Rubber Trees

[kwonitoy]

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I said to the wife that if this had not happened this year it would have probably happen sometime soon. its almost impossible to tell or stop people "havin a burn up" and what with more sugar going in every year its just a time bomb......

other people have lost trees too, and some others are chasing for bits of money for this and that, the wife and the other rubber farmer are the main people in the race to see some kind of justice. lucky we are on very good terms with the headman (he his doing a lot of running about for us ect...) and the wife is very well known at the local amber and the district one too, they have been trying to get her to run for this or that post over the years. still I will not be holding my breath on this one, getting\earning money in this part of the world is very difficult........

still having some good rain at the mo, so it might be an end to the fires for this year. just gotta wait and see if the trees that are left are good\ have enough to tap. its a pain because we seem to have good tappers on the books now, and finding good workers over here is even worse then at home!

I had a ground fire go through a patch of trees two years ago, also 9 years old.

It was just the dropped leaves, that burnt, no grass. At the time I thought that we would lose them all, as it got drier and drier the leaves came down and branches broke off. I had written them off.

Once the rains started they still looked like s--t but weren't dead, the bark peeled off in chunks.

Didn't tap them that year and by the following year they looked pretty good, good canopy and the bark came back.If you didn't know what's been burnt an outsider wouldn't be able to spot the area now. Been tapping them with no real drop in output.

So don't write them off just yet, big tall trees can take a bit of heat.

Best of luck

Ken

Edited March 11, 2015 by kwonitoy

[imokg2g]

@thoongfoned very sorry to hear about your situation. Fingers crossed for a good outcome. Sincerely. Apologies if this sounds negative, but perhaps (if you are adequately compensated for the damage) this could be your chance to start a new crop? You would be cursing if rubber was fetching 90+ baht per kilo, but at current prices the 'hurt' is somewhat reduced. But definitely not an ideal situation for anyone.

On the topic of finding 'quality' tappers (and I use the term loosely), I'm currently looking for a reliable and dedicated team to take care of our plot. For around the last 3 months of last season I was forced to employed my cousin-in-law and wife (both in their late teens). Although they managed to take good care of the trees, they lacked dedication and did not strictly observe the 2 and 1 regime. Fortnightly yeild was down, and a quick check kf his Facebook account revealed that he had been more interested in spending time with friends at the local karaoke bar than tapping. Honest, but not dedicated. Times are tough!

All the best to everyone for the coming season!

J

[thoongfoned]

thanks, its just fingers crossed time now regarding said trees.........and more time.

if the trees are no good I would imagine that the wife will just rent the land out for more sugar cane. money paid up front ect.... wife now rents most of her land out this way, still got a little bit if scrub land left if I have my way will get this rented out also. no time to plant something new ourselves easy more to just rent it out, a little money is better then investing more and reaping only a little back.

[Mosha]

Big storm late afternoon and last night. Hopefully it'll get the juices running

[imokg2g]

Managed to find new tappers - poo yai baan's wife's sister and husband. 60/40 split, and owner pays for fertiliser. Hard to believe it's that time to once again start thinking about what kind of fertiliser to get this season, leaning towards the lower end of the spectrum - the days of 1000 baht bags are gone.

[thaiguzzi]

We'll still use the "1000 baht" bags this season, just less of it than the "glory days".

Got introduced to a distant relative (wife's sister in law's sister's husband !?) who has done his 5 year stint in Israel on orange and lemon farms (limes). He is hard working, very green fingered, sensible, and not short of a bob or two from his stints abroad. He wants to help us set up a lime tree farm end of this rainy season. Done properly. I'm going to take out at least 60-70 rubber trees, maybe more (100), these are our worst trees, nearest to our house and worker's accomodation, and at the bottom of two slopes, but where our bore holes and pumps are. Will require a bit of landscaping with a tractor and plough, a large investment in lime trees (100 baht a pop), and concrete rings (110 baht a pop), a bunch of pvc and different sprinklers and water drip feed systems, and we'll do a bunch of veg too. Prepared to throw 100k baht at the project, and hopefully after a year it will bring in another 15-20k a month in income. His fee is 10% of all takings, veg and limes, and he will set the whole thing up and take care of everything for the first year inc showing us how to grow and look after lime trees correctly (apparently not that easy or straight forward). Got a bunch of photos of his time in Israel on their farms. Very interesting, very knowledgable character.

[cobbler]

Good idea mike. Can agree 100% mix it up a bit. Should get a return off veg 1st year. Limes should get a return 2nd or 3rd year. Best of luck with that.

[Dakling]

Thai guy in the next village to mine is growing coffee under mature rubber trees. Not sure if there is any money in it but it peaked my interest.

[thaiguzzi]

I think you need altitude and a correct climate for coffee. Here in the NW, Laos, Vietnam, all very hilly or mountainous.

[cobbler]

Water is what you need for anything you want to grow in amongst the yang. The fine fibre roots of the rubber trees suck a lot of moisture out of the ground. In the wet season , no problem, but in the dry time you will deffinately need water. This is when you need to think about how much the water is going to cost you. Have a look at pakwan . Have 2 types . Normal pak wan and bush pak wan. Bush pak wan is worth more money. Both are easy to grow , and love the shade.

