Building a Water Trap aka "DaM"

yes indeed i'm planning to do so but currently i'm working offshore so it's kinda hard for me to contribute my time for that little piece of land, i know it sounds like a dumbass, but i'll try to work it out.

Let say i interested opening a farm (maybe a small scale) to raise goats or cows, how much it need roughly?

Any source out there that can help me to build those barn, setup the farm, sell me the goats and cows and provide me training in 1 package?

"Franchise" method for this farm is not widely available in Malaysia. though alot of people are doing it small scale.

Read in the papers today that there was a guy rearing Saanen goats for their milk. quite profitable it seems.

You can also read BOER goats from Australia if not mistaken for their meat. i was at the MAHA 2006 expo and saw their powerpoint presentation of the farm and goats. those goats are HUGE.

also please refer to the link below :-

Info on Goats from Ministry Of Agriculture

this looks interesting for my 12 acre.....

i would suggest you get some books to read up. depending on your interest.

a) Agriculture
b) Aquaculture
c) LiveStock

then you will have a feel on roughly what to do.

and then its all about

A
C
T
I
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N

cant wait for the meeting!!
The meeting for agenda btw?

agenda not yet set.
i will come up with it next week.

need sometime to think about it over the weekend...hehe

wow....hehe...got agenda.

ParaOpticaL, I'll be glad to join your meeting, I'm into farming business although I'm currently employed with an Oil n Gas company....I find that it's a waste having a 12 acre land and doing nothing profitable with it....I'll return to Penang probably at the end of this month or early March...really hope to meet you and everybody else involved.....I need to know all the techniques and costs and support...thanx

brother...

we are having a meeting in Kuala Lumpur wor.
please refer to the 1st page in case there is any miscommunication.

Source : New Straits Time
Hybrid fish to 'save' seafood sector
10 Feb 2007


Courtesy of NST

KOTA KINABALU: A hybrid species of grouper, or "sak pan" in Chinese, has been developed, which will have great commercial value and help to bring the seafood industry closer to its target for the future.

The new species is a cross between the giant grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus) and the tiger grouper (Epine-phelus fuscoguttatus), both of which are high-value species in great consumer demand.

The fish was jointly developed by Universiti Malaysia Sabah's Borneo Marine Research Institute (BMIT), the Fisheries Development Authority of Malaysia (LKIM) and Kinki University Japan.

BMIT director Prof Dr Saleem Mustafa said the new species will relieve the pressure on the wild grouper due to overfishing and other illegal fishing methods.

"We are looking at helping to find solutions to the increasing demand, versus shrinking supply, of the industry through aquaculture," he said.

A consignment of 2,000 four-month-old fish will be distributed to local fish breeders and farmers through LKIM.

The juvenile fish cost RM15 per fish now, but a fully grown one can sell for RM120 a kilogramme at full market price, said Saleem, adding that the species' full growth potential is not known yet.

"It has been well-received, and it will benefit the industry as well as help with the conservation of the species.

"Cross-breeding combines the best qualities of both parent fish, hence the premium price," he said, adding that there are plans to sell the fish on the global market.

The target for aquaculture production in the country 400,000 tonnes per year by 2010, and the current level of production is 110,000 tonnes.

"Traditional methods cannot achieve this, so a great deal of effort needs to be put into research and development to increase yield," he said, adding that the new grouper is a step in this direction.

This post has been edited by ParaOpticaL: Feb 13 2007, 07:31 PM

Update before CNY

The Star


Home-grown square melons to be on sale soon

Would you pay RM68 or RM88 for a sweet melon? It'll probably be a worthwhile buy if the said fruit is a square melon embossed with the word "Fook" (Chinese for prosperity), especially during an auspicious time like the Chinese New Year.

About 500 such melons are planted on the rooftop of Iris Corporation Berhad's Capillary AgroTech (M) Sdn Bhd in Technology Park.

"It's a research and development effort by our company to bring up the value of our produces for our farmers," said general manager Chia King Hong.

What a novelty: Chia holding two Golden Prosperity Melons, one still in its mould while the other will be attractively packed as a festive gift.
"We took the cue from the square watermelon produced in Japan. The project was started about six months ago and is still run on a small scale," he said.

