Best Investment To Make In Farming In Isaan ?

[jamescollister]

JJ 4 mil Baht may sound a lot, but in real terms it is not enough to really do anything big enough to turn a reasonable profit. Things like cassava are hit and miss, one year you win the next you lose.

If the wife's family are farmers, how much land do they farm and how rich are they, there will lie the answer to your question.

Not saying it can't be done, but you need to be smart and know your onions so to speak.

What do you do in the UK and can that skill be used here. You will never get anything going here as an absentee farmer. Best of luck Jim

Jim, I have a great wife, a pharmacist, Issan poor rice farmers daughter but a really industrious woman. We recently bought a down and out pharmacy in Pattaya and she did a great job building it up. We also planted 50 Rai of rubber trees in her hometown. 30 Rai (belong to me, of course) 20 belong to her family. Father is too old to work and it is hard to find labor. We hire a group who weed and fertilize. Now I am going to install an irrigation system and hope that it does not get stolen while I am asleep. Unfortunately, living in Pattaya I feel like my land is on the moon. I will move there for a few months and let the wife work the pharmacy. Under optimum conditions, (good soil, water, fertilizer and pruning etc) 5 yrs is min for this trees to produce. (No way to estimate what the price of rubber will be at that time.) Many Thai farmers have 8 yr old trees that still are too small and do not produce, due to lack of knowledge and Money etc. Fortunately, we have a friend who owns 300 rai and is a horticulturalist. For a new man I would suggest possibly looking into planting Corn, rent land and see what comes. Good luck

Thanks for the good luck bit, need it, but if you Google me and Thailand you will see I already run a rubber plantation and have a rubber factory. Live here full time and no out side income. farming is hard anywhere in the world and harder in Thailand. I made it, just, all the best with your rubber, if you look in the farming forum pinned rubber you will find me, plus youtube and a blog. Jim

[chrisrazz]

The only people that make real money out of agriculture are the merchants, be they suppliers or buyers. If your wife comes from a farming background I doubt very much she'll be too excited about getting involved. Ask yourself why she has a foreign husband.

If you really want to 'invest' and you have 4 million at your disposal you could look into buying an established rubber plantation. You have to very very careful though. Firstly, land title, chanot or nor sor sam, otherwise forget it. Look for uncut trees about 6 years old. Research tree variety, soil composition, what is under the soil and location. Location is important as rubber is fairly new to issan, you need to find a site that has good rainfall and climate, elevation etc. I can't stress the need for research too much. This is an investment right, so your not going to do the work yourself. Cutting rubber is done at night and the latex is collected in the morning. The common way of operating is that you engage workers that live on plantation, so you need to build accommodation. They do the work for 40% of the take, you have to buy the fertiliser and manage the sales. You dont need to process into sheets, but they are easy to transport and can be kept for better prices. To process liquid latex to sheets you need power and water, not rain water. You need to get experienced rubber workers, preferably from out of town as locals will scam you. Out of town workers will scam you too, but at least they lack local knowledge. You need to be very careful as latex production can be chemically induced to the detriment of the trees' future production, ie it's fuc_ked. Rubber prices are very low right now and future projections are not good. At ten years old the tree starts to hit its peak, but can be tapped at 7 years. Once the trees are exhausted, there is a timber value of about a million baht a rai. So for the sake of argument 30 rai will be worth 30 million in timber for 25 year old trees at today's prices that is. My son works 20 rai in Surat, his share varies from 20k to 30k a month during tapping season.

Good luck.

There's no real estate network to help you find a place, it's all word of mouth. Not to worry, there are so many many 'chancers' on commission out there that once the word gets out you're looking for rubber they'll be coming to you, and keep coming. Trying to find out how much you can expect to earn is almost impossible. Those selling land overstate it massively, in fact there is a thread topic on this site I'd trust more than anything.

