Maize and Rotational Crops

[farmerjo]

On 20/10/2016 at 6:00 PM, wayned said:

Congratulations, I guess!!  Now that you have air con don't forget the fridge, stereo and satellite TV.  Getting parts will probably be a real treat like getting parts for my three beasts.  I did a quick search for Morooka distributors and it looks like the closest is in Mandalay!

 

Congratulations i think it's like winning a Mercedes in a raffle and not being able to afford the insurance, parts and service fees to run it. 

Your JD'S make this look like the Flintstone era.

Still did a trial today and on a bit of wet ground and where the Ford left 1 foot deep marks,the Morooka left none.So there's proof in the pudding if i can make it reliable.

p/s there's enough room for a mini bar fridge,the cab reminds me of the Bellarus 4wd tractors that came on the seen years ago.(fit your family in there)

Edited October 21, 2016 by farmerjo
fit your family in there

[kickstart]

5 hours ago, Jayehl said:

To Kickstart:

No what I meant about moisture is that the corn should be well dried until it is opaque and not transparent in color.  If only I can get contacts of distributors who deal with these type of grain in Thailand and can export 1x20 or 1x40... as long as the same grain we look for, we will get all his supply.  Philippines have white corn but not much also, so I was thinking if maybe growing conditions are similar in Thailand, I was hoping Thailand has these type of white corn as in the photo.  Thank you.

 

To Wayned:

Yes I have looked in the internet.  The problem with Alibaba and all the other b2b sites, is that all the Thailand companies posted are African scammers from Cameroon.  I think they are taking advantage of the fact that Thais dont know how to communicate with english so they pose as Thailand companies who can communicate in English and scam foreign importers who would like to source from Thailand.  All I have contacted, more than 10, are scammers.   Only one i have not ruled out completely which is Zoros .  But chances are this is scammer also.

ZOROS PROMMASON
>> Address: 22 Moo 50 Soi Suksawat 15 Suksawat Rd, T. Bangchak, A.
>> Phrapradaeng, Samutprakarn 10130. Thailand
>> Email: [email protected]
>> Tell: +66923271862
>> Fax: +66923271862
>>
>> Mr Mohammed Malakai Ibrahim
>> Sales Manager
 

Thanks Wayned for suggesting I post here. Good day.

 

To Farmerjo:

Congratulations on the tractor.  Thanks for suggesting i pm redbullhorn.

Jayehl.

           As Wayned  said  farmers do not have any facilities   to dry corn ,and our Thai suppliers ,as the word  implies  are suppliers, they will  buy  corn and sell it  , they  will  probably  buy the  corn from   the farmers  buyer  ,who will  thrash the grain from the cobs ,and   spread it out on concrete  pads to dry ,Thai farmers harvest white corn on the cobs ,something  I have never seen is  a combine  harvesting  white corn , again as Wayned said   Thai farmers grow 2 crops a year ,mainly during the rainy season ,so drying  ,is going to be difficult ,the high humidity alone  during the rainy season  will be a problem ,most corn  is harvested  at about 30%  moisture   ,that has to come down to at least  15%   for safe storage /transport  the only way  will be  a corn  dryer  ,which is something  I have  never seen in  Thailand ,if they was one, the cost of  drying  would be to high  to make the whole   job   viable  ,irrigated  crops during the hot season ,again would  not be  viable ,if farmers have enough water.

KS

[wayned]

Corn Harvest is in full swing here but the prices are way down.  Current price of 15% is 7.2baht/kilo.  We are buying 30% at 4.8baht/kilo and 3.4 on the cob.  Many of the fields are waterlogged from the recent rains and much of the harvesting is being done with a tracked Chinese combine a a couple of Thai made beasts. Small field are being harvested by hand, a real labor intensive mess with 20cm of water and muck!  Two of our three JD's are working full time but the 9500 is sitting on the side of the road with a broken hydraulic pump awaiting parts that I have to get from the US, 173000 baht - OUCH!!!

