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Parrothead

Rice Harvest: It's that time of the year, again.

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Parrothead

While rice is really the last thing I ever wish to plant, Chan and I talked about it early this year. So, after buying seed, putting it in the ground, fertilizing it when necessary, and praying enough rain would come to feed the rice, harvest finally arrived. 

 

The harvester arrived last evening. A few friends of her nephew showed up as well, to help bag the harvest. 

 

Not a very good one this year, due to late rains, though. Twenty-seven bags of rice were harvested from two hectares of land.

 

Will see how much (weight) we yielded soon, when it is sold. I hope we at least have a bit of spending money left over, afterward. 

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Parrothead

Talk about traffic on an old farm dirt road. 

 

It's like a traffic jam in Phnom Penh here - well, almost. Okay, maybe not. But, it seems as though just about all the farmers are harvesting at the same time, this year. Wasn't this busy, at one time, last year. 

 

Oh, I'm hearing in the neighborhood of $250 US / ton of harvested rice, seems to be an average rate here.

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Parrothead

Sold it this afternoon. $255 USD / ton. 1.975 tons. 27 bags of rice. Kept 6 here and sold 21 of them.

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syzmic

Did you calculate what it cost to produce?

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Parrothead

Did you calculate what it cost to produce?

 

What it WOULD have cost:

$56.25 - plow and disc harrow the land

$150 - seed

$65 - fertilizer

$15 - to spread fertilizer by hand  

$100 - harvest machine

$8.10 - sacks to fill with rice

$10.00 - Miscellaneous salaries, etc. (Only took a couple hours work.)

$404.30

 

Actual cost, because we got the seed from her mother and sister. So, we just gave them seed in place of what we got from them.

$56.25 - plow and disc harrow the land

$000 - seed

$65 - fertilizer

$15 - to spread fertilizer by hand  

$100 - harvest machine

$8.10 - sacks to fill with rice

$10.00 - Miscellaneous salaries, etc. (Only took a couple hours work.)

$254.30

 

So, we made a whopping $248.70 for rice that was in the ground for 5 months. 

 

By next rainy season, we should have a 15 cm (6") bore (well) in the ground. If so, I MAY be willing to try this once more. Had we enough rain early on this year, the crop would have been much better. (Chan spoke with a number of the neighbors, all of whom said they had poor crops this year.) Depending on how many cubic meters of water the bore can pump (we won't know until we have a hole in the ground), it may be able to irrigate the rice enough to continue proper growth. We produced a crop of less than 2 (metric) tons, when that same piece of farm land (we planted about 1.5 ha) could have produced significantly more.

Edited by Paul

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syzmic

At least you didn't lose your arse in the process, and maybe even learned something along the way. Makes you wonder how the farmers survive. It can't be easy.

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Parrothead

At least you didn't lose your arse in the process, and maybe even learned something along the way. Makes you wonder how the farmers survive. It can't be easy.

 

That's the truth. 

 

I have to say, I wouldn't be so against farming rice, if it weren't such a water intensive crop.

 

After talking about it yesterday, I learned Chan would rather dig a huge pond, much larger than the one we have now, and use that dirt to fill in the rice paddies. Then, we could plant less water intensive crops that could be sold year round. During dry season, a large enough pond could be the water source, in order to irrigate the crops.

 

Sounds reasonable, anyway. 

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andy

 

 


So, we made a whopping $248.70 for rice that was in the ground for 5 months.

 

So you really have $5.60 profit to plant next years rice crop. No wonder farmers live off borrowing. 

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Parrothead

So you really have $5.60 profit to plant next years rice crop. No wonder farmers live off borrowing. 

 

No. We grossed: $503.00

We paid out this: $254.30

That left us this:  $248.70

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Bill H

With farming, it's always about the water...always.

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