Who Goes There? Farming interest? Speak Up!

IsaanAussie

IsaanAussie

Well-Known Member
Wow, a new topic. How timely, sure grabs my interest. You know the story, if you want to make a small fortune farming, start with a large one.....

So who else has an interest in farming in Isaan? This topic is huge on another site and rightly so. But here shared information could be much more focused on this area.

Basically, I farm shit, pig shit. More money in that than the pigs last year. Love to hear from anyone smart enough to have started a money tree plantation, or someone growing ATM's. You know CASH, or should I say SATANG crops.

Even mushroom growers, don't keep us in the dark and feed us bullshit!
 
I'm not a farmer, but rather a wannabe, so I would enjoy yours and all other's input about farming with the hopes that enough information might lead me to making the "plunge" sometime in the future, after I return permanently.

I have followed the farming posts on the "other site", and enjoy the information I get, and if I'm not mistaken I believe I met you and Jim Collister at a Surin Farang get-together/AtB birthday party a couple years back at Starbeams. Maybe, maybe not, as there was some drinking going on...

Anyway, some type of a farming forum would be very welcome to me, if only for the good information and great posting style you "farmers" seem to have.

Keep up the good work.

mario299
 
Hi Wannabe Mario, "plunge" is good word for it, often "Crash and Burn" is more appropriate. Hopefully a few others can help avoid that for you. Jim is definitely your man if you are thinking rubber trees.
No mate, never been to Starbeams but have heard good things and must make the effort to get there and relieve a few baht from those looking for this farmers products.
 
IsaanAussie said:
Hi Wannabe Mario, "plunge" is good word for it, often "Crash and Burn" is more appropriate. Hopefully a few others can help avoid that for you. Jim is definitely your man if you are thinking rubber trees.
No mate, never been to Starbeams but have heard good things and must make the effort to get there and relieve a few baht from those looking for this farmers products.
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I'd like to learn how to grow one of those money trees every Thai seems to think I have in the back yard. And, does it have to be a tree? Or, can it be grown as a bush so I don't need a ladder to harvest all that cash? :)

Mike
 
Money Tree flowering season

Cent said:
I'd like to learn how to grow one of those money trees every Thai seems to think I have in the back yard. And, does it have to be a tree? Or, can it be grown as a bush so I don't need a ladder to harvest all that cash? :)

Mike
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Oh they exist alright, the latin name is the Bahtikcus Tambonus and only ever seem to get a metre or so high.
I have seen them many times and anyone who lives in a village will have too. But you will only ever get one fleeting glimpse. They come into flower a couple of times a year but only for a day or so, and only after all the prodigal members return home.
I have helped fertilise these things but they never seem to look very rigourous, almost like an old dead branch covered with a huge number of colourful crisp rectangular leaves.
I just cannot get one to grow or anything else in that media. If you want to see one stand outside your house and wait for a huge mob of noisy drunks to stumble past on their way to the local Wat. The tree will be growing on the roof of a pickup truck somewhere amid the mob.
 
IsaanAussie said:
Even mushroom growers, don't keep us in the dark and feed us bullshit!
Click to expand...

In my 8 years or so away from Surin I lived in Central Thailand and set my now ex-wife up in a Mushroom Farm. It could and should have survived with enough profit to feed our family of 4 and pay for all household utilities....... but she insisted on getting her extended family involved for personal reasons rather than business or knowledge based reasons. They slowly sucked her of all self respect untill she was completely obedient to their stupid, uninformed and impractical ideas...

Oh and she paid them more than anybody else even for jobs that I was more than able and willing to perform myself. She often spent more time in the kitchen cooking food for 9 people ( Mother, Father, Sister etc and a myriad of children) The cost of the food alone would have paid for better, more efficient workers...

So, the line was drawn. No more "Investment" and "make the business work"...She refused to listen to me so I walked....


BTW Isaan Aussie..I do believe we may have swapped some PMs or comments on "The other board".....
 
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manplikron said:
In my 8 years or so away from Surin I lived in Central Thailand and set my now ex-wife up in a Mushroom Farm. It could and should have survived with enough profit to feed our family of 4 and pay for all household utilities....... but she insisted on getting her extended family involved for personal reasons rather than business or knowledge based reasons. They slowly sucked her of all self respect untill she was completely obedient to their stupid, uninformed and impractical ideas...

Oh and she paid them more than anybody else even for jobs that I was more than able and willing to perform myself. She often spent more time in the kitchen cooking food for 9 people ( Mother, Father, Sister etc and a myriad of children) The cost of the food alone would have paid for better, more efficient workers...

So, the line was drawn. No more "Investment" and "make the business work"...She refused to listen to me so I walked....


