the house and any more open parts of the farm...they are growing like crazy in relatively poor mountain/rocky/clay soil. They are of the lady finger type ...we give 'em away to an old lady in the market who sells betel nuts or our local noodle stall or feed the local birds and bees ...I hang green bunches under the house and family helps themselves..they start to go black fall down and the dogs eat 'em.

Easy to propagate with suckers ..think we have about a hundred or so large multi trunk-ed trees now.

Find the cut stems and leafs once fruited are great fertiliser and mulch ..a few chopped up stems around the bases of trees/shrubs certainly help to keep the moisture in the soil ( remember when it did not rain much?..lol)

Happy farming..

Hi David006,

Prak Liang is a small tree (bush like) growing on it's own everywhere in the mountains of southern Thailand; only the younger leaves are picked up and used to make delicious dishes like stir fried with smoked dry shrimps, stir fried with shrimps and egg or added to a coconut milk soup with fresh bamboo shoot and smoked dry shrimps.

[customcurb]

woomp! biggest price drop I've seen this year. http://www.rubberthai.com/rubberthai/ ouch !

[jamescollister]

woomp! biggest price drop I've seen this year. http://www.rubbertha...m/rubberthai/ ouch !

You want a price drop, have a look at GFC 1. From around 140 Baht down to 35 Baht in a few days. EU is not looking good, GFC 2 may not be far away. Ducks, chickens, fish and rice are a good fall back, you won't starve. Jim

[IsaanAussie]

Sorry for you Yangsters but I cant wait to tell the guy over the road. Dont get mad get even 555555, hey I'm human!

[bannork]

Cobbler, we don't grow the pakrian for commercial purposes, just for ourselves the family and our Burma. So it's picked as needed.

ok so what is Pakrian?

Re bananas on a rubber farm...we (me) have planted about 50 suckers ( dug from aunties farm between young almost mature rubber trees... ) about 3 years ago on the periphery of the trees..along our road and around the house and any more open parts of the farm...they are growing like crazy in relatively poor mountain/rocky/clay soil. They are of the lady finger type ...we give 'em away to an old lady in the market who sells betel nuts or our local noodle stall or feed the local birds and bees ...I hang green bunches under the house and family helps themselves..they start to go black fall down and the dogs eat 'em.

Easy to propagate with suckers ..think we have about a hundred or so large multi trunk-ed trees now.

Find the cut stems and leafs once fruited are great fertiliser and mulch ..a few chopped up stems around the bases of trees/shrubs certainly help to keep the moisture in the soil ( remember when it did not rain much?..lol)

Happy farming..

Hi David006,

Prak Liang is a small tree (bush like) growing on it's own everywhere in the mountains of southern Thailand; only the younger leaves are picked up and used to make delicious dishes like stir fried with smoked dry shrimps, stir fried with shrimps and egg or added to a coconut milk soup with fresh bamboo shoot and smoked dry shrimps.

That explains why my missus in Udon had never heard of it. She wants to plant cassava between the rubber trees but I'd rather go for papaya. She reckons the locals will steal papaya.

[Mosha]

Cobbler, we don't grow the pakrian for commercial purposes, just for ourselves the family and our Burma. So it's picked as needed.

ok so what is Pakrian?

Re bananas on a rubber farm...we (me) have planted about 50 suckers ( dug from aunties farm between young almost mature rubber trees... ) about 3 years ago on the periphery of the trees..along our road and around the house and any more open parts of the farm...they are growing like crazy in relatively poor mountain/rocky/clay soil. They are of the lady finger type ...we give 'em away to an old lady in the market who sells betel nuts or our local noodle stall or feed the local birds and bees ...I hang green bunches under the house and family helps themselves..they start to go black fall down and the dogs eat 'em.

Easy to propagate with suckers ..think we have about a hundred or so large multi trunk-ed trees now.

Find the cut stems and leafs once fruited are great fertiliser and mulch ..a few chopped up stems around the bases of trees/shrubs certainly help to keep the moisture in the soil ( remember when it did not rain much?..lol)

Happy farming..

Hi David006,

Prak Liang is a small tree (bush like) growing on it's own everywhere in the mountains of southern Thailand; only the younger leaves are picked up and used to make delicious dishes like stir fried with smoked dry shrimps, stir fried with shrimps and egg or added to a coconut milk soup with fresh bamboo shoot and smoked dry shrimps.

