Effect of stocking density on production characteristics, costs, and risk of producing fingerling channel catfish

A pond production trial was conducted to compare the yield, growth, feed co nversion ratio, costs, and economic risk of producing fingerling channel ca tfish Ictalurus punctatus at stocking rates of 1,398,990, 543,334, 211,010, and 81,955 fry/ha to obtain fish of the following lengths: 2.5, 7.6, 12.7, and 15 cm. Mean weight at harvest decreased as a logarithmic function of t he stocking rate (y 127.896 - 8,719.log(e)x; R-2 = 0.87), while yield incre ased linearly with the stocking rate (y 1,347 + 0.003x; R-2 = 0. 87). A sto cking rate of 211,010 fry/ha resulted in an 84% certainty that costs would be less than US$0.004/cm. Higher densities resulted in a certainty of 99% t hat the on-farm production costs would be less than the market price, while the lower density had a certainty of only 20%. The higher densities result ed in the greatest yield, number, and total length of fingerlings. The lowe st density produced larger fingerling sizes, but the substantially lower yi eld resulted in the highest costs per fingerling as well as per kilogram an d centimeter of fingerling produced. Production of smaller fingerlings at h igh stocking densities costs less and entails less economic risk, but addit ional research is needed to quantify the economic benefit of understocking larger fingerlings in catfish.-row-out ponds.