Newbie farmer.

[skibadee]

Hi!

My name is Aleksander and im not quite new to farming, but i'd prefer to request some help/information from you, as im new in Isan.

I dont want to make the introduction too long so, i make it short:

Met a girl, fell in love and want to build a home in Thailand and make enough money to live comfortable.

Girlfriends family got quite bit of land, i cant tell the exact measures, but i gave her father 100,000 baht to prepare some of the land to grow some corn - this might be a bit of help?

We still got twice as much untouched land. To me it seems a LOT of land!
I wont be moving here to Amphoe Phen any time soon, but what i want to do is, i want to ask you - with my normal pay what i get from Singapore is about 110,000 tbh/pmt and i want to invest monthly lets say half out of it. Im European and only 24y.o. later further down i want to open a MT gym, but meanwhile i want to grow my money, and i see a good opportunity to help the family with investing in the land. So the labour would be provided from the familys side too.

Mushrooms, corn, sugar cane, rubber threes, fish pond, pork farm. etc? what are the resourses we looking at here?

Dont bite my head off, as i red most of the topics, but i could find anywhere which would say - to start growing mushrooms your capital got to be ... this much, to build a pork farm you capital got to be...

Thanks for reading!

Aleks.

[gerry123]

sorry did you really mean 100,00 bht?? my experience to prepare/sow and fertilize 1 rai for corn max 1,000 bht so on your spending that's 100 rai ??

[skibadee]

yeah, thats what they told me, apparently thats from the ground up to final crop?

[skibadee]

if a rai is 40x40m id say its 5 rai?

[skibadee]

sorry, 15rai it is, and he wants to adjust the level higher(im not sure what it means) on all 15 rai, and add kiimoo. but there is 2 more locations same size which are untouched atm. so my plan is to invest monthly around 50, 60000 baht... what would be the best bet with about 40 rai?

Edited May 29, 2014 by skibadee

[gerry123]

yeah, thats what they told me, apparently thats from the ground up to final crop?

don't completely understand final crop there will be only one crop from each separate planting unless you talk about

timed planting like do some this week maybe more 2 weeks time so on so on are they doing 100 rai ??

[skibadee]

yeah, thats what they told me, apparently thats from the ground up to final crop?

don't completely understand final crop there will be only one crop from each separate planting unless you talk about

timed planting like do some this week maybe more 2 weeks time so on so on are they doing 100 rai ??

Theyre doing 15 rai right now, but the land is too low and want to raise the level of the land? adding pork shit etc..

[gerry123]

your welcome to my opinion experience when you supply accurate fact info

[canuckamuck]

They want to add soil on top of their land to raise it's level? Doesn't sound right to me, and the price you paid for the 15 rai of corn was at least 5 times too high. It seems to me they have already made their yearly profit. And you want to continue handing cash over monthly? How did they farm before you showed up?

[skibadee]

They didnt farm before, they didnt have the money, her father is a amazing carpenter, but he is getting a bit old to work for others only and struggle. They want to add soil because there is not enough soil, just want to raise the level.. spray the land and spray the crop...

[canuckamuck]

So they are going to buy topsoil? I never heard of a farmer doing that.

[skibadee]

So they are going to buy topsoil? I never heard of a farmer doing that.

Cook the soil and soil conditions? AS they havent touched this land for many years. Not 100% sure what it means. As i sayd im new to this, And my main question is still, what to do with the rest of the land to make the money grow?

Edited May 29, 2014 by skibadee

[Morakot]

Sounds more like land development for a property.

Why would farmland be too low? Too low for what?

[skibadee]

well they want to add a bit of soil and cook the land, add some pork crap etc, and leave some money untill the crop is done, something got to pay the bills meanwhile it grows too

[pigeonjake]

they should dig a 1 or 2 rai pond and use the soil from that to raise the level,,

be carefull with your money my freind,,

thats all im saying, im not being funny,, just be carefull and come here in the farming section often for advice,,

jake

[cdmtdm]

i second Pj be careful , if they are not seasoned farmers and neither are u then save your money , unless the land has a clear chanote dont touch it ....farming is harder than carpentry imo... farming is not easy anywhere in the world and here is no different ...

[skibadee]

Thanks!

Have a clear Chanote and im not so scared of the 100,000.

I know there is all kind of people and not in a bad way but a lot of them in thailand, but sometimes you can just tell that some people wont lie to you.

I trust her father 100% as i know its impossible for him to get the money anywhere else, the whole plan with this 100,000 first is just help the family to gain some kind of income to get by for the future what they can re use.

Im glad you guys look out for the member on this site, but id really appreciate a answer to my question.. what to do with that land? what to grow, whats the resources, how long, etc?

[pigeonjake]

i just hope you understand how much money 100,000 is to a poor farmer,,

its not much to us, 3 days work for me,,

but to them my friend its like wining the lottery,

all im sayimng is be carefull,

i farm pigs, well my wife does most of the time,

but its a bit of an expence to set up, with pens ect, then you have to get your pigs, feed ect, are you going to buy pigets in every month as i do or breed your own, but its a lot of money to get started,

same as any other sort of farming,, you have to put capital in at the start,

so if they have quite a bit of land, are they going to need a tractor if the papa is old?

will they contract one in?

what do other grow near there land,?

do you have water close by?

there are so many questions you have to ask them first,

what can they manage to do?

what would they like to do?

will your g/f be there all the time?

will she want a shop or salon?

come back and ask again when you have asked a few questions to them

be carfull

jake

[thairay]

with 100,000 to start and you keep 'investing'.does not matter too much if anything grows or not really does it...so,give if you like but i say as others have..be careful as you sound like you know nothing about the business of farming..do you speak thai so you know what is being discussed,or just hearing the prepared statement from GF...by the way..who has a clear chanote??NOT YOU.. you have nothing but your trust in a carpenter/farmer who you cannot speak to[my guess],and a GF who learned your language where?even the smart old dogs here have lost/spent money doing the same as you...hope you marry her,have lovely kids and make a fortune here....how is your visa status? open the gym now...if you know anything about running one...50,000 a month or so to invest in a farm..bank it and be safe good luck

[bifftastic]

If you give them ฿50,000 a month, they won't need to do any farming

If you want to be involved in a farm in Thailand, you really have to be there I think.

[Jotham79]

Raising the level of land for farming is more common than you might think, especially with land that repeatedly floods. It is very pricy and I haven't seen anyone make a real return farming. You need to slow down and do a little more research. You could be involved with the most honest people in the world, but that doesn't mean they can make good business decisions. You need to look at all the land and figure out an end game. I would recommend saving a considerable amount of money before starting. I spend almost 2,000 baht on a crop of corn per ria, but I irrigate with a kwai lek. If you can't irrigate you are looking at a single crop.

If you do a little more searching old posts you will find the info you need in general, but there are too money variables for any of us to give you a certain fixed amount. You need to make some decisions....do you need to build a well, should you buy or rent a tractor, what crop of business do you want to run, does the land flood and how bad, dies the land really need to be raised?

Stick with something these people have experience with or you will have a very steep and expensive learning curve.

Good luck