[tingtong]

One thing to consider in the "renting vs. buying" scenario....... the ever increasing price of land. We have made very good money on our land purchases over the last couple of years. The farming could be a wash and we would still walk away winners if we sold the land.

while in general i agree with this statement, however you seem to completely ignore that the money not "invested" into land ( and as so many times mentioned not "your " land the usual case) still makes a return, as one needs to be most silly not to at least hold it in a bank deposit, or any other interest bearing construction.

when renting, this interest can easily! take care the rent usually ( 4% interest vs. say 1500b/yr rent on a 50k baht worth land?), while you have complete control of your capital, that is, remains on your name!

just mentioning...

[somo]

The only people that make real money out of agriculture are the merchants, be they suppliers or buyers. If your wife comes from a farming background I doubt very much she'll be too excited about getting involved. Ask yourself why she has a foreign husband.

If you really want to 'invest' and you have 4 million at your disposal you could look into buying an established rubber plantation. You have to very very careful though. Firstly, land title, chanot or nor sor sam, otherwise forget it. Look for uncut trees about 6 years old. Research tree variety, soil composition, what is under the soil and location. Location is important as rubber is fairly new to issan, you need to find a site that has good rainfall and climate, elevation etc. I can't stress the need for research too much. This is an investment right, so your not going to do the work yourself. Cutting rubber is done at night and the latex is collected in the morning. The common way of operating is that you engage workers that live on plantation, so you need to build accommodation. They do the work for 40% of the take, you have to buy the fertiliser and manage the sales. You dont need to process into sheets, but they are easy to transport and can be kept for better prices. To process liquid latex to sheets you need power and water, not rain water. You need to get experienced rubber workers, preferably from out of town as locals will scam you. Out of town workers will scam you too, but at least they lack local knowledge. You need to be very careful as latex production can be chemically induced to the detriment of the trees' future production, ie it's fuc_ked. Rubber prices are very low right now and future projections are not good. At ten years old the tree starts to hit its peak, but can be tapped at 7 years. Once the trees are exhausted, there is a timber value of about a million baht a rai. So for the sake of argument 30 rai will be worth 30 million in timber for 25 year old trees at today's prices that is. My son works 20 rai in Surat, his share varies from 20k to 30k a month during tapping season.

Good luck.

There's no real estate network to help you find a place, it's all word of mouth. Not to worry, there are so many many 'chancers' on commission out there that once the word gets out you're looking for rubber they'll be coming to you, and keep coming. Trying to find out how much you can expect to earn is almost impossible. Those selling land overstate it massively, in fact there is a thread topic on this site I'd trust more than anything.

That it then. Rubber men are nuts (sorry jamesc)

Disagree with most of your first paragraph.

We farm about 40 rai of cassava and make good money %wise

Its great just stick it in the ground and watch it grow.

My wife comes from a farming background and loves it.

I do wonder sometimes what she saw in me. It must have been potential/lust as I was skint when got together.

[jamescollister]

The only people that make real money out of agriculture are the merchants, be they suppliers or buyers. If your wife comes from a farming background I doubt very much she'll be too excited about getting involved. Ask yourself why she has a foreign husband.

If you really want to 'invest' and you have 4 million at your disposal you could look into buying an established rubber plantation. You have to very very careful though. Firstly, land title, chanot or nor sor sam, otherwise forget it. Look for uncut trees about 6 years old. Research tree variety, soil composition, what is under the soil and location. Location is important as rubber is fairly new to issan, you need to find a site that has good rainfall and climate, elevation etc. I can't stress the need for research too much. This is an investment right, so your not going to do the work yourself. Cutting rubber is done at night and the latex is collected in the morning. The common way of operating is that you engage workers that live on plantation, so you need to build accommodation. They do the work for 40% of the take, you have to buy the fertiliser and manage the sales. You dont need to process into sheets, but they are easy to transport and can be kept for better prices. To process liquid latex to sheets you need power and water, not rain water. You need to get experienced rubber workers, preferably from out of town as locals will scam you. Out of town workers will scam you too, but at least they lack local knowledge. You need to be very careful as latex production can be chemically induced to the detriment of the trees' future production, ie it's fuc_ked. Rubber prices are very low right now and future projections are not good. At ten years old the tree starts to hit its peak, but can be tapped at 7 years. Once the trees are exhausted, there is a timber value of about a million baht a rai. So for the sake of argument 30 rai will be worth 30 million in timber for 25 year old trees at today's prices that is. My son works 20 rai in Surat, his share varies from 20k to 30k a month during tapping season.

