Sugarcane

[jopham]

Shit I just lost 45 minutes of typing a reply to Thoonfoned and a further update and lost it all in a computer glitz.

I will reply soon.

I have 2 year old twins and they need their daddy.

[Canada]

jopham, those are good amounts to produce, even the bottom amount is well above what people around us could only dream of achieving,

brother in law "rents" a small amount of land from us. he does all the work himself (with wife children) even cuts and carts to the middle man. his best harvest was under 8 ton a rai last year, that's on the best land too. other land less than this. other sugar around us looks worse then his, so hate to think what people get back. the only way he made any money was by doing all the work themselves , I been looking at sugar for a good while and i think the only way to make money is to have all the machines yourself and plenty of land and very good returns per rai, this in turn means massive investment! good on you and your wife from what you are achieving.

people around us (udon thani province) rent the land out much cheaper. i have heard of people paying 500 baht rai per year. thai people who i know that farm on your scale would not pay much more than this also. alot do the free third year deal, people seem to be happy with this here.

do you ever sell early? for the first time ever we had some cash buyers here the other day. would not give me a firm price on "good" sugar. got the impression the price that would be offered was 350-450 per ton.

burn it and let it rot before selling it at that price.

[Canada]

In my opinion there is not enough money in cane as a land owner, never mind as a lessee at 3000 baht per rai. She can harvest and transport herself which is a big bonus, but I'd rather be the guy leasing the land out and doing nothing. For someone who cannot cut and transport them selves, 3000 baht for land takes pretty much every baht of profit out of it.

300-500 rai of owned land with no money owing on it and all the equipment for working the land, planting, spraying and all the way to harvesting and transporting is a good business. I figure the biggest problem would be finding all the help you need when you need it.

[jopham]

quick reply to Thoongfoned

We never sell early.

This year the price will be around the 850 baht mark (plus if the sugar contence is higher than normal you might get 50 up to 200 baht per ton more) Last year to have the sugarcane cut and transported to the sugarmill (price is said by the sugarmill) was 290 baht per ton.

So if the sugar is good you can expect about 900 baht per ton. If you get offered 350-450 per ton and the cost for them is 290baht to cut and deliver, you can work out how much you are losing out of.

If the rent of the land was only 500 baht per rai, I think that my wife would have never bought but only rented.

200 Rai times roughly 35.000 baht is 7.000.000 baht. 200 Rai times 500 baht is 100.000 baht. By sticking 7 mil in the bank you get more than 100,000 even in Thailand.

Cheers Jopham

[jopham]

I figure the biggest problem would be finding all the help you need when you need it.

Yes this is a very big problem.

To overcome part of this problem my wife has made 2 business contacts in Isaan where they supply us with about 30-35 persons to help in the havesting time. But that is gives a lot of problems as well.

She employs 8-10 persons full time besides to people from Isaan.

Cheers Jopham

[thoongfoned]

quick reply to Thoongfoned

We never sell early.

This year the price will be around the 850 baht mark (plus if the sugar contence is higher than normal you might get 50 up to 200 baht per ton more) Last year to have the sugarcane cut and transported to the sugarmill (price is said by the sugarmill) was 290 baht per ton.

So if the sugar is good you can expect about 900 baht per ton. If you get offered 350-450 per ton and the cost for them is 290baht to cut and deliver, you can work out how much you are losing out of.

If the rent of the land was only 500 baht per rai, I think that my wife would have never bought but only rented.

200 Rai times roughly 35.000 baht is 7.000.000 baht. 200 Rai times 500 baht is 100.000 baht. By sticking 7 mil in the bank you get more than 100,000 even in Thailand.

Cheers Jopham

no at those prices do not think bro in law would have sold. (he is out country at mo) but last year he was skint so I think I would have given it some thought........

the only way that I can see you would make any ok money back from sugar would be to yield min 10 ton rai and do ALL work you self, thats what bro in law does, but he does not achieve 10 ton rai. we aslo let him flood the land with water from our aeration pits from pig farm so he does not have the added cost of vits, only petrol money for the suck pump.

asked the "boss" and she said yes people still rent out "not great" land at 500-600 year aria. (stony land ect...) and the very top end would be 1000 aria year. in this area people go for the third year for them option a lot.........

farming at a good level on a large scale like you do is the way to go, but its very expensive to do this.

thanks for sharing.

[NeverSure]

Question? Has anyone with large operations ever considered importing a vineyard tractor? These are used a lot by people with large vineyards and corn growing operations.

How tall is your variety of sugar cane? This thing will plant, cultivate and fertilize. I've seen them for sale used. I would think it could make money using it on other peoples' farms???

