Fish cages on Wuqiang Creek in Huaihua, Hunan
Through the investigation, the breeding details, feed situation and market characteristics of catfish in the cage of Hunan Wuqiangxi Reservoir were investigated, which provided a basis for the design positioning and marketing promotion of catfish puffed material for cages.
<b>1. Market Overview</b>
Wuqiangxi Reservoir is located in the lower reaches of Yuanshui In Yuanling County, Huaihua City, Hunan Province, with clear water quality and transparency of more than 2 meters. The catfish farming area is concentrated within 50 miles of the Wuqiangxi Dam, covering three townships of Chenjiatan, Xiaojiaqiao and Qinglang, with a total of 30,000 cages for catfish culture.
The market capacity of catfish feed in Wuqiangxi Reservoir is 60,000 to 70,000 tons, and the market share of Xiangda and Haida is relatively high, accounting for a total of 70% of the two, and other brands account for only 30%. At present, the granular material is the mainstream, reaching 7 to 80%, while the puffed material only accounts for 20% to 30%, of which the Xiangda catfish puffed material accounts for a large proportion.
<b>2. Breeding mode</b>
2.1 Cage Settings
General cages have 3 specifications, 3m×3m×3m, 5m×5m×3m, 6m×6m×3m, in recent years, 3m×3m × 3m small cages are gradually eliminated. The cage is mainly a steel tube structure, provided by foam buoyancy, generally has two layers of mesh coating. Fry are different from the mesh of adult cages, with 1 to 2 cm mesh of cages for fry and 3 to 4 cm for adult fish.
2.2 Seeding and catching
The most common 5m×5m×3m cages are used to illustrate: 25,000 5 cm summer flower fingerlings/crate are placed in July of that year, and 1 to 2 sizes are raised in 1-2 two-sized containers from March to April of the following year for adult culture.
Each adult fish box puts 1 to 2 two sizes of fish species 3000, raised to October to catch large and small, leaving about half of the number of fish below 1 kg to continue to raise until September of the third year, out of size 2 kg.
In the past, adult fish mainly went to the southwest market, but in the past two years, the new Beijing and Tianjin markets have been opened, making the sales channel of catfish more smooth.
2.3 Feed feeding
Feed using a small feeder or manual throwing. Generally in May when the water temperature reaches about 20 ° C, start feeding granule, feeding 2 to 3 times a day, the amount of feeding per day is not fixed, mainly based on experience, generally fed until the fish no longer grab the material before stopping feeding, the highest daily feeding rate reached 5%. The particle size of the granule is relatively large, usually 1 two fry are fed 2.0 mm particle size, half a catty of fish is fed 4.0 mm particle size, and 8 two or more fish are fed 5.0 mm particle size.
Some farmers will start using extruded materials in June, feeding the same amount as pellets. No one used extruded materials throughout the process, mistakenly believing that the use of extruded materials would aggravate the number of deaths during the outbreak of catfish disease.
2.4 Farming benefits
The feed for each cage is 2 to 2.5 tons, and the feed cost is about 3.6 to 4 yuan / kg of fish. In the past two years, the efficiency of catfish farming has been greatly affected by fish diseases, and the survival rate of catfish is low due to catfish sepsis (Edwardian bacteria) and infectious enteropathy (maltophila oligomonas). In the past two years, the price of catfish has been relatively good, and under normal farming conditions, the average benefit of each cage is about 4,000 yuan.
<b>3. Feed selection</b>
3.1 Evaluation Criteria
Although the feed effect is the most concerned indicator of farmers, they rarely have complete and detailed data to support, but only through the usual visual measurement of the growth of fish to determine the quality of the material. Farmers will also make the fish sick less by comparing which manufacturer's feed is fed, and the number of fish incidence is related to the quality of the feed.
The average material ratio of granular material is about 2.2; the proportion of puffed material collocation is small, and the material ratio is unknown.
3.2 Nutritional indicators and prices
After years of breeding practice, farmers generally recognize the Xiangda and Haida brands, so they occupy most of the market in Wuqiangxi. Since the vast majority of farmers did not have feed for this year at the time of this survey, only the labels of Xiangda and Haida materials were collected, as shown in Table 1.
The survey learned that the terminal price of each brand this year (the price sent to the cage) is not much different, 33% of the protein granules are 3650 yuan / ton, 32% of the protein is 5300 yuan / ton.