Good luck.

There's no real estate network to help you find a place, it's all word of mouth. Not to worry, there are so many many 'chancers' on commission out there that once the word gets out you're looking for rubber they'll be coming to you, and keep coming. Trying to find out how much you can expect to earn is almost impossible. Those selling land overstate it massively, in fact there is a thread topic on this site I'd trust more than anything.

Think you will find that unless you have Malaysia rubber clones there is no million Baht a rai for lumber, Thailand is full of Rimm 600 and some 251s, not much of a return on lumber. Jim

[Mark1971]

The only people that make real money out of agriculture are the merchants, be they suppliers or buyers. If your wife comes from a farming background I doubt very much she'll be too excited about getting involved. Ask yourself why she has a foreign husband.

If you really want to 'invest' and you have 4 million at your disposal you could look into buying an established rubber plantation. You have to very very careful though. Firstly, land title, chanot or nor sor sam, otherwise forget it. Look for uncut trees about 6 years old. Research tree variety, soil composition, what is under the soil and location. Location is important as rubber is fairly new to issan, you need to find a site that has good rainfall and climate, elevation etc. I can't stress the need for research too much. This is an investment right, so your not going to do the work yourself. Cutting rubber is done at night and the latex is collected in the morning. The common way of operating is that you engage workers that live on plantation, so you need to build accommodation. They do the work for 40% of the take, you have to buy the fertiliser and manage the sales. You dont need to process into sheets, but they are easy to transport and can be kept for better prices. To process liquid latex to sheets you need power and water, not rain water. You need to get experienced rubber workers, preferably from out of town as locals will scam you. Out of town workers will scam you too, but at least they lack local knowledge. You need to be very careful as latex production can be chemically induced to the detriment of the trees' future production, ie it's fuc_ked. Rubber prices are very low right now and future projections are not good. At ten years old the tree starts to hit its peak, but can be tapped at 7 years. Once the trees are exhausted, there is a timber value of about a million baht a rai. So for the sake of argument 30 rai will be worth 30 million in timber for 25 year old trees at today's prices that is. My son works 20 rai in Surat, his share varies from 20k to 30k a month during tapping season.

Good luck.

There's no real estate network to help you find a place, it's all word of mouth. Not to worry, there are so many many 'chancers' on commission out there that once the word gets out you're looking for rubber they'll be coming to you, and keep coming. Trying to find out how much you can expect to earn is almost impossible. Those selling land overstate it massively, in fact there is a thread topic on this site I'd trust more than anything.

Think you will find that unless you have Malaysia rubber clones there is no million Baht a rai for lumber, Thailand is full of Rimm 600 and some 251s, not much of a return on lumber. Jim

I tend to agree with Jim, 1 Million baht a Rai stumpage for RRIM600 timber doesn't match my numbers.

The figures I have are 60K Baht a Rai for 21 year old RRIM 600 trees.

[Canada]

One thing to consider in the "renting vs. buying" scenario....... the ever increasing price of land. We have made very good money on our land purchases over the last couple of years. The farming could be a wash and we would still walk away winners if we sold the land.

while in general i agree with this statement, however you seem to completely ignore that the money not "invested" into land ( and as so many times mentioned not "your " land the usual case) still makes a return, as one needs to be most silly not to at least hold it in a bank deposit, or any other interest bearing construction.

when renting, this interest can easily! take care the rent usually ( 4% interest vs. say 1500b/yr rent on a 50k baht worth land?), while you have complete control of your capital, that is, remains on your name!

just mentioning...

Why would you say that I completely ignored that? 4% is <deleted>-ck all. If you have only 4 M baht you better hope to do better than 4% if you are going to try and live off it. My property assets over the last 10 years have outperformed 4% by a wide margin. Since I have been in property here in Thailand, the margin has increased significantly which is good/lucky because the risk is quite high. 4% is fine if you have a lot of money and just want to be safe and live off your modest earnings. My mother does this but she earns closer to 6%.

