Maize and Rotational Crops

[farmerjo]

A neighbours crop 150 metres down the road.

He has started harvest,slow going being just the husband and wife team.

They take home roughly 30 bags a day on the cob.(husk peeled off)

 

[farmerjo]

Planted about 15 rai of sunn hemp today,was 24 hours to late as had 18mm of rain yesterday afternoon and it made things sticky for the seeder and patches of standing water.

The light foot print of the crawler hardly left any marks so was happy in that regard.

The land was rototilled over 4 days prior to seeding to a depth of 2-3 inches.

There will be plenty of weeds come up but not to concerned as long as the sunn hemp has a good start.

A couple of pics of seeded area and rest of paddock that was slashed 3 weeks ago.

 

[farmerjo]

Been out seeding more sunn hemp today.

Different approach sowing straight into slashed land over previous 2 days.

Just starting to get standing water in a few places with 5" this month and coming to the end of the rainy season.

My friends have been busy following me around eating frogs,mice and grasshoppers.They seem to leave the worms alone when i'm watching.

You can see the seeded rows to the right of picture.

 

[VocalNeal]

How's the overheating tractor doing. Did I ask before where you are. My wife wishes to live with a view of the mountains!

[farmerjo]

27 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

How's the overheating tractor doing. Did I ask before where you are. My wife wishes to live with a view of the mountains!

All good now thanks.

Ended up taking radiator out and got it rodded,temp doesn't move above 82 on the thermostat now.

Have made a shroud also to keep the junk out.

I back onto the Phuphaman national park,nice 360 views and no flooding.

Pukradeng national park is also about 20km's away as the crows flys.

Nice part of the world,a little isolated with Chumphae 33km's away but i like it like that.

 

 

 

[farmerjo]

With an onus on tilled land and no tilled land.

To give an example,we have had 355mm of rain since the neighbour ploughed his corn residue in on 12th August expecting to put another crop but has had no opportunity to get back on the land.

Across the road i seeded no-till on friday and have seed sprouting after 2 and half days.Nobody has ever been able to plant a crop this late in this area.

Not saying it's the be all end all but certainly gives flexibility throughout the season for different crops and planting times with the minimum disturbance of the soil.

 

[kickstart]

6 hours ago, farmerjo said:

With an onus on tilled land and no tilled land.

To give an example,we have had 355mm of rain since the neighbour ploughed his corn residue in on 12th August expecting to put another crop but has had no opportunity to get back on the land.

Across the road i seeded no-till on friday and have seed sprouting after 2 and half days.Nobody has ever been able to plant a crop this late in this area.

Not saying it's the be all end all but certainly gives flexibility throughout the season for different crops and planting times with the minimum disturbance of the soil.

 

Hi FJ

I would say ,and what you have written in the past about your land ,that a wheeled tractor, probaly  could not have got onto the land , to higher  ground pressure ,j would have  just made a mess ,, with the  low ground pressure of the  tracks on the crawler  enabled you  to do the  job . 

Some people say crawlers are outdated ,but I think thay are  as good as a tractor.

Did you write  last year about a track conversion for wheeled tractors, from China, but cost was to much ,pity  crawlers could have a place  here in the LOS .

[farmerjo]

Hi KS,

I did use the Ford to do the slashing(made a mess in a couple of spots) as it's a bit quicker than the crawler and seeded with the crawler.

Most of it was on higher ground and as you can see in the picture i still have an uncompleted area to finish.

Just waiting to see what the germination is like before putting the slasher on the crawler to complete the rest.

The seed i'm using has not been graded so had a few issues with blockages.

Yes the foot print left re wheels v tracks is like chalk and cheese.It's amazing how the tracks perform,only negative is scuffing up the end of the rows when turning sharply.

I did investigate tracks for the Ford,you just unbolt the wheels and put the 4 individual tracks on.I think the guys i got the quote off were having a laugh when i sent the hub dimensions and a picture of the old tractor.

At the end of the day the price for the tracks was just short of what i paid for the crawler and the stud pattern was not inter changable with other make tractors  so it made sense in the end not to pursue it.