That explains why my missus in Udon had never heard of it. She wants to plant cassava between the rubber trees but I'd rather go for papaya. She reckons the locals will steal papaya.

My wife fries it in a tempura batter (Ghogi) mixed in with chopped onion. Very filling and delicious. When we go down to Nakhon, she takes bags full of leaves, for her family down there.

[Dakling]

Just curious how the prices at http://www.rubberthai.com/rubberthai/ relate to what people are receiving. If I read the site correctly it looks like lump rubber is at ~ 90 baht/kg and RSS is at 95 baht/kg. I am assuming that the lump rubber must be minus weight of water or something, otherwise the numbers look to close together.

Any producers care to share what the most recent actual baht/kg rate is for farmers producing cup rubber? (with or without water content, however you generally do it).

5 years to go before we start production but I would like to follow the pricing trends and try to get my head around how long before we get any money back out of the trees.

I usually project at 0.7 kg/tree per month for 9 months per year, and then use 50 baht/kg. Am I in the ballpark with current prices?

I hope I don't kick off another lump vs RSS row, my plans are to start with lump and then move into RSS once I learn what I am doing and if it makes sense at the time.

Thanks in advance

[kwonitoy]

Sold today 200kg of cup rubber for 46 baht per kilo.

If you figure a return of 50 baht per kilo at least your being realistic,

[Dakling]

Thanks Kwanitoy!

Off topic a bit, but I just found out the other day that my Thai neighbor has 150 rai of mature rubber in production. This provides him with one very nice lifestyle. Has 3 houses, 3 wives, 6 kids, multiple vehicles, etc. His family look after his trees for him, he is busy enough cultivating the wives, too busy for the trees.

[customcurb]

For the past month I'd been selling kee yang to Sri Trang Rubberland factory. They quote baht per kilogram of the dry rubber content, which has ranged between 100 to 73b over that time period. Kee seems to average around 55% drc after a day of sitting, ranging low of 50% to high of 72% depending on how long it sits and loses water. When selling by drc it seemed better to let the kee sit and loose as much water as possible as factory offered a very slight price advantage vs very wet. Factory checker would cut a few small pieces of the load, weigh them, put in some sort of press and squeeze all the water out, and then weight and figure the percentage. Other smaller buyers would buy by the kilogram regardless of the water content. In all cases we were told to not buy kee that was tapped the previous night, to decline sellers with very gooey kee, and be very careful that there were no stones, pieces of metal, or other stuff that could mess up the factory, and kee should be 6-8 meet (cutting sessions).

In short, learned a bit, decided that the only way to make reasonable money as middlemen would be to buy multiple 10 ton truck loads monthly, buy and sell on the same day lest the 1-2 baht per kg margin goes negative, and hope the price doesn't fluctuate (drop) by more than 1 or 2 baht if longer than same day. We don't have 10 ton trucks and my take away was that buying and selling kee as a middleman is a version of Thai gambling. We made about -500 baht for the month so I shit-canned that idea as I don't like gambling.

My rule of thumb is to figure kee is about 55% dry rubber so multiply the factory price by that. YMMV. Prices quoted on the two known websites were always higher than the factory price. I also learned that palatable Laotian 80 proof whiskey is 33 baht a bottle, which helps make loosing 500 baht on 12 tons of kee-yang not so stinky.

[customcurb]

ps, wife still likes gambling so she will continue buying and selling kee, today was buying at 38 baht and was going to sell to a another small buyer for 43 baht. She might make 150b on her tiny buy today. #$%^& More Laotian whiskey please.

[jamescollister]

ps, wife still likes gambling so she will continue buying and selling kee, today was buying at 38 baht and was going to sell to a another small buyer for 43 baht. She might make 150b on her tiny buy today. #$%^& More Laotian whiskey please.

Think I told yopu years ago buying and selling is not as easy as it looks, very small margins. All should remember that buyers are playing the water content game. Liquid latex for rubber gloves etc is 60% rubber and it is liquid.

Local price from Government buyers Wednesday was 56 Baht a kilo dry weight. Never believe what a private buyer tells you. If in doubt leave to to dry and sell to the Governmet. Jim

[chang35baht]

ps, wife still likes gambling so she will continue buying and selling kee, today was buying at 38 baht and was going to sell to a another small buyer for 43 baht. She might make 150b on her tiny buy today. #$%^& More Laotian whiskey please.

