Why farm trout?

This question has come up a few times so I thought I'd better give an answer.
You can contact me on 0432 367 505.
If you'd like to support us then please share one of the intro video listed below or head over to Patreon and join the team.
Can you eat fish without guilt: • Pollution Free Fish Fa...
Convert a Gold Fish Farm into a Trout Farm: • Lets Convert a Gold Fi...
I produce videos on a bunch of topics from bees to prospecting and a stack of stuff in between but many of them show off the use of traditional vintage tools. If you see a tool that you would like for your own I probably won't sell you mine but I may have another in stock or I can get one from France, Germany, Japan or wherever. I make little bit of money from selling tools but mostly I just like to share them and share how to use them.
My other Channels
Mad Scientist Prospecting / @madscientistprospecting
Chestnut_nag's tools from Japan
/ @chestnutnagstoolsfrom...
My ebay store
www.ebay.com.a...
If you like what we do maybe you could show your appreciation.
www.patreon.co...

[@ZombieMeishere]

I have always heard that Carp has that muddy flavour, I can't wait to actually try it.

[@Party-Marty]

I watched a segment on Cook & the chef. They cooked carp and were quite specific on the preparation so it didn’t taste muddy. They said it was a great fish to eat 🤔

[@djorfuusk]

Just watched your I-Joist vid and it was awesome... We are of the same mind regarding using free materials and some sweat equity to get things done. Either way, wanted to mention something: not sure if you have brown trout there, but here in the US they’re fairly common. What i didn’t know is that they apparently consume and process fecal matter fairly efficiently. News to me for sure... Either way, came across that tidbit because of a research article where they were doing a study of how some of the trout near big cities were apparently somewhat addicted to meth due to the elevated level of meth use in those areas and the corresponding trace levels in the feces/sewage. Either way, figured you could use the info (either for arguments with city council down there or knowledge about the waste processing capabilities they could provide on the farm 🤷‍♂️🤙) Keep up the good work 💪💪

[@StuartChignell]

The farmed salmonidae species are all pretty efficient at converting a wide range of "food" into muscle mass. Its one of the reasons why we farm them. Brown trout don't do so well here because they are not as tolerant as Rainbow Trout to warmer temperatures.

[@easemailboxes]

Trout are pretty much the only sensible choice as they hold the market share of fresh cold water fish. The demand for perch in the market is lower. Tilapia are not feral in Victoria and cannot sustain due to climate (please advise where they have become a problem in victoria). You should consider getting a wind turbine and creating a warm water pond for tilapia (or even bara). A permit for them in vic should be obtainable given a few checks and balances. Otherwise its trout if you want to sell.

[@StuartChignell]

Tilapia are feral in QLD. I've been doing a bunch of work up there over the last couple of years, despite the pandemic. I've had a number of conversations with a guy that wants to work with them but its a hard road to slog without some presence in the market. You would think that they would be legal in VIC due to their inability to survive the cold but no. Having said that there was a wild population of Tilapia and Baramundi just up the road in the cooling pondage of the power station. Its shut down now so they have all died out.

[@easemailboxes]

@@StuartChignell yes I am aware of the tilapia that used to reside in the ponds near Yallourn. I would not rule out the possibility of getting a permit for tilapia in vic. That said setting up reliable heating with lithium, wind turbines and pumps is not cheap. Despite them being hardy fish. Anyway it would have to be a down the track thing, your right to start with trout imo. (Tilapia are excellent table fish!) Rhanks for your comment.

[@StuartChignell]

@@easemailboxes One of the amazing things about this property is so much can be done with very little changes. It used to produce ~4.5million gold fish per year but the market for fish as pets isn't what it once was. Pre pandemic it was pumping out close to 2mil per year. If we go back to half that there will be plenty of ponds sitting empty which can be used for other purposes. So I'll be able to build some cash flow and gradually expand production lines and scale over time organically. Starting with the low hanging fruit.

[@elenidemos]

Glad the choice is trout. Better sale value compared to carp anyway.

[@StuartChignell]

You have to go with what works not some ideal. Salmon has an even higher value with a modest increase in the cost of production. However, they are not as sustainable as trout because they don't convert food as efficiently. I'd still grow some or even a lot if that's what the market wants because supplying market while not polluting the environment would still be a net gain.

[@craigparry5648]

👍 I've eaten a few carp over the year's, but most of it was the only thing to eat while out camping. The best ones are smaller fish and bleed by removing the anal fin and hanging up. As you mentioned the muddy taste most fish will get this, the best way to reduce it spoiling the flesh is to remove the fatty areas while cleaning and filleting. Eel tail catfish or trout cod?. My mate and I were going to try these a few years ago, but unable due to council regs on his property. ☹️

[@StuartChignell]

On a farm your water quality should always be of excellent quality so it never is an issue in the first place. Can be tricky with some methods of production but one of the excellent things about our methods is that top water quality is assured.