[kickstart]

Hi wayned

The  low prices are still the same here ,farmers talk about selling corn by the  "Tang", a Thai measurement about the  same as our  bushel  weight 15 kg , the current price is 65 baht / Tang ,which is  4.33,baht .kg ,the moisture will be about  30% ,now higher after  some rain , today  most is being combined  by tracked  machines ,now on light  land the wheeled  combines  can travel .

And now  after harvesting  the locals  walk around the fields  picking up any cobs that  come out the back of the combine ,take the corn  off the cobs and use it  as chicken  feed  ,or sell it to others as  chicken feed .

Mung beans are  looking well , so are  a few  of the sunflower  crops  that have been drilled .

Bugger ,that is one expensive   hydraulic pump ,is they no way  you can get it repaired   here in Thailand .or by the bits any  have it  repaired here.

[wayned]

I've tried to get it repaired here but the "Rube Goldberg" fix that the local did only lasted 1 day. 

 

Actually it's two pumps.  The Hydrostatic Drive Charge pump is driven buy a belt.  The Hydraulic pump  attaches to the shaft in the Hyrdostaic pump.   It's actually the shaft in the hydrostatic pump that is the problem but the part is NLA anywhere!  It would be impossible to have made here as the shaft of the hydraulic pump actually fits into a hole in the end of the shaft in the hydrostatic pump which is NLA.  It's the shiny shaft with the gear on it that is the problem.

 

I ordered both pumps since I'm not sure of the actual cause as it could be the hydraulic pump "freezing" causing the problem with the stripped drive shaft .  Did the bank trasfer yesterday AM and they are on their way EMS and I'll be eating bread and water for a while.  It's early and after reading my explanation I'm not sure that it will make sense to anybody but me!

[wayned]

I didn't go with the worker to the mechanic's shop but from what I can understand is that he cut small thin strips of steel and put them in the hole in the drive shaft when it was in a vertical position and then installed the hydraulic pump shaft and tried to do a press fit by tightening the blots and pounding the back of the pump with a wooden block and hammer until the pieces fit together.  I'd say a valiant try and wonder if my joke about doing just that earlier had anything to do with it.  It actually lasted all one day harvesting but failed about 300 meters from home as the pump failed and the beast headed for the ditch - no steering.  We managed to get it to a neighbors yard by steer it manually with long poles in the mechanisms from the back!

 

The pictures are of what most of the fields near me look like.  This is a small field behind my house where I used to grow sweet corn and veggies, noew it just field corn planted by BIL.  BIL and SIL harvested it by hand over the past two days,  You can see why the beasts can't get in the fields, SIL's boot is still somewhere in the muck!

[farmerjo]

Hope it drys out in order to complete your harvests.

The rain up this way is normally finished by mid october but this year has lingered on.

My neighbour planted another crop of corn 5 days ago and then sprayed,since then we've had 25mm of rain and it's all out of the ground.

My place looks like a jungle which is pretty normal for this time of year but need to get all the weeds spray topped before setting seed.If we don't have anymore rain the Ford should be able to get back on most of the land.

The track machine i'm waiting on a tachometer via ebay and a harmonic damper pulley coming from Japan to get that operational.On a pleasing note my local hino dealer carries seals,gaskets,hoses and filters for the engine.Morooka Japan are chasing new drive sprockets for me,they are 30 percent worn.I went to a local machine shop with a drawing to get pieces made to fill in missing area so could weld in and hardface.They have a profile cutter but wanted 2 arms and a leg to have them made so i have declined to go down that path at this stage. 

[kickstart]

wayned/FJ

               I have just fitter a new set of chain and sprockets to the motor bike, that job was child's play  ,compared to what you are doing  good luck .

FJ

When  I was on the farm we had an old   Track  Marshall  crawler ,metal  tracks ,the farm fitter said  not an easy job replacing sprockets  biggest job  was splitting  the tracks ,I suppose  with rubber tracks a bit easier ,farm  near  here had a big  360 back hoe ,took them  about a week to replace the chain on the tracks ,take all those plates  off ,no air hammer ,just a set of sockets ,probably  Chinese    at that .

