World Aquaculture - March 2009

World Aquaculture 11 Exercise 2 – Pond Feeding Budget Suppose we are growing a fish species that can grow from 4.54 g at stocking to 454 g (harvest weight) in 32 weeks. The feed costs $0.55/kg. Use Table 3 above to complete Table 4 (weeks 1-2 are filled in as a guide; remember to convert percent numbers to decimals). Student Question – What is the total feed budget for they year? Answer – Adding up the last column, you should get a total of $3,377.02. Student Question – Assuming that feed makes up 50% of the total budget each year, what would the farmer have to sell the fish for just to break even? Assume that the inventory estimates in Table 4 are the actual numbers of fish. Answer – If $3,377.02 is the feed budget, the total cost of operating the farmer is twice that, or $6,754.04. We know from Table 4 that 8,400 fish averaging 0.5 kg are harvested. To break even, the farmer must sell the fish for $6,754.04/3,818 kg (8,400 x 0.4545 kg) = $0.884/kg. Notes 1Department of Marine Science, Richard Stockton College, Pomona, NJ 08240 USA mlandau@stockton.edu 2Center for Aquaculture and Stock Enhancement, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University, Fort Pierce, FL 34946 USA jscarpa1@hboi.fau.edu Table 4. water mean inventory feed percent kg. feed kg feed weeks temperature weight estimate body weight used/day used/2 weeks cost 1-2 4.4 0.01 10,000 3.2 1.45 44.8 $22.40 3-4 4.4 0.0125 9,500 5-6 5.0 0.018 9,400 7-8 5.6 0.025 9,400 9-10 5.6 0.025 9,350 11-12 6.1 0.03 9,200 13-14 6.7 0.05 9,150 15-16 6.7 0.07 9,100 17-18 7.2 0.1 9,050 19-20 7.2 0.15 9,000 21-22 7.8 0.15 8,800 23-24 8.3 0.2 8,800 25-26 8.9 0.2 8,700 27-28 8.9 0.4 8,600 29-30 8.3 0.7 8,600 31-32 45 1.0 8,400

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjExNDY=