Fry Growout tanks - as simple as can be
the time to achieve full production.
This at least is a known quantifiable
that can be modelled. Other known
risks include skills shortages (lack of
know how), power outages, water
supply shortages and to an extent
weather variations. These can be
modelled and to a greater or lesser
extent mitigated.
The unknown risks, disease, filter
crashes, acts of God, water quality
failures and equipment break
downs are a lot harder to quantify.
The stuff you didn't plan on or sign
up for when you started your fish
farm in other words. My old mentor
in business referred to these things
as 'school fees' - you may also refer
to them as 'experience'.
Experience is often hard learned.
For instance, learning that your filter system is in fact not capable of
sustaining the claimed load of fish
is only going to happen when it
collapses, falls over and you lose
every single fish in you operation
overnight thanks to a crashed filter.
Or that expensive drum filter you
spent your next two years profits on
actually did need some grease on
that cog before it stopped rotating
and clogged, killing every fish in the
system behind it. Or that one hour
when your backup power system
dropped the ball and stopped the
air supply to your system, killing
every fish in the system behind it.
The Original Grand Daddy. Ten years old and still
going strong!
You get the picture? It's not pretty
and whilst the old saying amongst
veteran fish farmers says that any
fish farmer worth his salt has killed
many crops of fish accidentally you
don't need to do it too many times
before the expense of starting up
again catches up with all the time
you have lost in production and
forces your bank manager to send
your farm off to the auction house
and you into insolvency.
Don't kill your fish. No matter what,
ensure that they survive! Knowing
WHAT is important, is something
that you will have to learn - and
take it from one who has, the
slightest short-cut that you take will
cost you a thousand times over.
Filter systems here are generally the
biggest culprit because they are the
easiest to bamboozle inexperienced
customers with. Write on a label
that this filter will process 10 000
litres of water, stick it onto your
small black box and hey presto! It's
magic! And cheap!
The real world doesn't work that
way. Your filters on your system
SHOULD be the bulk of your expense (in ours for instance it's upwards of 80% of the cost of a FarmInABox pond setup - the ponds
and water being the really cheap
part of any operation). And they
should be 100% of the design. If I
could make that figure 110% I
would.
If that doesn't tell you something,
something is wrong and it isn’t going to work! The real trouble is by
the time you realise that it isn't going to work your bank manager is
the one pointing it out to you. And
that, well, that's just awkward!
Practical experience I agree cannot
be taught, but at least these days
we are at a level where there is considerably more knowhow and experience that can be spread around
than there was even just ten years
ago. Having a p hone number of
someone to call for instance is now
a reality and tools like FaceTime or
Skype can instantly show a problem
to the other side. What wouldn't I
have given for something like these
ten years ago!
Risk management of the unknown
then becomes mitigated by the application of learning and experience. Disease management is easier
to implement with quarantining
procedures and a closed farm approach with your own on site
hatchery. Equipment failure is not
quite as easy but it is not hard to
ensure a robust reliable system with
good design and redundancy to
overcome these.
I repeat. If you cut corners your
farm will fail. No ifs or buts about
it. Please rather send me the money
to spend on a nice holiday to a
tropical island with expensive drinks