Maize and Rotational Crops

[farmerjo]

Hope it works out ok Wayned,must of been strong winds to take your roof off as it's not that high.

You make me laugh with the stupidvisor bit

Chin up, it allways rains on the needy they say and any rain is good considering the last 12 months,

The weighbridge will still operate without a roof,although the occupants wont be so happy.

Edited April 29, 2016 by farmerjo

[wayned]

The wind was very strong and everything not tied down was airborne. As I said I'm surprised that the last remaining piece of my tree debacle overhanging the electric lines is still standing

The weigh bridge might work, but the computer that generates the documents is a little wet. I'm going to open it up and dry it out and hope!

[BSJ]

The farmers life is giving me the shytes! So we are off to Australia for a holiday. Besides, there isn't any water to water anything we may grow!

And some retard has started a fire in the paddie stubble and it's ripped up the hill and through mar's rubber plantation.

6000 baht/ton for the second lot of corn....still not worth the effort!

[farmerjo]

The farmers life is giving me the shytes! So we are off to Australia for a holiday. Besides, there isn't any water to water anything we may grow!

And some retard has started a fire in the paddie stubble and it's ripped up the hill and through mar's rubber plantation.

6000 baht/ton for the second lot of corn....still not worth the effort!

Hi BSJ,

Good for you,hope you enjoy your holiday back in Aus.

Not a lot anyone can do when a drought is happening and the prices certainly don't reflect the hardship.

Here we are starting to get a few thunderstorms slide around us so a good soaking is not far away.

Once again this year we will be keeping production costs down till some potential is seen.

The beauty of farming here is not the profit but a means to stay active,a good windfall would be nice every couple of years thou for effort put in.

Did your corn contractor charge you by the rai for harvest or was it an all in deal.

[farmerjo]

Tractor time again,the deep ripper i had made last year continues to get a workout.

Went over the piece i had into sunn hemp again and it certainly has made a difference with only a few tight spots this time around.

Also did a small piece coming out of rice last year,that took plenty of tractor grunt to get through it.That will now be seeded to sunn hemp tomorrow.

Gave up on the watermelon idea for now as i'm running out of time.

The old sunn hemp field will be a lottery tomorrow,either a mixture of sunn hemp and soya beans(2 rows hemp 2 rows beans) or sunflowers which i still have seed

not used from last year.Favouring the sunflowers at this stage to break the cycle.If they turn into a cash crop it's a bonus.

The old ford has been sick,cracked injector line followed by the high pressure power steering line wearing out but old faithful is chugging along again.

[BSJ]

The farmers life is giving me the shytes! So we are off to Australia for a holiday. Besides, there isn't any water to water anything we may grow!

And some retard has started a fire in the paddie stubble and it's ripped up the hill and through mar's rubber plantation.

6000 baht/ton for the second lot of corn....still not worth the effort!

Hi BSJ,

Good for you,hope you enjoy your holiday back in Aus.

Not a lot anyone can do when a drought is happening and the prices certainly don't reflect the hardship.

Here we are starting to get a few thunderstorms slide around us so a good soaking is not far away.

Once again this year we will be keeping production costs down till some potential is seen.

The beauty of farming here is not the profit but a means to stay active,a good windfall would be nice every couple of years thou for effort put in.

Did your corn contractor charge you by the rai for harvest or was it an all in deal.

Hi mate, she paid 800 baht/rai for harvest and transport of the corn over to Nong Por which is around 12km away. And 800 baht/rai for the last rice harvest.

I am 63 years old.....to me there is no beauty in farming! I can stay active riding the pushy! But each to his own! I was supposed to be taking a back seat when we moved up here.

We had a shower of rain the other day. Less than 10mm and the orchard needs rain desperately. The dams empty. I go out with the airbus twice a day to water trees. Looks like she will loose a few mango trees....

We are off to Oz on the 24th. I still have a business down there so I have to put in an appearance now and then! I'll be glad to get away from the damned heat.

I forgot to add the pix of the burnt rubber trees last post! Mar and Phu Ya Ban posing for the camera. Needed pixs for tambon office Wang Hin and police at Wang Pong.

[kickstart]

Hi FJ

Glad to see the subsoiler working , now is almost the best time to do it soil dry will get a good shattering effect ,which will open the land out a treat .

How far down are you going ?.

As for growing sunflowers this time of year ,that is almost in unknown territory normally they are a end of the rainy season crop ,they will need a moist seedbed to get them going ,I know you have had more rain than us here in central Lopburi ,but is it enough ,they may need some more water to keep them going ,will it be cost effective .