The square melons will be launched into the market with a bang during Hari Raya or Christmas this year, he said.

A sweet melon is sold at between RM8 and RM10 at supermarkets. The company plans to sell the produce, which will be packaged attractively as festive gifts, at between RM68 and RM88.

But, you will have to wait if you are interested.

All 500 melons have been reserved by the company's employees and corporate partners.

Chia said there was not much sophisticated technology involved.

"When the fruits are still small, we put them into transparent moulds, of which one side is engraved with words or pictures, and they will grow according to their moulds," he explained.

With a lot of effort and a dash of creativity, here comes the Malaysian-made "Golden Prosperity Melon".

Well done, para, I am way more then impressed. Thanks for putting all the info together. And good job in hosting and keep the topic burning.

As usual I am having funny thoughts in my mind, just yet to turn it into serious business. There are several research I need to carry out:

- soiless farming: cost, pruduction, crop price, material, method, location, manpower.

soiless means no soil, for example the strawberries farms in cameron or a hypotonic farm in a green house. The chili news para posted is one of the example. This should mean less hassle as you do not need to deal with dirt. Kinda suit the city lazy folks like me.

Cost should be higher then traditional farming, as you need to purchase every drop of fertilizer and every piece of potting material. Plenty of stuff to carry around too, like planting your seedlings into the polyplastic. And also the dipping system, etc.

Production should be way higher then traditional farming if you are inside a green house. It is a matter of 14 tons (in open air) to 50 tons(in green house) difference (planting chili, according to a verbal source)

Usually you can learn all thouse method from your fertilizer/seed supplier, perhaps you can even try out some of your creativity as well.

Soiless means you do not need to depend on mother earth, as long as you have air, water and sunlight, you can even do it in a spaceship(certainly not economically viable thou).

Applying smart systems will shoot your budget like a firework, but it certainly wont go out in flames and smoke if you do it right. It is possible to limit the manpower to one self(me). For example, I heard about some german farm which only have 2 employees. The tractor driver, and the boss.

I am looking forward for the agenda, yes I am.

Let all begin to work on something meaningful before our employment life drag us into oblivion.

Happy CNY, gong xi gong xi.

YES THIS IS THE BEST THING U COULD DO.....next please learn the ropes from someone experience in the venture that you are going to start
-agri venture has a 50-50 risk ratio
- dont leave your day job unless you have other income
-if you are planting dont hope for the seeds from the gov better get it from else where
-everybody will have their own opinion in this field.
-your best bet is to get knowledge from experience people in the field.....

Para, you are rearing fish in tanks! Seem like one of the recent agriworld magazines have mentioned about this. I will bring all my magazines(2004-recent, time changed, but people will still grow the same thing ) if I attend the agenda. Just to have something to look at.

No worries about not understand any ancient characters you have me.

I have kept some vegetation in my condo, so in an attempt to prevent them from turning into fossile while im going off for CNY holiday, I have "did something to them", some sort of automatic watering system capable to supply them several days of water needs. No high tech terminator stuff here, the concept is there, not too sure if they actually works

So will try update you guys once I get back to the traffic jamming KL after next tuesday.

I am giving my pitaya plants some drought test, so they arnt getting any water for one whole dry week kekeke. Those who would like to do pitaya might find this info useful.

Regards. dongdongdongdongchiang

as jeffblazed said, in short, not asking for everything ready made, but look for the answer yourself, asking is simply one of the method.

This post has been edited by rexis: Feb 18 2007, 02:30 AM

i am not very keen into agriculture myself..but i had this friend who works in the department of agriculture..he did some consulting for my company...basicly he thought me what i know about agriculture because a few years back my singaporean partner was interested in doing an agriculture project Organic farming
and i looked around for some one experienced to do a viability study on this venture
so found this guy out.......
too bad he is not in lowyat net....may be if any of you are interested i could give you his email but i have to ask him first ok....

Hi there,

You may want to forward his contact to ParaOptical.

It's good to keep in touch with each other

rexis : yes please bring the Agri magazine if you have it with you. much appreciated it. please do come to the Meet up.

thank you for your compliments. hopefully i can get my stuff started next week.

jeffblazed : hope you can pass the contact to me. thank you.


This post has been edited by ParaOpticaL: Mar 1 2007, 12:08 PM