[Canada]

The only people that make real money out of agriculture are the merchants, be they suppliers or buyers. If your wife comes from a farming background I doubt very much she'll be too excited about getting involved. Ask yourself why she has a foreign husband.

If you really want to 'invest' and you have 4 million at your disposal you could look into buying an established rubber plantation. You have to very very careful though. Firstly, land title, chanot or nor sor sam, otherwise forget it. Look for uncut trees about 6 years old. Research tree variety, soil composition, what is under the soil and location. Location is important as rubber is fairly new to issan, you need to find a site that has good rainfall and climate, elevation etc. I can't stress the need for research too much. This is an investment right, so your not going to do the work yourself. Cutting rubber is done at night and the latex is collected in the morning. The common way of operating is that you engage workers that live on plantation, so you need to build accommodation. They do the work for 40% of the take, you have to buy the fertiliser and manage the sales. You dont need to process into sheets, but they are easy to transport and can be kept for better prices. To process liquid latex to sheets you need power and water, not rain water. You need to get experienced rubber workers, preferably from out of town as locals will scam you. Out of town workers will scam you too, but at least they lack local knowledge. You need to be very careful as latex production can be chemically induced to the detriment of the trees' future production, ie it's fuc_ked. Rubber prices are very low right now and future projections are not good. At ten years old the tree starts to hit its peak, but can be tapped at 7 years. Once the trees are exhausted, there is a timber value of about a million baht a rai. So for the sake of argument 30 rai will be worth 30 million in timber for 25 year old trees at today's prices that is. My son works 20 rai in Surat, his share varies from 20k to 30k a month during tapping season.

Good luck.

There's no real estate network to help you find a place, it's all word of mouth. Not to worry, there are so many many 'chancers' on commission out there that once the word gets out you're looking for rubber they'll be coming to you, and keep coming. Trying to find out how much you can expect to earn is almost impossible. Those selling land overstate it massively, in fact there is a thread topic on this site I'd trust more than anything.

Personally, I would not jump right into rubber. While it has been good for some people for some time, my thoughts since studying farming here for a couple of years are this: Thais are lazy in general, everywhere I go i hear about the "lazy value" of a plot of rubber. They look at rubber as winning the lotto. Free money, someone else does the work. And the prices have been good. They also have a habit of destroying a good thing. They rip everything up to plant rubber and drive the price of rubber into the ground, just like lomyai orchards which used to be good money. In my area, they are now ploughing all the rice fields to grow sugar, which is what I grow. At least I earn a yearly crop while I watch and see what happens.

Go ahead and plant some rubber. Wait 7 years for an income while you watch the price of rubber go through the floor. Then try to sell and recoup some of your losses while everyone else is trying to do the same thing. I would be leery of rubber.

[krisb]

Have you considered earth moving equipment?

[IsaanAussie]

Have you considered earth moving equipment?

Have you tried to teach a Thai about equipment limitations and preventative maintenance? Just kidding, but these are things most do AFTER it "got old and broke down..."

[tingtong]

One thing to consider in the "renting vs. buying" scenario....... the ever increasing price of land. We have made very good money on our land purchases over the last couple of years. The farming could be a wash and we would still walk away winners if we sold the land.

while in general i agree with this statement, however you seem to completely ignore that the money not "invested" into land ( and as so many times mentioned not "your " land the usual case) still makes a return, as one needs to be most silly not to at least hold it in a bank deposit, or any other interest bearing construction.

when renting, this interest can easily! take care the rent usually ( 4% interest vs. say 1500b/yr rent on a 50k baht worth land?), while you have complete control of your capital, that is, remains on your name!

just mentioning...

