Regional Extension Highlights
- Southeast Arkansas
Larry Dorman
The catfish industry’s economic downturn continued into 2004.
Rapid acreage expansion in the industry a few years earlier
coupled with unscrupulous competition (falsely advertised
product) from Viet Nam caused a major drop in the price farmers
received for their product. The net result was a loss in
acreage and reduced profit for the producers.
Since the above situation occurred, farmers were able to
qualify for Trade Adjustment Assistance monies. UAPB
Aquaculture Specialist and Researchers worked with the Farm
Service Agency in acquiring financial assistance for catfish
producers. A series of state wide workshops were held for
producers. The workshops were held in Lake Village, Newport,
and Bradley. Sixty three producers attended these meetings and
applied for the assistance. Thirty one producers were able to
receive financial assistance in the form of grant monies.
Additionally, this specialist works very close with federal and
local lending institutions in the area of catfish inventory
maintenance, appraisal, and production projections. This
specialist conducted inventory appraisals and production
projections on 15 farms. This value of this service to the
catfish producers is over $20,000.
For the year, our UAPB’s Lake Village Fish Disease Diagnostic
Laboratory processed 550 diagnostic samples. The value of this
service to the fish producer is estimated at $1.35 million.
- Northeast Arkansas
George Selden
During 2004, the UAPB fish disease lab in Newport received 41
diagnostic or fish inspection samples during the past year.
Extension contacts numbers 1284 for the year. This number
included phone contacts, requests, and walk in contacts.
Included were 61 contacts from county agents requesting
information or help concerning water quality, fish kills,
and/or aquatic vegetation control. This number excludes mass
media contacts.
This specialist assisted in training sessions for catfish
farmers as part of the qualifications for Trade Adjustment
Assistance monies. UAPB Aquaculture Specialists and Researchers
worked with the Farm Service Agency in acquiring financial
assistance for catfish farmers. A series of state-wide
workshops were held for producers. The workshops were held in
Lake Village, Bradley and Newport. A total of sixty-three
producers were able to receive financial assistance and applied
for assistance. This agent also conducted TAA training in
Arkansas for two salmon farmers/fishermen who reside in
Arkansas.
Youth education and 4-H activities are an integral part of the
total Extension Program. This specialist conducted the Bait
casting/Fish ID contest for North East 4-H O’Rama, as well as
the Bait casting/Fish ID contest for the Poinsett Co. 4-H club.
Also during the past year, this specialist took a lead role in
organizing the 2004 UAPB Fish Games. Over 365 students and
teachers, from nine schools, attended this event.
A program highlight for 2004 was core competency training for
new agents, held at the 4-H center at Ferndale. The training
delivered by this agent involved Aquaculture; The Realities,
Species and Potential. This training involved 15 participants.
- Central Arkansas
Hugh Thomforde
The long-awaited final EPA ruling on aquaculture effluents was
put into law in mid 2004. Preemptively, however, the Arkansas
Bait and Ornamental Fish Growers Association, in collaboration
with UAPB Aquaculture and Fisheries Center (AFC) specialists,
had formally adopted best management practices to safeguard
effluent quality. Bait and ornamental fish producers, as well
as catfish and all other pond aquaculture systems, were
exempted from the EPA ruling.
By the end of the 2004 season hatchery production of golden
shiner fry was a well-established practice in the industry.
Several key producers indicated that this practice resulted in
critical improvement of control over costs and better forecast
of marketable size of fish.
Yield verification trials for baitfish were conducted for the
first time in 2004. Preliminary results confirmed that
increased feeding of fry ponds was highly profitable.
Bulk overland interstate transport remained the pervasive
industry practice but several producers cautiously increased
retail-scale airfreight sales and web-based direct marketing
strategies.
Demand by producers for the services of aquaculture specialists
and UAPB-AFC diagnostic services remained strong. For the year
2004 we processed 165 certificates of inspection for live
interstate transport, 1000 disease diagnostic cases, and 400
water quality diagnostic cases. The value of services provided
by the UAPB Lonoke Fish Health Laboratory to Arkansas fish
producers is estimated at $2.5 million.