[slapout]

It was reported today that several countries have put Thailand on a ''do not buy list'' due to past shipments of sugar being under invoiced weight. The weight specified per sack was short in a quanity that will eliminate Thailand from another potential foreign market.

Thailand has already conceteded that their sugar stockpile is a few million ton more than normal due to global conditions,

Is there no part of this countries police, civil servent, trade, enforcement, education, customs, medical, transport, etc which is not bent to some degree?

[tingtong]

It was reported today that several countries have put Thailand on a ''do not buy list'' due to past shipments of sugar being under invoiced weight. The weight specified per sack was short in a quanity that will eliminate Thailand from another potential foreign market.

Thailand has already conceteded that their sugar stockpile is a few million ton more than normal due to global conditions,

Is there no part of this countries police, civil servent, trade, enforcement, education, customs, medical, transport, etc which is not bent to some degree?

NO!

[mixedbreed]

We ran into labor shortage problems for both sugar cane and Cassava harvesting a couple of season's ago, we had the Kubota M7040 tractor already, so purchased the high loader from CX-Tractor in Bangkok. Since we don't manually load the trucks anymore This has allowed us to do the harvest with just the regular farm workers and rental trucks.

[Canada]

mixed breed

How much are you paying for your rental trucks?

[Canada]

Question? Has anyone with large operations ever considered importing a vineyard tractor? These are used a lot by people with large vineyards and corn growing operations.

How tall is your variety of sugar cane? This thing will plant, cultivate and fertilize. I've seen them for sale used. I would think it could make money using it on other peoples' farms???

14_6_4.jpg

Cane in it's final stages is pretty tall (4M +) , but would not require any work at that stage. If a person did not spray on time, or could not for some reason, I could see a use for this unit for spraying or for a final application of fertilizer. Once the cane gets much over "head height" people do not fertilize as it's too difficult to walk and broadcast by hand. If you were going to fertilize again using this tractor, that would also mean extra cost for the cane and I'm not sure that one more application would be worth it. especially given the specialized equipment. The bottom line is already pretty thin in this business and the Thais know how to invest as little as possible from what I can tell.

[Canada]

BTW I have 50 rai for sale. Cane is coming into it's fourth year. 3 wells, a pond and an almost complete building for workers and a house number so that the power company will supply a meter to pull electricity in from the main road. On a main paved road not far from Sri Bun Rueang in the province of Nong Bua Lamphu. 160,000 per rai.

[mixedbreed]

Hello Canada,

We pay around

160 baht / ton for truck to take Cassava to Factory, Approx 60 kilometers

180 baht / ton for truck to take Sugar cane to factory, approx 60 kilomteres.

[Canada]

Hello Canada,

We pay around

160 baht / ton for truck to take Cassava to Factory, Approx 60 kilometers

180 baht / ton for truck to take Sugar cane to factory, approx 60 kilomteres.

Thanks. Do you pay for wait time at the factory too? Some times the trucks get stuck at the factory for days.

[mixedbreed]

Hello Canada,

No, all inclusive, I don't remember the Cassava trucks having to wait more than a few hours. The sugar cane trucks can wait a few days, but thats why they charge more.

[Cashboy]

Canada,

I read this post when you first posted it with great interest as was looking at farming in Thailand on a commercial basis.

I concluded after reading your article that I should look at farming as a means of self sufficient food supply but nothing more as like you say can earn more in a few months in the west without the capital outlay and hassle with trying to get Thais to actually do as you request.

I see that you are selling up after a four year stint at sugar cane from the sale of your tractor advert.

I am sure that you calculated the figures ( you seem numerate and logical).

I would be interested to know the figures you achieved in the end and also the capital outlay of equipment.

I would say the blessing will have been the profit you have made on the sale of the land if you are getting 160,000 bt per rai.

Edited April 19, 2015 by Cashboy

[Canada]

Ha!

Yes I started keeping track until it escalatedo out of control and I realized the trap that I had created. If I do get out, I'll consider myself lucky. Lesson learned. I did well in that I bought well. So there is profit in selling the land that does cover losses on the equipment.

[somo]

Have any of you having a hard time with sugar tried growing cassava. It is pretty easy and profitable.

I saw a post above from someone transporting cassava 60 kilometres. My first inclination was that if that was the nearest buyer then try opening a biz buying and drying local cassava and selling directly to the mills. If no competition there's good money in it I am sure as the ones around us seem very prosperous. Quite a big investment though.

[vivasamui]

Hi Canada, how is the drought affecting your cane harvest this season 2015/16? How about the other cane growers in the region (North, Northeast)?

What month does the harvest and crush usually start? How about this year 2016?

Thank you for the progress report, and good luck!