The University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service and Agricultural Experiment Station have been conducting research verification trials for major row crops since the 1980's. Research verification programs are a public demonstration of the implementation of research-based Extension recommendations in a commercial-scale farming environment. Research Verification is also a methodology used to verify and to determine if the total set of research-based Extension recommendations applied on a commercial farm produces yields, feed conversions ratios, survival, and costs consistent with results from research trials. The essence of the Catfish Research Verification Program (CRVP) is to provide intensive monitoring of commercial ponds in which recommended research-based management protocols are being implemented. This results in a comprehensive database of water quality, input use, stocking, and harvesting data from commercial ponds that greatly exceeds the data available from normal farm production records. Around 20% of catfish growout operations do not keep any stocking, feeding or harvesting records, 51 % do not keep any water quality records, and 73 % do not keep any disease records (USDA 2003). The comprehensive quality of the data collected throughout the verification program provides for more accurate estimates of survival, yield, and feed conversion ratios than data obtained from normal farm records. Feed, aeration, chemicals, and other production expense data are collected and utilized to estimate operating costs, net returns, and breakeven prices. The comprehensive database may also provide some basis for quantifying risks involved in catfish farming.

In 1993, a pilot catfish verification program was initiated by the Arkansas Cooperative Extension System and Program to provide production support to the catfish industry. The program has been an excellent demonstration of the recommended management practices for the production of food-sized channel catfish and provided a necessary intermediate step between small-pond research and the development of Extension's recommendations to farmers. It has also served as an excellent training tool for county Extension agents to learn more about catfish production. A second catfish verification program was initiated in 1998 with a refined management protocol, and the program was expanded to include both foodfish and fingerling production. At the conclusion of the three-year verification process, production from seven ponds (three food-fish ponds and four fingerling ponds) had been successfully verified.

In 2003, a new interdisciplinary verification committee consisting of researchers and extension specialists was formed to develop a revised set of recommended management practices for commercial catfish culture based on current research, practical experience, and previous yield verification trials. These management practices formed the basis of the specific management protocol for the third Arkansas Catfish Research Verification Program (CRVP).

At this time, the program focuses on the traditional multiple-batch management strategy. Some of the recommendations that the program demonstrates are stocking fingerlings larger than 5 inches at a moderate density around 6,000 heads/acre and feeding daily to satiation. Research conducted at UAPB clearly suggested that stocking smaller fingerlings (Engle and Valderrama 2001) or feeding every other day negatively impact net returns of the farm. Additionally, we’ll be looking at the use of an in-pond grader developed at UAPB. The UAPB-grader is more effective than the traditional live-car method to minimize the number of sub-marketable size catfish sent to the plant.

The modular management strategy in which the fingerlings are raised to stocker size before to be transferred to growout ponds may also be recommended in some situations but did not constitute the focus of the present verification program. A new catfish verification program focusing on the modular production system will be initiated next year.

OBJECTIVES

1. Verify the utility of research-based Extension recommendations on optimizing profits of commercial catfish farms.

2. Develop a database of key production parameters (cost of production, feed conversion ratio, yield, and survival) of commercial catfish ponds.

3. Identify areas of catfish production that require further research.

4. Improve and refine existing Extension recommendations.

5. Improve and refine the specific management protocol for future trials.

6. Utilize and incorporate data and findings from the CRVP into Extension's educational program at the county and state level.

7. Increase the participating county Extension agents' expertise in catfish production.

8. Increase cooperating catfish farmers' understanding of research-based Extension recommendations.

9. Increase the number of ponds that cooperating catfish farmers manage according to Extension recommendations the year following the end of the program.