Can not see your neighbour   making any thing  from growing maize this time of  year ,soon the rains will stop  and the crop will need some water, with the price  of maize  this year  ,irrigating a maize crop  not viable ,round here we have a few crops of maize about  waist height ,I can not see them  producing anything ,they will be ,as our  local  saying  says  Ben-Pann- Wowa- Yim ,smiling cow verity  ,the crop grows ,normally  flowers ,then withers  ,mainly  short  of water ,then the local  dairy  farmers  ,cut or chop, and feed   it to there  cattle ,as most dairy cows  around here ; only get rice straw  as a  sauce  of roughage ,a bit of green maize makes  a welcome  change for them .                                                                                                                            

[rice555]

On October 19, 2016 at 4:20 PM, Jayehl said:

Good day to all in the Maize and Rotational Crops Forum!

 

I am Jay from Philippines.  I am looking for glutinous or waxy white corn (maize) for human consumption.  I have attached a photo of the exact grain I am looking for.  I know that Thailand's land is rich in Agriculture and Maize is a yearly crop.  I was just wondering if you know any locations that grow this type of maize, or if you know any dealers or big buying stations that can export these white corn in bulk.  I have searched in the internet, and found out that many African scammers are pretending to be Thai companies and so I searched again and again until I found this Thai Forum.  Hopefully, I may get answers and help from you, genuine forum users.  I cannot speak the Thai language so me searching the internet is also limited to english topics.  Please if you know any farmers or any buying stations and agents, please, do refer to me.  We are serious buyers with monthly requirements.  And we hope someone from Thailand can export this particular waxy white corn for human consumption to us.  Thank you very much in advance.  Hope to hear from anyone soon.

 

-Thank you to the friendly forum user who suggested to me posting this in here.
 

Hello All, why don't you contract local? One of these E-W corns might work.

rice555

[farmerjo]

On 28/10/2016 at 9:12 PM, kickstart said:

wayned/FJ

               I have just fitter a new set of chain and sprockets to the motor bike, that job was child's play  ,compared to what you are doing  good luck .

FJ

When  I was on the farm we had an old   Track  Marshall  crawler ,metal  tracks ,the farm fitter said  not an easy job replacing sprockets  biggest job  was splitting  the tracks ,I suppose  with rubber tracks a bit easier ,farm  near  here had a big  360 back hoe ,took them  about a week to replace the chain on the tracks ,take all those plates  off ,no air hammer ,just a set of sockets ,probably  Chinese    at that .

Can not see your neighbour   making any thing  from growing maize this time of  year ,soon the rains will stop  and the crop will need some water, with the price  of maize  this year  ,irrigating a maize crop  not viable ,round here we have a few crops of maize about  waist height ,I can not see them  producing anything ,they will be ,as our  local  saying  says  Ben-Pann- Wowa- Yim ,smiling cow verity  ,the crop grows ,normally  flowers ,then withers  ,mainly  short  of water ,then the local  dairy  farmers  ,cut or chop, and feed   it to there  cattle ,as most dairy cows  around here ; only get rice straw  as a  sauce  of roughage ,a bit of green maize makes  a welcome  change for them .                                                                                                                            

Hi KS,

Yes not sure what the neighbours thinking but i don't know the variety as no bag hanging up so may be sweet corn to sell at local market in the off season.He has a piston pump and bore with water at 9 metres below the surface level.He put rows of pvc and sprinklers out today for its first water after the rains.

As farming goes i'm banished to house improvements(bit of painting)etc for another few days till i can on the land.

Looking forward to getting back on the tractor.(painting sucks)  

Edited October 31, 2016 by farmerjo

[farmerjo]

Interesting.

[wayned]

Got the parts for the JD9500 on Wednesday morning via EMS from Minnesota in the US.  5 days from shipment to receipt, not bad!  I thought that the duty and VAT would be about 19000 baht, but the customs guy must have lost some beads in his abacus and they only got me for about 6000 baht so the parts were only159000 baht total - still ouch!  Put it back together yesterday with no problems and it's ready to go harvesting this morning!