<b>4. Marketing characteristics</b>
4.1 Farmers
Farmers generally pay 20% of the annual feed payment to the feed factory as an advance payment before March, and settle all the arrears after selling the fish at the end of the year. The reputation of farmers is also relatively good, and the dealer is also responsible for the circulation of adult fish and controls the fish outlet, so there is rarely a phenomenon of bad debts here.
4.2 Distributors
Dealers' sales are relatively large, generally in 3000 ~ 4000 tons. Their main means of controlling farmers are the sale of feed on credit, the sale of fish and the provision of fry.
4.3 Feed mills
General feed factories will organize several promotion meetings with dealers after the spring, disseminate advanced breeding technology and successful breeding experience while announcing the sales policy for the whole year, such as this year's policy is 10,000 yuan back 500 yuan, that is, the farmer pays 10,000 yuan, the account shows that it is 10,500 yuan, and the feed price remains unchanged.
Although the sales volume of dealers is large, but the financial strength is limited, every year there will be a large gap in funds, feed mills in order to maintain sales, have to support them. Analysis of the investigation information found that the feed mill's financial support for dealers is not small, although the specific proportion is not very clear, but it can be determined that this has a lot to do with the dealer's financial strength, character reputation and specific sales.
<b>5. Analysis of results</b>
5.1 Aquaculture management
The level of aquaculture management of farmers is relatively backward. During the investigation, we learned that the cages here are only washed once a year, and this investigation found that most of the meshes of some cages have been blocked, and the difference in water quality inside and outside the cages is obvious. In addition, farmers do not pay attention to the prevention and control of fish diseases at several critical stages, such as the feeding and management of fry recovery after spring.
In fact, the above two points are related to the incidence of catfish, we can take the following measures to solve: (1) regularly rinse the mesh with a water gun or put 10 to 20 catfish in each cage to remove moss and filamentous algae, increase the flow of water inside and outside the cage, and reduce the pathogens that breed disease. (2) After the beginning of spring, through reasonable feeding and liver and intestine health care, strengthen the physiological function of the fish body, thereby improving the immunity of the fish body. (3) The use of high digestibility of catfish puffing material, scientific feeding, promote fish health and reduce feed waste, can further reduce the incidence of disease.
5.2 Promotion of extruded materials
Many cage culture practices show that extruded materials have unparalleled advantages over granular materials in cage culture. Catfish puffing material has long been a mature product, but the market promotion is too slow, which mainly involves the distribution of benefits in each link, the trial and effect confirmation of the puffed material, and the competition between the puffed material and the granular material. From the market's acceptance of the extruded material to the final replacement of the pellet material by the extruded material, it still needs to face some difficulties and problems, and it also takes a while.
However, we were pleasantly surprised to see that nearly 1/3 of the farmers in the Wuqiangxi Reservoir have begun to try the catfish puffing material, of course, this is mainly due to the strong fish prices, and what is more gratifying is that the farmers have seen the obvious advantages of the puffed material in shortening the breeding cycle and improving the yield, which undoubtedly gives the latecomers greater confidence.
<b>6. Suggestions</b>
6.1 Positioning is reasonable
To do a good job in the puffing material of catfish, it is a prerequisite to do a good job in product positioning. Reasonable positioning must be carried out around cage catfish farming, including nutritional standards (including premix selection), formulation model, product effect and product price settings, many details are interlinked, indispensable. In this contest between extruded material and granular material, the granular material has been exposed to its own defects, and the extruded material should be reasonably positioned, and then let the market return to the product, let the competition return to value, and let the farmer return to rationality.
6.2 Technology Promotion
The advantages of catfish puffing compounds in shortening farming cycles and increasing cage production have been known, which has contributed to the increase in sales of puffed stocks. However, due to the uneven level of breeding and management of farmers, it is difficult to accelerate the promotion process of puffed materials only by relying on them to copy themselves. The cause of puffed materials can flourish through the promotion of technologies related to catfish extrusion materials (including seed stage recovery, rational feeding, cage fish disease prevention and control), improve the survival rate of fry, and make more money than pellet materials by producing fish early. (End)
Special thanks to the leaders of Hunan Zhengyuan Group and Zhong Peng for their strong support and cooperation.
1. Source: CUHK Aquatic Newsletter, No. 59
2. Author: Guangzhou Chengyi Aquatic Products Technology Co., Ltd. Yan Wei/Wen
3. WeChat ID: gzchengyi2013