Starting A Small Scale Farm

[randysavage]

i hope to start a small scale farm next year, i will be raising chickens ducks fish and pork all small scale to see whats profitable i have 12 rai of land thats used for rice i will use 1 rai for farming to start.

1] how much would a good incubator cost

2] i hope to raise about 30 pigs to start how much would a sty cost

3] what is the best fish to farm ie profit and easy to keep

4] i see some guys are raising turkeys is there a market for them?

5] are geese kept as pets or is there a market for there meat eggs ect

hope theres not to many questions, if what i hope to farm seems a lot im only trying to see what works for me and is profitable.

from what ive read on the farming forum there seems to be a market for chicks as there only seems to be a few farmers you can trust so maybe thats the way to go?

thanks for reading my post all comments and advice welcome good or bad

mickey

[Pond Life]

A very good idea to start small.

One of the biggest problems is to find reliable workers.

If you can keep it on a scale that you & your family can do it yourselves, problem solved.

[jamescollister]

OP save your money, you won't make a profit. Small scale subsistence farming at it's best. Hard work and no returns. Otherwise every Thai with a few rai would be making money. Do it as a fun yes, but to start building pig sty's, hen houses etc you are throwing the money away.

Better to spend some time looking around to see what works, if you find something that makes money please tell me. Jim

[andycrosby]

What you will find on here are a lot of (Nay Sayers) as I think we like to call them . They dont farm and do not know anything about farming. Best idea is find something that works for you. Buy the way pigs and poultry do not mix choose one or the other. Pigs might be a good idea and are very easy to start on a small scale. You need to do a lot of reading. start with Pigs 101 on here.

[tingtong]

We have a similar size farm, complete with lake, etc.

I think you want to try way too many things in 1 rai land. Even for 12 rai, it sounds a lot.

Starting small is good, there is room for not too costly errors, and lessons. But just the same the return will be very very small as well, especially to Western standards. Not that it will be nonexistant, i believe there can/will be profit, only in return for your hours on a small scale it is minimal.

To give an example: we have bought 500 catfish fingerlings for a trial, and after about 3.5 months, they are ready to sell.

Now, since we will try this amount, approx 100 kg fish, sell retail, the profit margin should be good, retail price is about 60 baht/kg, while the food cost was approx 3000 THB, and fingerlings cost another 500THB...maybe include another 500 thb related to diesel to go to buy food, pumping, mortality loss, etc...total 4000THB vs probably 6000THB return ( exclude my wife's time to sell it, that is).

so, while we might clear a nice 50% return on the cash invested, in reality 2000 THB for nearly 4 months time is,,,well, you decide

in this level it is a hobby. Now, for the time being this is not to depend on, and we have time to experiment, etc.

Do you have time? Do you have patience to toy around with 500THB/month projects? ( i assume the other small scale things will return in the same range, we have few chickens too, etc, etc).

If you got the time, give it a try, i sure love it, and no, it doesnt seem to be an impossible thing to do

But do yourself a favour, and dont try to do all your above mentiened animals all at once, add new things when the basics in place for the first at least. makes it easier.

all said, i am a beginner farmer, and in that it isnt my background, so what would i know, really?

[randysavage]

thanks for the advice i will think further on what to do i learnt one lesson i bought 3 cows and could not beleive how much grass these animals get through im lucky my wifes dad looks after them while im in the uk

im considering taking andys advice and start small and see how i go with pigs again thankyou all for your input