 

Corn prices are still going down, price is down to 7 baht/kilo for 15% and we are only paying 3.1 baht/kilo for on the cob and there's a lot this year do to the wet fields.  A lot of the remaining water is caused by progress!  The continued development of the access roads over the years has blocked the natural drainage and putting in drain pipes under the new roads always seems to be an afterthought.

[farmerjo]

Been out and slashed all the land hoping i got it in time before to much seed set.

Was quite suprised that the Ford had no trouble getting over the land considering we had 75mm of rain less than 2 weeks ago(gypsum must be starting to work).Will start doing fire breaks this afternoon and look at ideas for cleaning the bund walls as it cost roughly 90 baht/rai to slash the field, getting a team in to go around the edges with whipper snippers is not  viable.

No one has started cutting sugar yet but when they do i hope they can contain their fire outbreaks,with so many contract teams coming in these days i have suggested a fire register in the village so you know where and when fires are being lit.(not sure why it's underlined)

I'm pretty sure it fell on deaf ears,you can only try.

 

The rice harvest will be getting into full swing by next week around here with yields looking average to good for the season.

Sugar in the area is above average considering the dry start to the year.

 

[kickstart]

10 hours ago, farmerjo said:

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.

 

.

 

The sub soiling would have helped to ,opened the land out   help  with drainage ,I would say more so than the gypsum .

Maize prices have increased around here ,last week 4.80 baht/kg for grain ,one buyer had some  mung beans  drying ,they  where  22 baht /kg ,not a bad price that will drop ,a lot of  mung beans about ,

this year ,piece on  Thai   TV  10 days ago  saying  cassava prices will be  low this year ,  we shall see,some good crops about this year ,cattle prices are on the way down  to.

Our local sugar mill  is going to cut the price for burnt  sugar cane    it  receives,( or so it is saying ), might be an  incentive  to stop burning ,cutters will not be  happy ,not  easy to find  these  days ,keeping 

cutters  happy might  override  the  environment .

                                                     

[wayned]

A few tried to start cutting sugar last week and stopped real fast as when you get a couple of meters off the roads there's still standing water and there's no way they are going to get the trucks and loaders in the fields.  But, it hasn't rained in 10 days now so there will be  a big black cloud soon!  Corn is finished locally and the sugar looks good due to the late rain that we had.  We still have the beasts harvesting in Chinat and Uthai Tanni Provinces.

 

A few years ago they tried lowering the price of burnt cane but it didn't make any difference.  I haven't heard anything yet this year but I only have 10 Rai and BIL does all and has pocketed any profits since my wife died.  He's in for a rude awakening next year when the rent becomes due!

 

Haven't been out and about for a while.  I had surgery on my foot last Thursday and I.m supposed to "not walk a lot and keep it elevated". Right,  living alone in a large house with nine dogs who don't clean, wash clothes, go to the market or cook.  In addition, my yearly bout of "walking Pneumonia" has set in and I need to go get a injection on top of the strong antibiotics that I'm taking to combat the joint infection in my foot.  Hope that I don't have to piss in a cup anytime soon.

 

 

[kickstart]

Two crops of sunflowers, first crop was direct drilled, 2 row drill, second crop  was sown ,a Ford 6610  with a 7 disk plough/disks   with  a seeder  attachment,  seeds being  dropped in front of the discs and the disk  just discs them in  ,seeder  works  from a land wheel .

 

The  disk / plough ,was the old way  of sowing sunflowers ,sown straight in too  the maize stubble of the previse crop ,as you can see row  spacing's  not even ,not planted at  an even  depth ,lot of weed , which  will equal a low yield .

 

There  was about 10 days between planting the  two  crops .