Why would you say that I completely ignored that? 4% is <deleted>-ck all. If you have only 4 M baht you better hope to do better than 4% if you are going to try and live off it. My property assets over the last 10 years have outperformed 4% by a wide margin. Since I have been in property here in Thailand, the margin has increased significantly which is good/lucky because the risk is quite high. 4% is fine if you have a lot of money and just want to be safe and live off your modest earnings. My mother does this but she earns closer to 6%.

mentioned only 4% as a very conservative return, what still enable you to rent from that very income the land, and moreover enable you to controll 100% your hard earned money.

face to it, most ppl in thailand come as retirement age, sometimes way over, with a young tilak who could be their grandaughter often....some of these last minute flames doesnt last as long. keeping your money on your side of the world is what safety is in the end, if things arent your way.

as for investment, should you be into real estate, SET trades a bunch of thai REITs, with returns of 6-10%/yr....my avarage used to come about 8%. seeing how much my house's price raised vs the 8% in REITs, the return is very similar, if not the later is the winner. When trying to cash out, definately is the later though.

Anyway, matters a little all this.

The comment i wrote is not a personal attack against anyones view, but i start to feel often than this forum posting thing is understood by many as a war lately.

What if we see things differently?

I can live with that.

[Canada]

"however you seem to completely ignore "

You could find a softer way. The way that you write this comes across as an attack. While people often are open to discussion, direct criticism, I find is usually met with the same; on this forum or in real life. If you want soft and easy, be soft and easy. Don't get your feelings hurt if you blast someone and they blast you back.

[tingtong]

"however you seem to completely ignore "

You could find a softer way. The way that you write this comes across as an attack. While people often are open to discussion, direct criticism, I find is usually met with the same; on this forum or in real life. If you want soft and easy, be soft and easy. Don't get your feelings hurt if you blast someone and they blast you back.

just a few words, and from my side this is closed

i havent read any mention in your post i replied too about that aspect, thus that post completely ignored this points i addressed.

it wasnt any attack, nor intended to be; a fact stated.

and second: notice in the big analysis that my nick is not Canada, nor NZ this, or Kiwithat...my first language is not English, with any one dialect or accent, or whatever you wish to call.

It is a second language in best, thus where it seems raw or not softened enough, it may just well stand to my limited vocabulary, and not in any intention to attack.

While the forum English, i dont think we all have to be a native speaker to participate, but maybe i am wrong there, as sure by far the majority seem to be native.

[Mark1971]

"however you seem to completely ignore "

You could find a softer way. The way that you write this comes across as an attack. While people often are open to discussion, direct criticism, I find is usually met with the same; on this forum or in real life. If you want soft and easy, be soft and easy. Don't get your feelings hurt if you blast someone and they blast you back.

just a few words, and from my side this is closed

i havent read any mention in your post i replied too about that aspect, thus that post completely ignored this points i addressed.

it wasnt any attack, nor intended to be; a fact stated.

and second: notice in the big analysis that my nick is not Canada, nor NZ this, or Kiwithat...my first language is not English, with any one dialect or accent, or whatever you wish to call.

It is a second language in best, thus where it seems raw or not softened enough, it may just well stand to my limited vocabulary, and not in any intention to attack.

While the forum English, i dont think we all have to be a native speaker to participate, but maybe i am wrong there, as sure by far the majority seem to be native.

While Ting Tong could have made his comment in a less confrontational way (explained by English not being his native language), I think that the points he made are valid ones, which many of us ignore.

A good way to value land or any other asset is to look at its rental yield, based upon this method of valuation, much of the farming land in Thailand currently looks very expensive.

If the land sells for 100k / Rai & rents for 2k / Rai / Year, renting the land & investing your capital in income yielding assets you can personally own doesn't seem a bad idea to me.

The price of Thai farmland can't continue to rise at the current rate forever, just as house prices in Spain / Ireland / USA couldn't.

[loong]

I didn't see Tingtong's comment as aggressive or confrontational and I am a native speaker.

He made a valid point as far as I can see. A small return on invested capital, instead of investing that capital in buying the land will more than cover the rent on a similar sized piece of land. In fact, you could probably afford to rent more land with the return on the investment than you would be able to buy.

He also touches on the valid point that the investment can be safely held in his name in his own country.

In Thailand, he cannot invest in land, he can only gift the investment and control of the asset to someone else.

If a foreigner buys land and puts it in someone else's name, it belongs to that person. not the foreigner that put up the money.

No matter how much the land value appreciates, the foreigner will only make a profit if the property is sold and if the owner decides to share that profit.