Glad to see the old Ford is still going , did you ever get them hydraulics sorted out .

[farmerjo]

Hi FJ

Glad to see the subsoiler working , now is almost the best time to do it soil dry will get a good shattering effect ,which will open the land out a treat .

How far down are you going ?.

As for growing sunflowers this time of year ,that is almost in unknown territory normally they are a end of the rainy season crop ,they will need a moist seedbed to get them going ,I know you have had more rain than us here in central Lopburi ,but is it enough ,they may need some more water to keep them going ,will it be cost effective .

Glad to see the old Ford is still going , did you ever get them hydraulics sorted out .

Hi KS,

The ripper is going down to an even depth of about 18 inches.On a year like this having no pasture to seed into because of fire a offset disc plough would be handy to run over the top and smooth things out

Ended up putting in 11 rai of sunflowers and 6 rai of soya beans,dry seeded this morning and had 20mm of rain this afternoon so should get a germination.

Will they grow?,this year i don't care to much as the work away far outweighs the farm income.

It was more of a shed cleanout of what remaining seed stocks i have.They went in the ground with no fertilizer or chemical spray applied.

The same will go for the sunn hemp,it's more seen to be using the land than anything as i will be away and won't be able to manage it correctly so any competition to the weeds is a bonus.

Re the hydraulics,they seem to sorted themselves out and working fine.

Will have a crack at sowing the sunn hemp tomorrow,will see how the morning starts being friday the 13th and all.

@BSJ enjoy your holiday mate,I think burning around on the tractor is more fun than riding a pushy.You might come back with renewed energy for it.

Will those rubber trees grow again?.

[farmerjo]

Had another 7mm of rain last night so got up early and seeded about 35 rai of sunn hemp,stopped about 2pm when the rain started again.Another 5mm.

Forecast says more tonighjt and over the weekend so will wait till monday to finish if conditions are right and also gives me a chance to see what the current germination will be like.

Even after applying gypsum last year it's still slippery in a couple of spots,guess it will take a while to take effect.

Overall it has been a good break to the season although late again this year stopping any corn being planted till mid july.

[kickstart]

Had another 7mm of rain last night so got up early and seeded about 35 rai of sunn hemp,stopped about 2pm when the rain started again.Another 5mm.

Forecast says more tonighjt and over the weekend so will wait till monday to finish if conditions are right and also gives me a chance to see what the current germination will be like.

Even after applying gypsum last year it's still slippery in a couple of spots,guess it will take a while to take effect.

Overall it has been a good break to the season although late again this year stopping any corn being planted till mid july.

Hi FJ

My new rain gauge works ,just recorded 4.5mm this afternoon ,first rain for us this month ,all it has done is to keep the dust down for a few hours ,still getting daily temperatures of 40 -42 c . no more rain forecast for a few days ,but might get the odd local shower .

When anything will get planted /sown round here .I do not know,never known a year like it .

Your sunflowers ,will like a drop of rain , but in the event of too much, sun flowers will not like it , that is why they are a cool season crop ,do not need a lot of water , but if they grow and say get stunted with too much rain ,you could plough them in, would make a good green manure .

[farmerjo]

Hi KS,

We have been lucky,56mm in the last week and a little cooler weather.

It's come at a cost for some farmers around here with strong winds damaging fruit trees.

In one storm the rain came through at right angles so normally it would have all been run off but the ripping worked a treat with zero run off.

In a previous post i said i didn't care to much this year,what i meant to say was happy to spend money on diesel to enhance the ground cover for later in the year but not spend on chemicals and fertilizers at this stage.

Ripping all the land and redoing some as well as seeding has added an extra 150 baht/rai of costs that will come off the cash crop later.

Edited May 14, 2016 by farmerjo

[farmerjo]

Finished seeding on tuesday as had another 17mm monday.All good as copped another 25mm yesterday.

Everything has germinate bar the soya beans and what was planted on tuesday.

Might be a fruitless exercise but will find out what competes well or not against the weeds.

At the end of the day there will be plenty of ground cover one way or the other.

Here's a picture of 4 day old sunn hemp.

[kickstart]

Hi FJ

Those weeds could be a problem ,but looking at your last crop of Sun hemp the rapid growth of the Sun Hemp seemed to swamp out the weeds .

Or something this set of spring tines ,adjust the tines for row spacing's ,your small tractor should pull them ,they would make a good job of weeding between the rows .