Think I told yopu years ago buying and selling is not as easy as it looks, very small margins. All should remember that buyers are playing the water content game. Liquid latex for rubber gloves etc is 60% rubber and it is liquid.

Local price from Government buyers Wednesday was 56 Baht a kilo dry weight. Never believe what a private buyer tells you. If in doubt leave to to dry and sell to the Governmet. Jim

In an ideal world Jim that is what I would like to do, sell to the government. But up here in Chiang Rai there is no Government buyer in the vicinity so at the moment we are forced to phone around 3-4 middlemen and sell to the one who gives the best rate.

This morning the best we could get was 42Bt per kilo of kee yang.

C35B.

[jamescollister]

ps, wife still likes gambling so she will continue buying and selling kee, today was buying at 38 baht and was going to sell to a another small buyer for 43 baht. She might make 150b on her tiny buy today. #$%^& More Laotian whiskey please.

Think I told yopu years ago buying and selling is not as easy as it looks, very small margins. All should remember that buyers are playing the water content game. Liquid latex for rubber gloves etc is 60% rubber and it is liquid.

Local price from Government buyers Wednesday was 56 Baht a kilo dry weight. Never believe what a private buyer tells you. If in doubt leave to to dry and sell to the Governmet. Jim

In an ideal world Jim that is what I would like to do, sell to the government. But up here in Chiang Rai there is no Government buyer in the vicinity so at the moment we are forced to phone around 3-4 middlemen and sell to the one who gives the best rate.

This morning the best we could get was 42Bt per kilo of kee yang.

C35B.

Strange that there are no Government buyers in your area, we live at the end of known Thailand and originally only had Government buyers, There are 2 Gov. agencies that buy in these parts. They have a flooding market, setting up buys in different areas along the border on different days. If you are doing big kilos it pays to transport, after all that's what the local buyers are doing. Jim

[cobbler]

Hi Jim,

How did you go with your workers.I hope it all sorted it's self out'

Cheers Cobbler

[jamescollister]

Hi Jim,

How did you go with your workers.I hope it all sorted it's self out'

Cheers Cobbler

Still don't have the permanent staff, but have managed to hire casual collectors. That way the tappers can tap more trees, but don't have to go and collect the latex. Not a perfect solution as you have to keep an eye on them all the time [ someone does] but my good tappers will not be dropping from exhaustion. Hopefully get a family, 2 brothers and wives up from Rayony soon, but won't hold my breath. Have to hope all is ruining smoothly sooner then later. This happen every year as we grow, if luck is on my side over the next few years I will have all good families, every thing takes time. Jim

[Mosha]

It'd be great if we could get some tapping done. Day after the quake we had 8"/200mm of rain!

[jamescollister]

It'd be great if we could get some tapping done. Day after the quake we had 8"/200mm of rain!

Good tapping weather here, rains 1 or2 hours everyday.Big rains have yet to start. Jim

[ClausGS]

I guess, right now is the right time for fertilizer to be applied, as it is the start of the rainy season???

[jamescollister]

I guess, right now is the right time for fertilizer to be applied, as it is the start of the rainy season???

Should fertilize at the first good rain when the trees go green if tapping. If not now is as good a time as any. Use the 3 hole system, better for the trees and saves on fertilizer. Jim

[IsaanAussie]

Hey Guys,

Noticed a South African latex plant up for auction. Well wihin the reach of Australian hospital eye surgery patient I am sure, maybe for new chopper owners and almost for gun fight referees. Surgical gloves and condom lines included. Maybe the BAAC would fund the purchase for a collective buy?

[jamescollister]

Hey Guys,

Noticed a South African latex plant up for auction. Well wihin the reach of Australian hospital eye surgery patient I am sure, maybe for new chopper owners and almost for gun fight referees. Surgical gloves and condom lines included. Maybe the BAAC would fund the purchase for a collective buy?

Don't think me and the black population would get on well. Seem to upset a lot when I wore blue in Birmingham. Jim

[IsaanAussie]

Some things are sent to try us, others to put us at risk. But for the Aussie Battlers amongst us, the thought will always be "It THAT all you Got?" muffled fart...

