Rubber Trees

[imokg2g]

Shut my plantations down for 1,5 years already for the profit is so low. Will reopen when the price nears 30 Bhat. Amazing is the growth of the trees during this time period of relaxing. Hope it pays back a little of the lost tapping seasons

Fatfather

Hi Fatfather,

I'm curious to know what the maintenance requirements are for your trees while you're not tapping them.

Do you still need to fertilise your soil?

Do you still monitor the trees health? Do you still need to buy insecticides/herbicides?

Cheers,

J

[cobbler]

Hi mike, best of luck with tapping your yung . Ive done our mountain and flat land also . Im 50 now and I can tell u its easier said than done. If u dont have good eyesight , dont start as u will butcher your trees. The other way to look at it is, untill u do it yourself its difficult to understand how long the hours r. Also just howmany billions of yoong mosquitoes there r. ?

Im surprised to hear your workers left u . They were making ok money. Coming into the cold season now too. They r mad . Going to miss the best of the season . At least youve go a good mrs. Sounds like your other pair of workers r good though.

We had our workers leave in the middle of the night on our mountain/cliff farm after they got scared coze they realized I knew they were stealing from us . My wife and I tapped that 25 rai till we got new worker. Doing it 1 day was 1 thing , but doing it the second night was something else. I was 47 then , but wouldnt like to do it now at 50 .

Trials and tribulations of a rubber tree farmer

Cheers Cobbler

[thaiguzzi]

Shut my plantations down for 1,5 years already for the profit is so low. Will reopen when the price nears 30 Bhat. Amazing is the growth of the trees during this time period of relaxing. Hope it pays back a little of the lost tapping seasons

Fatfather

Hi Fatfather,

I'm curious to know what the maintenance requirements are for your trees while you're not tapping them.

Do you still need to fertilise your soil?

Do you still monitor the trees health? Do you still need to buy insecticides/herbicides?

Cheers,

J

# Yes, you still want to fertilize, perhaps not as much as when tapping.

# Insecticides/herbicides ? Wassat ?

[fatfather]

Shut my plantations down for 1,5 years already for the profit is so low. Will reopen when the price nears 30 Bhat. Amazing is the growth of the trees during this time period of relaxing. Hope it pays back a little of the lost tapping seasons

Fatfather

Hi Fatfather,

I'm curious to know what the maintenance requirements are for your trees while you're not tapping them.

Do you still need to fertilise your soil?

Do you still monitor the trees health? Do you still need to buy insecticides/herbicides?

Cheers,

J

# Yes, you still want to fertilize, perhaps not as much as when tapping.

# Insecticides/herbicides ? Wassat ?

No, I don't fertilize. I regularly check the plantations and clear the ground between the trees, that's all. The ground have to be cleared because my plantation borders Cambodia, that means that there is wilderness with occasional bush fires.

[thaiguzzi]

Hi mike, best of luck with tapping your yung . Ive done our mountain and flat land also . Im 50 now and I can tell u its easier said than done. If u dont have good eyesight , dont start as u will butcher your trees. The other way to look at it is, untill u do it yourself its difficult to understand how long the hours r. Also just howmany billions of yoong mosquitoes there r. ?

Im surprised to hear your workers left u . They were making ok money. Coming into the cold season now too. They r mad . Going to miss the best of the season . At least youve go a good mrs. Sounds like your other pair of workers r good though.

We had our workers leave in the middle of the night on our mountain/cliff farm after they got scared coze they realized I knew they were stealing from us . My wife and I tapped that 25 rai till we got new worker. Doing it 1 day was 1 thing , but doing it the second night was something else. I was 47 then , but wouldnt like to do it now at 50 .

Trials and tribulations of a rubber tree farmer

Cheers Cobbler

Hi Cobbler, thanx.

# Mozzies are now not a problem up here in the middle of the night, thank Buddha.

# I'm having tapping lessons, i reckon once i've tapped 50 or so, i'll be good to go, ie consistent and not a butcher. I've got 3 sick dry bark disease trees that have not been tapped for 18 months, to practice on.

# Workers had told my wife they generally work for 3 months and then move on. Now we know why, the last 4 weeks he'd been adding what he called "pui" to his knife at the beginning of the cut to increase production. Glad they've f##ked off.

# Yes, can't say anything against the missus - that woman can work. 4 1/2 hours to tap exactly 999 trees.

# Eyesight is good, i'm 54.

Mike.

[cobbler]

No doubt about a good thai woman, they truely r amazing .

Puting pui or hormone onthe knife is great for evtra productionbut terrible for long term of trees. Good they gone.

Good luck with your tapping. Somebody will show up todo your work.

Cheers Cobbler

[cobbler]

Mike , that pui sure makes a difference toyour production. We dont get that much yang from our trees . Good luck to u.

[David48]

Gentlemen ... I always enjoy dropping back and catching up on unread posts ... and I've read them all.

May I ask you, ignoring the ROI on the land ...

... given the input costs (labour, fertiliser (if required) etc) and what you are receiving at the Market, are you making any nett profit?

Not looking for forensic details, but you would know if you are generally turning a meagre or modest profit.

Thanks ...

[Mosha]

Well before about 3 weeks tapping inc rest days would buy the fertiliser. Takes a bit longer now, but still making a profit. When our tapper calls it quits, I'll worry.

Wife arranged to sell at 21 Baht this morning, and he was due to call this afternoon. A rival just turned up and offered 22.

[thaiguzzi]

Gentlemen ... I always enjoy dropping back and catching up on unread posts ... and I've read them all.

May I ask you, ignoring the ROI on the land ...

... given the input costs (labour, fertiliser (if required) etc) and what you are receiving at the Market, are you making any nett profit?