BTW Isaan Aussie..I do believe we may have swapped some PMs or comments on "The other board".....
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That is entirely possible, hi again, if not hi there. Sounds like like you could contribute to mushroom growing items? At least on the pests and fungal growths that hang around the mushy farm. Or just how much BS a mushroom can tolerate.

I am about to try mushrooms on compost and on straw bales, cannot be bothered with mushrooms in condoms like they do here. Glad for any clues.
 
IsaanAussie said:
Oh they exist alright, the latin name is the Bahtikcus Tambonus and only ever seem to get a metre or so high.
I have seen them many times and anyone who lives in a village will have too. But you will only ever get one fleeting glimpse. They come into flower a couple of times a year but only for a day or so, and only after all the prodigal members return home.
I have helped fertilise these things but they never seem to look very rigourous, almost like an old dead branch covered with a huge number of colourful crisp rectangular leaves.
I just cannot get one to grow or anything else in that media. If you want to see one stand outside your house and wait for a huge mob of noisy drunks to stumble past on their way to the local Wat. The tree will be growing on the roof of a pickup truck somewhere amid the mob.
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Yeah, I've seen them plenty of times. Seem to only grow around a buddhist holiday, and are harvested by the local monks and no one sees any of the fruit again until the next holiday.

Those supposedly frugal monks gin an awful lot of baht don't they for wanna be Buddhas? (For those that do not know, gin baht = eat baht, [same like gin khao = eat rice] means someone who steals money and is corrupt.

Mike
 
Cent said:
Yeah, I've seen them plenty of times. Seem to only grow around a buddhist holiday, and are harvested by the local monks and no one sees any of the fruit again until the next holiday.

Those supposedly frugal monks gin an awful lot of baht don't they for wanna be Buddhas? (For those that do not know, gin baht = eat baht, [same like gin khao = eat rice] means someone who steals money and is corrupt.

Mike
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And I thought they just had saffron thumbs. But making merit has a cost I suppose?
I have an English friend planning to move here and has started building house and farm. Didn't get the finances right and needed to borrow a quid. "Glad to help. Take what you need from the second box over there..... " Well chummies problem was fixed with 200K and everyone was happy, barely noticed the difference in the box. The owner of the box, his BIL, a monk
 
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We've tried most things. Rice... no profit unless you can control the way it is grown (and persuade your Thai workers to do what you want, not what they want). Pigs for fattening.... OK until the price of feed goes up. That's when the price of pork goes DOWN. Mushrooms in bottles..... OK for a while, but I don't really think there's much profit. Weaners.... good until everybody else starts selling weaners. Eggs... ditto. Vegetables... great for home use, but not much profit. Fruit.... promising, but you need a variety of fruit to provide a cash crop all year round, and it takes a few years to get the system running.

The key for us was getting good labour. For pigs and chickens (plus a variety of odd jobs) we have a great guy. Twice we've had good guys for vegetables; the first one was so meticulous that there was no profit, the second one was good until he got involved with a woman and had to up sticks. Family generally are useless.

Probably the best option is a variety of crops, not too much of any one.
 
You got that right, lotsa little bits

isanbirder said:
We've tried most things. Rice... no profit unless you can control the way it is grown (and persuade your Thai workers to do what you want, not what they want). Pigs for fattening.... OK until the price of feed goes up. That's when the price of pork goes DOWN. Mushrooms in bottles..... OK for a while, but I don't really think there's much profit. Weaners.... good until everybody else starts selling weaners. Eggs... ditto. Vegetables... great for home use, but not much profit. Fruit.... promising, but you need a variety of fruit to provide a cash crop all year round, and it takes a few years to get the system running.

The key for us was getting good labour. For pigs and chickens (plus a variety of odd jobs) we have a great guy. Twice we've had good guys for vegetables; the first one was so meticulous that there was no profit, the second one was good until he got involved with a woman and had to up sticks. Family generally are useless.

Probably the best option is a variety of crops, not too much of any one.
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Hi Bird,
A very good Thai friend told me to have as many baskets as you have apples. The methods you use can be as efficient as possible but money making monocropping here is not possible. Any farmer is so far down the "face" chain he will never prosper, even if he is the best, not unless he works outside the normal supply chain. Input costs are as controlled as outputs. Reduce the inputs and there may be a little extra left.
To me everything has to be integrated to add value to the outputs. Pigs shit, that composts, compost can be sold, used to feed worms, or used or grow mushrooms. Mineral fertilisers can be added and biology and the compost fermented into fertiliser. Every step adds value and profit. Take the pigs shit, dry and bag it, sell for 30 baht a bag, the Thai way, yes? Or compost it and sell it for 150 baht a bag.
 