Ive seen coffee with yang. You need a high rainfall all year round. As the coffee trees and the rubber trees grow big you will not have enough moisture for both if not a high rainfall. Ask mosha he would have seen this down south in his area. Ive seen it in bangsaphan area not far from our house.

Hope this is of help. Try prik hom also known as prik kee gnoo plant in the wet season.

Cheers Cobbler

Edited March 27, 2015 by cobbler

[Mosha]

The wind is changing, 1st rain of the year that came from the Andaman side yesterday. It was needed, awfully sticky yesterday.

[Mosha]

Losing our Mon tappers next week. I'm not surprised. Not enough money to send home to their son for school. We have a Thai friend coming. Her husband works but not enough to school the kids. So the wife will tap the trees for 40% and we don't need to getting papers sorted.

[Mosha]

Losing our Mon tappers next week. I'm not surprised. Not enough money to send home to their son for school. We have a Thai friend coming. Her husband works but not enough to school the kids. So the wife will tap the trees for 40% and we don't need to getting papers sorted.

Forgot to add, we are not aline in losing tappers in the village. At least 2 other families have gone in the past week.

[thaiguzzi]

No probs up here regarding staff.

[cobbler]

Think your mrs is a bit of a gem mr mosha

[Mosha]

We had 2 Burmese looking to tap this morning. The old one had only been in Bangkok about 3 hours. We took them to catch the bus llast night. Didn't take long lol. Any info of a base price being st other than what is already mentioned in the main farming forum? 1st sale before our tappers went was at 21/kg.

[imokg2g]

We started tapping 25 Mar 15. Here we are 16 days later and we're told our cups are only half-full, and we plan to sell in approx a week's time. Prices are said to be around the 24 baht/kg range.

I'm overseas at the moment and won't be back until end of the month. We also have new tappers, naturally I'm a bit nervous managing the operation while so far away. Anybody else opened yet?

Cheers,

J

[thaiguzzi]

yeah, opened about a week ago, same as you. sell end of the month. Local gate prices are 24-25 baht for cup.

[charliedundee]

We started tapping 25 Mar 15. Here we are 16 days later and we're told our cups are only half-full, and we plan to sell in approx a week's time. Prices are said to be around the 24 baht/kg range.

I'm overseas at the moment and won't be back until end of the month. We also have new tappers, naturally I'm a bit nervous managing the operation while so far away. Anybody else opened yet?

Cheers,

J

We opened for the first time last October but starting again after Songkran, 24 baht sounds ok!

Trees are in Udon.

Edited April 11, 2015 by charliedundee

[imokg2g]

Interesting article. Expert expects natural rubber prices to reach $2.40 per kilo in 2015.

http://www.dailymirror.lk/65211/natural-rubber-prices-to-reach-2-40-per-kg-in-2015-experts

[thaiguzzi]

Up 5-7%. Better than a kick in the teeth. Experts are saying we are going to have a poor rainy season. Missus says the opposite.

[Mosha]

I think the dry season is over. 2 very wet days, and now't to do with Songkran.

[imokg2g]

A bit of a late update. We sold on 11 Apr 15 (open since 26 Mar 15). Kee yang 24.70 B/kg. Bueng Kan province.

Interestingly, yield is down. On average we made about 16 kg per rai. At peak times I would expect to make three times this amount... still overseas, can verify any of the numbers. At best I can check the weather online. Does anybody else have any local knowledge to share (prices, weather conditions, yield).

Happy tapping

J

[deanoEFC]

Hello everyone I'm in need of some help and advice regarding our rubber tree's there's one row that the leaves have started turning yellow and drying up an falling off, it started about a month or so iv checked the bear tree's and there is still rubber coming out, they are 6 year's old to the this month and we are due to start tapping for the first time soon, any help would be gratefully appreciated cheers deano

[utr]

are the trees on a boundary? if so, maybe your neighbour has used some form of spray on his property which has been blown to your trees.

[deanoEFC]

Hello utr yes it on a boundary with eucalyptus so that could be a possibility, thanks for your input

Cheers deano

[utr]

eucalyptus will take all the goodness out of the soil. if close to your trees you may find those trees are your problem. have the eucalyptus trees been there a long time or a recent addition?

[deanoEFC]

They've been there the whole time, and we've got them on the other side too but no problem

[thoongfoned]

had a walk out the "singed" plantation last night. the trees that are good are still waiting for rain as far as I can make out (land very dry) anyone tapping around udon thani? are you seeing good flow??

still no good news regarding the fire damage, might go to court, could go, not really sure....... give it some more time....... the other affected people have taken there trees out already. gonna wait and see if the coming rains will bring some life back into the better of the damaged ones.

if anyone else has problems with fire damaged crops-land when you report the "crime" to the police make sure the fire "expert" person is informed. should be at least one in every province. have meet the one from udon thani and he said this kind of thing is a very big problem, he is very busy, we had to wait for more then two weeks for him to have time to come out and have a look. of course no good to us because all the evidence had been ploughed under by then........ still good to know that this kind of officer is employed.

[slapout]

amazing, police ''fire expert'' for crop loss. takes 2 weeks to arrival to determine loss. is he hired on yearly salary (short fire season ) does every tambon have a expert, if so they cant assist the areas where fires have been widespread? do they accept word of loss if the damage has been ploughed under?