I've Got A Brand New Combine Harvester.

[tayto]

Limbo has just been put out of a job with this new addition to Chiang Rai farmers.

Welcome to the 21st Century.

[mumbojumbo]

Good luck selling it to the people that beat there rice on plastic pads

[Kringle]

Where did you buy it and how much? What about parts and how long before you see a return on your investment?

Cheers,

Kringle

[tayto]

http://img508.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn04372rd.jpg

Not mine unfortunitly.

Local farmer hired it. He reckons it will save him money because local labour is now 200 baht a day and the combine can do the lot in a few hours.

[chang35baht]

http://img508.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn04372rd.jpg

Not mine unfortunitly.

Local farmer hired it. He reckons it will save him money because local labour is now 200 baht a day and the combine can do the lot in a few hours.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They have been using these machines in Chiang Rai for at least 4 years now. I`m surprised that you haven`t seen them here already.

I believe they cost about 400 baht per rai to rent. They come with a driver. You don`t actually drive them.

So you actually have to take this cost into account when you think of renting one.

You also lose around 10-15% of your harvest becuase the threshing mechanism at the front isn`t as careful with the rice as a pair of hands.

Also, as so many people are harvesting rice just now it is hard to get labour to come and work on your farm.

It`s easy to spot a farm that`s been harvested using this method. The leftover stalks are all even in height.

[chownah]

http://img508.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dscn04372rd.jpg

Not mine unfortunitly.

Local farmer hired it. He reckons it will save him money because local labour is now 200 baht a day and the combine can do the lot in a few hours.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They have been using these machines in Chiang Rai for at least 4 years now. I`m surprised that you haven`t seen them here already.

I believe they cost about 400 baht per rai to rent. They come with a driver. You don`t actually drive them.

So you actually have to take this cost into account when you think of renting one.

You also lose around 10-15% of your harvest becuase the threshing mechanism at the front isn`t as careful with the rice as a pair of hands.

Also, as so many people are harvesting rice just now it is hard to get labour to come and work on your farm.

It`s easy to spot a farm that`s been harvested using this method. The leftover stalks are all even in height.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does anyone know how much it costs to hire someone with the machine that only cuts the rice but does not thresh out the grain. My wife says that her uncle paid a guy 450 baht per rai to just cut the rice with a cutter but it did not thresh the grain.

[Thetyim]

Chang,

I don't understand how anyone can make a profit from these figures.

The smallest combine, the KPH16, costs way over a million to buy, uses 60 litres of diesel a day, you need to pay a driver, and you need a truck to carry it around.

How can you make a profit at 400 baht a rai when the harvesting season is so short and the machine has a life of (guessing) 5 years

I am not questioning your post, it's just that I looked into this several years back and couldn't see how to make any money.

[Kringle]

You really can't make a profit any way it goes as the REAL money is in the BIG BOYS hands.

[cdnvic]

Chang,

I don't understand how anyone can make a profit from these figures.

The smallest combine, the KPH16, costs way over a million to buy, uses 60 litres of diesel a day, you need to pay a driver, and you need a truck to carry it around.

How can you make a profit at 400 baht a rai when the harvesting season is so short and the machine has a life of (guessing) 5 years

Depends who builds the machine. A well maintained combine can run for 30 years.

cv

[chang35baht]

Chang,

I don't understand how anyone can make a profit from these figures.

The smallest combine, the KPH16, costs way over a million to buy, uses 60 litres of diesel a day, you need to pay a driver, and you need a truck to carry it around.

How can you make a profit at 400 baht a rai when the harvesting season is so short and the machine has a life of (guessing) 5 years

I am not questioning your post, it's just that I looked into this several years back and couldn't see how to make any money.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Usually a collective group of farmers will rent the machine to cut their adjacent farms. And the machine can easily cut 30+ rai per day.

I believe the cost of the driver will be included in the rental price.

I can`t say that these figures are exact. Just the figures from knowledge gained from my wife and family who have quite a lot of rice land.

They usually get around a dozen family members to help GAAOW KHAO. It`s all done in a couple of days or so.

Also I don`t know if there is a particular machine that only cuts the rice. I think that the spillage/loss of rice would be too great.

I also believe that the owners of the machines move them around the country to maximise their profits. In different parts of the counttry if they have enough water they can do 2 crops per year.

[chownah]

.................

Also I don`t know if there is a particular machine that only cuts the rice. I think that the spillage/loss of rice would be too great.

..........

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

There definitely is such a machine because I saw them operate one last year. One guy walks behind it and steers it around the field...it cuts a swath about 3 metres wide and delivers the cut stalks to one side.

Also, I bet that the owners of the combines are from central Thailand where the fields are huge and it would be difficult to impossible to find enough people to do it by hand.....when harvest is done there I bet they then travel around to drum up more business.....but this is only my guess.

[RamdomChances]

There are a few around here, proper "combine" harvesters, not just rice harvesters, they use them for maize, sunflowers and sorgham ect. My brother-in-law used one last year. The going rate here is 600 bhat/rai, but the guy that cut here had 3 drivers working shifts, so was doing about 40 rai a day. He bought his second hand for just over 1 mill bhat (I think it was a New Holland).

So can you make money from one , well if your doing 40 rai a day (we had to wait for it cos he was so busy) that works out to 24,000 bhat/day.

I'll use Thetyim's fig for fuel 60L at say 25 bhat/l thats 1500/day, 3 drivers I recon 300-400 bhat a day if they are any good, 1200 bhat/day. He was doing mostly local work, so did'nt see a truck for transport, but there were quite a few people apart from the drivers, say an extra 3 people at 200 bhat/day. That all works out at 3300 bhat/day costs, leaving around 20,000 bhat/day. Ok the season here is probably about six weeks and for the second crop, the rental price goes down ( there's not much profit in sorgham/sunflower), but 6 week at 20,000/day work out at over 800,000 just off the first crop..

Ok the fig's I used were very simplistic as there will be a lot of down time, spares, depreciation ect but there is a lot of room in those fig's for extra costs.

Saying all that, you do get more wastage using a combine and it does'nt really work out that much cheaper than using people.

RC

[tayto]

The land that was being cut was large, about 50 rai and was cut in about 6 hours.

The problem I see was that all the paddy was left on the land and only the rice taken away.

I suppose they don't have any cattle to feed and don't need the paddy.

This farm was completly flooded 3 years ago and they lost the lot.

On the economics side , if the labour was expensive then the combine probably worked out cheaper.

[Thetyim]

ARe you sure Tayto ?

All the machines I have seen do 3 rai per hour

Maybe you can make money