Author: Forrest Wynne
Planning Unit: Agriculture and Natural Resources Programs
Major Program: Aquaculture
Outcome: Long-Term Outcome
Ponderosa Farms is a small scale grain and channel catfish farm, located near Murray, KY. The farm has been growing channel catfish for nearly 20 years. Most of these fish are sold to fee fishing (pay lake) operations in KY and surrounding states. After many years, the live haul truck driver that had been buying their fish and selling them to pay lakes, retired in early 2020. Approximately 100,000 lbs of the farm's fish would need to be sold in 2020. In recent years, growers have received $1.20 -$1.30 per lb for live channel catfish in Kentucky. The KDA Aquaculture Marketing Specialist and I, met with the farm owners to discuss potential alternative catfish marketing plans. These plans included: on site, small scale catfish processing, developing their own fee fishing facility to sell their fish, starting their own live, catfish hauling operation, or finding other live fish haulers to buy their fish. During the early spring, the owners were able to find a small scale live hauling operation to buy some fish. I was contacted by F&F Pay Lakes and Catering in Calhoun, KY and they were interested in buying thousands of pounds of fish per week. This market outlet would buy up the majority of the farms catfish inventory for 2020. In the meantime, Ponderosa Farms has purchased 10 acres of land with a pond on State Highway 80 in Calloway County. In the future, the site may be used to develop a fee fishing operation to market some of their own fish. After 20 years of working with Ponderosa Farms, I look forward to lending production and marketing support to this and other Kentucky catfish farms.
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