Mississippi catfish acreage continues to fall

Catfish pond acreage in Mississippi continues to decline, with the high cost of production and poor prices partly to blame.

 

Mississippi State University Extension Service aquaculture specialist Jim Steeby said the entire US catfish industry is downsizing.

 

As of late July, Mississippi had 70,000 acres of catfish ponds, down from the high of 113,000 acres the state had in 2001, according to Mississippi State University Ag Communications Bonnie Coblentz.

 

Mississippi still leads the nation in catfish production, with Alabama and Arkansas a distant second and third at 21,700 and 20,500 acres, respectively, of catfish ponds.

 

Mississippi also leads in fingerling production, but only 50 percent of the state's catfish hatcheries operated in 2009.

 

Feed prices continue to be the largest cost of production and they were as high as US$350 a tonne this year but dropped to US$330 a tonne by early August. Three years ago, catfish producers paid US$240 a tonne for feed.

 

Steeby said the increase in soy and corn prices has caused feed to become more expensive noting that soymeal is the predominant component of catfish feed, with corn next.

 

The US Department of Agriculture's feed assistance programme is offering some relief to Mississippi producers as they deal with high commodity prices. Under the programme, catfish producers can receive a feed credit of up to US$100,000 for what they spent on feed in 2008. This credit can be used to buy feed for this year's crop.

 

John Anderson, Extension agricultural economist, said prices for the first quarter of 2009 were a little better than prices from the same period in 2008.

 

Catfish prices bottomed out at around 65 cents a pound in late 2007, noting that prices did not really begin to recover until the second quarter of 2008, reaching a high just under 83 cents a pound in September, according to USDA's monthly catfish processing report.

 

Anderson said catfish prices then began a fairly steady decline through the middle of 2009 to average about 76 cents a pound in June. Prices improved a little in July and were averaging about 78 cents a pound in early August.