Tuesday, December 12, 1978
11
Winter chills fish farming
Staff Renorter
By HENRY LOCKARD
Walt Massey stood outside the metal garage at his farm and looked out over his seas of crops. The sun reflected off the pastures and the wind kneaded their surfaces. On a cold November afternoon Massey was thinking about the repair work he'd get done during a long, hard winter that was on its way.
Massey, manager of Kaw Valley Fish Farms, Route 3, led the way past hanging rubber boots and giant fishing nets, called seines, to his office inside the garage. The air smelled dank and stale. Bags and boxes of feed were to blame for that, as were the 88.5 acres of water that stood in one-to-four-acre ponds on the Valley Farm.
Inside his office, Massey sat in a swivel and unfolded a metal chair for his visitor.
"Right now things are kind of slow around
he said. "Now's when we do our repair
work."
"Things'll start bustin' out after May 15. We'll start nesting fish for the following year and moving brood stock. We're quite busy during the warmer months between the early spring and the late fall. They make up for the quiet days in the winter time."
MASSEY HA SEEN managing the farm for Ozark Fisheries, which is headquartered in Stouland, Mo. for 11 years. He said that the main problems were the main problems of a fish farmer.
"The power went out one time and we lost several thousand fish from these runs because the oxygen pumps quit," he said. "They suffocated."
Massey, in his 50s, is one of the younger fish farmers around. The pioneers of the business in Kansas—Bus Hartley, who farms 600 acres of water in Kingman, and Vernon Krabbel, who farms 500 acres of Prairie Pretty—began almost 30 years ago.
Massey said he probably was among the last to get into the business because the costs of developing a fish farm now were "astronomical."
Kansan ceases fall publication
The Fall 178 Kanse will cease publication with this issue. The business office and the newsroom will be closed until orientation begins. In addition, the Kanse will resume publication Jan. 17.
-KANSAN-
On Campus
Events
TODAY: A COMPUTER ASSISTED INSTRUCTION SEMINAR by Edward Mattila will be held at 4 p.m. in the Computer Services Auditorium. A STUDENT RECITAL will be held at 3:30 p.m. in Spooner Hall. A PIANO DOCTORAL HOUR will be held at 8 p.m. in Swarthout Recital Hall. A DISCUSSION on the "Subtitutes of Racism" by Carl Leblen will be at noon in the Sunflower Room of the Union. A DISCUSSION of "Gay Rights" by Mike Storms will be in the Fine Room of the Union. KU YOUNG DEMOCRATS will meet at 7:30 p.m. in the Jawkaway Room of the Union, THE Helen Forsman Spencer Museum of Art. A CIVIL ENGINEERS SENIORS LUNCHEON will be held at noon in the Centennial Room of the Union. The BLACK FACULTY & STAFF COUNCIL will meet at 3 p.m. in the Council Room of the Union. AN ANTHROPOLOGY HUMAN POPULATION LECTURE on "Genetic Epidemiology" by Theodore Reich will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Council Room of the Union.
TOMORROW: SIGMA PSI will meet at 2 p.m. in the Walnut Room of the Union. A FORUM on the "State of KU Libraries" will be held at 14:45 a.m. in the ECM center, 1204 Frost Avenue, LECTURE by Paul F. Hoffman on the "Stratigraphic and Structural Development of Alacuogens" will be held at an 426 Floor in the KU GO CLUB will meet at 7 p.m. in the Walnut Room of Union. The SAILING CLUB will meet at 7 p.m. in Parlors B and C of the Union.
meat at 8 p.m. in 124 Robinson Gymnasium.
FRIDAY: LATIN AMERICAN
SUPPORTIVE COMMITTEE will meet at
12:30 p.m. in the Room of the Union. A
SUMMARY ON PROMOTION of
Small Mammals sponsored by the KU
division of biological sciences will start at
1 p.m. in the Forum Room of the Union. The
MAMMAL BOMB will meet at 4 p.m. in the
Sunflower Room of the Union. The KU
FOLK DANCE CLUB will meet in 173
Robinson Gymnasium.
THURSDAY: KU SKYDYNING CLUB will meet at 8 p.m. in 129 Robinson College
SATURDAY: THE ALUMNI DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE will meet at 2 p.m. in the Big Eight Room of the Union. The OPERATIONAL SASO BARD OF DIRECTORS will meet at 2 p.m. in the International Room of the Union. WEDNESDAY, DEC. 20: The OPERATIONAL CHILDREN'S MAGIC SHOW will be at 1 p.m. in the Forum Room of the Union.
"There's no way in hell you can build a fish farm today and have it pay for itself," he said. "Construction d'run you from $40 to $1,200 and the cost of land is about $2,000 an acre."