I built a mushroom hut a few years ago, but before I could get anything going the Father and Mother In Law started living in it!!!!

They are now building a house from the proceeds of selling some buffalo, so hopefully I can give the mushroom a go soon.
 
If anyone knows how to grow mushrooms of the magic variety, let me know.
 
Born a target or what?

Growing takes time. Consuming is much quicker. "Hed" or mushrooms no drama but "HHH" Hed Harry Houdini,well easy enough but not recommended in this climate, legal climate that is. Surin or Sisaket border runs pass right by the grow beds.
 
Rice and return

I have been involved in growing Hom Mali 105 for over ten years. To start, same as every newbie I ever met, money in, no effort and f**k all back. So I looked at the local price and at the retail price in Bangkok, milled the rice and took it home to WongSawan in Bangkok. Bagged up in 5 kg lots for neighbours or in bulk to local restaurants, a tonne gone in four or five days. At the time 11 baht paddy or 25 baht bagged. As long as you stay small and do not attract attention OK!
Last year I decided that 46-0-0 so many and 16-16-16 so many was expensive and no needed, it was way more then needed and applied at all the wrong times. So I thought stuff it, the Ag Dept gave me the kgs of NP and K needed, why should I pay 900 baht for phosphate as part of a commercial NPK when I can buy it as rock phosphate for 150 baht?
So I changed to using all what was required in the cheapest form. Result, and I am talking last "crappy weather" year. 510kg per rai at top baht 16 baht for paddy, half the amount of fertiliser and a nett 25% of fertiliser cost. Do the numbers.
Is the Thai family ripping you off? I doubt it, they are more likely to be following everyone else in the village. They in turn are following the "advice" of the guy selling the bags on"credit" in the village or town. And at 3 to 10% per month he is bound to be a honest man, isn't he?
Wake up guys, jump on the net and learn or ask for advice. But do not blame "the family", they do not know!!!! The worst is they might stick you for a few more bags than they think they need.
 
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The problem with the family is that they are convinced they do know, and you are just a stupid farang; how could you possibly know how to grow rice? This attitude is worldwide.

Just as an aside, Pope Francis keeps getting told, "Your holiness, it's always been done this way." "But I want it done differently." So what's the difference in attitude from your Isan farmers?
 
Face to FACE

isanbirder said:
The problem with the family is that they are convinced they do know, and you are just a stupid farang; how could you possibly know how to grow rice? This attitude is worldwide.

Just as an aside, Pope Francis keeps getting told, "Your holiness, it's always been done this way." "But I want it done differently." So what's the difference in attitude from your Isan farmers?
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No difference in attitude, both have an aversion to change and risk. Thais are taught by rote in school. The WHY isnt important when you are taught not to question the teacher. They "have" to know. To admit otherwise loses face. No-one likes being called Khun Kwai.
How could I know how to grow rice? Yeap, got that a lot until last year. They all talked about the crazy farang and his stupid fertiliser plan. But the laughing slowed as the season went on. They were not laughing after harvest.
I could have sold tickets to look at the empty bags of stuff I had used. Not kidding I sat and listened while these guys all tried to remember what I used when, what the application rates were.
 
isanbirder said:
The problem with the family is that they are convinced they do know, and you are just a stupid farang; how could you possibly know how to grow rice? This attitude is worldwide.

Just as an aside, Pope Francis keeps getting told, "Your holiness, it's always been done this way." "But I want it done differently." So what's the difference in attitude from your Isan farmers?
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IB:
I think the proof must be in the performance. Yes, we are all stupid farang and yes, they have been growing rice for centuries but as IssanAussie says...show it works! I honestly think that if you show the family they can save money they will fervently try, as they all really like saving money!
Or...maybe they would like to show the stupid farang up, so show them less output of money equals more input of rice..??
The proof is in the pudding, and I welcome advise on better ways to do things.

mario299
 
Will they change to something new?

Will they change to something that has proven to work? Probably not. Two likely reasons being: many people here simply do not understand what is in the fertiliser let alone how it works, or how much to use; the other reason is the guy supplying the fert's on the pay later scheme doesnt blend stuff.
Most believe more is better, which of course is rubbish.
Will they listen next time to other ideas? No, the farang just got lucky last time. No questions about how did he know? Result, turn up the jealousy volume a tad!
 
I agree with both you and Mario. Where you have to make the difference is by doing it yourself, doing it yourself again, and doing it yourself yet again. Eventually the message will sink in. They're not really stupid, just set in their ways.

I came into Isan farming in rather a different way. I was in my 70s, and my (male) partner was in his 30s. There was no way I was going to be allowed to do anything myself (even if I was physically capable). So I watched; I could see what was happening.
 
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