Ending Year 2011

Year 2011 had just ended and am reflecting on the progress so far, since taking over the management  in October. This was a very challenging period as I need to learn up agriculture, management in agriculture and marketing our produce in a very short time. Being away from love ones, had some toll on me too. Thankfully  I have all the support from my love ones, family members as well as partners. Even though it was a bit stressful, this is a rare opportunity to have a 'crash course' hands-on experience.

Had done up and documented the Smart Partnership Joint Venture Agreement with our partners to work on these lands, developing it to a rubber plantation. Agreement for Parcel 1, 2 & 6 had been signed. Awaiting the return of Agreement for Parcel 3. These agreement map out the responsibility, expectation of all partners so as we can progress and move ahead with a streamline and focused direction. Being a long term project, that may last up to 25 years this also provides a continuity in terms of administration.

Am in the final stages of getting the work pass for our Indonesian helpers. This permit is for 3 years and we are doing it without the help of agents in order to save cost. Agents charge a fee of $1,400 to $1,800 per head.

Accessed all the land area of all Parcel, identified areas that we can still develop. I find there are still plenty of potential in all the Parcel. Making plans to expand the coverage as by increasing the planting density, as it shall contribute more during harvesting. Shall start with those that have the easiest access area. Parcel 1 & 6, followed by 3 then 2. Parcel 7 is still under the land dispute and shall have to wait till it's sorted out.

The trials conducted is almost done and had identified some short/mid/long term crops that we can plant and market. Groundnuts, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, tapioca and corn are the short term corps. Banana shall be the main mid term crop as it can be grown on all the Parcels. Long term crops are mostly fruits trees like Avocado and Sukun (Breadfruit). We had also finish conducting our marketing studies on these crops.

Am grateful that I had learn a lot these few months, which shall be put to full use this year. Had also build a strong working relation with helpers as well as partners. Morale and commitment had a big boost especially from our helpers. Year 2012, shall catch up and further our initial progress. Year 2012 shall be our year of Redevelopment.

Parcel 5 Our Small Farm

Month of December, on set of the monsoon season. Our pool had been filled to the max, had to dig an overflow drain to relieve some flooded area. Algae had grown in our pool as we did not use the water much. The fishes that we had thrown in had also grew in quantity. Bought some fish feeds, but unfortunately all were eaten by the dogs. Have to store it securely the next time. Thankfully we had harvested our green vegetable patch as two raised beds were flooded. Our losses were minimal, mostly due to diseases, insects & predator outbreak because on the rainy season.

Our inter-crop of groundnuts & eggplant to the failed sweet corn is growing well. The leafs of the sweet corn indicate most probably that there is magnesium deficiency here. Was told that sweet potatoes grows well in this area. Am planing to convert this area to plant banana and inter-crop with legumes. Work shall start in stages once we had finish harvesting the present crops here.

Clearing a small area to try planting some seedlings of bottle gourd that we obtained from a friend. Those pumpkins that we planted here did not grow well. Not sure if it's the soil condition or due to the drought. We had since pipe in an automatic sprinkle here. Hopefully these shall do better. Need to set up some fixture for it to climb soon.
Had also planted some banana here. Since it takes about 6 ~ 12 months for the banana to bear fruits, we should be able to harvest the bottle gourd, then do another round of legumes.

 The Long beans are growing well. Shall need to string up in a week or so. We had readied the bamboo pole when we planted the seeds. The bamboo where cut from the wild, not far from our farm. We had only started to use these wild bamboo to save on cost and to reduce waste. Thinking of more uses for the bamboo as they are readily available. Maybe do some fixture for the pumpkins to climb on our later batch.

Or first harvest of pumpkins did not go well. We had some that were eaten most probably by rodents and some were converted to ants nest, due to the rainy season. We only managed about 45 kilos & 55 kilos for the 1st & 2nd batch. Expecting a bigger harvest on the following batch batch. We are keeping all the spoiled pumpkins to be used as seeds.
We are still making changes to our little farm. Have decided to stop the eggplant as the prices had dropped too low and we still had not fare well on this plant. Shall move on to other crops which we have a better experience.
We have at the moment the following crops here. Banana, Chilli, Eggplant, Okra, Pumpkins, Kangkung, Sayur Manis, Mini Tomato, Bentong Ginger, Yam, Papaya, Avocado, Sweet Potato, Sweet corn, Groundnuts, Long beans, Bottle gourd, Jack fruits, Serai & Sukun.