[@easemailboxes]

What kind of money are you looking for? % share. Have you prepared a business plan we can download?

[@StuartChignell]

I've prepared a business plan for the conversion to trout. The more I've learnt about the goldfish market the more I want to keep them and the axolotl production alongside the trout. Possibly even wind back the scope of the trout development or even delay it for a year. Officially the farm stopped producing Goldfish back in 2019 but that's not true. It's still producing gold fish just not to the same scale as it was. If we can get onto the property before Spring I'll be expanding the gold fish production with the owners help. As for amounts and percentages best to talk in private first. Legally I'm not allowed to give specific details in public places like the comments section of a video. Give me a call 0432 367 505 or email me at [e-mail].

[@nickrasmussen2824]

Gday Stuart, That muddy flavor is caused by a stress hormone. If the fish is treated humanely and dispatched as soon as its caught then you have no muddy taste. I really like your optimism, but there is not one single gov. dept. that would allow you to farm carp in australia. I live up near the murray, and the gov. on both sides of the border have bought up most of the fishing licences to net carp. Also, it's not how long it takes to grow out a species to table size, but whether you get a good food to weight ratio. Trout are a bit of a hang up from our anglo days, and its also an invasive species. It is a predator fish that is responsible for a raft of small native fish species winding up on the endangered list. Diversify with yabbies, natives, ducks,, etc. Silvers are popular and the marketing is already done for you. Little bit like the black angus fad with Maccas. Either way mate, this is just my opinion. I have followed your content for a while now, and I quite like the way you think things through. All the best with your venture. Nick

[@StuartChignell]

In the current situation yes you are absolutely right, no one is going to give permission to farm carp. Or Tilapia either. But things can change either way. Currently the prohibition makes no logical sense for carp sense they have become so established throughout all our water ways. There are many factors that make a fish worth farming and different contexts change the results of ones calculations on what is and what isn't profitable. Silver perch are only economical where the input costs, particularly the depreciation costs and labour costs are very low. Their slow growth rate means that any costs that are proportionate to time versus per kilogram have a big impact on the cost of production. Trout have a pretty good FCR especially as you move away from older pond and raceway techniques. In Demark it is a legal requirement of your trout aquaculture license that your FCR remain at 1 or less. Many good operators regularly achieve FCRs of 0.9 and some regularly produce fish below 0.85. From memory the record is 0.81. Now part of the reason they can achieve such results is because of their excellent management but another is the genetic work that has been done on their breeding strains. Something that hasn't been done systematically in Australia. Other species like Salmon, Murray Cod and others have no where near as good FCR but the market currently pays a premium for these species. There are a number of things we can do to diversify production. Apart from the gold fish and axolotls, I've been talking to a guy who can supply me with eels. Fisheries has raised the possibility of buying Estuarine Perch and Australian Bass fingerlings off us. I'm looking at other options as well and I'm open to considering others but don't want to spread ourselves too thing either.

[@SeeTheWholeTruth]

You need to investigate the truth about KUDZU as feed. Few points to clue you in on prior to that. 4.25x production per acre compared to 1 of hay, sorry dont know hectare. Grows faster in higher uv areas, holds helps watertables, feeds all animal stock with better nutrients and created a massive boon to the USA for WW2 down to the point that monsanto and various lobbyists undermined it and pushed it out of usage from its once millions of acres of utilization. It increased yields on all animals fed with it. Do you have to routinely or prior to planting plan on keeping it contained? Yes. Its growth is surreal, over a foot a day in the proper zone. It is edible by people, however it can cause issues eaten too frequently for some, and thus how they managed to put it out of the way with "toxic invasive" weed status here. There is no excuse for "animal protein" costs going up other than what is being engineered to take place. Now all of that aside it sounds like a great idea. I wish you the best on its development. But adjustment to food issues is not going to be won with facts but instead by the policy makers and agendas of those wanting to put guilt on people rather than admit it is the sun and the magnetosphere and our swiftly racing magnetic poles racing towards each other off your western coast that are the real issues overall for the planet. Along with those working very hard to make a famine worldwide at the same time to change banking over to "carbon credits". If the world makes it another thirty years without a tilt or punching solar flares and worse issues than your last major lightning storm set that stunned the world with the number of strikes.. maybe you will have a good product? Id be more concerned with how locally it can sell and how unpowered or local sourced your needs for it are however.

[@StuartChignell]

To be be commercial really need to focus on crops that have a higher value. Plus Kudzo won't grow very well down south.