 

There  was about 3 km between the two crops ,soil  type  about  the same ,the second  crop was  drilled  after  two crops of  maize ,the maize being cut and chopped  for maize silage ,for the local dairy cows ,and to day as I drove  past he was applying a  liquid  fertilizer ,or   more likely  a mineral  supplement  to the crop ,opposite this crop is another field of sunflowers ,again  direct drilled  in to  maize stubble , not as clean   as  this crop  as  they is some self set  maize seeds growing ,now 4 foot high  plants .

 

Direct  drilling of sunflower  started 3-4 years ago  year  now  I would say 80% of sun flower crops  were  direct  drilled ,call  it progress ,some times here in LOS, things  do change ,this is one  case ,near  me  is a crop of  direct  drilled  maize ,drilled in to an old  crop of maize ,that had been  cut for silage ,a clean  field ,maize storks  cut at ground  level  ,no need to plough , straight in with the drill,  first  crop of  direct drilled maize I have seen in this area .

[farmerjo]

Hi KS,

 

That's a nice looking crop with the no-till seeder,not to mention how much he would have saved on seed,compared to the trashed in crop.Nice even germination.

 

We had another 25mm of rain 2 days ago,so where i thought things were done for a while at the end of the season.

The sprayer will be out in a couple of weeks.

 

Also agree that the deep ripping has helped giving a more even moisture profile,probably a combination of both..

 

Had a win tonight figuring out how to delete quotes you don;t wont to use on TV(was driving me nuts)

 

@Wayned,hope your feeling better,it;s been a coughing frenzy around here and there hasn;t been any burning yet.

 

 

[farmerjo]

Had a couple of trenches dug over the weekend to supply water to a mobile sprinkler set up on the PTO of a tractor.

Was surprised to check a few hours after and see water in the bottom,the water table is a lot higher than i expected.

 

 

[kickstart]

Out today come across this  ,the first I have seen in this area ,the disc harrows  went over the land first ,the  other Kubota  is pulling  a 5 leg subsoiler ,doing the job right ,low gear  engine running at about 1200-1500 rpm ,letting the  torque of the tractor do the work ,no wheel spin , the blades are about 18 inches deep ,land around  is  on the heavy side ,as I left he hit something hard ,and  the wheels started spinning a bit ,he lifted the blades a bit and away he went .

It looked a bit wet  I would have waited until next month ,let it dry out ,the subsoiler   would have made a better job .

Would like to see a lot more of this type of system ,would do the land some good

Altogether there were  3 Kubota ,all 90 hp ,I would say  with  kit like this  they are sugar cane farmers .and I would say  they are going to plant sugarcane  ,seen sugarcane being planted this week ,why now ,as it will need watering, another cost ,and a drain  on our local water  supplies .

Our local sugar mill opens on Thursday ,word is  cain ,1100 baht /ton ,with the late rains ,it bulked out the crops  ,crops not looking to bad ,but anything  will be better  than sugar cane ,over the past 2 years. Those  growers that have stuck  with sugar cain over the   2 past  bad years ,maybe reaping there rewards  this year ,we shall see.

[farmerjo]

Was at the local machinery shop today checking on some head repairs on my L2201 Kubota and came across a few new implements in there.

On the way there i see about 950 baht is the going rate at most of the weigh stations for sugar cane.

Last week the machinery dealer had a 4 tyne subsoiler in there,heavy duty as it's tynes were the same as one i had made but about a foot longer.Wanted to take a pic but he must of sold it as it wasn't there today.

 

[farmerjo]

I hope a few of these sugar harvesters get put to use to cut down on the burning.There was also another implement that had rotating spring wires,guess that is to clean the sugar prior to harvesting.   

[kickstart]

Hi  FJ

          Interesting photos  the first one, at  a first glance looks like  3 furrow deep digger  mould board plough ?

The second  photo looks like a cane harvester ,they must be rotating knifes  at the bottom ,cuts the cane ,up the elevator stacks it at the back ?,  unloads  at the end of the row ,for trimming up and  tying  in to bundles,machine working offset , if that how it works .

