As Price of Corn Rises, Catfish Farms Dry Up

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Times

The catfish industry is in free fall, unable to cope with the soaring cost of corn and soybean feed. Producers across the South are draining their ponds and wondering what comes next.

“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.

This is creating a bonanza for corn and soybean farmers but is wreaking havoc on consumers, who are seeing price spikes in the grocery store and in restaurants. Hog and chicken producers as well as cattle ranchers, all of whom depend on grain for feed, are being severely squeezed.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/18/business/18catfish.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[Schema Thing]

1. We need to just cut with the grain based ethanol. right away.

It's just not good enough, and it's already disrupting other, more important things.

I suspect the math on it never really looked that good in the first place, unless you were a producer.

[Cassandra]

2. Fish that eat corn and soybeans...

aren't good for you anyway.

[Ian David]

14. Why? n/t

[Cassandra]

25. For the same reason that grass-fed beef is better for you...

than grain fed; grain gives too many omega-6s (bad for your cholesterol) and not enough omega-3s.

[Ian David]

26. So what is a GOOD thing to feed to the catfish? Besides your Republican neighbors. n/t

[Cassandra]

28. Whatever they normally eat...

whatever that is, plus the occasional Republican. Ocean fish eat algae plus smaller fish; what do catfish normally eat, anyway?

[Ian David]

29. If you don't know what they DO eat, why should I listen to you about what they should NOT eat?

And here I thought you were some kind of aquaculture expert.

[Cassandra]

30. Here, you pain in the butt...

;-) From Wikipedia:
A wide range of feeding behaviors and diets are represented by the catfishes. In the family Trichomycteridae alone, there are species that feed on algae, fish scales, mucus, carrion, insects, or even blood in the infamous candirú.<20> Panaque and some species of Hypostomus are unique among catfishes in that are the only fishes able to eat and digest wood.<21> Members of the aspredinid genus Amaralia are known to specialize in feeding on loricariid eggs.<22>

Notice that corn and soy are not on that list. (The list of what they do eat is not exactly appetizing).

[Ian David]

31. So I just have to flick my boogers into the pond? n/t

[Cassandra]

32. Bring a platter...

because they'll be so grateful, they'll just jump right on and gut themselves.

[Bake]

17. Thanks, Nanny.

I love fresh catfish, breaded and deep fried. If you don't, fine.

Catfish, by the way, are (is?) my state's largest export to other states. Thanks to the Iowa corn farmers who are sitting fat and happy, selling their corn at ridiculous prices to the ethanol plants. Thanks a lot.

Bake

[ingac70]

3. Eeww! I don't want imported catfish!

Chinese sewer raised catfish, loaded with anti-biotics? No thank you!

Can't they feed them something else? It isn't like catfish are picky.

[izquierdista]

4. Not picky at all

I've heard you can feed them used poultry litter. After all, it does sink to the bottom.

Never liked catfish that much.....must be a reason. :shrug:

[ingac70]

5. I won't eat river cat...

but farm raised is some good eatin'.

[Baclava]

6. You want to eat catfish? Go catch some.

City slickers are so funny...

[Art_from_Ark]

7. Load up the boat

with a few hundred bucks worth of gear, hitch it to the truck, head out to the lake, unhitch the boat and head for the spot where the rumors say the cats are bitin'. Move to another location when the cats aren't bitin' there, then move to another location and repeat the process as often as necessary until a spot is found where a whisker fish actually swallows the bait. If he's too smal, ya gotta throw him back. If he's big enough, throw him into the cooler and try to hook another. After a few more hours, you might find another. Call it a successful day and head back to the house with your two cats. Tell your woman you got a surprise for her and watch the expression on her face as you throw a cat on the cutting board and tell her to have at it.

[psychopomp]

8. Quite a quixotic vision, Art

I enjoy reading your posts; I wonder how you have kept up your writing ability after so many years abroad! I have been abroad less than half the time you have and the words don't come to me so quickly these days...

...could be all the happoshu, though.

[Art_from_Ark]

9. Anything for my little Dulcinea

:)

As for the happoshu, I've found that it tends to numb the brain. You won't catch me drinking that swill, even if it's half the price of Asahi Super Dry. I just keep writing every day, in one style or another, until, like the proverbial 100 monkeys banging on the 100 typewriters, something resembling halfway-decent prose makes its way out of the keyboard.

[psychopomp]

11. Lucky lady

I just found a liquor store tucked away on a backstreet not too far from my place that has the most amazing selection: Chimay, Hoegaarden, 1664, and ol' Sam Adams, among others. American residents note--typical beer selection in Japan looks like this:


Basically four variations on pale lager beer and a low-malt, low-budget variety that comes in five or six "tastes."

I pay around four dollars a bottle for a good European beer from the store (when they can be found at all). :crazy: The distributors here have a lock on the market and cozy relationships with the brewers, thus preserving a uniform blandness in beer selection.

[Ian David]

15. Catching catfish is much easier in states where fireworks are legal. n/t

[Baclava]

23. That's why they call it fishing...not catching.

You have good days and bad days...channel cat are the best.

[Spouting Horn]

24. Or, you could just try

noodling.

[Ian David]

27. Is that like wanking? n/t

[TheWatcher]

10. Good to see the Flooding in the Midwest isn't affecting Corn Prices!

I was really worried there for a second.

Oh, Wait.....

[jody]

12. Good, it's a sin to eat catfish anyway. " Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that

shall be an abomination unto you." (Lev 11:12 ) :rofl:

[cobalt1999]

13. Can't they just raise the price of their catfish?

Or are they that close to being non-competitive with imports? You'd think the transportation costs of imports alone would be more.

[Ian David]

16. This is one of the things that tariffs are good for. n/t

[cobalt1999]

18. Absolutely.

Especially when dealing with a food source.

[Ian David]

19. How hard is it to raise a small amount of catfish at home for personal use? n/t

[skoalyman]

20. it shouldn't be that hard all I know is you have to aerate the pond depending on the size

I loves catfishes:9 :9 :9 :9

[Romulox]

22. Why should this industry not have to compete, if every other industry must?

China is a "Most Favored Nation" trading partner, and we have a broad policy of allowing Chinese competition to run multiple industries out of business in the US. What makes catfish so special when virtually all of our acetaminophen and vitamin C is produced in China, for example? :shrug:

[Romulox]

21. We have "free trade" with China, which produces tons of catfish. So no. nt