If i was in the market for a new tractor the 1st on the list would be at least a set of rear tracks for it with a universal stud pattern.

 

 

[VocalNeal]

On 9/17/2017 at 8:19 PM, kickstart said:

Nobody has ever been able to plant a crop this late in this area.

 

Aahhaa. Farang magic at work again? You will be cursed by the local shaman? 

[farmerjo]

6 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

 

Aahhaa. Farang magic at work again? You will be cursed by the local shaman? 

It can cause major traffic congestion.

Normally only get 2 cars and 8 motorbikes a day going past home,this week numbers are up.

 

[kickstart]

To-ar-Kee-o,  Mung beans,  almost in flower, this was part of  about a 100 rie block ,this is a popular crop this year ,with the rains coming early this ,a lot of farmers  are saying  the rains  are going to finish early , making  a second crop of  maize a bit on the dodgy side ,maize likes a lot of rain ,mung beans  do not need a lot  of water an easy crop  to grow ,sow the seed , apply   two  lots insecticide  and what Thais call  hormone, which is basically  a mineral  supplement  Ca, Ph ,Mag, Mg , never seen any  N. P. K . applied .

We use to grow  mung beans , and use to get pickers in to pick the pods ,a long job , then get the  mobile thrasher  in thrash  the seeds out, most of the time we did ok ,one year  it made more than  maize, now like most  crops  the combine does the job .

Mung beans being legume will put a bit of nutrient back in to the soil , but  being a legume crop  the aphids like the crop, hence the insecticide.

Being a lot about price could well be low , the last crop we had we got 26 baht/kg .

[cobbler]

Ok just thought ide pop this over here. Thank you very much for all the imformation farmerjo.
Ill go back to page 1 now and read through the whole thread and pick up as much as i can.
Cheers thanks


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[cobbler]

you

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[cobbler]

I aggee with you timing is all important,how many times have we had some rain some times a lot ,and at 07.00 hours the following morning do you see a Thai out planting his corn in the aformentioned porridge,sometimes I can understand it if he thinks no more rain for a week? a lost opportunity ,but blocked drill coulters, seed sown at uneven depth,not a good start for a crop.I think I know your Chicken picker, what we would call crumbler bar,fitted on the back of harrow ,make a good job.
But as I have said all you have over here is a 3and 7 disc ploughs,guy near me had a 6610 plough his land ,had some rain then he used his 25 hp Hino and 5 disc plough and did he make a good job ,lettuce seed would have grown ,let alone maize.
He is only a small percentege who got it right ,I do not like the 7 disc plough got to be used at the right time ,some times 2 passes are needed, but never got.
A furrow press would work over here, plough ,press ,and drill,or a simpal dutch harrow with a crumbler bar on the back,would work ,land has to be clean, instead of the 7 disc.
Saying all this direct drilling has to be the way ,now nearly all new drills have disc's fitted,and not coulters ,you are half way there,the above guy directed drilled his second maize crop last year, and it did wll ,he went on to sell the hole field 20 rie ish to guy who made it in to maize silage,thought he could make more money than harvesting the crop.
KS

Very interesting. U guys are probably aware of growing napier grass for silage to be sold is becoming a real thing in thai. Saw a farang north of sukhothai doing it in round bales. All for sale . Not surprized same thing would work very well with maize. Could alse feed it thffough a chalf cutter and increase the price per kilo. I forget the price that it worked out per 10 rai of napier grass but it made my ears prick up. Napier grass gets 5 to 6 cuts per year.
Hmmmm food for thaught

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[farmerjo]

I don't know much about the napier grass,hopefully KS or Wayned will be along to help enlighten us.

How its planted right through to baling.

When you talk baling,machinery gets expensive.

One of my goals has always been to set up a briquette machine on farm,but that's still in the pipeline. 

 

Edited October 17, 2017 by farmerjo

[cobbler]

Well i got up to page 7. ???so much for reading it all. Only question i have is. Can you make a profit or is it really for building soil structure?

