Developing a process for off-grid yellow perch fingerling production to increase production at two commercial yellow perch fingerling farms

Commodities

Practices

Consolidating multiple farming sectors into large commercial farms have left small farmers (many with food producing experience) seeking other areas of employment. Yellow perch fingerling production could provide a new avenue of agriculture production and a commodity that is in extremely high demand (>$30 million/year market gap since the commercial fishing crash of the mid-1990's) (FAO landings data 2024).

 Perch farming has a systemic problem. Yellow perch farmers tend to gravitate towards the ease of running tier-2 (grow-out) farms which purchase fingerlings from tier-1 farms that breed them. The reason is that operating a tier 1 fish farm is challenging. The issue with this is that there are an abundance of farms growing out fingerlings and almost no one breeding or creating them. This problem has led to a farming industry with unbelievably high demand and almost no supply. 

My farm ran a marketing analysis for fingerlings in 2024 that we bred and we received e-mails from tier 2 farms indicating an astonishingly high market demand for these fish. Even if the tier 1 farms can satiate the market for food fish farms they will never appease the market for pond stocking in the Midwest. Production limits are open ended.

This proposal will focus on the propagation of yellow perch in a low-cost off-grid
portable aquaponics hoop-house. The goal of this research project is to demonstrate
that an off-grid hoop-house could produce similar yields of yellow perch fingerlings as
a specialized indoor RAS and outperform a specialized yellow perch propagation pond.
This would show that yellow perch could be propagated in a self
sustaining hoop-house at a low cost.
The trial will include 3 "treatments" or "facilities":
1. Off-grid yellow perch propagation hoop-house RAS: Located at Northey
Farms LLC. This is a solar and wind powered hoop-house with three 300 gallon
tanks showing results in triplicate for a designed experiment, and 240 watts of
water and air pumping power to recirculate the water. (6 egg ribbons)
2. Two on-grid insulated yellow perch propagation RAS: Located at both
Mulberry Aquaponics LLC and Northey Farms LLC. This is an on-grid yellow perch
propagation RAS with three 300 gallon tanks each, identical to the off-grid RAS.
These systems utilize the same 240 watts of water and air pumping power. (12
egg ribbons: 6 ribbons x 2 farms)
3. One commercial propagation pond: Located at Northey Farms LLC. This is a
0.2 acre commercial production pond which has been used to produce yellow
perch. (6 egg ribbons)
Preparation for the experiment will commence in mid-March, but the research trial will commence in middle May-June to ensure warmer temperatures in Wisconsin.
Twenty-four yellow perch egg skeins will be fertilized and incubated for ten days in an
incubation system at Northey Farms LLC. Typically over 300 egg skeins are fertilized
each year at Northey Farms LLC, so only the best quality egg ribbons will be chosen for
this research to ensure consistent egg performance. At ten days each egg ribbon will
be cut into twelve pieces and each piece weighed to ensure a similar number of
fertilized eggs will be placed into each tank/pond using a total of 6 egg ribbons per
treatment. The egg ribbons will be vigorously aerated for 24 hours to ensure a passive
unbiased hatching into each tank/pond.
All RAS treatments will use an identical automated feed regimen of Otihime B1 larval
weaning feed (Marubeni Nisshin feed company Tokyo, Japan) as well as an automated
dosing of live-feed (90% Hatch Brine Shrimp - Salt Lake City Utah U.S.A) through 40 days post
hatch (DPH) to demonstrate successful clearing of the mortality spikes of yellow perch
larvae at 7-12 DPH and 23 - 29 DPH. Loss of yellow perch after 40 DPH is minimal.
The pond treatment will follow a process used by Northey Farms LLC, which uses urea
and alfalfa-meal to promote native zooplankton populations within a pond. The fish are
stocked, and are allowed to feed on natural zooplankton for 40 days and then
harvested by using a seine net to collect all surviving fish at 40-DPH.
At 40-DPH all fish will be collected from each treatment and statistical analysis will be
used to identify differences in survival, weight, and total production. 

After data collection for presentation, fish will be assessed and sold.

Established wholesale yellow perch prices in USD are (0.33/2-4" fish, 1.10/4-6" fish, >3.50/6"+ fish)

Objectives:
The objectives of this initial round of research is to:
- Demonstrate the feasibility of using an off-grid hoop-house to propagate yellow
perch compared to conventional systems.
- Identify the hidden expenses of propagating yellow perch in an off-grid system.
- Identifying the hidden problems with propagating yellow perch in an off-grid
system.
- Investigate a pathway to creating a low cost, sustainable yellow perch fingerling
market.
Secondary future objectives are to initiate a research process to identify other
sustainable inputs to off-grid yellow perch propagation.

These being:
- Creation of a sustainable domesticated yellow perch larval feed
- Inclusion of an aquaponics with this system to remove excess nutrients
- Investigation into the use of a hybrid RAS and pond propagation system