How to remove rubber trees?

[Hummin]

Is there a company  coming and removing them with roots for wood? Isaan based.

 

Anyone have done it by themselves? 

[swissie]

Not likely you will find a company specialising in removing rubber trees.

Assuming you live in Rubber Tree Country, the locals surely must know how to remove Rubber-Trees. Having decades of experience, concerning this.

Are you on "non-speaking-terms" with your Thai-Wife? She may be able to sort it out for you.
Cheers.

[Hummin]

There is chemicals that can be used or machines for removing the trees and roots. But it is costly. 

 

We have not bought the land yet, and I need to figure out how to do with timber, if the soil is toxic by arsenic, is the soil stil good for fruit and vegetables? 

 

Anyone with experience buying an old rubber treenplantation, and shutting it down? 

 

What about ground water? Can it be containmated? Timber?

 

They offered us the land for 60 000,- a rai, and I am wondering if we going to start on 45. But if to much trouble, we will ditch the plan. 

[Hummin]

By the way, this is not rubber tree land, and it looks like this attempt failed, and have never been producing any rubber. The trees can be around 10 years old. Hard to get any information around here. 

[canuckamuck]

Rubber tree wood has value, they use it for plywood, among other things. You need to find someone who wants the wood.

The stumps can be rotted out there are chemicals that accelerate the process. But it will take years before you are free of them. If I had land like that I would work around the stumps and only remove the ones that are seriously in the way. One day they would be all gone.

[lemonjelly]

How many trees are you talking about? If it's a plantation you sell it.... yes they pay you.

[Gary A]

The fastest way is to hire an excavator. It would take the excavator maybe 3 minutes per tree. You can then log out the uprooted tree and burn the brush. Same goes for eucalyptus trees. I had some huge stumps in a rice paddy. While the excavator was there and the pond was completed, I had him take out the stumps. I have to say that I was absolutely amazed at the excavators power and how fast he dug out the huge stumps.

[thoongfoned]

11 hours ago, Hummin said:

By the way, this is not rubber tree land, and it looks like this attempt failed, and have never been producing any rubber. The trees can be around 10 years old. Hard to get any information around here. 

if the tree is still in the land sell for lumber or charcoal.... 20 ton digger? to remove stumps about 3,000-5,000 baht per rai include tractor to push stumps to the side, or for extra cost get tractor and grab plus lorries to cart stumps away....

over the past 2 year have cleared 30+ rai of ten yr + tree..... like this about udon thani province.....

[thoongfoned]

edit. above info on 60cm dia + tree at 1m, producing tree.... if very small tree maybe a 40hp tractor could just push said trees over,  then just left ẃith exposed stump + roôts.. not sure to price this work...

[Hummin]

1000 trees like this size it is. 

[thoongfoned]

this time of year as the ground should be wet? a tractor should be able to push those trees over....  should do the work alot cheaper then the "macro" push the stumps ect to one side then burn off when you can, or like i said above a tractor and grab and some lorries to cart away.

if you have guys that cut/buy euca in your area they should be able to offer you money on the lumber, price "we" recieved and other farmers in our area for that sort of sized tree would be approx 20 baht per tree....  only problem with this is they cut low and then you will have to get a macro in to dig out the stumps.

[grollies]

On 21/05/2017 at 11:21 AM, Hummin said:

1000 trees like this size it is. 

Those trees don't look 10 y/o, more like 5-6 y as the canopy hasn't closed yet.

 

Rubber will grow in poor soil, our ground 10 years ago was like Bondi Beach but the rubber grew. Now the ground is much better after years of leaf mulch.

 

With some TLC and lots of fertilizer you could have a pretty nice set up for 60k per rai.

 

Rubber prices set to increase around 3-5% annually for the next few years.

 

Shame to see a plantation trashed. But if you are set on it my small backhoe (Kubota KX91C) digs one out in about 10 mins. Hire rate round here 4,000B per day.

 

What is the total size of plot?

 

 

[canuckamuck]

What is the reason for taking out the trees?

[weegee]

1 hour ago, canuckamuck said:

What is the reason for taking out the trees?

Was thinking the same thing, "canuckamuck"...Those trees are within a couple of years of producing a good income...

 

[Hummin]

I was told they tried producing here, and have given up, but if you are right, I will give it a try and see how it goes. The idea is to plant teak, but if possible to produce 60k pr rai a year, that is pretty good. 

[canuckamuck]

Spend your money on fertilizer, The locals make crazy decisions sometimes. The trees look healthy enough, why wouldn't they make rubber?

Maybe a rubber tree guy will spot this thread and let us know.

[grollies]

1 hour ago, Hummin said:

I was told they tried producing here, and have given up, but if you are right, I will give it a try and see how it goes. The idea is to plant teak, but if possible to produce 60k pr rai a year, that is pretty good. 

60k per rai is the asking price for the land?

 

Look at the trees to see if they've opened up the bark and tried to tap.

 

You can get a half-decent return on 1,000 trees after waiting a couple of years, clearing and fertilizing.

 

We're on our first proper year tapping same, around 1,000 trees, opened last November, stopped February this year.

 

Production was slow as the trees take a while to get flowing and only tapped every 3rd day but we still managed 45,000B  in 3 slow months split between us and the tappers.

