Sorry Belmont, maybe I was not clear. I visited the TATF office in May 09 after seeing my trees. It was there that Steve and Sherry met with me for about 4 hours. I would have stayed to chat longer, but I had a plane to catch. The conference room where we were was above/overlooking what appeared to be the Raleo production/shipping and crating floor. there was glass and I do remember quite a bit of activity. It did not look like a dog and pony show. This appeared to be real products being shipped out. I not have photos because Steve would not allow me to take photos. I believe they have since moved their operations. I have every reason to believe that Raleo is indeed busy, just not visible to your average joe and/or average joe investor. It was also clear that Raleo was not doing adequate production to utilize all the wood that was coming from the farms. There operation was not small by any means, but also clearly not able to handle the MILLIONS of bdft that should be coming from the farms. Hence the "high volume products" we keep hearing about but seeing zero evidence for.
"No visitor has reported any visible activity by TATF on the farms in recent years. "
not quite true. the young trees we visited were pruned, somewhat, and some were strung up after winds had blown them over ... but the way it looked seemed to me that they had been pruned maybe once, rather than ... well... often ... young trees need to have someone prune them often until they are of height where it won't mattery anymore ... this is my opinion obviously, but based on the photos that i have posted in the past, other people can draw their own conclusions ... the 1999 trees I visited were marked for thinning. there were farm managers we met with, and it appeared they were managing the farms... though it seemed to me they needed considerably more help ... again my opinion. one thing I remember distictly was at Salama farm, which was an old banana plantation, the mosquitos were relentless. I've never been attacked like that before, HUNDREDS of bites, yet not one welt. ??? totally weird.
the 1999 trees we saw were not planted on terrible ground.... most of it was not too steep, rolling hills, but maybe a bit rocky. I saw very few trees there that I would consider real specimens, out of the thousands that were there, maybe a dozen or so look like what Steve stands next to in the photos on the tatf website. most of the 1999 trees were 4-6" diameter, few were 10" ... at the Salama farm, the 2005 trees looked almost as big. again, I'm not a forester, so there are many other factors to consider here, drainage etc. I think the trees will grow and be big, but it might take longer than we expect.
my 05 premium mix were all over the place as far as organization goes, all on the side of a hill, none were specimens, and it appears to have never been pruned. oh well.
once again, i recommend all new memebers to the board read ALL the posts, from post #1 to 1600 ... and feel free to look at the photos I have posted in the past ...a picture is worth 1000 words :)
-Mattyo
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