Not looking for forensic details, but you would know if you are generally turning a meagre or modest profit.

Thanks ...

Just checked my books, last year tapped about 2450 trees on 38 rai (about 80% of the trees on those parcels of land), total money in was 596,619 baht, our 60% of this was 393,248 baht (my missus taps as well which alters the equation). Less money spent on fertilizer, formic acid, diesel and petrol, odds 'n sods was 101,675 = a total profit of 291,573 baht for the period 9/5/13 - 29/1/14, our first and last sales of the season. And the prices were crap.

Hope this helps.

Mike.

[Mosha]

Guys, you really do not want to hear the price to day down here.

[thoongfoned]

late teens ?

[cobbler]

Ok send it

[cobbler]

Sheet in bangsapan is floating around the 52 54 bart per kilo.good we got beens for beer money

[Mosha]

KY 19 Baht.

[thoongfoned]

on the channel 7 farming bit this morning the best priced sheet was 45b -47b.

[cobbler]

Earlier during the season was 40 per kilo for sheet

[slapout]

I kept hearing about government support price of 100 baht/kilo, guess thats like the rice program, have yet to meet the farmer who got the 20,000 baht/ton nor the 15,000 baht for regular/sticky rice.

[thaiguzzi]

KY 19 Baht.

Jesus F##king Christ.

[cobbler]

I kept hearing about government support price of 100 baht/kilo, guess thats like the rice program, have yet to meet the farmer who got the 20,000 baht/ton nor the 15,000 baht for regular/sticky rice.

No mate that was just a bullsh!t thing for the rich mates of the pollies.

[cobbler]

Just heard down here. Have 2 or 3 year old yang farms on the market for 75k per rai . 3 years ago the same farms would have sold for 120k

1 25 rai farm of good 8 year old trees been tapped for 1 year, with torbor 5 paper . Just sold for 1.7 million. Farrrrrk me. Many farms down here on mountains cant even get myanmar workers. Coz mountain farms produce less yang than flat land . Owner cant sell them and cant get workers . Have corner stores who were making good money selling to myanmar before , now selling sfa . Because this area hve only half the amount of myanmar workers compared to 1 to 2 years ago. Many people now selling ( giving ) yang and going back into coconuts and other things . So glad we mixed things up a few years ago . Wouldnt want to be trying to survive on just 45 rai of yang now.

Dont know if itll ever come back or not . Malaysia went through this . Maybe its our turn now in thai. Go8d thing about yang is its passive income , we do nothing . However we r thinking about mixing our farming up a bit more. Hate to see our beautiful trees go though. What to do . Ummm same as before , kai tooa phuk eow , sip bart . Ser leo . Pai mare nam , kin beer . Oops sorry . Sell long beens 10 bart , buy beer, go to the river and drink beer. Sabai sabai 5555.

[imokg2g]

KY 19 Baht.

This is bad news for us rubber farmers. Perhaps due to over supply? Everybody's trees are producing KY like mad this time of year.

Maybe a benefit to stockpile your yang and sell early next year when the market is dry due to end of season?

Cheers,

J

[Mosha]

Given I'll be mid 70's when these trees are done. I've told our lass no way at these prices will I buy new trees. 22 to 19 in 24 hours.

Edited November 19, 2014 by Mosha

[cobbler]

Just an idea mr mosha . Try durian . Your mountain soil would have good drainage . U maybe dont need water due to your good rainfall. China is buying , as they cant grow themselves

[Mosha]

A friend's family farms Durian near Khao Talu (Near where the ridge has an hole through it). They use hormones on 1/2 trees to delay flowering to get a later crop.

[thoongfoned]

as you all know, rubber is a long term investment.......... peaks and falls......... like cobbler states once the trees are of a workable size you do very little if nothing for your money, worst case you just rest them.

when we left Europe I was shopping around for investments, my broker at the time told me don't worry I will not put your money in an south east Asian rubber plantation..... what did I decide to do some years later, yes plant some rubber trees....... broker who is now more of a friend then anything just laughed at me when I told him what I was up too.

what is the worst price that anyone has heard-knowledge of In the thai market for rubber products over the years? I was looking at the rubber money markets afew months ago and the worst I could see worked out to be about 10 ish baht..... (I presume for sheet of some sort) but its mainly in us dollars so the rate would be all over the place. this was about 35 -40 years ago if my memory is any good. this time of year does the price not normally fall?

on another note when we planted said trees I said to the wife we should see about 50 pence uk to the kg, not sure how I arrived at this figure, but.......

said before but you guys that have good trees, you still earn ok at these depressed prices, the main people who suffer are the worker (tappers)

[thaiguzzi]

About 8-9 years ago, price for cup was 14 baht per kg. 4-5 years ago it peaked at 105 baht per kg. Sheet was 190 for grade A. This is our 4th season, and the first prices we were getting was low 80's mid 70's.

I think everybody would be pretty happy if cup was getting 45-50 baht per kg and sheet 90-100 baht per kg. Can't see it happening in the next 18 months.

[Mosha]

About 8-9 years ago, price for cup was 14 baht per kg. 4-5 years ago it peaked at 105 baht per kg. Sheet was 190 for grade A. This is our 4th season, and the first prices we were getting was low 80's mid 70's.

I think everybody would be pretty happy if cup was getting 45-50 baht per kg and sheet 90-100 baht per kg. Can't see it happening in the next 18 months.

You have to take inflation into account. Prices roughly double every 10 years. So that 14 baht today would be mid to high 20s I think.

[cobbler]

A friend's family farms Durian near Khao Talu (Near where the ridge has an hole through it). They use hormones on 1/2 trees to delay flowering to get a later crop.

smart move, can sell when price is up

[cobbler]

Yes to all the above statements. Good level thinking on all accounts .