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Production, Management and Research Extension Highlights
- Pesticide Registration
Andy Goodwin
We have conducted toxicity assays on more than 30 pesticides in
order to find a replacement for Baytex. Baytex was labeled
under a 24c for dragonfly control in bait and ornamental fish
ponds, but the manufacturer recently stopped importing the
product. Using that data, we have applied for a 24c on a new
product and several other states are poised to follow. The
replacement chemical is safer for people and fish, more
effective, less expensive, and better for the environment.
- Disease Surveillance
Andy Goodwin
A bait and ornamental fish disease certification program
designed and administered by UAPB is utilized by Arkansas
farmers representing more that 85% of the production acreage in
the state. The program is used to insure the safety of the
Arkansas product and inspection reports from the program are
now demanded by buyers and regulators in many states. The
program is so successful that we are now encountering problems
with producers in other states counterfeiting or fraudulently
using these certificates.
- Progress in Aquaculture Equipment Development
David Heikes
Principle accomplishments with regard to aquaculture equipment
development this past year include the development and
demonstration of an improved seine reel designed to sanitize
nets between ponds. The design incorporates a 2” re-circulating
trash pump and drenching system into a standard seine reel
platform. A common non-chlorine swimming pool disinfectant (Baquacil)
was shown to provide an effective seine sanitizing treatment in
approximately 30 minutes at a cost of about $2. This
modification to the traditional seine reel design shows
tremendous promise as a means to improving bio-security on
aquaculture production facilities. A catfish pond sampling
trawl system was also developed including a specially-designed
catfish trawl and a hydraulic driven reel system. This sampling
trawl was tested on several farms and consistently caught 300
to 1000 lbs of catfish in a single pull. Further testing is
currently underway to compare sample distributions to actual
pond distributions. This sampling trawl will be a valuable
research tool and may eventually prove to be an important tool
for tracking pond inventories. Also, work has continued on
developing and demonstrating the use of the in-pond fish
grading system that was previously developed. Improvements to
the eduction system and the attachment hopper will simplify and
reduce setup time and will allow fish to be graded with less
physical crowding. A prototype barrier system was designed and
installed in two earthen research ponds. This work is in
conjunction with an SRAC project designed to investigate
innovative technologies and methodologies for improving earthen
pond aquaculture. Preliminary trials indicate the barrier
system can keep fish contained and water flow and circulation
appears to be adequate for maintaining a high density of fish
in approximately 1/3 of the normal pond area. This system will
allow for physical separation of sizes in multi-batch
production ponds and will be tested to determine if there are
any other culture benefits.
- Optimizing Cash Flow in Catfish Aquaculture
Steeve Pomerleau, David Heikes, and Larry Dorman
For 2 years leading up to November of 2004, catfish prices have
been depressed by competition from inferior imported fish and
by a slow US economy. During this period many farms experienced
critical cash flow problems that continue today and that are
expected to worsen as additional imported fish are dumped in US
markets. Many farms are on the brink of foreclosure. Scientists
at UAPB investigated new feeding strategies designed to
maximize cash flow during critical periods. New spreadsheets
were developed for farmers to predict strategies to optimize
cash flow. Extension personnel assisted farmers and lenders by
physically assessing pond inventories and by organizing farm
record keeping and accounting practices. Cooperators included:
from UAPB, and the Catfish Farmers of Arkansas.
- Fish Disease Biosecurity
Andy Goodwin
Infectious diseases are a major source of loss in commercial
aquaculture. Reduction of these losses requires timely disease
diagnosis, accurate management recommendations, and cooperative
development of biosecurity programs. UAPB maintain 4 fully
equipped fish disease diagnostic laboratories. These have
diagnosed more than 2300 cases in the last year and conducted
numerous fish healthy inspections. Biosecurity education
programs have been presented to the industry and foreign animal
disease surveillance programs established in the bait and
ornamental fish industries. New rapid diagnostic tests for
viral disease of fish have been developed.
