Is there an equivalent of a Bobcat ? It would be super useful for cleaning buffalo/cow stalls

Stargazer

Stargazer

Surin Legend
Is there some kind of mini skid steer front end loader available in Thailand like a Bobcat? (Kubota USA sells SCL1000 model, but I don’t see it in Kubota Thailand’s product list)

A one meter wide unit would be a great labor saver for cleaning buffalo/cow stalls that are too small for a full size tractor to access. Vermeer does produce a model S450 TX in Thailand. Does anyone have experience with it or similar units?
 

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Stargazer said:
Is there some kind of mini skid steer front end loader available in Thailand like a Bobcat? (Kubota USA sells SCL1000 model, but I don’t see it in Kubota Thailand’s product list)

A one meter wide unit would be a great labor saver for cleaning buffalo/cow stalls that are too small for a full size tractor to access. Vermeer does produce a model S450 TX in Thailand. Does anyone have experience with it or similar units?
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There is a massive construction machine grave yard not far from home, i'll have a look.
 
@Stargazer you have not quite worked it out yet how it works in Thailand. Your head is stuck in the west with west solutions. This mechanization has not arrived yet because it is not needed yet. But it will come one day. You see your solution is 3 village guys given 3 shovels and instructions on where to dig it and where to shift it too.
300 Baht each at the end of the day.
 
Rice said:
@Stargazer you have not quite worked it out yet how it works in Thailand. Your head is stuck in the west with west solutions. This mechanization has not arrived yet because it is not needed yet. But it will come one day. You see your solution is 3 village guys given 3 shovels and instructions on where to dig it and where to shift it too.
300 Baht each at the end of the day.
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Yup. Unless you have a mountain of kee the guys with shovels are the more economical solution.
 
gotlost said:
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Thanks, @gotlost. The Bobcat is too big.
Rice said:
@Stargazer you have not quite worked it out yet how it works in Thailand. Your head is stuck in the west with west solutions. This mechanization has not arrived yet because it is not needed yet. But it will come one day. You see your solution is 3 village guys given 3 shovels and instructions on where to dig it and where to shift it too.
300 Baht each at the end of the day.
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I pay more than the minimum wage, but you’re certainly correct by the numbers. I’d just like my brother in law to be spared such heavy labor as he gets older. It may be that plowing the rice fields with water buffalo is still cheaper, but everybody uses tractors now despite that. By your logic, the biggest extravagance I see are all the fancy cars and pickups. Not cost effective, really. All the excavating could be done by hand, too :)
 
Stargazer said:
Thanks, @gotlost. The Bobcat is too big.

I pay more than the minimum wage, but you’re certainly correct by the numbers. I’d just like my brother in law to be spared such heavy labor as he gets older. It may be that plowing the rice fields with water buffalo is still cheaper, but everybody uses tractors now despite that. By your logic, the biggest extravagance I see are all the fancy cars and pickups. Not cost effective, really. All the excavating could be done by hand, too :)
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We like you have been looking to buy an affordable mechanical means of loading the manure from the cowshed, but so far nothing fits that bill.
But my brother in law has made a small dozer blade that he has fitted to a powered mower that he has. He has been able to do this by removing the cutting head and fitting his blade in its place. It doesn’t lift muck, but what he does is use it to push the stuff into the link box on the back of the tractor.
He still has to shovel the stuff off out on the land, but as a one man band it saves him a lot of time, and hard work loading the stuff.
 
Stargazer said:
Thanks, @gotlost. The Bobcat is too big.

I pay more than the minimum wage, but you’re certainly correct by the numbers. I’d just like my brother in law to be spared such heavy labor as he gets older. It may be that plowing the rice fields with water buffalo is still cheaper, but everybody uses tractors now despite that. By your logic, the biggest extravagance I see are all the fancy cars and pickups. Not cost effective, really. All the excavating could be done by hand, too :)
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Get your brother-in-law a couple younger helpers and make him the foreman.
 
