How do Farmers Farm Crawfish?
 

I am old school and know how crawfish were once caught in the wild. Then the pond raised crawfish arrived. I know cow pastures were transformed. I know rice and crawfish are a good marriage.

However, on another thread here when asking the price of bugs in your area, a response included the fact that there were costs associated with raising crawfish.

It sparked my curiosity. I can see a cost in the harvest of bugs, i.e. traps, bags, vessel, transportation and labor.

How do Farmers actually Farm Crawfish?

Thank you

Gotta pump water and ya gotta feed em

http://www.seagrantfish.lsu.edu/pdfs...Production.pdf



you still need to bait traps $$$$
run a boat in the pon $$$$
flood the fields with water with a diesel pump $$$$ or electric $$$$
sackes of feed $$$$$
There are still cost associated with farm raised crawfish

Alot of farmers also seed every year which costs $$$$$$$

Where does the stock come from?
The fry or eggs or whatever they start with.

Are there crawfish breeders out there working on a bigger better crawfish?

The stock comes from "seeding" with small crawfish the year before. If I have this right, they will seed before the end of the season and as the ponds dry up they will bury themselves in the mud.

LSU is working on a crawfish that will be harvestable year round. They are also working on a crafish with a smaller head and bigger tail.

Wouldn't that be hard to do? I could see maybe in the deeper water of the basin, but not a flooded field that's only a foot deep. Come July and August, that water would be hotter than hades.

Gotta pump it thru a water cooler

LMAO.........crazy mofo!!

Crawfish are usually transfered from a "this years crawfish pond" to a "this years rice field" during the months of June and July. When the rice fileld is drained prior to harvesting the rice, the crawfish bury themselves, have their young and then come out of the ground in October and November when the field is flooded. They are primarily vegatarians and feed off of the stubble from the rice crop. Only rarely do farmers actually feed the crawfish, they survive off of the rice stubble and natural vegatation.

It took you long enough to say something huh? Good first post.


Theres is a fella near where I live who has pond crawfish that has to feed. He doesn't farm rice though, it's just a crawfish pond that always has water in it. I seen him at the feed store buying sacks of feed a couple time.

LSU Ag Center website has alot of info.

Some pond owners will buy several sacks of select basin crawfish to put in their ponds at the end of the season to reseed the crawfish crop.

Good info.....I never knew realized all the $$ involved in farm raised. That makes the price justifiable.

Yes their biggest expense is pumping water and boats. Also, the manual labor of catching, washing, sorting, and then most have coolers to stack them in till they are sold & picked up. It certainly adds to a farmers income, not as much as crops, but every little bit helps.

Well said !!!

Then you could just add seasoning and they would be boiled and ready to eat.

LOL

^^This.

Also, there are two types of crawfish common in south Louisiana Red Swamp and White River. The Red Swamp is the one found in the basin and both are found in ponds. People seed with basin crawfish thinking they will have bigger crawfish, but size is directly related to population density. Just like fish in an aquarium, fish will get bigger when either the aquarium is enlarged or fish are taken out.

White crawfish have greenish fat not that great and red crawfish have the yellow fat that's the ones you want to suck the heads on.

When I was comm fishing, toward the end of the season, when no one wanted to eat crawfish anym, farmers bought em from me for $20/sack. They were restocking for the next season.

Here's a bit of trivia. The stuff referred to fat is actually pancreatic material.

Yes there is $$$$ involved with raising crawfish. However I know someone that runs 5 boats (hired hands) and makes $12,000 to $34,000 per week depending on price. So your could work it really hard for 4 months, take off 8 and make a real good living. The major player acres. You have to own it or lease it. Thats the most expensive and why we all don't get into it.

I promise you he is not taking those 8 months off with a operation like that. Does he farm the rice on this crawfish farm also?