August 14, 201411 yr Popular Post [attachment=279034:DSC00886.jpg][attachment=279035:DSC00998(2).JPG][attachment=279036:DSC01000(1).JPG][attachment=279037:DSC01001(2).JPG][attachment=279038:DSC01003(3).JPG][attachment=279039:DSC01004.JPG][attachment=279040:DSC01005(1).JPG] Earlier this year I had a JD6620 corn combine disassembled, containerized and shipped from the US. It arrived on 1 May and the first picture shows it being unloaded from the container along with the other 116 parts. It has been assembled and modified to fit ( decreased horizontal profile and reworked header from 6 to 4 row along with other mods) where it will be used and the first test run was conducted this past weekend. Other than some minor adjustments due to the small cob size because of the drought all went well. The corn's still contains too much moisture to be harvested but she's set to go in about another two weeks. When I started this project I never dreamed that it would ever happen as everything was done via the net, but there it is! It was actually a fun project and the locals are looking to have me import additional units.
August 14, 201411 yr Author Amazing stuff. John Deere? How much did that set you back to ship it here? The 40 footcontainer was packed and shipped from Illinois. The rail freight, sea freight and container drayage from there through Long Beach to Bangkok was $4500. The total charges on this end were approximately $2300 delivered to my facility including Customs clearance and inspection, not duty, in Nakhon Sawan Province. So the total cost was approximately $6800 door to door from the packing facility in Illinois. I did have to pay US transport to the facility and dis-assembly charges in the US but was invoiced separately. I hired a reputable customs broker in Bangkok upfront and consigned the shipment directly to him. I paid 5% duty and 7% VAT on the total CIF Bangkok charges (that's why the US shipping and packing were invoiced sperately). I did pay about $200 extra since the shipping line MSC, uses Unithai Container Terminal in Bangkok which is a private Terminal.
August 14, 201411 yr Author Wayne ... I enjoyed that heaps! Any plans to hire the beast to other farmers? . I bought it in the name of a registered Thai company, a farm coop, that owns many different types of farm equipment that is used by all, but only operated by qualified people. We have two other combines and many other pieces of farm equipment.
August 15, 201411 yr ".....and the locals are looking to have me import additional units." Would that be the locals who normally harvest the corn by hand? Just asking. Regards.
August 15, 201411 yr Author In the past all corn here was harvested by hand, Over the past few years more and more is being harvested mechanically. As I said we have two other combines, a JD 4435 and a JD9500, both of them were purchased fully operational here in Thailand at a ridiculous markup. The one in the picture that I imported was disassembled in the US and re-assembled here and the savings was about 40 - 50%. All of them have been modified to provide as narrow horizontal profile as possible to gain access to the fields through the villages. A lot of the corn will continue to be picked by hand as it is next to impossible to access some fields and the Thais plant corn everywhere. Some of the Thai farmers want to import their own when they get money in their pocket from the current harvest but I have cautioned them about the large investment and getting any ROI but they don't seem to care. I've been trying to get them to import sugar cane combines instead but there is a resistance since they don't think that they will get as much money if the cane is harvested by machine rather than by hand, so most/all of the cane here will be harvested by hand again this year. There area couple of cane harvesters around but they are seldom used. Another problem is the loos of jobs that mechanical harvesting creates. Migrants and locals, relatives, can make a decent daily wage if they are good cutters all be it backbraeking and dirty work.
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