THURSDAY, DEC. 21: KU SKYDIVING
will meet at 8 p.m. in 124 Rohinson
Gwinnett
FRIDAY, DEC. 22; KUF DANCE
Gymnastics at 7:30 p.m. in 1738
Hallam will play
WED, DEC. 29. THE NAVY ROTC
AWARDS BATTLE OF LIBERTY a l.a.m.
in the Centennial Room of the Union.
Massey said farming fish for food was not the best business. He farms mostly bait fish-shiners and minnows.
"PEOPLE'LL SPEND more for bait that they will for food," he said.
Stan Hudson has been in the business 30 years. Hudson is co-owner of the H and D Fish Farm in Cheney. His partner, John Smith, owns the Chambers Commercial Fish Growth Associates.
Hudson and Daniels farm both bait fish and catfish. The catfish are sold for food.
"I think the economics of snack minimes are better," Hudson said. "Food fish are more expensive."
Farmers sell fish when they reach two or three pounds, which usually takes a year to a year and a half, depending on pond conditions.
Most Kansas farmers who sell fish for food raise catfish.
According to the USDA, 3000 pounds of feed—which is either in pellet or mash form and is made of corn, soy beans and oil food—is supplied to 5000 pounds of fish that can be sold for food.
By comparison, it takes 4,000 pounds of feed to produce 1,000 pounds of hogs. And cattle average 1,000 pounds gained for every 8,000 pounds feed.
HOWEVER, MORE parts of the hog and cattle are consumed than are parts of the fish. Also, the percentage of fish imported from the U.S. is lower than the percentage of imported beef or pork.
The USDA estimates that the 177 crop of fish raised on farms was 100 million pounds. Last year, more than 100 million pounds of fish were imported.
Fish sold on the meet market have to be priced competently with other meats, which holds down the price. Also, when a fish is processed, 50 percent of its weight is lost.Currently, fish sells for an average of two dollars a pound.
Massey said he raised minows because the minow market wasn't as competitive. He said it took nearly 300 minows to make him work. So he says, he sells minows (for $10 a pound).
The USDA says the food aspect of fish farming is improving because of declining game fish populations and recent legislation proposed to help fish farmers.
The departments of Interior, Commerce and Agriculture have proposed a National Aquaculture plan that would provide intra- and inter-state access to aquaculture at both state and local levels.
According to the proposed plan, development of the fish farming industry would be just a fraction of the plan, which is equivalent to an equipment of a variety of salt water food sources.
In response to declining game fish populations, not only would fish for food be more in demand, but a third branch of the ecosystem would also catch—would become more popular.
Don Otto, Route 3, Baldwin, owner of Don Otto Fish Farm, has raised fish in 25 of its buildings.
Although farm farming isn't Otto's only business, he has made his farm a popular place with rural Eudora and Badwijn who pay a fee to catch fish from his ponds.
Otto said, "People'll pay more money to fish and catch them than they will to just buy them."
The men's and women's athletics departments might merge soon because plans for a union of the two departments were announced at the helm, executive vice chancellor, said Friday.
Athletics to merge soon
"I think our hope is that we will have a recommendation ready to present to the chancellor by the end of December or very early in January," Shankel said.
The proposal will be implemented next semester if Chancellor Archie R. Dykes asks for it.
"We should begin implementation immediately and try to have it completely done by the start of the next fiscal year," Shankel said.
Administrators hope that a merger wouls strengthen the women's program and cut administrative costs.
The University's next fiscal year begins July 1, 1979.
University and athletics department administrators have been working all semester on a plan to help a financially struggling women's program survive.
Sankhar said he could not reveal all the specifics of the proposal until the change was finalized.
However, he did say the departments of sports information, business affairs and other functions.
Shankel has been meeting this semester with Bob Marcum, men's athletic director, and Marinian Washington, women's athletic director, to work on the proposal.
Sahkelai he said he could not elaborate on how the departments would be organized under the proposal, but said the proposal did not contain concerns concerning upper level administrators.
"We won't try to decide where each person who whom employee of each person will work.
Marcum and Washington also would not reveal specific of the proposal but both have said that they had a
Washington said, "The last proposal Dr. Shankel has presented to us, I think, is much better than what we worked on in the past. The one area—the organizational chart that he proposed to both Bob Marcum and myself—I am pleased with."
Marcum said, "I think one of the things about it is that you centralize a lot of things, and also a lot of problems. Right now, we have some scheduling difficulties with the field house. At least we will be all under one umbrella."
Shankel said because the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation deftly solely with the men's department, some minor changes would be needed in the corporation's bylaws when the departments merged.
Dec.14, 15 and 16
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