[wayned]

Well, after the three days of showers that blew the roof off the weigh station on 29-31 April, about 15-20% of the farmers planted corn in hopes that rainy season had arrived, but there's been no rain since. It's clouded over, has been very windy, thunder in the distance, power outages and even True Vision rain fade outages, but only a drop here and there of any moisture. I planted 2 Rai just for kicks and am gals that I didn't plant the rest. The stalks are only 30cm high and its now 46 days into the normal growth cycle so it looks like it'll be plowed under the same as last year. The rest of the land is prepared for planting but I'm not going to go there until it really comes down as the local "Swami" doesn't have a clue.

The roof is back on the weigh station and we're working on extending the other building and assembly of the new beast is still on hold. I managed to get the rest of my overhanging tree cut down after building an assembly and welding it into the bucket of the front loader. It's also being used as a scaffold to build the addition to the building. Yes, someone was standing on that platform and raised up to cut the branches but definitely not me. Got it all cut down and only broke one power line. I now have a big pile of Manila Tamarind wood chips if anybody needs some for smoking some beef or pork.

[wayned]

We had a big thunderstorm come in yesterday afternoon from the east. Very high winds (blew down a dead mango tree in the orchard), thunder and lightening real close, UBC rain fade on the TV and absolutely no water, not a drop!!! Most of the farmers that planted corn in early May, like I did with 2 rai, have agreed that it'll have to be plowed under the same as last year. It should be at least waist high but mine is about 30cm and some of the big open fields are in far worse shape.

The new roof stayed on the weigh station and my overhanging Manila Tamarind tree is no more.

[kickstart]

Hi wayned

Photo of 2 crops of maize ,on opposite sides of the road about a month apart ,every thing is late this year , farmer are worried about no rain losing the whole crop ,like last year ,as you said crops should be waist high by now .

The shorter crop has yet to have any fertilizer applied ,I think a job for this week .

So far this month we have had 134 mm of rain ,last Friday night had 59 mm in one evening , have seen a lot of farmers drill there maize crops over the past 2 days .

Now end of June only now farmers are drilling there fist crop , makes you wonder if there will be enough time for a second crop of maize ,before the rains stop , I think this years second crop will be mung bean and sunflowers ,less reliant on rain /moisture.

[wayned]

We had a few nice thunderstorms over the past three days and it rained again last night. It's amazing what a little water does. The farmers that have already planted are going to try to salvage what's there and I'm going to have my BIL start planting the other 53 rai today. Most likely will cause the sky to brighten up and the rain to stop!!

[Michael Hare]

Our sunn hemp seed crops in Laos are growing well on the hillsides.

[farmerjo]

Well excited to be back in the LOS even thou the stay is only a month.

Checked the rainfall records and have had 468mm which includes 30mm today for the last 6 weeks.

As i guess the soya beans failed and the sunflowers got wet feet but the sunn hemp managed to compete and make a half decent stand.

Will try to get some better pics when and if the sun makes an appearance.

The FIL was quick to mention slash it and plant maize but that will take a few days to access considering weed control has always been my nemisis.

My neighbour has a belter crop of corn across the road and good to see some good crops in down Wayned and KS'S way.

The sunn hemp in Laos looks to be going really well as well.Amazing what a bit of rain can do.

[farmerjo]

This might be a better shot from mrs's phone.

After a look around i'll keep the sunn hemp in and sunflowers for their looks when flowering.

Rather than me pay for a rice crop in i've offered the FIL 10 rai to sub contract out so he gets at least 30 percent with no cost,interested to see what pans out.

Anybody know the current price for corn at the moment.

[kickstart]

Hi FJ.

The price of corn ,our Wayed at his co-op might have an better idea ,but I would say it is to early yet to say what the price will be ,for us the area of maize is about the same, crops are looking well, yields should be good ,I would say the price would be about the same as last year .

Cassava price was well down this year ,lets hope maize dose not follow .

A few farmers around here are growing maize for maize silage ,for the local dairy cows ,they say they can make more money selling that way than selling the corn .

I know you have had a lot of rain but ,do you think the sub soiling has had any effect ?

[wayned]

I don't have a clue of the current price of corn as there's nothing here that will be ready for harvest until late August if the small amount planted in early May matures. Right now it's looking good and the few showers that we had last week has done wonders. What was 30 cm in my last picture on the 16th of June is now shoulder high but very spotty. All of us that didn't plant in May planted early last week and it's looking good. Although we have had a few days of light rain there has been no downpours and the collection basins remain bone dry. We'll just have to wait and see.

On a positive note the irrigated sweet corn has just silked and I have had my fill of fresh, sweet baby corn from the neighbor down the road. I went and picked a little myself and an hour later the owner showed up at my door with over 10 kilos. What the heck does one person do with 10 kilos of baby corn?

[slapout]

Pickle it, goes great with salads, or even as a side dish .

