Fishery/Hatchery in PE area.

[Herman Jooste]

....on the salary they pay me i might buy an ark

You can have mine for 4k, including paddle, anchor, pump, 20l dry bag, and one patch.

[nicholas]

Labour to service your car R 240.00 per hour for a grease monkey that has no trade papers and is paid R 30.00/hr.
A chef who has trained, got papers, trained , got more papers, and worked his way to the top, gets paid??? I have no idea.
A plumber charges you R500.00 to just set foot on your stinking, sh!t soaked premises.
You pay over R6.00 for a litre of milk, the farmer gets R 2.50.

Welcome to the real world

Chefs are paid badly in SA, they start at anything between R15-R20 an hour and go from there.....after they have studied for 3 years served there apprenticeship another 2 years then worked there way through a kitchen brigade or have traveled extensively for about 6-7 years and learned there trade they then can earn anything from R150-R250 an hour depending on the company they work for..

[nicholas]

Just to bring the thread back on line.........is there money in the Hatchery bussiness??? when i was at Jonkershoek recently we where told the process from hatch to selling and its a sh1t laod of work with no return for the first 4 years!!!!!!

[poppernel]

Just to bring the thread back on line.........is there money in the Hatchery bussiness??? when i was at Jonkershoek recently we where told the process from hatch to selling and its a sh1t laod of work with no return for the first 4 years!!!!!!

Nick, fish farming or hatchery guys must know there oats. So many things can go bad. Lets face it, to sell the fish is your least worries. A costly venture. Even more so , so near the coast.

[fishmonger]

OK, I get the point. You need to be earning "big ching" already to carry the full blown hatchery.

My intension still, is to operate a fishery at least and in smaller part, hatch a few of my own fish.

Now I know that these are arctic creatures and need very cool water. And this is where I need your help.
My "solutions" to issue goes as follows:

• Choose site that is springfed/runoffland.
  
  • Can be dug for the most part to 10m deep to at least have a through of cool water in drought
    
    • Surround as far as possible with trees and vegetation

Your thoughts as ever gladly appreciated.
Stywe lyne!!!!!!!!!

[Matuka]

From my limited experience, water quality is your very big concern, together with hygiene.

But cost it out carefully, including feed and cost of transporting the finished product.

All of the water in our area (Tsitsikamma) has a very high iron content and this would be a very big concern. In addition, summer temperatures have to be within limits, to restrict the water temperature.

Try to contact Wolf Avni on this site for advice. You can also speak to Tim Brewer at Katrinasrust Trout Farm in Mpumalanga, near Machadodorp. He is one of the oldest trout breeders in the country and is very helpful.

[Surly Ghillie]

Just out of interest,under the alien species act are the goverment allowing any new ventures that involve these species?????

Fishmonger, there aint no way you can warrent that fish will not escape unless you aperate a system that is entirely closed; i.e, in your basement

And that's the least of the problems.

SA trout production has been stagnant at about 1000 tons per annum for beter than 2 decades. basically 99% of this production is produced from about a dozen stable hatcheries. there are aboput another 35 hobbyists producing the remaining 1% and they come and go so fast it'll make your head spin. Even in the 'prime area', 3 out of 4 aspirant trout producers go bust. Just in Underberg, over the past 4 decades there have been about 20 trout producers, including some quite big-pocket players (i.e. Tongaat-Hulette) ... who operations have run into insovency and closed down.

The fact is there are limited sites and the 5 MOST important factors are ; position, position, position, position,position. even the 'best' locations in South frica operate in a window-of-risk that is considered 'undoable' by all major salmonid proction players overseas.

From reading your posts and your intended solutions, looks to me you are on a hiding to nothing. High tech hatcheries that rely on technology to control environment cannot compete with hatcheries that utilise nateral configurations. And in South Africa, your production cost is higher than the prices of imported product produced by facilities in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and other first world countries that subsidise aquaculture to the hilt. You can buy danish subsidised raw imports cheaper than we can produce it here. Good luck dude

[clarias]

I;m with Wolf on this one- except that aquaculture and even trout farming is gaining favour again with the state.

What I'd say you need to become a fish farmer that will swim and not sink:

-A suitable location
-Sufficient background literature and experience,as well as good consultants
-A couple of million rands for startup infrastructure,as well as enough in reserve for all the initial years in which you will not be producing due to mistakes, diseases, corrections and keeping the operation running smoothly.
-some engineering background

Good luck, and please don't go around phoning people trying to get free advice until you have done a lot of background research...

[poppernel]

I;m with Wolf on this one- except that aquaculture and even trout farming is gaining favour again with the state.

What I'd say you need to become a fish farmer that will swim and not sink:

-A suitable location
-Sufficient background literature and experience,as well as good consultants
-A couple of million rands for startup infrastructure,as well as enough in reserve for all the initial years in which you will not be producing due to mistakes, diseases, corrections and keeping the operation running smoothly.
-some engineering background

Good luck, and please don't go around phoning people trying to get free advice until you have done a lot of background research...

HI Clarias,

Maybe Fishmonger should make a point of popping into Grahamstown and meeting Martin and checking the scene out.

By the way, was hoping to meet you last week tuesday when fetching fish for stocking. Met Halfstone, good youngster that. Anyway, maybe sometime.

Dave

[clarias]

Oh, well I was still on holiday...pity I missed you guys. Yeah, Pat has been hanging around, doing odd jobs here and there, especially helping a bit with the hatchery.

Won't have much time for the forum this term- but I'll check my PMs occasionally if anyone needs anything

Cheers