Cent said:
Get your brother-in-law a couple younger helpers and make him the foreman.
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I don’t pay less than what I consider a ‘living wage’, 600 ฿ a day. 1,000 for highly skilled workers. @ 600, 2 helpers would cost 360,000 ฿ a year. If I can buy an S450 loader to allow him to do the heavy lifting himself for (say) 500,000 ฿, it might be a good investment, amortized out over 10 years, especially if I can use it myself for various tasks. As @mahdam says, the problem is that manure, the main useful output of buffalo :) is heavy stuff to handle. At our farm in Washington State, having a John Deere with a front bucket allows us to load a trailer, and also lift heavy equipment when needed. It would make it easier to get bulk loads of compost, dirt and road rock and then move them to where we need them when we need them. Just a thought. I haven’t managed to get Vermeer Thailand to produce a quote yet, which probably means they don’t have any S450s sitting around to get off their hands. Unfortunately, Kubota does not make/sell an equivalent unit here that they sell in the USA. Picture below: my 86 year old brother mowing the creek meadow. My dad was able to run his ¾ yard Northwest shovel until he was 89. I like power assistance more and more as I get older. We could put a front bucket on the Kubota 5018 for 170,000 ฿ but it’s too big to use in the barns.
 

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Stargazer said:
Thanks, @gotlost. The Bobcat is too big.

It may be that plowing the rice fields with water buffalo is still cheaper, but everybody uses tractors now despite that. By your logic, the biggest extravagance I see are all the fancy cars and pickups. Not cost effective, really. All the excavating could be done by hand, too :)
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Sigh !!! You have no idea of Thai culture. By my logic Eh? Well no it is by Thai culture which you sadly still know nothing about.

You were not even here to see the transition from Buffalo to motor plough to tractor and what caused all that transition. You think it happened over night. Because it was a good idea?
Would you like to even guess what drove it?
 
Rice said:
Sigh !!! You have no idea of Thai culture. By my logic Eh? Well no it is by Thai culture which you sadly still know nothing about.

You were not even here to see the transition from Buffalo to motor plough to tractor and what caused all that transition. You think it happened over night. Because it was a good idea?
Would you like to even guess what drove it?
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You tell me. I’m also mystified about how people making 300 ฿ per day can buy a pickup for 800,000 ฿.
 
Stargazer said:
You tell me. I’m also mystified about how people making 300 ฿ per day can buy a pickup for 800,000 ฿.
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Well they don't own it very long. that is for sure. You see it is win win win win LOSE deal, Car manufacturer makes money, the car dealer makes money, the loan company makes money, the used car seller makes money. The only loser is the customer. Its a great money making system.
Meanwhile while the customer has the vehicle his/her family are all eating rice flavoured with fish sauce.
The payback period is 7 years. Now here is the thing they are so broke that they sell the spare tire and most of lights don't work as they cannot even afford to buy a light bulb for it. It is really sad exploitative system.
 
Rice said:
Well they don't own it very long. that is for sure. You see it is win win win win LOSE deal, Car manufacturer makes money, the car dealer makes money, the loan company makes money, the used car seller makes money. The only loser is the customer. Its a great money making system.
Meanwhile while the customer has the vehicle his/her family are all eating rice flavoured with fish sauce.
The payback period is 7 years. Now here is the thing they are so broke that they sell the spare tire and most of lights don't work as they cannot even afford to buy a light bulb for it. It is really sad exploitative system.
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I see your point. My idea is the naive hope that it just might be possible to free the poor farmers from being beasts of burden by using machines to do the heavy lifting and increase efficiency and hence productivity and possibly raise the standard of living. Naive. The Middle Ages, the good old days, must go on, I suppose. As Leonard Cohen wrote:

“Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows”

Look at America today, leading the way. Oligarchy. Somehow, the poor farmers will wind up shoveling the shit as always.
 
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