Free Range Chicken,

Free Range Chicken, keeping of chicken that runs freely. Some call it Day range chicken, as we keep them in the coop during night.
The question now is whether the Chicken came first, of the Egg came first? For us the Rooster King and two mother hens came first. We brought these three chickens to our farm and let it runs freely since last year. The mother hens laid some eggs and hatched them. Unfortunately only one survived till now, and had grown up. The high mortality rate was due to our inexperience and rough geographical conditions. Predators also contributed as this is a newly developing area.

The second batch, we did better, as we are more aware of predators like eagles, owls, wild cats and etc. Also we had kept two dogs now, which helps too. They had also found refuge in our storage hut. Eight chicks survived and grew healthily. The mother hens looks after them constantly.

We had also built some shelters for them, and it offers more protection too. This were 'simply' built, with no plans and drawings or measurements. We keep the young chicks in the coop for night protection. We have plans to increase the numbers and had identified an area to built a bigger coop. Construction shall commence latter.

The eight chicks had grown, three cocks and five hens. We are transferring these to Parcel 4, to start a Free Range Chicken farm. The chicks has to be separated from the mother hen so as to promote faster laying of eggs. The mother hen shall delay laying new eggs if she needs to tend to her chicks.

Constructing a chicken coop on Parcel 4. It also double up as a temporary generator room. Its about 16 feet by 16 feet, to carter more for the measurement of the zinc roof. This was built close to the trees so as to keep it cool during the day. We have plans to built another coop for young chicks.

With the generator in, and the holder for the diesel fuel. An opening was left at the rear for better ventilation of the exhaust. The height at the rear is too short and I keep bumping onto the roof thrust. Have to built higher the next time. The generator is kind of loud too, wonder if it'll affect the chickens.

Finishing off the rear. Since we have some 1X2" lying around, shall just use these to fence up. Note that we do not cut the wood to size, we simply use / reuse what we have / what we can laid our hands on.

Taking a tea break, after a morning's work. Our helper's children came along too this morning. Had some fried noodle.

Making and mounting the door is tough. Had to re-do as one of the frame broke. Mounting was also difficult as we do not have the proper tools and ad forgotten to make the allowance for the hinge. Wasted lots of time to re-do the hinge.

Decided to separate the generator with a divider to reduce the exhaust sound to the chicken. The generator only runs a couple of hours a nite, until electric supply is available. Hope the chicken wouldn't mid too much. Put a thick layer of rice husk on the floor. Fixed up some wood for the chicken to stand.

View from the door. Found some discarded metal bed. Used it as a fence for the lower portion, exhaust.

We're done. The side view of our 'simply built' chicken coop. Still need to do up the drainage as the coop is located at the end of a slight gradient land.

Our new tenant just moved in. We only managed 7 chickens at the moment as one "escaped" while transferring to the box. Shall leave it maybe for the next trip. These chickens seem to love the rice husk and they just takes it on as food. They immediately start scratching for food. Problem when feeding as the corn get 'lost' in the husk. Found a container to house the corn, but their scratching over turned it. Watering is also another problem. Shifted the feeding and water container to the generator side that has now husk.

Rooster King and one of the consorts, still in Parcel 1. He has 4 consorts now. Let's hope that he works hard. This is a tough guy as when rushing for food with the dogs, it pecks the dogs paw until it bleeds. The 2 dogs is rather afraid of him. Dogs eats corn too.

Four eggs now, more to come. Hope that we'll have more chicks to start a new colony soon. We are trying to duplicate these free range chicken into our other Parcel if successful.







Now we shall be able to monitor the temperature and humidity of our coming brooder.

We have some other chicken from the house. Shall most probably shift these to Parcel 4 to increase the strength of our colony. With a strong colony, it shall propagate at a faster rate. Note the pigeon at the back ground. We are also toying with the idea of raring free range pigeon for meat. Planning for a pigeon coop / lofts.

Thai Super Sweet Corn

Our first trial of Thailand sweet corn is a failure. The corn did not grew well. Some were not growing, some retarded growth, some did not bear fruits, some even died / did not sprout. This is the flowering stage. The tassel is normal, but the stalk of this plant looks too small.

