WatersEdge

No need to cut and burn...
just leave them standing.
Natural decay will knock them down while you are gone.
Goats will eat around the dry stalk without any problem.
It's better to avoid burning anything on the field,
as the natural material holds moisture on top of the soil

I had soil and water tests done at Chiang Mai University,
I think it was Department of Soils and Water
This does not do you much good in other regions of the country,
but gives a general idea of what Thailand universities offer.
It was around B450 for each of the farm soil tests I wanted....
slightly more if you wanted tests run for additional nutrient elements.
I remember being surprised at how cheap it was.

I also got exact analysis of rock samples to determine mining value
at the Department of Geology.
The cost for X-Ray Fluorescence test was around B1,900 per sample.

I'd just work with an entirely different drive train,
leaving the iron buffalo body and transmission out of your plan.
Don't adapt something that is not in any way suited to the application.

There are a lot of home made pickup trucks powered by Kubota and Yanmar engines.
Building a tractor in a similar fashion is just an adaptation of size and tire type.

I'd suggest hydraulic drive, as it gives you very fine control of motion,
although it does sacrifice mechanical efficiency.
For maneuverability there is no way to beat hydrostatic drive.
Consider the skid steer loader principle...those things do the impossible

I should think that Thailand is entirely ready for a miniature skid steer
based on the Kubota RT-140DI fourteen horsepower engine.

Having run a Gehl 6635 some years ago, selling it to a friend who still runs it every day,
I can suggest that as the ultimate design, even though it's been in existence for around 15 years.
It has an 85 hp Deutz Oil Cooled 4 cylinder turbo diesel....a very nice engine.

Hi Smithson and friends,

It is my understanding that legume innoculants are host species specific.
Yes...say that one three times fast...I'm rather tongue tied to start with.

The only name that comes to mind is the Soybean nitrogen fixing bacteria Bradyrhizobium japonicum.
Pick a legume...it has a bacterial partner,
which if not introduced in some way to a field missing it
cannot magically appear by random.

From a bit on the seed, or from a carrying live plant from another field, or by cultured material
or even dry roots from another field could be expected to "infect" in a positive way, the soil.

Think of innoculant bacteria as similar to yeast, just with a different purpose.
Just as there are species of yeast, there also are many species of legume innoculant.

I note and point out in your statement...some species have nodules and some do not.
This bears evidence of my point.
Your soil is already infected with the bacteria species for the nodulized plants,
but not yet infected for the non-nodulized species.

I asked my Thailand fertilizer dealer some years ago to find B. japonicum,
and she did find it at an Ag University,
but it's been far too long ago for me to remember which University.

I'm now in the US,
where many things are more available,
if the crops happen to be common to US agriculture
Soybean, Pinto Bean, Alfalfa, Peanut...to quickly list the majors

An interesting related topic is that some plants not technically legumes,
apparently have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria,
causing the pair of them to fix nitrogen
I'm admittedly in over my head on this topic,
but once I was soundly corrected when I said Sweet Potato is a legume.
It is NOT a legume, but there is a symbiosis which has the same effect.
Don't ask me to elaborate, the man who corrected me I wish was available to teach us now.

Some years ago I bought a fence shock unit at the small electric / hardware supply shop in Mae Sot.
I think it cost B400.
Operated on either 12VDC or 230VAC.
I ran it on house line current 230VAC,
and it did just fine for many months.
At the time I bought it, I said to myself,
For this cheap, Why do they bother to charge money?

The only thing I know beyond this is that it was
Burgundy color plastic shell about the size of a tissue box.
Come to think of it, not sure tissue box is a descriptive term for Thailand
10x15x20 cm