 

Still slow now due to lousy tappers and the rain but, hey, we'll gey going properly again soon.

 

Try posting questions in the Rubber Tree topic.

[steven100]

Those trees are quite small ... they are immature ... not 6 year old yet ...  

[simon43]

I had some rubber tree land in Phuket, immature 10-year old trees that were a little stunted and not growing as fast as the trees just across the road.

 

It was free to remove all the trees and stumps - the people who removed the trees sold the wood.

 

So I can't see why you should pay someone to remove your trees and stumps - the wood has value.

[farmerjo]

On 2017-5-20 at 8:46 AM, Hummin said:

There is chemicals that can be used or machines for removing the trees and roots. But it is costly. 

 

We have not bought the land yet, and I need to figure out how to do with timber, if the soil is toxic by arsenic, is the soil stil good for fruit and vegetables? 

 

Anyone with experience buying an old rubber treenplantation, and shutting it down? 

 

What about ground water? Can it be containmated? Timber?

 

They offered us the land for 60 000,- a rai, and I am wondering if we going to start on 45. But if to much trouble, we will ditch the plan. 

Why would you think the soil has arsenic in it,close to an old mine?

[weegee]

8 hours ago, steven100 said:

Those trees are quite small ... they are immature ... not 6 year old yet ...  

I dont think the tress have been fertilized at all , let alone regularly....hence why they look younger maybe. if the guy gave up on them, for sure they havent been fertilized...

Properly looked after, these trees will produce an income soon enough. IMO

[farmerjo]

That picture could of be taken down the best rows.

I must say not sure what you will gain by planting teak if you think the rubber won't do well.

When i cleared some land years back,we thought we had good timber trees for house making only to find 80 percent were hollowed  out in the centre.

Edited May 23, 2017 by farmerjo

[Hummin]

 

We have given them an offer for the land, and if accepted we just have to see what to do next. If possible we might keep the rubber, and just clear land for a new pond, house road etc. Funny how it works, now we just got offered 19 rai more :)

 

[Gary A]

I have a 31 HP four wheel drive diesel Yanmar tractor. Our house sits on 2.5 rai and back of the house was a jungle. My tractor  was spinning all four wheels trying to take out 2 and 3 inch trees. I didn't want to abuse my tractor so we hired a big Ford tractor and he had problems also. He was willing to abuse the rental tractor by hitting the trees at speed. Even that was a slow process. He broke a front wheel off taking out a huge termite mound.  I still recommend an excavator for tree and stump removal. It's cheaper in the long run provided that you have enough work for the excavator.

[Hummin]

I see used excavotors all the way in to Bkk, cant be that expensive to buy? And the hour prices is around 2000-6000. I guess I will have the right man for the job, if I buy one. 

Edited May 24, 2017 by Hummin

[Gary A]

 

1 hour ago, Hummin said:

I see used excavotors all the way in to Bkk, cant be that expensive to buy? And the hour prices is around 2000-6000. I guess I will have the right man for the job, if I buy one. 

 

My wife has a number of small farms, actually 65 rai in total. There is always some excavating work to do. I  remember the first one SHE hired cost 1,200 baht per hour. The owner was by no means a good operator. That ended up being an expensive mistake. A local guy has a large Cat excavator, he now charges 1,800 baht per hour. He is an artist with never a wasted move. He is now the only guy we will use. It's fun to watch him work. Pure poetry in motion with all smooth moves except when he shakes the stuck mud out of the bucket.

[grollies]

3 hours ago, Hummin said:

I see used excavotors all the way in to Bkk, cant be that expensive to buy? And the hour prices is around 2000-6000. I guess I will have the right man for the job, if I buy one. 

A mini excavator in good nick with around 5,000 hours will set you back around 400k B.

 

If you are looking then wear signs are:

 

Track pins

Drive sprockets

Slew travel

Bucket fit

Hydraulic oil leaks (hoses and rams)

Noisy drive train (make the seller take plate covers off, check gearing for wear and lack of lubrication)

Ram pins (again look for signs of good lube - there should be a grease gun behind the seat)

 

Engine

 

Check air filter (usually blocked with dust, that's why they're usually run with the bonnet open)

Usual engine signs of care (neglect)

Hydraulic pump check oil level, leaks, signs of repair.

 

Mini diggers are great and sufficient for a small farm. Had mine 18 months, wouldn't be without it, loads of useage.

[Gary A]

The first excavator that we hired looked to have a weak hydraulic pump I didn't have near the digging power that it should have had. Even considering the poor operator and how slow he was, he couldn't have made any money because he often needed to shut down to add hydraulic oil. I think every cylinder had serious leaks.

[CLW]

I was told they tried producing here, and have given up, but if you are right, I will give it a try and see how it goes. The idea is to plant teak, but if possible to produce 60k pr rai a year, that is pretty good. 

Yeah, the old Thai fairy tale... We tried but it didn't work.
Because they have NO IDEA !!!
In your case, as already suggested, keep the trees as they will be productive soon

[grollies]

2 hours ago, CLW said:

Yeah, the old Thai fairy tale... We tried but it didn't work.
Because they have NO IDEA !!!
In your case, as already suggested, keep the trees as they will be productive soon

Just to reiterate though, I wasn't saying you could make THB60k per rai per year from rubber, rather that was the cost of land per rai. Still pretty good.