Was this a Class open  day ,what  I have seen of them  they are good tractors ,a bit more  expensive than the  equivalent  Kubota's., got one near here seen it with a  forage harvester cutting  Napier grass  that was  6 weeks past its best, (forage harvester an import  from India about 170 000 baht) .  

[farmerjo]

11 hours ago, kickstart said:

Hi  FJ

          Interesting photos  the first one, at  a first glance looks like  3 furrow deep digger  mould board plough ?

The second  photo looks like a cane harvester ,they must be rotating knifes  at the bottom ,cuts the cane ,up the elevator stacks it at the back ?,  unloads  at the end of the row ,for trimming up and  tying  in to bundles,machine working offset , if that how it works .

Was this a Class open  day ,what  I have seen of them  they are good tractors ,a bit more  expensive than the  equivalent  Kubota's., got one near here seen it with a  forage harvester cutting  Napier grass  that was  6 weeks past its best, (forage harvester an import  from India about 170 000 baht) .  

Hi KS,

Correct,they are as you say.

Claas is his main line of tractors for sale.Most of the equipment in there is directed at the sugar growing market.

Claas,made in India with european technolgy seem pretty robust machines,i usually go for a look in the workshop

to see what tractors are getting repairs and to see if there is common faults.Never seen a Claas down there,mainly

Kubota's and the euro/chinese knock off brands.

Had my L2201 Kubota there getting the head reconditioned,have it back now and seems as good as when i bought it 10 years ago.

(power wise)Hope it chugs on for another 10.

 

Seems to be a story of two tales with sugar cutting this year.Burn and cut or cut then burn,either way there's still lots of burning

which suggests a lot of the farmers without machinery aren't prepared to have that extra expense of plowing back in the trash before 

fertilizing.You can now get offset ploughs that will incorporate fertilizer at the same time but all the contractors seem reluctant to get rid of their two row tyne fertilizer implements which are only any good with zero trash.

 

 

[wayned]

Claas had a "road show" at the coop area early last year.  They seem to be well built.  I knew that their harvesters were built in India but didn't realize that the tractors were also.  The Ne w Holland dealer has a couple on consignment but I haven't seen any movement yet.  I asked them if they were going to import used equipment and the answer was they are looking at doing it in the future.

 

Last year someone came in with a cane cutter similar to the one in your picture and did a couple of small fields with the locals watching.  It cut it but then each stalk had to be manually cleaned, bundled and tied.  So all that it did was eliminated the machete and didn't effectively reduce any labor.  Last year more cane was mechanically harvested with a JD 3510 and a couple of foreign made harvesters which do it all and load it directly into the truck.  I looked at importing a 3510 from the US but at the time there wasn't much interest in mechanical harvesting and now that my health is failing and my chores include cleaning the house doing laundry and all the other wifely duties I'm not going to pursue it further unless someone asks me too.

 

The cane cutting here hasn't really started and will actually begin in earnest in  the new year.  But I did see some burnt leaves on my carport this morning.  The crop should be good this year with the late rain.

[farmerjo]

Save your money on the harvester Wayned,they don't have enough trucks to keep them running full time and never will.

It's about time those mutts starting pulling their weight and looking after you.

 

 

[kickstart]

While we are are on the subject of Class   and sugar cane ,have a look at  these photos, from Sima- asean show in Bangkok.

I have seen them in the uk ,big balers ,making about a 1 ton bale ,in a nut shell a big hydrolic press ,here in Thailand  it would be best part of 5  million baht , very approximate ,I would say this would have been made in Germany, and then you would need some thing to pull it  ,that would  take about  170 hp  tractor .

This is a Class one ,at the show was the New Holland equivalent, I was talking to the  New Holland rep ,a Brit guy ,I said ,I have  seen some useless  bits of machinery ,in the wrong place at the wrong time ,but this takes some beating ,what use  is it in Thailand .  

His reply was, the idea  was to send it up to Issan  and bale sugar cane leaves/storks ,then  the bales will be used as a  bio- fuel ,looking at it that way ,it might have some use ,but to pay for cost of the kit ,haulage of the bales  ,and is they a power station that  can handle /use them , a good Idea, but I think  needs some more  working  out.

