Posted on 07/18/2008 5:43:35 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
As Price of Grain Rises, Catfish Farms Dry Up
By DAVID STREITFELD
LELAND, Miss. — Catfish farmers across the South, unable to cope with the soaring cost of corn and soybean feed, are draining their ponds.
“It’s a dead business,” said John Dillard, who pioneered the commercial farming of catfish in the late 1960s. Last year Dillard & Company raised 11 million fish. Next year it will raise none. People can eat imported fish, Mr. Dillard said, just as they use imported oil.
As for his 55 employees? “Those jobs are gone.”
Corn and soybeans have nearly tripled in price in the last two years, for many reasons: harvest shortfalls, increasing demand by the Asian middle class, government mandates for corn to produce ethanol and, most recently, the flooding in the Midwest.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ping!
Mmmmm...catfish from China.
Al Gore says we can raise Catfish on Solar and Wind Power. We don’t need no stinkin corn.
This congress is killing us at every turn
Can’t the fish just walk to new source of water?
I’ve seen a similar thing from the county farmer I buy my eggs from. The price of feed soared so his organic, free range eggs went from $1/dozen to $2. I can hardly complain; in the stores they’re now up as high as $4.00/dozen.
This is what happens when the gubmint mandates burning food crops as fuel - food shortages and high prices.
That's the bottom line, for a fact.
Carolyn
Our egglady came yesterday. 1.50/dozen and she delivers for free.
Is that why catfish are walking off the job in Florida?
I think the Mandarin phrase for "catfish farm" roughly translates as "sewerage treatment plant".
In all fairness, the article doesn’t once mention how high fuel and fertilizer prices (astronomical!) impact the corn and soybean producers. And except for a mention on the flooding, the article is short on acknowlegment of the inherently risky business of farming because of many weather, pest, weed and disease factors, the latter three more prevenatable or treatable but again, at a cost.
That said, the higher prices obviously do help the corn and soybean producers. But another reason the market has been so high are speculators and investment funds trading in the commodities. Which the article doesn’t mention either.
So is the presidency. It’s the “new tone in Washington.”
We drove by several catfish farms in Arkansas last week, and all appeared well. They were running aerators and pulling feed carts with brand new tractors. The catfish producers near us here in Louisiana are doing just fine as well. The article makes it sound as though catfish farming and processing is collapsing and that is just not the case.
December corn futures have fallen $1.37 since June 27. Ethanol is not to blame for high prices. Weather has been the largest contributing factor. Sometimes it doesn’t rain and you don’t harvest much. You have all of the expenses to pay for still. MAP fertilizer went from $200/ton to $1000/ton and Urea $160/ton to $700/ton.
Really?? LOL!
Grains have been coming down off those ridiculous highs that's true, however I don't let ethanol off the hook particularly when it comes to the fuel vs. feeding animals decision the country will have to make sooner or later. It's mostly the investment funds that cause the market volatility we see these days.
Grains broke hard yesterday and with wheat to sell I'm watching carefully. But with markets the way they are anymore, wild and unpredictable and not necessarily based on traditional factors such as yields, weather and demand, it's anybody's guess what will happen and huge fluctuations over a two minute period aren't uncommon anymore.
It used to be the price of corn might not fluctuate ten cents in six months. Now however, it's best to hold onto one's hat.
Someone needs to tell Al that the sun don't shine at night and the wind barely blows.
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