Exotic viral diseases of cyprinid fish are a continuing threat
to the bait and ornamental fish industries. We now conduct
surveillance, inspection, and education programs for 5
dangerous viruses. Our surveillance programs have convincingly
documented that the reportable SVC virus and devastating Koi
Herpes Virus are not present in Arkansas aquaculture. This
information is critical in maintaining markets for Arkansas
farmers. Additionally, if work done by our diagnostic program
saves only 10 % of the fish in ponds associated with diagnostic
cases submitted to our laboratories (a very conservative
estimate), savings to Arkansas farmers amount to more than
$7,000,000/yr. In addition, more than $1,000,000 in fish every
year are exported to other states and countries based on health
inspections available only at UAPB.
- Optimizing Hatchery Methods
Nathan Stone
New hatchery technologies to produce fry indoors were developed
initially for golden shiners and then adapted for goldfish.
However, there are a number of small-scale producers who raise
primarily fathead minnows on a very extensive scale. Little is
known about the potential for adapting more intensive hatchery
techniques for production of fathead minnows. Fathead minnows
were shown to respond similarly to the other species in terms
of egg removal and handling indoors. Further testing of the
roughness of various types of spawning materials showed that
rougher materials will retain a larger percentage of eggs. Use
of appropriate spawning substrates will enhance egg retention
and increase performance efficiency during the spawning phase.
- Optimizing Stocking Rates
Nathan Stone
The majority of US bait and ornamental fish production occurs
in Arkansas. Farmers face increasing pressure to keep prices
low and must reduce production costs to maintain market share.
The production changes most likely to provide this increased
efficiency require increased pounds per acre of production and
more consistent yields. Studies have been conducted to optimize
feed formulations (vitamins, lipids, protein), hatchery methods
(egg collection and hatching, fry handling), and stocking
rates. Recently completed studies have shown that appropriate
feeding and stocking of golden shiner ponds can yield crops far
in excess of industry averages. These methods are being adopted
by farmers and if spread industry-wide will be expected to
increase yields by 200 lb/acre (50%). Farmers can either reduce
production acreage, saving $550/acre annually in variable
costs, or find new markets for the additional production. Net
returns/acre have been estimated to increase by $138 for every
50-lb increase in yield. If adopted by the entire industry, the
impact would be a minimum of $3.3 million per year.
- Managing Fish Populations in Delta Ponds
J. Wesley Neal
Private pond owners in the delta region of Arkansas rely on
their ponds for watering livestock, irrigation, recreation, and
food. In order to optimize these functions, pond owners need
access to quality management information to prevent excess
nutrient loads, fish population imbalances, or the fish losses.
Prior to our program, information was outdated and difficult to
access. The problem became even more acute when the Arkansas
Game and Fish Commission quit supplying sportfish fingerlings
to pond owners and reduced its involvement in small pond
management. Scientists and Extension Specialists at UAPB wrote
and published two new booklets on farm pond management in
collaboration with Arkansas Game and Fish and debuted a new be
site with comprehensive information and links. Training on farm
management was provided to Extension agents. A list of
sportfish suppliers was published. New research projects were
begun to investigate better methods of farm pond management.
Hundreds of copies of the new booklets and fish supplier lists
have been requested. County agents are now doing water testing
and providing better advice regarding weed management. The web
site is experiencing hundreds of hits per month.
- AGFC Urban Fishing Program
J. Wesley Neal
In Arkansas, current urban fishing programs rely primarily on
put-take stocking of channel catfish during warmer months and
rainbow trout during colder months. Rainbow trout are well
received by urban anglers, but a special trout permit is
required to retain this species. Channel catfish are difficult
to catch when water temperatures are low, making it difficult
for anglers without a trout permit to harvest fish in cooler
months. For this reason, there is a need for alternative
species in urban fisheries management. A diversification of
urban lakes would also allow resource managers to target a more
diverse group of anglers. With cooperation of the Arkansas Game
and Fish Commission (AGFC) we evaluated hybrid striped bass as
a potential addition to urban fisheries by stocking this fish
in two urban fishing ponds. Angler surveys were used to
determine angler demographics, success, and
attitudes/preferences. Of the anglers who caught hybrid striped
bass, over 90% said that it added to their fishing experience
and they are more likely to return to the lake to fish. Of all
anglers surveyed, 90% said that the Arkansas Game and Fish
Commission should begin stocking hybrid striped bass as part of
urban fisheries management.
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