[wayned]

7 hours ago, farmerjo said:

Save your money on the harvester Wayned,they don't have enough trucks to keep them running full time and never will.

It's about time those mutts starting pulling their weight and looking after you.

 

 

If I did import one, I would do all of the buying and coordination but it would be with somebody elses money, not mine!  As far as the trucks are concerned the problem here is not the number available, but the lengthy delays unloading them at the mill.  In high season,  it's get in line and wait, sometimes up to a day and a half!  Party time under the trucks by the drivers and sometimes whole families with many small red bull bottles filled with Lao Khao!

 

My mutts were trained by my wife and in memory of her they do exactly what they want, when they want!

[kickstart]

14 hours ago, wayned said:

If I did import one, I would do all of the buying and coordination but it would be with somebody elses money, not mine!  As far as the trucks are concerned the problem here is not the number available, but the lengthy delays unloading them at the mill.  In high season,  it's get in line and wait, sometimes up to a day and a half!  Party time under the trucks by the drivers and sometimes whole families with many small red bull bottles filled with Lao Khao!

 

My mutts were trained by my wife and in memory of her they do exactly what they want, when they want!

We have a lot of harvesting done  by machine in this area ,increasing over the past 2-3 years ,all the big growers are saying  the same thing ,can not get the cutters ,our cutters ,are mainly Cambodians ,but a lot come down from  Isaan ,rice farmers ,harvested their rice  crop then come down to  us for the season .

The  mechanical  harvesters  around here  are second hand imports from  Australia  or Brazil  ,most are International  Harvesters ,not seen a JD  around here ,most are  about  3-4 million  baht.

Watching the cane harvest a good team  of say 15-20 cutters ,which the big growers will have ,can cut a 25 rie field of cane quicker than a machine ,but as FJ said  trucks are a problem  seen many  a harvester sat  in  the middle of a field waiting for a  truck ,and as you said  the bottleneck at the mill ,like you  it can take 1day plus to  tip  a load ,some say ,if you can believe  them,  that  cane   cut  by machine is given priority  for tipping  at the mill , with the short cut stems ,they dry out quicker ,lowering the sugar content , but some growers have said the sugar content is lower with  machine   cutting ,also the tair,  ,bits  of leaves and crap in the load  is higher , so a reduced  price ,and you can not get as much weight on a truck with machine cut cane ,so higher haulage costs ,last year to cut and haul  a ton of cane was 350-400 baht ton ,with a ton of cane at  about  850 baht ton ,not a lot of profit .

So far this year  not seen cane many  overloaded  trucks ,usually so,  I have been told .our side of the sugar mill is a bridge  going over the Passack  river ,last year  they closed it for 6 months ,put in new bridge pillars ,this year the army  are stopping overloaded trucks ,crossing the bridge  ,for some reason ,so I said  all the cane will be hauled at night time with full, full loads  ,when the army checkpoints will be less likely to be there, all this has put up the cost of cane haulage ,this  year .

[farmerjo]

The advantage of the big self propelled sugar harvesters to me is the clean,even cut on the stalks for better germination the following year and the distrubution of the straw spread over the field.

However as mentioned above there's too many other logistical problems for them to be effective.

 

Edited December 25, 2016 by farmerjo
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[wayned]

In the past most of the negativity about self propelled mechanical cane harvesters was that the profit per Rai was less than hand cut.  Last year there was more mechanized cutting due the unavailable migrant labor from Cambodia and suspect that it will be the same this year but will have to wait and see what happens after the new year holidays.  The few fields that have harvested so far this year were done by hand with a significantly reduced labor force and I have not seen a lot of overloaded trucks on the highway yet, but no large quantities have been cut and I suspect that it will be difficult for the Thais to change their ways unless there is a crackdown by the BIB  but we all know that that won't happen as they are all mobilized to arrest the Monk at the Wat in Patham Thanni.