Fish Farm with Cages!

(Page 8 of 8)

May/June 1983
by Bill McLarney  
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HARVESTING

RELATED CONTENT

Mass harvesting of cage-cultured fish is the simplest process imaginable ... just lift the cage and take out the crop! To catch a few fish for dinner, you can drive some into a corner, using a shallow, square-cornered dip net, and scoop them out.

THE PAYOFF

Although the "bottom line" of your homestead fish culture operation will vary depending on local expenses, I'll try to give you some idea of what to expect by citing two disparate examples.

In 1974, the Kerr Foundation of Poteau, Oklahoma carried out experiments in commercial cage culture of channel catfish. It stocked 9 to 11 large (7"-8") fingerlings per cubic foot in 36-cubic-foot cages ... and recorded purchases, catfish cage feed, chemicals, and "cage usage charge" costs. (The Kerr people didn't keep track of any fixed or overhead expenses.) According to their estimates, the 1.2- to 1.3-pound fish they produced—over a seven-month growing season—cost 45¢ to 46¢ a pound.

At New Alchemy we made a homestead-scale production study in 1979, raising yellow bullheads in 48-cubic-foot cages that were stocked four (3"-4") fish to the cubic foot. (We obtained them for free from a wild population.) We used ordinary commercial trout feed—supplemented with small amounts of insects and earthworms—and harvested our bullheads at 0.35 pounds after three months of growth. After figuring in the cost of the cage (amortized over five years), we estimated that our fish cost us 66 ¢ a pound to produce.

Furthermore, that price doesn't include the satisfaction we gained from growing our own fish ... or the fact that the consensus at New Alchemy was that those bullheads were the best fish we ever ate!

EDITOR'S NOTE: For a detailed treatment of this entire topic, including plans for cage construction, you can read Bill McLarney and Jeffrey Parkin's The New Alchemy Back Yard Fish Farm Book: Growing Fish in Floating Cages, available for $8.95 plus $1.25 shipping and handling from Mother's Bookshelf 105 Stoney Mountain Road, Hendersonville, North Carolina 28791.

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