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| Permanent Ponds, Blue; Rotational Ponds, Red. Percent of Total Annual Harvest by Month. |
Rice Research Station Newsletter 1(2):1-2
Most crawfish aquaculture occurs either in permanent ponds year after year (under a monoculture strategy) or in rotational ponds where rice and crawfish are grown in sequence (rotational cropping strategy), but often not in the same physical location each year.
There are several pros and cons for producers associated with each production approach. Among those is the difference in the timing of the harvest.
Experimental crawfish ponds of the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center are managed to simulate both types of crawfish production. Ponds at the Aquaculture Research Station in Baton Rouge are designed and managed to simulate a crawfish-only monoculture approach in permanent ponds, and ponds at the Rice Research Station in Crowley are designed and managed according to a typical rice-crawfish field rotational approach.
Harvesting efforts and frequencies were common to those used in the commercial sector and were generally governed by the same market forces.
Based on over 10 years of data, average crawfish harvest profiles for each scenario are presented in the accompanying chart. It should be noted that harvesting was often justified as early as November in the monoculture approach in permanent ponds, but harvesting was typically not justified until January in the rotational cropping approach. By the end of March in the experimental ponds, only 29% of the annual harvest was realized with rotational ponds; 47% was achieved in the permanent ponds. This is significant because crawfish prices are customarily much higher early in the season and usually drop considerably after Easter.
Peak yields for both categories of ponds occurred in April, and, while yields from permanent ponds declined rapidly (in part because of low demand for smaller crawfish), yields from rotational ponds (producing larger crawfish because of lower densities) continued until July in some years. This complement of production strategies benefits consumers by extending the availability of quality crawfish over a longer season, and benefits producers by lessening the potential for oversupply in the marketplace while providing unique benefits to the producers of each production approach.