SMALL HOLDING SYSTEMS FOR LIVE SALES OF CATFISH

John Kelso, Extension & Research Assistant; Ken Semmens, Ph.D., Assistant Professor; Richard Bryant, Extension & Research Associate; Siddhartha Dasgupta, Ph.D.*, Professor; Austin Wright, Small Farms Agent; Robert Durborow, Ph.D., Assistant Research Director, Kentucky State University College of Agriculture, Communities, and the Environment

Situation: 

Small aquaculture farms can benefit by using direct-to-consumer markets to sell their fresh local fish.  An extension demonstration was coordinated to connect small farmers with fish buyers. To help make the selling process successful, fish holding and transportation systems were provided to Wayne Riley, a small farmer in southern Kentucky, so that live catfish could be held and sold live directly to the consumer. 

Response:

Wayne Riley was provided with a transportation tank (fig. 1) and live holding tank (fig. 2) to hold and sell live channel catfish at a local community commercial kitchen in London, KY.  Kentucky State University staff John Kelso and Richard Bryant assisted in installing these systems.  Several batches of live catfish were received into this system from local sources.  A marketing survey/questionnaire was distributed to customers when they bought the fish. Cooperators in this demonstration included Siddhartha Dasgupta, Professor Extension Agricultural Economics, Ken Semmens, Assistant Professor, John Kelso, Richard Bryant, Austin Wright, and Robert Durborow, Assistant Research Director all of Kentucky State University. Wayne was able to sell catfish locally and retrieve data for university researchers.  

Results/Impact:

Cooperation between KSU and Wayne Riley accomplished several goals for the expansion of aquaculture in the Commonwealth.  It was demonstrated that communities with diverse demographics are willing to buy whole fish and information collected in the survey quantified this market.  Live holding systems of low complexity were satisfactory for holding live catfish at market for a period of seven days.  Networking and cooperation between small producers and local salesmen may provide an additional market outlet for catfish farmers.  

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

* Dr. Siddhartha Dasgupta is currently Associate Extension Administrator at Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio