Thread: Farming Good or Bad Idea?

Originally Posted by andy62

Rigger Please?

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Originally Posted by andy62

IssanAussie ... how many years have you been farming in Thailand? ... Her sister does OK! ...small livestock poultry. She would help with the aquaponics ... Pigs if I had 20 to start, 5 at at monthly intervals, so after 4 months would have 4 for sale! how much would the sale value be? would I be wrong to expect 8000bt

I have been farming here for 5 years, spent 9 years here prior doing other things as well as a lot of farm planning.
Thais do as well as they want in farming IMHO. Until recently most seem to live within their means but with pickups and tractors being bought in the hope that they can be kept busy it seems many are making the same mistakes as many farangs.
Poultry is a good idea. I had 30 odd RIR layers and they keep us in eggs as well as those we sold at that level we made a tiny profit.
No disrespect meant but don't push too much of the aquaponics operation on your wife if you aren't here. Most Thais here will leave maintenance issues to the people they hire. Unless she knows the system and its operation extremely well so she can explain it to the help, you are liable to come back to a patched up nightmare.
Pigs, ummm. Think this one through carefully. Currently prices are at what I would call a sustainable level and managed properly good piglets grown out to 100kg should be revealing a profit of around 1,000 baht per head, perhaps more. But check the local conditions. Who keeps pigs near you, how many in a batch, what prices are they getting and when are the peaks and troughs in the market. The usual peaks are around New Year through Songkran and below Lent. Thai growers will tend to raise one batch to be ready around those peaks rather than every month. For a breeder, than the monthly flow must be maintained to get sow productivity.
With 20 pigs in 4 batches of 5, means 4 pens. 10 pigs in one pen takes little more work than 5. 20 in one larger pen is less work again and broadens your market to include professional buyers. Again it is a balancing game to suit market conditions.

Originally Posted by Albert Shagnastier

Originally Posted by andy62

Rigger Please?

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I do farming and aquaculture for myself as a hobby. If I could get all of my food for free I would feel as tho I had made a profit. Now that I am older and recently having osteoporosis problems the work does not get done or you must pay for labor. I love plants and working in the yard/garden. My advise is: DO IT FOR FUN. DO NOT DREAM OF PROFIT CAS WHEN YOU WAKE UP YOU WILL CRY.

For fun/hobby - My wife and I have a pond that is 8 X 20 foot one meter deep. About from 300 to 500 talapia. I recently learned about "wicking beds". I have about 20 of them made from the round cement rings you see everwhere in Thailand. I am happy with them so far. I have 8 aquaponics beds. Having trouble adjusting the flow - I either get too much or too little. I also have an inground garden with some raised beds. What works best so far - Don't know. I only used an inground garden for the first 5-6 years here and for sure that is not best unless one uses a ton or two of soil admendments plus bug/worm killers.

Good luck and stay away from Bangkok or anything south of there except for maybe a holiday.

Ceburat1 Thank you for your advise on the aquaponics? I am using Koi and a 8 raised bed system. had problems at first with the water flow, and with the bell syphons! now OK. sorry to hear of you illness. all the best.

IssanAussie
wives sister seems to do Ok with the ducks! sells the eggs well in the vilage, and the ducks for meat sell for about 200bt

MIL has a few ducks wandering around, will try one day when I get time to make a ramp for them to get in and out of the pond. They do a great job on the snails and other pests. Like to get back to having a few cows again as well, but not the little Isaan white ones again.
A little of a lot of things is the plan.

This thread is my first! I hope it will not be my last? good advice and feed back.
Thank you all once again.

Yeah, good luck Andy. I think you're going to need lots of it.

Originally Posted by Rigger

Originally Posted by Albert Shagnastier

Originally Posted by andy62

Rigger Please?

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Nigger Please.

It's the way you see it - you faggot

Hi there Andy
May as well throw my 2 bits in.
Forget Aquaponics, unless you are investing big money, BOI type money.
Forget pigs, even the Thais out my way have given up on small pig farms, again unless you are inverting millions of dollars you can't compete. AI knows his stuff when it comes to pigs, go visit him and see the reality.
Forget ducks, had around 500 in a purpose build shed, Thai partner, their money my land, river frontage. Them ducks eat a lot, Thai seemed to think they could live off the river alone. No ducks now, but I have a free building.
Forget living in the sticks, this life suits very few people, most turn into alcoholic's or just pack up and walk away.

My advice, come over for 6 months, give it a try before making plans, look around, visit others, see if anything works. Look for an opening not done here, preferably in a field you know about. Do your home work not only on the subject, but on the rulers here. No one cares about a farang with a hobby farm our small shop etc, but as sure as god made little green applies, if you start to make real money they will care. You need to be legal, VAT, taxes, permits and the list goes on depending on what you are doing.

