Catfish Production (Released July 22, 2011)

摘要

Catfish operations in the three major producing States (Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi) had 159 million foodsize fish on hand on July 1, 2011, down 25 percent from the July 1, 2010 total of 212 million foodsize fish. The breakouts of foodsize fish inventory numbers on July 1, 2011, with their respective percent change from the previous year were: large foodsize, 2.57 million fish, down 60 percent; medium foodsize, 33.8 million fish, down 45 percent; and small foodsize, 122 million fish, down 15 percent. The three major States also had 430 thousand broodfish on hand on July 1, 2011, down 5 percent from last year's 455 thousand broodfish. The number of large stockers on hand on July 1, 2011, totaled 176 million fish, up 6 percent from the 166 million fish on hand a year ago. There were 173 million small stockers, up 2 percent from last year. Producers had 732 million fingerlings and fry on hand on July 1, 2011. The water surface area to be used for catfish production during July 1 through December 31, 2011, totaled 81.4 thousand acres, down 14 percent from a year ago. Acres used for foodsize fish totaled 65.5 thousand acres, down 17 percent from the same time period in 2010. Acres for broodfish decreased 13 percent to 1.60 thousand acres, and acres used for fingerling production decreased 8 percent to 11.5 thousand acres. Acres taken out of production during the January 1, 2011 through June 30, 2011 period totaled 4.54 thousand acres, while 2.23 thousand acres of the total in production were scheduled to be renovated from July 1, 2011 to December 31, 2011. The number of operations on July 1, 2011 in the three major States totaled 389, down 14 percent from last years total of 454 operations.