MrFarmer, monday free to yum cha around 12.00-1.00pm ??? old town midah ?

Heya Mr. Para,

We just recently graduated. We both studied Agronomy. Yea, we plan to work for a few years before entering the ag business entirely. But at the moment, maybe we could do some part-time farming for trial and error and to learn more. My friend have been visiting farms because he's working in the ag chemical field. I am in the oil palm agronomy and research now. But with the high land prices, we couldn't catch up by just saving our money for the capital. Do you know where can we get funding or any other solution?

We're both in KL/PJ area. Would love to meet with you guys. It's always good to do connections.

This post has been edited by xeroxphan: Nov 29 2013, 04:37 PM

Hi

i would suggest you can go to agrobank or DOA since both of you are graduates. they have some loans if not mistaken.
i suggest you lease farms from land owners or contact local DOA

great to meet up

Yes, grafted = hi yield , as seeds are not true to type. Grafted can tap much earlier, faster return. Check for various clone, Fast yeild, high latex.
Clone sapling are much cheaper in Peninsular.

But now rubber price very low. Better recalculate.

Yes, in KL now. Going off on the 3rd Dec. I am spending about 2/3 of my time at Farm.

Sure, am leaving on Tuesday.
See you there. Old Town 12 ~ 13 hrs. Any changes, please phone ya?

the purpose of grafting is to uniform your plant into a desirable characteristic of your choice and eventually yield a better result after years of planting. if you just sow from raw seed, you might end up getting myriad kind of mature rubber tree (oversized/slender trunk, susceptible to diseases, low latex yielding etc). actually there are more pros than cons in getting your plant grafted before planting them into the field. one simple example (grafted VS non-grafted) is you have the option to graft the seedling into the clone that is suitable based on your land geography (say hilly land, choose clone that is wind-resistant to prevent tree from breaking off), and if you just sow the raw seed, you have little control of what it will become. as an extra note, grafting is not an easy process, so if you want to save the hassle just purchase the seedlings from any nursery.

Hehe, grafted some, it's taking.


Say Chris, you still in KL? We are meeting up at Cheras, Taman Midah Old Town, Monday 12 ~ 13 hr. Want to come?

This post has been edited by MrFarmer: Nov 29 2013, 10:31 PM

ok great will do.
probably could be 12.00pm. because after that need to rush down to JB for a course by FAMA on Tuesday & Wednesday

how come the sapling grow like out of place? the one of the right, looks weird to me..
i'm back in Sabah already

Mr Farmer, the land for me only suitable for rubber as the access itself is 'kayu balak' access... thinking of palm oil but it's just not feasible to me...
i've asked around and LIGS is selling seedling at RM4.50/pc... will have a look on it later..

Mr xeroxphan, just for reference; i've actually developed a small palm oil farm (+-8acres) with financing from Agrobank. But, the land is not mine.. some proper documents (agreements, MPOB licence etc) are required. But do protect your interest and if possible you do sub-lease of the land.

Mr chris, thanks. great info..

p/s: Mr Para, bulletin not out yet?

This post has been edited by poks: Nov 30 2013, 10:12 AM

The rootstock over grown, too large already. Didn't find time to graft. Anyway, just testing and shall plant this somewhere near to be used as scion harvesting. See you next time, or if I pass by Beaufort.

ParaOpticaL
there's one forumer recommend me to look for u to seek advice on agriculture
should i PM u or create new topic?

This post has been edited by suadrif: Nov 30 2013, 12:53 PM

Yes, Lembaga selling $4.50 (Sabah) but difficult to get stock, mostly catering for their own project. Outside price at $4.50 to $7.00. Ahh. forgotten you are from Sabah too. Yes access road problem, hilly. At times our Hilux 4X4 also can not enter. Well 'Kayu balak' is better then no access. Slowly maintain and it shall get better. We have to do road maintenance every year.

Personally I prefer Rubber over palm oil.

hi bro,

you are free to PM me or just post in this thread.

it its private and you dont want to share it out then PM me...

Thank you


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Hi Mr Farmer,

Haa.... yea, I've been really busy lately... sorry about that.

About the Butternut squash, yes, very very popular. And the prices are quite high too. The Waltham variety in particular has very strong prices. The other types are starting to lose prices, but still fetch about RM10-15 per fruit. I think the main reason why they are so popular is because they are a very versatile variety of squash. I've made things ranging from pumpkin pies, custards, stews, soup, salads, and biscuits using them. And like their namesake, they have a buttery taste to it.

Anyway, moving on to the current topic of...

Mr Farmer:
I see you are using two grafting methods here, the side-graft and wedge-graft. Have you tried collared grafting?

xeroxphan:
I believe Mr Farmer has given you his answer. I would like weigh in also -
(1) It is great that both you and your friend have such passion for agriculture. However, my advice, as is that of Mr Farmer, is that you guys stick around in your respective companies longer, and learn as much as you can from your respective companies first. It is not just the agro-science parts that you need to know, but also all the downstream activities, eg. accounting, post-harvest management, marketing, etc., in addition to on-the-ground operations, man-management and costings etc. If you like, you could try raising a small patch first, say a few hundred square feet, to practice some of the skills needed.

As for doing this part time, better check what is the policy of your company... the plantation company I worked with before specifically mentioned in the contract that execs in the company cannot own agriculture land, at the risk of being fired. Apparently, there will be a conflict of interest.

