Foodfish Inventory Numbers Up 7 Percent From a Year Ago

28 July 2008, at 1:00am

US - Commercial catfish operations in the four major producing States (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi) had279 million foodsize fish on hand on July 1, 2008, up 7 percent from the July 1, 2007 total of 260 million foodsize fish.The breakouts of foodsize fish inventory numbers on July 1, 2008, with their respective percent change from theprevious year were: large foodsize, 6.42 million fish, up 4 percent; medium foodsize, 69.6 million fish, up 3 percent;and small foodsize, 203 million fish, up 9 percent.

The four major States also had 660 thousand broodfish on hand on July 1, 2008, down 17 percent from last year's 791 thousand broodfish.

The number of large stockers on hand on July 1, 2008, totaled 283 million fish, down 12 percent from the 320 million fish on hand a year ago. There were 280 million small stockers, down 14 percent from last year.

Producers had 1.03 billion fingerlings and fry on hand on July 1, 2008, down 29 percent from the 1.45 billion fingerlings and fry on hand July 1, 2007. Live weight, at 18.7 million pounds, was down 8 percent from the 20.3 million pounds a year ago.

Water Acres Down 12 Percent

The water surface area to be used for catfish production during July 1 through December 31, 2008, totaled 133 thousand acres, down 12 percent from a year ago. Acres used for foodsize fish totaled 110 thousand acres, down 10 percent from the same time period in 2007. Acres for broodfish decreased 31 percent to 2.51 thousand acres, and acres used for fingerling production decreased 17 percent to 17.4 thousand acres. Acres taken out of production during the January 1, 2008 through June 30, 2008 period totaled 11.4 thousand acres, while 2.91 thousand acres of the total in production were scheduled to be renovated from July 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008. The number of operations on July 1, 2008 in the four major States totaled 638, down 11 percent from last year’s total of 713 operations.