By
Ramon Kourie, Chief Technical Officer, SustAqua Fish Farms, South Africa
The challenges aquaculturalists and sea farmers face are numerous; few feed milling operations run successfully, raw materials are expensive due to local shortages and a restrictive fiscal policy environment on imports in most countries, poor quality raw materials, high logistical costs associated with the movement of commodities and scale economies requiring critical mass for viability of the whole value chain.
Farmers may elect to produce their own farm-made feeds which requires a careful strategy at the outset. Having gone this route on the Chambo Fisheries fish farm in Blantyre, Malawi, I’m particularly well positioned to contribute an article to cover all considerations, needed additives (mycotoxins absorbent), useful additives, the economics, merits etc. without self-promoting products that we have developed.
Most fish farmers use feeding tables or highly subjective visual estimates in satiation feeding in most aquaculture operations. The use of feeding tables may not be reflective of the growth performance of the particular genes in use on a farm nor find applicability in terms of abiotic and biotic factors known to influence appetite and growth.
For instance, swimming energetics in tank and recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) farmed fish are most often ignored, where the same feeding rates are applied using standard feeding tables generated by feed milling companies for cage farmed fish. Satiation feeding most often results in overfeeding and consequentially increases feed conversion ratio’s (FCR’s) beyond that which is possible when using more robust approaches, based upon the use of bioenergetic models feeding the daily weight increment.
Practicable bioenergetic feeding rate models, developed for use on commercial fish farms, are simple enough to implement using Excel spreadsheets and could greatly assist farmers towards improved feed use efficiency.
We have developed models for the major farmed species based upon the same philosophy introduced in a slide show presentation tuned for tilapias raised under Biofloc Technology (BFT) conditions.
Read the full article in International Aquafeed magazine online, HERE.
The challenges aquaculturalists and sea farmers face are numerous; few feed milling operations run successfully, raw materials are expensive due to local shortages and a restrictive fiscal policy environment on imports in most countries, poor quality raw materials, high logistical costs associated with the movement of commodities and scale economies requiring critical mass for viability of the whole value chain.
Farmers may elect to produce their own farm-made feeds which requires a careful strategy at the outset. Having gone this route on the Chambo Fisheries fish farm in Blantyre, Malawi, I’m particularly well positioned to contribute an article to cover all considerations, needed additives (mycotoxins absorbent), useful additives, the economics, merits etc. without self-promoting products that we have developed.
Most fish farmers use feeding tables or highly subjective visual estimates in satiation feeding in most aquaculture operations. The use of feeding tables may not be reflective of the growth performance of the particular genes in use on a farm nor find applicability in terms of abiotic and biotic factors known to influence appetite and growth.
For instance, swimming energetics in tank and recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) farmed fish are most often ignored, where the same feeding rates are applied using standard feeding tables generated by feed milling companies for cage farmed fish. Satiation feeding most often results in overfeeding and consequentially increases feed conversion ratio’s (FCR’s) beyond that which is possible when using more robust approaches, based upon the use of bioenergetic models feeding the daily weight increment.
Practicable bioenergetic feeding rate models, developed for use on commercial fish farms, are simple enough to implement using Excel spreadsheets and could greatly assist farmers towards improved feed use efficiency.
We have developed models for the major farmed species based upon the same philosophy introduced in a slide show presentation tuned for tilapias raised under Biofloc Technology (BFT) conditions.
Read the full article in International Aquafeed magazine online, HERE.
The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the
magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd
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