Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Montana Hutterite colonies diving into commercial salmon farming

In the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, miles from salt water, salmon are growing in Montana's first commercial fish farm. In December, batches of 10,000 and 12,000 tiny salmon eggs arrived at the Miller Colony, just outside of Bynum, and the East End Colony north of Havre.

The fish already have grown to between 2- and 3-inches long. By fall, they will be nearly 6 pounds large enough to fillet, eat and sell. The Hutterite colonies rely on cutting-edge technology to filter the waste from the water and to essentially re-create a stream in a 30-foot-in-diameter steel tank.

"This is a very expensive operation," Miller Colony secretary/treasurer and spokesman David Wipf said. "There's a lot more going into it than people realise, but I think the opportunity is out there, and that had to do a lot with our decision." Wipf said aquaculture is the fastest growing segment of the agriculture industry.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, fish farms reported US$1.1 billion (€776 million) in sales in 2005. Catfish accounted for 40 percent of sales, but there are a growing number of farms raising trout, salmon, tilapia, striped bass, sturgeon, walleye and yellow perch. Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Aquaculturists, published and supported by the International Aquafeed Magazine from Perendale Publishers

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1 comment:

  1. Great article. Bruce Swift, Swift AquaCulture, Agassiz BC has grown 8-10 Metric Tons of Coho in freshwater tanks for 10 years or more ehretd@agr.gc.ca, and he grows Wasabi and water cress on the nutrients the fish produce.We hope the Hutterite farmers learn from this and try to grow more food with the fish nutrients through Integrated Multi Trophic Aquaculture and not throw them away.
    (see www.pacaqua.org/news

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