Yes, you can have total trust in the nominee buyer, but so many foreigners have found their trust to be unfounded and that their fantastic investments have yielded a 100% loss.

I knew a Thai lady that returned from Europe after winning the lottery (and I mean that literally) . She could totally trust her son 100% couldn't she? She bought huge amounts of land in her son's name amounting to some 50 million Baht. Suddenly her son was extremely popular with the ladies and ended up marrying a real stunner.

Unfortunately the son died in an accident and the wife inherited everything. The Mother had nothing. Yes it happens to Thais as well.

[oldsailor35]

sometimes i think she,s just happy to live off our savings so maybe its a non starter from the begining but i would love to hear some ways of investing money in isaan. just so i can make more enquiries myself.

To make money from farming in Thailand.

1) You need to have experience.

2) Your wife needs to want to do it.

3) Hard work and dedication from both of you.

From what you have posted, any money you invest in farming will be a total write off, with no profit at all.

Don't do it.

So how about a Mia Noi ?

[somo]

Loong you are so right.

Bitter farangs think they are targeted but the fact is that Thais rip off each other just as much.

I don't believe it is a cultural thing (in fact I think Thais are on the whole an honest bunch) but just that the looseness and uncertanty of Thai law and its enforcement make theft of one sort or another something people can get away with. It is human nature to profit from others if one possibly can. Us humans are not a very nice species in this respect.

[NeverSure]

Have you considered earth moving equipment?

I have been reading with interest. No farming experience in LOS but grew up with it in US.

There was a spot a ways back mentioning contracting grass seed, and the labor to harvest. The first thing that popped into my mind was a seed harvester. We used to make money custom working combines even when our yields were low. In the Willamette Valley in Oregon, USA and some in Washington State, much grass seed is grown but it is for lawns. They harvest that with converted combines.

These types of grasses in LOS sound harder to harvest. I'd be tempted to look into buying one of these, hire an operator and custom harvest. This machine will harvest and clean almost any grass seed, but was developed to harvest native prairie grasses on the Great Plains of the US. That was a challenge.

At least it would be worth a look if they are growing that much.

[Michael Hare]

Have you considered earth moving equipment?

I have been reading with interest. No farming experience in LOS but grew up with it in US.

There was a spot a ways back mentioning contracting grass seed, and the labor to harvest. The first thing that popped into my mind was a seed harvester. We used to make money custom working combines even when our yields were low. In the Willamette Valley in Oregon, USA and some in Washington State, much grass seed is grown but it is for lawns. They harvest that with converted combines.

These types of grasses in LOS sound harder to harvest. I'd be tempted to look into buying one of these, hire an operator and custom harvest. This machine will harvest and clean almost any grass seed, but was developed to harvest native prairie grasses on the Great Plains of the US. That was a challenge.

At least it would be worth a look if they are growing that much.

The problem with using machines is the unsynchronised flowering of tropical grasses compared to the synchronised flowering of temperate grasses such as ryegrass. With these temperate grasses, farmers can pretty well judge the time of maximum seed set and then move in with combine harvesters and either direct head or thresh from the winnow. Not so with tropical grasses. In Queensland farmers do direct head but their yields are low. In Brazil, all tropical grasses are allowed to seed and the seed is swept up from the soil using massive road sweepers. Cleaning is a massive job. Here in Thailand I have used machines in the past but nothing beats our very intensive methods of hand harvesting. Farmers fields are small, on hill slopes and slowly hand harvesting over several days produces extremely high quality seed.

This year seed yields have been excellent, with farmers averaging close to 10,000 baht nett return per rai. I just purchased 70 tonnes of grass seed last week.

Another crop worth looking at is kenaf. In Ubon province companies are contracting farmers to grow kenaf for two products. The first is the stalk which is used for industrial fibre product. The second is the leafy tops which are dried and made into pellets for dairy and beef cattle fed. Shortly we will start looking at pelleting some of our high quality grasses. The farmers only have to cut the kenaf at certain intervals and it is delivered fresh to the processing plants which then do the drying and compressing into dried pellets.

All sorts of exciting things happening in the grass seed and forage feed industries right here in Ubon. I believe they are better options that growing cassava and rubber. Prices are guaranteed and stable.