[jamescollister]

Hi all

just back from buying a new rubber kneading machine, where I saw a new way of making sheet. This is a simaler method as I have seen in the south, but simpler. Some of the bigger places mix large volumes of latex and place metal dividers in the liquid. When jellied the sheets are removed and run through the rollars as per normal.

The new way is a concrete box with metal divides, but the sheets are much thinner and there is no need for rollers. Sheets are just hung to dry.

As is usual the sales people hadn't an idea of how to use them or what grade of rubber was produced. Anyone seem it being done this way, as if it worked and good rubber was made, it would be much cheaper and easier. Jim

[customcurb]

A couple months back when I dropped my workers at the local govt rubber school, we wandered into their sheet factory. moderate size, and they did have the concrete box with the rather thinly spaced dividers, and I didn't see a kneader machine. I figured the box would make 5-6cm thick sheets which would then be run through the multiple roller machine. The only attending person there was a lackey who didn't run things so no bother asking him. I recall someone telling me that large coag boxes don't always give an evenly gelled sheet and it took longer to gel. No idea if really true. Do tell if this works for you!

[jamescollister]

New family of tappers arrived today after having driven up from the south. 2 sons one wife and a 100 year old father. One of the sons had come up to look a the plantation a few days earlier. He was very impressed with the trees and told the others to pack up and head home. They had been working as tappers for 15 years in the south, so know their stuff,

Asked if they needed any thing, all they wanted was to do cup for awhile so that they could build a house on the plantation during the day and not make sheet. Nothing else, said they had a euca plantation in their old village and would build with wood from there. Told them I would put a well in for them and they could have all the bits from the old house we were 1/2 way through knocking down and if they did a good job building I would pay for the concrete floor, all happy.

Theses are the types I want, either live at the factory or on the plantation, once settled they will not want to pack up leaving their home behind. Good result all round, back up to 12 workers and some casual day workers. Jim

[David006]

New family of tappers arrived today after having driven up from the south. 2 sons one wife and a 100 year old father. One of the sons had come up to look a the plantation a few days earlier. He was very impressed with the trees and told the others to pack up and head home. They had been working as tappers for 15 years in the south, so know their stuff,

Asked if they needed any thing, all they wanted was to do cup for awhile so that they could build a house on the plantation during the day and not make sheet. Nothing else, said they had a euca plantation in their old village and would build with wood from there. Told them I would put a well in for them and they could have all the bits from the old house we were 1/2 way through knocking down and if they did a good job building I would pay for the concrete floor, all happy.

Theses are the types I want, either live at the factory or on the plantation, once settled they will not want to pack up leaving their home behind. Good result all round, back up to 12 workers and some casual day workers. Jim

goodonya mate...better security against the latex hunters too!

[jamescollister]

New family of tappers arrived today after having driven up from the south. 2 sons one wife and a 100 year old father. One of the sons had come up to look a the plantation a few days earlier. He was very impressed with the trees and told the others to pack up and head home. They had been working as tappers for 15 years in the south, so know their stuff,

Asked if they needed any thing, all they wanted was to do cup for awhile so that they could build a house on the plantation during the day and not make sheet. Nothing else, said they had a euca plantation in their old village and would build with wood from there. Told them I would put a well in for them and they could have all the bits from the old house we were 1/2 way through knocking down and if they did a good job building I would pay for the concrete floor, all happy.

Theses are the types I want, either live at the factory or on the plantation, once settled they will not want to pack up leaving their home behind. Good result all round, back up to 12 workers and some casual day workers. Jim

goodonya mate...better security against the latex hunters too!

They are about, lost about 15 kikos last week. moving back to sheet now we have enough workers. As I said before if you can get good honest tappers take care of them. Then all you ever have to do is take your cut each month. Jim

[customcurb]

wife is still trying to do the middleman thing with kee-yang, and as it's now her money she's fronting, she's a tad more careful with the pricing, figures. She tells me there are kids that sometimes come by with just a small bag of kee so it's obvious they nicked it from somewhere. She says one kid said it's from his families farm and he's cheating.

Few other times Somchi brings in a couple hundred kg and asks wife to write a receipt for half that so that he doesn't have to give all the money to his wife! That's a regular ploy. Wife's young niece helps with the buying, she accidentally told some lady of the short receipt trick and turns out it was the wife of one of the shorters. I heard that didn't go over so well.