(2) 3-4 acres is not small. Just use bananas as an example, one acre will have 600 trees (monocropping), and 4 acres will be 2,400 trees. If you planted things like corn, 4 acres will have 16,000 plants easily.

I will agree with Mr Farmer that you should have a thorough enough knowledge of whatever crop you intend to plant (on a large scale), or at least have access to extension officers that are knowledgeable enough in it near your farm. Knowledge is key to efficiency and effectiveness in agriculture.

That saying, there are inherent differences between tree crops and vegetable crops. For one, vegetable crops do require a greater deal more care from pest and diseases, but are very short term investments. Most vegetable crops can be harvested after 150-180 days, and you will be able to plant 2 seasons a year if you are efficient. The downside, however, is that vegetable crops also tend to cost more to cultivate, with a smaller profit margin.

Let's use corn for example: One acre will yield roughly 4,000 ears of corn per season, and for every 7 cobs, you get RM10. So your gross income from 4,000 ears should be RM5,700. But the cost of growing the corn comes up to almost RM3,500 (fertilizer, seeds, pesticides etc.), making your profit margin about RM2,200 only. Spread over 4 months of work, that is equivalent to RM550 per month. Not a whole lot. But demand often outstrips supply for certain crops.

But with tree crops, the lead time is much longer, in most cases 3-8 years. Tree crops, however, do not consume as much fertilizer as short term crops, and herbicides are mostly critical only at the early stages. I'm not that familiar with fruit trees, but using coconuts as example, the 3 years of growing time will cost about RM9,000. Under good agriculture practices, a one hectare coconut farm will yield about 12,000-15,000 fresh tender drinking nuts, and about 3,000-5,000 dried mature nuts a year. At a farmer's market price of RM2.00 per fresh coconut, that is equal to RM24,000 per year. Not bad at all. The only problem is that compared to vegetables, the demand is not as stable.

(3) Unfortunately, I am no longer "doing" agriculture in the traditional sense. Right now I'm more of a seed hunter and full-time ag-scientist.

A final note: If you do want to get a feel of agrobusiness, and there are no restrictions barring you from doing this, I will suggest that you do short term fruit crops, like banana, for a start. But do your research on market demand first, bearing in mind that such crops only provide harvest about 12-18 months after planting. So try to get a good idea of cropping projections from other farms, see what they are all planting, and then plant something different (but still with strong demand). If it is difficult for you to do so, then try hedging your production by planting different percentages of each crop, eg. 50% berangan, 30% nipah, 20% rastali. This way, if the prices of one or two crops dip, at least the one crop can help keep your enterprise afloat.

A story I like to use to describe this fully is about a banana grower I dealt with before, while still in the plantation industry. He had wanted to grow Berangan bananas, but our tissue culture lab had sold-out the entire production for the year already. Instead, our chief clerk suggested that he plant Rastali bananas, which we had quite a high stock (the prices for Rastali banana that production year was low). The grower was quite reluctant at first, but bought 100,000 plants anyway, lest his rented land remained unplanted. The next year he came back, and informed us that as everyone else had planted Berangan, prices for Rastali soared. And because he was one of the few who had planted Rastali, he made 60% more than what he could have if he had planted Berangan.

This post has been edited by Michael J.: Dec 1 2013, 10:13 AM

xeroxphan:

Also, quite contrary to what is being said, it is indeed quite difficult to get funding for agriculture enterprises. The reason being that banks view agriculture in Malaysia as a high-risk enterprise, and thus are unwilling to part money without some form of collateral, usually with the mortgage of the land itself.

Agrobank is supposed to be more open to funding agriculture projects, but from what I know, they've also maintained a similar attitude to other banks. I guess that's the reason why the entire board had been changed not too long ago. That saying, it might be worth trying now. If not, try microfinancing from government-linked banks, like BSN. Do note however that they will specify a "manufacturing" or "downstream processing" component to your enterprise, before they approve the loan, so think of possible plans of including a smallscale cottage industry. Eg. kerepek pisang tanduk, or homemade kimchi etc. Here is Sarawak, we see a lot of enterprising cottage industries, and many of their products get featured in mainline hypermarkets like Giant.

Hi Michael,
Had been learning & experimenting with grafting since last year, only recently made some progress. Had tried various grafting on mango, rubber, jackfruit & avocados. Your suggestion on collar grafting, I can't find any instruction in the internet. Maybe can point me to the right direction? Thank you.

Hi guys, it me the salted egg guy again, i wanna ask here familiar with vacuum packaging and high pressure cooker dissinfection?

I plan to sell my Salted Egg, cooked, to restaurants, havent seen people doing it here but china already quite some time.

What is the proper procedure for vacuum packing? Dissinfec first than packing, or pack first then dissinfect in pressure cooker?

Also should I increase my price to cover the cost of packaging or remain the same price as the raw unpacked one?

Another question is, if i were to sell the cooked egg to restaurants n kopitiam, is it advisable to do it like a consignment? Anyone experience in consignment? Is it like, i put 5 trays of eggs this week, no need pay first, the next week i service him, if he sold 3 trays, then I collect money for 3 trays and replenish the egg. Like that ah?

Thanks in advance aa

Mr Ah suknat.

It all depends on your operating cost whenever you want to try a system.

I'm doing other biz other than agri just to cover my other expenses. And i'm doing the exact system on your last part's comment. I only experience that you may sell cheap at big quantities with low quality and cost can be covered.

Other than that, opening small branches do help. I go for fixed price and they marked up price. Just sharing though & sorry for off topic. Lol

Ps: just do it