[IsaanAussie]

Have you considered earth moving equipment?

I have been reading with interest. No farming experience in LOS but grew up with it in US.

There was a spot a ways back mentioning contracting grass seed, and the labor to harvest. The first thing that popped into my mind was a seed harvester. We used to make money custom working combines even when our yields were low. In the Willamette Valley in Oregon, USA and some in Washington State, much grass seed is grown but it is for lawns. They harvest that with converted combines.

These types of grasses in LOS sound harder to harvest. I'd be tempted to look into buying one of these, hire an operator and custom harvest. This machine will harvest and clean almost any grass seed, but was developed to harvest native prairie grasses on the Great Plains of the US. That was a challenge.

At least it would be worth a look if they are growing that much.

The problem with using machines is the unsynchronised flowering of tropical grasses compared to the synchronised flowering of temperate grasses such as ryegrass. With these temperate grasses, farmers can pretty well judge the time of maximum seed set and then move in with combine harvesters and either direct head or thresh from the winnow. Not so with tropical grasses. In Queensland farmers do direct head but their yields are low. In Brazil, all tropical grasses are allowed to seed and the seed is swept up from the soil using massive road sweepers. Cleaning is a massive job. Here in Thailand I have used machines in the past but nothing beats our very intensive methods of hand harvesting. Farmers fields are small, on hill slopes and slowly hand harvesting over several days produces extremely high quality seed.

This year seed yields have been excellent, with farmers averaging close to 10,000 baht nett return per rai. I just purchased 70 tonnes of grass seed last week.

Another crop worth looking at is kenaf. In Ubon province companies are contracting farmers to grow kenaf for two products. The first is the stalk which is used for industrial fibre product. The second is the leafy tops which are dried and made into pellets for dairy and beef cattle fed. Shortly we will start looking at pelleting some of our high quality grasses. The farmers only have to cut the kenaf at certain intervals and it is delivered fresh to the processing plants which then do the drying and compressing into dried pellets.

All sorts of exciting things happening in the grass seed and forage feed industries right here in Ubon. I believe they are better options that growing cassava and rubber. Prices are guaranteed and stable.

This is exciting stuff. I have been looking at alternate animal feeds for some time and my next step is to start on-farm pelletising. Add to this the use of fermented materials which include lactic aid bacteria and the range of materials expands, add molasses and rice bran and on it goes again. Moringa, napier grass and water plants on and on...

Then take all the biomass that is wasted on farm and pellitise/briquette those and cleaner fuels are available for village use. Add gasifier stoves and use the char, ash and wood vinegar on farm as well reducing external materials. Composts and fertilisers can be included, manures pelletised...

Michael, you are really onto something here. As I said exciting stuff!

[tingtong]

I would love to grow grass seeds!

In fact that seem to be what grew most this year, only on the ricefields, and unintentionally.

Too bad that Ubon if far far and more far away from us.

Anything similarly exciting that would be happening in Khon Kaen, or Chaiyaphum by any chance?

[David48]

... Another crop worth looking at is kenaf. In Ubon province companies are contracting farmers to grow kenaf for two products. The first is the stalk which is used for industrial fibre product. The second is the leafy tops which are dried and made into pellets for dairy and beef cattle fed. Shortly we will start looking at pelleting some of our high quality grasses. The farmers only have to cut the kenaf at certain intervals and it is delivered fresh to the processing plants which then do the drying and compressing into dried pellets.

All sorts of exciting things happening in the grass seed and forage feed industries right here in Ubon. I believe they are better options that growing cassava and rubber. Prices are guaranteed and stable.

Thanks for that really interesting insight ... I had to know more.

Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) is an annual fibre crop that originated in central Africa. It is a member of the hibiscus family and is closely related to okra and cotton.

Cultivated forms of kenaf are erect, herbaceous annuals that can grow to a height of five metres in a 120 - 150 day growing season. Plants will branch when widely spaced but they are generally grown very close together and this results in plants with straight, slender stems.

With its summer growth habit it would fit well in the sugarcane farming system as an income-producing fallow crop.

A guide to kenaf production in Queensland