I made the it and a few others have succeed, but they are thin on the ground, if it won't work in the west [minus the taxes ] it won't work here.
Not saying you can't make it, but on 5 rai you can't compete with a Thai who needs 20 or 30,000 Baht a year and you can't live like a Thai. Jim

Good 2 bits there Jim ,, ^ hope your taking note Andy , from a man who,s been there and got a wardrobe full of T shirts

Originally Posted by Albert Shagnastier

Originally Posted by Rigger

Originally Posted by Albert Shagnastier

Originally Posted by andy62

Rigger Please?

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.........

Nigger Please.

It's the way you see it - you faggot

Please I haven't been a faggot since the last time

andy62,
I know nothing of your farming intentions or it's viability but my observations are this;
- live the village life before committing unless you've already got that tee-shirt.
- I think you might need to add a decimal place to the amt of baht you plan to bring in to start up and allow for inflation in your calculations.
- unless you're gifted at language and assimilating upcountry thai culture, quite a bit of everything you will want to do will have to be done THROUGH your wife. She will have to be 100% on board with your plan and follow your instructions 100%, at least as you would expect any manager to. Is she a business minded person? Can she do this after you've had an inevitable married life fight?
- it's been my experience (as well as a number of other falang friends living in upper shitholeville), that wives prefer to be seen as 'mia-falang' versus as a working wife saddled with considerable responsibility and stress placed upon them. YMMV with yours but this is not uncommon.
- you as a business owner will be significantly removed from the direct line of command and control here due to language, culture, and maybe doing something out of the ordinary which concerns the locals, and you will need to put up with lots of nonsensical thai methods often contrary to your common sense ways.

Just my few cents and it's certainly not a blanket statement, chokdee!

Do it but don't grow anything that all other ESAN farmers can do ! Grow what is more difficult to find in Thailand...

A few personal comments on these last two posts.
Mia Farang is a very real concept here. Many farang wives have told us that local people will not buy their produce. The reason given is they do not have to "help" your wife because she is rich already! My wife works as hard as our neighbours but still is greeted with this by a few in our village.
I disagree in part with SMSs view to grow things that are foreign to the area. Learn any lessons you can first from those in the village and grow the standard stuff this will give you a baseline for comparison. If you invest the time and interest in what and how they do things, you will gain many friends.
Venture off privately and kick a goal, they will react and a jealous village bamboo telegraph can do a lot of harm. So show them what you are doing as well. Explain how it works as well.

IssanAussie I thank you again for your good wisdom and your knowlage! I am so happy I started this Thread, If not just for myself, for all the other would be falang farmers out there?
I take my hat off to you and your understanding wife! work is hard for you, and for small money gain! but I hope you are both happy for work and life satisfaction.
When I come back to Thailand I hope, I would be welcome to visit and say hello to you and see your work in progress? I will provide beers.

Originally Posted by jamescollister

Andy, have a look on barhtandsold, you maybe surprised at what good land in a good location costs.
Look outside the square, but you are taking a chance, language and culture are a massive problem.
Thailand is no longer a cheap place, even in remote parts, one of those resorts I wrote about on the Mun river near Ubon, small 3 or 4 rai, 7 or 8 rooms up for sale, 30,000 Baht.
Good luc kif you try, but go in with your eyes open, sometimes dreams become nightmares. Jim

Indeed, Jim...

Some well-intended ventures will certainly turn nightmarish if one doesn't have a firm grip of wtf they're doing....

jamescollister very good advise, like the many replys from TD members. I have seen the rising costs with the time I have recently spent in Thailand which makes doing what I am proposing more difficult to do with little money I am willing to invest (I am thinking with my head) not with my dick like one or two members think? but all in all I am happy with the replys. Yes I do have a heart for my wife and would like the best I can possibly do for her and me together. Maybe the next Tread I do will read "do's and dont's for the Thai wife".
Sorry to some readers for my poor English.

My Apologies,thought it was a spoof to start off with. Best of luck with your new venture,Gentleman farmer.

Do it for fun and you won't be disappointed and grow what you can eat

I cannot see it working to be honest sorry mate. One of the main points is where you will be living....my wife's parents live in the middle of no where and the longest I can stand being there is two days...there is just nothing at all to do or see what so ever! I can speak the language fairly well but there's only so much conversation you can drum up with the locals....another thing is the standard of life which is very difficult for a westerner to genuinely adapt too.

Farming wise I think you could make so money but you would certainly have to go the extra mile, it would concern me that you don't have any experience for a start unfortunately.

Something that no one seems to have mentioned is the possibility of fattening up buffalo's as there is a fairly decent profit in that but the turn around time is slow.

Where is the nearest city to where you are intending on moving to as you may probably find it very very easy to get a job teaching English if its a far flung place with no farangs around, this of course would give you a much better wage than the vast majority of people in the local area and of course pay for your living costs, you could then do a little farming on top as a top up.