Weeds were thriving well. There were lots of ants in most corns plants, red and well as black ants. Guess they are there for the sugar. Am guessing that should the weeds grows higher than the corn, it shall interfere with it's growth and pollination. Shall have to keep the weeds lower than the lowest ear.

The fruit size is small. The stalk is normal and strong. Leaves are green and wide. Not enough nutrient?

First harvest which we tested. It was so sweet. The corn is also very crunchy. Like the taste, texture and smell even though I'm not a corn lover (eater).












The second harvest. These are the bigger size ones. Others all small. From this trial, we had identify some problems that leads to this failed production. Lost of seeds due to many chickens. Weather was too went, as there were too much rain during the last 2 months. Soil not suitable as other corns (chicken feed) are thriving. No fertilization used. Due to their sweetness, i guess they require certain fertilizer more. We also tried using 1, 2 and 3 seeds during planting.
Shall do more trial under most controlled conditions as we still have some seeds of Thailand Super Sweet and other Hybrid corn. Hope we have better produce then.

Updates on plants that we had planted back in March.

The ginger plant had been transplanted successful. We had planted two types, Chinese Ginger and Village ginger. Both looks good after transplanting, but we do have some young plants dying on us, which I guess most probably we could have damage the roots while doing the transplant. Checked on our ginger plant nursery, there are still some ginger plant sprouting, especially from the sawdust covered patch. I did some transplanting few days ago on some new sprouting. I find that the roots had grown into the soil and it makes trans planting difficult. I would propose for our next germination, we shall a 5~6 inches sawdust bedding first, then lay the ginger flat. I think it shall have a higher/faster yield. Had dinged up the deeper ginger, relocated to the top and it's sprouting now.
The groundnut patch is on the upper left of the 1st picture. It's growing well and pretty green. It has started to flowered. Groundnuts shall be produced when the flower withered and drop (bend) down to the ground. There are instance where you see healthy growing plants, but no nuts. Hope that ours shall have big and juicy groundnuts and ginger.

Yam, these are growing well and should be as there were (and still) lots of wild yam before. Yam is easy to plant and do not need much care. We had add another 60+ Yams on the other side of the stream.
Corns, the Thai Super sweet (white maize) is a failure. It's growing so slowly, skinny and not consistent. Some is fruiting, some is not growing, some dying and lots of no growth. Lots of weeds in the area, are doing some weeding but don't think it'll help much. Failure could be lots of possibility as we are planting village style. Guess we shall most probably finish off the left over seedlings and stick to chicken feed corn.

The Chicken feed corn (red color maze) is doing well and growing steadily and consistently. It's growing faster than the weeds and not much care is needed.

Pineapple, surprisingly some are bearing fruits. We had planted about 20 plants, just for testing and maybe create some plant-lets. Guess we shall not buy the pineapple hormone this time as it's the first planting and only a couple is fruiting, hence it's not economical to buy.
This area is a low laying area and has a pool of stagnant water. It drown even the hardy Chicken feed corn. We had dig a drain to drain off excess water. Shall weed off the weeds in a couple of days and have a better picture on what to be done here.
More updates on the progress of the farm in the coming days.

Back to Farming

First day, back to farming, after a long break. It's so tiring, even simple chore of lifting the Cangkul seems like lifting a ton. It was raining for the whole morning, good for us as we are doing new planting. This shall keep the new plant from being dehydrated. We are now working on Parcel 5. Parcel 5 is a 4 acres plot of relatively flat land with a small creek running through the middle, cutting off the land into two almost equal half. This piece of land was planted on before hence no need for heavy clearing. Still we are having trouble clearing it of some heavy grass, tapioca, wild yams, wild bananas & etc.

A panoramic sweep of Parcel 5. We can only see half of the parcel from this point, as the other is seperated by the creek. Anyway, we shall concentrate here first. We are planning to plant Banana, Yam, Corn and some vegetables here. We had started a Ginger patch beneath a tree.

Only a couple start growing. The first batch of corns are growing nicely. This is the Kampung variety, grow for chicken feed. We are testing out some Thailand Hybrid Sweet Corn too.

We had also planted some tissue culture Cavendish banana.

Saw some massive sized earthworms while clearing the land of tapioca. It's about 12 mm in diameter, maybe I'll catch a few of these and breed them in a worm bin. Have to start planning on how to built a worm bin.
Need to have an early night as I'm exhausted.