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[Michael Hare]

I will say this very plainly. Anyone growing Napier grass for silage is nuts. Really nuts. Unfortunately, Napier grass is being promoted as a great grass throughout Southeast Asia, purely upon the amount of dry matter it produces. However, this vast amount of dry matter is mainly stem (low in crude protein and high in fibre ADF and NDF). No where, is there any scientific data backing up the value of Napier grass silage. I feel very sorry for anyone buying this Napier grass silage. No better than smelly compost.

 

Furthermore, Napier grass fields due to disease, last only for 1-2 years before dying. 

 

There are far superior tropical grasses around in Thailand  that make great silage and hay. Namely Mombasa guinea grass and Mulato II. These fields, once planted, last for 10 years or more. 

 

 

[farmerjo]

10 minutes ago, cobbler said:

Well i got up to page 7. ???so much for reading it all. Only question i have is. Can you make a profit or is it really for building soil structure?

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Will i make a profit? (i'm in for a minimum 7 years with no-till)

No,will my son if he chooses to farm make a profit = yes.

For me it's about R&D helping the locals make choices on how they can better implement there systems.

Keep reading till the end,i'm sure you will learn a few things that will help with your future decisions in farming here.

[cobbler]

I will say this very plainly. Anyone growing Napier grass for silage is nuts. Really nuts. Unfortunately, Napier grass is being promoted as a great grass throughout Southeast Asia, purely upon the amount of dry matter it produces. However, this vast amount of dry matter is mainly stem (low in crude protein and high in fibre ADF and NDF). No where, is there any scientific data backing up the value of Napier grass silage. I feel very sorry for anyone buying this Napier grass silage. No better than smelly compost.
 
Furthermore, Napier grass fields due to disease, last only for 1-2 years before dying. 
 
There are far superior tropical grasses around in Thailand  that make great silage and hay. Namely Mombasa guinea grass and Mulato II. These fields, once planted, last for 10 years or more. 
 
 

Thats very informative Michael. Im so stupid, i meant mombasa guinea grass. I get them confused. Is it your opinion that this may be worth planting cutting and selling. I saw some stats on 10 rai and they were pretty mind blowing. Due to cattle being such good money and many farmers walking cows round the roads there is grass shortage. So there appears to be a solid market for it.
Open to ideas
Cheers

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[wayned]

Nothing much going on here since the harvest of the corn which took longer than expected due to the rain.  Some tried to plant either mung beans or sunflowers after the harvest but most of the fields are nothing but bogs with many pools of standing water.  Maybe rice is the alternate crop this year!

 

I've not seen Napier grass around here, but they did come in and bail some sugar cane silage after the cane harvest last year, both round and square bales, but I don't have any idea where it went and how it was used.

[Michael Hare]

13 hours ago, cobbler said:

Thats very informative Michael. Im so stupid, i meant mombasa guinea grass. I get them confused. Is it your opinion that this may be worth planting cutting and selling. I saw some stats on 10 rai and they were pretty mind blowing. Due to cattle being such good money and many farmers walking cows round the roads there is grass shortage. So there appears to be a solid market for it.
Open to ideas
Cheers

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Good news that the grass is Mombasa guinea. A far superior grass to any type of Napier grass. Disease free, can be cut low and lasts for many years. There are full-time grass farmers in the Yasothon and Ubon areas. Making a very good living from growing and selling fresh grass all year round. Some sell on the roadsides and others sell directly from their fields.  For dry season production they have to have irrigation. These fields used to be planted in rice. No money in rice farming the farmers inform me. Better to grow grass. Cash comes in every day. 

[cobbler]

Yes ive heard this. Seems too good to be true. Is it cattle farmers buying it?

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[cobbler]

International trade between asian nations is changing everything about farming. China is in need of food. My wife is telling me about many thai farming threads all the time. Its why weve decided to get outa rubber and get into food related farming. Produce something related to chinas needs and esppecially if they cant grow it themselves and theres your market right there.

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[Michael Hare]

17 minutes ago, cobbler said:

Yes ive heard this. Seems too good to be true. Is it cattle farmers buying it?

