Project Overview
Commodities
- Animals: fish, shellfish
Practices
- Animal Production: aquaculture
Summary:
Traditional versus Deep-water Crawfish System
We evaluated the production economics of crawfish farming in traditional and deep-water systems practiced on two commercial farms in west Alabama. We also proposed to evaluate the contribution that crawfish farming can make to a commercial saltwater shrimp farm enterprise as a diversification crop. After 2 years of data collection, we have produced limited enterprise budgets for each system.
The traditional system yielded much higher production and net income than the deep-water system. Costs were similar for each, but the traditional method of flooding a cover crop was more efficient than feeding crawfish cattle pellets, fish feed fines and shrimp feed. Yields for the traditional method as practiced in Alabama were similar to those practiced in rice fields. Costs of production were about the same.
Trapping Efficiency
We evaluated the efficiency of trapping on the shallow inner slopes of ponds instead of in the deeper pond bottom of deep-water ponds. Short-necked traps were placed on the slopes and long-necked traps on the bottoms. The time required to harvest traps from the deeper pond bottom was not appreciably different from that required for the inner slopes. While the shorter necked traps were much easier to handle than the long necked traps, the time it took to walk the perimeter of the pond was similar for both kinds of traps. There appeared to be a slightly greater harvest quantity from the bottom placed traps, but the increased handleability of the shorter traps seemed to surmount the decreased catchability. In the future, pond depth will be lowered so that the shorter necked traps can be placed on the bottom rather than the slopes.
Project objectives:
Traditional versus Deep-water Systems
Two farms were studied to provide us with economic analyses of crawfish production. At Greene Prairie Aquafarm (GPA) two deep-water earthen ponds ranging from 4 to 4.5 acres each and averaging 3 to 4 feet deep were originally stocked with crawfish in June of 2018. These ponds would provide data for economic analysis of deep-water crawfish systems for comparison with traditional crawfish and inland, low salinity shrimp systems. They would also serve as the study site for the deep vs shallow trapping portion of the study.
Two traditional crawfish ponds at German Creek Crawfish (GCC), originally stocked in May of 2016, provided data for the economic analysis of a traditional forage crop based production system. These ponds are 6.5 and 7.5 acres in size and have an average depth of 3 ft. These ponds were planted annually during July with a mixture of sorghum and Japanese millet for forage at a seeding rate of 50 pounds per acre.
Records of total costs, harvest yield, and sales for deep-water and traditional ponds were recorded on each farm in order to accurately compare the two production systems. A limited economic analysis was applied to each system to develop an enterprise budget for each production strategy. The returns from crawfish production will also be compared to low salinity shrimp culture which will be farmed during the same time at GPA. Additionally, water temperatures were monitored with automated temperature measuring devices ( Onset HOBO temperature loggers, Bourne, MA) in all ponds to identify the level of influence pond depth had upon maintaining cooler temperatures and extending the harvest season.
Tall vs short traps
We tested the use of long and short necked traps for harvesting crawfish at GPA. Short necked traps were 30" and the long necked were 53" total length. The short necked traps were modified to be 8" taller than a typical pillow trap used in the Bayou. The short traps were placed on the pond slopes in 18 to 24 inches of water and long neck traps were placed in 36 to 40 inches of water on the pond bottoms. The traps were alternated shallow and deep around the periphery of each pond with the same number of short and long necked traps in each pond. On 3 different occasions the time it took to walk the ponds and harvest the traps was recorded. On each occasion, the ponds were walked twice, once to harvest the short necked traps and once to harvest the long necked traps. The total weights of crawfish were recorded for each harvest.