[kickstart]

I don't have a clue of the current price of corn as there's nothing here that will be ready for harvest until late August if the small amount planted in early May matures. Right now it's looking good and the few showers that we had last week has done wonders. What was 30 cm in my last picture on the 16th of June is now shoulder high but very spotty. All of us that didn't plant in May planted early last week and it's looking good. Although we have had a few days of light rain there has been no downpours and the collection basins remain bone dry. We'll just have to wait and see.

On a positive note the irrigated sweet corn has just silked and I have had my fill of fresh, sweet baby corn from the neighbor down the road. I went and picked a little myself and an hour later the owner showed up at my door with over 10 kilos. What the heck does one person do with 10 kilos of baby corn?

Hi wayned

I thought you would say you did not know about price of corn, asking around here no one knows the price ,Thailand must be the only country where you do not know the price you will get for a commodity until you are about to sell it .

I agree about the rain ,that photo I posted on 26/6 of a crop of maize ,drove past to day ,it is now in flower , but it has had 126 mm of rain ,as you said it will be mid August before it will be harvested , but one crop opposite our house, 30% is under water , a subsoiler would not go a miss there .

One guy near here was drilling his maize crop today ,if he wants a second crop this year ,it will have to be sunflowers ,too late for any maize .

ps Baby sweet corn is nice in Rad-Na,,but 10 kg , you could live on Rad-Na for a month and not use it up .

[farmerjo]

A picture of my neighbours corn 559 variety.

And one of a few sunflowers that survived at home.

With regards to the subsoiling KS,i think it has helped and will continue to do some every year.

Will concentrate on doing less but at the right time,this year i started a little early.

[farmerjo]

Started green manuring the sunn hemp today.

View from the tractor seat.

[

Don't know why 1st pic on it's side.

Edited July 15, 2016 by farmerjo

[kickstart]

Started green manuring the sunn hemp today.

View from the tractor seat.

20160715_130346.jpg

[

20160715165411.jpg

20160715165448.jpg

Don't know why 1st pic on it's side.

Hi FJ

That looks a good crop of sunn hemp ,it has been chopped ,are you going to leave it on the surface ,or incorporate into the soil ,with that amount leaving it on the surface ,a lot will be wasted it ,will dry out and do nothing ,or go mouldy with the high humidity and not rot down like it should,

Incorporating it into the soil ,you would need a tined cultivator ,a rotavator /rotary harrow ,would make the land smear ,at rotavator depth ,making the soil impermeable , water will sit there ,not drain through the soil .

Anyone else any ideas /comments.

[farmerjo]

Started green manuring the sunn hemp today.

View from the tractor seat.

20160715_130346.jpg

[

20160715165411.jpg

20160715165448.jpg

Don't know why 1st pic on it's side.

Hi FJ

That looks a good crop of sunn hemp ,it has been chopped ,are you going to leave it on the surface ,or incorporate into the soil ,with that amount leaving it on the surface ,a lot will be wasted it ,will dry out and do nothing ,or go mouldy with the high humidity and not rot down like it should,

Incorporating it into the soil ,you would need a tined cultivator ,a rotavator /rotary harrow ,would make the land smear ,at rotavator depth ,making the soil impermeable , water will sit there ,not drain through the soil .

Anyone else any ideas /comments.

Hi KS,

I should have not said for green manuring as will be left of top for organic matter build up and slow release of nutrients and weed suppression.

Agreed a lot will probably be wasted.As you say, would be nice to hear if anyone has tried both ways even in a garden style enviroment

and what sort of success is had.

I managed to go and rip a couple of plants up this afternoon and as you can see in picture there is what i think is nodulation on the roots

so that will stay under the ground to give some direct benefit.

[Ron19]

Local crop has got off to a good start

[kickstart]

Hi FJ

Those nodules look ok ,should do some good fixing some N .

I can see what you mean by leaving the plants on the surface , if it helps to supress some weeds ,especially that rice grass , a good move .

But with all the plant matter on top direct drilling could be a problem , the old crop has been chopped , but Thai slashes do not make the best of jobs chopping

plants , a lot long plants matter still left ( the one we used on maize stable did ), I know your drill is a 4 row drill ,with a bit of weight ,and has disc coulters , which

will help chop some of the old plants , but I can still the coulters getting block up ,ok if left for ,say 2 months ? not so much of a problem disc coulters will be able

to cope , and round here, farmers have started to direct drill sunflowers in to maize stubble ,only a few days after harvesting there maize crop so far no problems

with blocked coulters, but they do not have the quantities of plant residue you have .

Your thoughts .