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Mostly people who keep one-two animals behind their house. I don't think big-time cattle farmers would buy in grass. Too expensive. 

 

Here is a small article I wrote recently. I have some excellent photos of the whole operation of grass farming, but for some reason, the downloads fail each time I try to attach the files. I have now tried on three computers. I have never had this problem before. The problem seems to be only on this forum.

 

Fresh grass farming in northeast Thailand

 

Growing Tanzania guinea grass {cv Simuang (Purple guinea grass)} for fresh grass sale to beef and dairy producers and traders has been a successful enterprise for northeast Thai smallholder farmers who have access to markets and irrigation facilities. Production started in 1999, with Thai Government support through the Division of Livestock Nutrition, Department of Livestock Development. In recent years, Mombasa guinea grass has replaced Tanzania in many areas because of Mombasa’s superior dry matter production and the susceptibility of Tanzania to leaf diseases. In some areas, maize is now being planted in the dry season into rice paddies after the rice is harvested in November, and irrigated to provide fresh grass for customers.

 

          Tanzania and Mombasa are planted in rows, 50 cm apart. Fields are cut every 30 days to provide leafy forage. These fields are replanted every four-five years when production starts to decline. The fields produce forage all year round but need to be irrigated in the long seven month dry season. The fresh forage is cut and tied into small bundles (1.5 kg weight; 50-60 cm length) and sold in roadside stalls or directly to customers that come to the farmer fields. One bundle sells for approximately US$0.30. Both guinea varieties provide high quality forage, even better than the maize (Table 1).

 

          Every 40 days the maize is cut and then replanted. Fresh maize forage is sold in 2.5 kg bundles (length 1 m) for US$0.40. Maize production is from November to May, after which the rice paddies become inundated with water and rice is planted in June-July.

 

Table 1 Forage analysis of Mombasa, Tanzania and Maize from random samples from roadside stalls, Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand (February 2017).

Species	%stem	%leaf	Crude protein (%)
			Stems	Leaves
Mombasa	13	87	6.4	25.0
Tanzania	25	75	12.2	15.7
Maize	64	36	4.2	9.3

 

 

FURTHER READING: Nakamanee, G., Srisomporn, W., Phengsavanh, P., Samson, J. and Stür W. 2008 Sale of fresh forage – a new cash crop for smallholder farmers in Yasothon, Thailand. Tropical Grasslands 42 (2) 65-74.

[cobbler]

I passed a farang the other day ,just north of sukhothai,hes cutting and roundbaling mombassa. Selling it . Looks like a big concern

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[Michael Hare]

1 hour ago, cobbler said:

I passed a farang the other day ,just north of sukhothai,hes cutting and roundbaling mombassa. Selling it . Looks like a big concern

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Good news to see Mombasa being used well. Over in Spain they bale Mombasa into small haylage bales and sell to the Middle East.  There camels, sheep and goats love eating it.

[farmerjo]

18 minutes ago, Michael Hare said:

Good news to see Mombasa being used well. Over in Spain they bale Mombasa into small haylage bales and sell to the Middle East.  There camels, sheep and goats love eating it.

Hi Michael,

Is anyone trialing it as a cover crop for growing pumpkins and melons here in Thailand.

Just wondering if it would crimp well to terminate it.

[Michael Hare]

12 minutes ago, farmerjo said:

Hi Michael,

Is anyone trialing it as a cover crop for growing pumpkins and melons here in Thailand.

Just wondering if it would crimp well to terminate it.

I doubt it. Not sure what you mean by "crimp well to terminate it". 

[farmerjo]

1 hour ago, Michael Hare said:

I doubt it. Not sure what you mean by "crimp well to terminate it". 

Edited October 18, 2017 by farmerjo

[Michael Hare]

Thank you. Doubt if that would completely eradicate it (terminate). Mombasa is a robust perennial. Big roots. Even ploughing does not kill many plants. Sprouts up again. Roundup, however, is pretty effective, but needs at least sprayings to get rid of all plants.