Alabama Fish Farming Center: A blessing in the Black Belt
By Lindsay Wood Email
Barry Bates starts his day at 5 a.m. every day to feed his fish. Not the average gold fish or even a feisty beta fish, but his catfish that dwell in 157 acres of murky brown pond water.
Bates has created success from his six catfish ponds and four new sport fish ponds just outside of Greensboro, Ala. He hopes for an early retirement.
“I get to be my own boss,” said Bates. “It’s a lot of headaches, but I like to travel and meet people.” Bates has a diverse farm consisting not only of fish, but trees, cattle and hunting land that he wants to develop into a guided hunting area.
This is West Alabama. Miles of green space span the countryside near Greensboro. Catfish ponds, country homes and pastures for cattle or horses dot the landscape.
Gregory Whitis, an extension aquaculturist for the Alabama Fish Farming Center, and Bill Hemstreet, a fish health specialist for the center, bring their knowledge of fish farming to local farmers. The team helps farmers get their feet planted to develop a profitable fish farm. With 260 fish farmers in the Greensboro area, the Alabama Fish Farming Center staff stays busy.
“Most of the farmers would not have been as successful without the farming center in the early years,” said Bates, who got into the business because he wanted an outdoor career.
Fish and water samples can be brought to the center to test for disease or other problems farmers encounter from their ponds. All of the farming center’s services are free. In case of emergencies, local farmers donated a bus that is now used to transport the Alabama Fish Farming Center team to local ponds. The bus, which is blue and orange, looks like an ambulance. The steel equipment peeks over the windows glaring in the sunlight as if waiting for its next call to duty.
With all of these duties, it is hard to imagine that the center staff has any time for local farmers, but helping sustain the farmer’s livelihood is the number one goal. Whitis frequently visits the town hang-out spots to visit with the farmers.
“He is one of my best friends and does all he can do to help farmers and sustainable agriculture,” said Bates of Whitis. “The extension has become a support net and was really pivotal in the success of fish farming in West Alabama. It is a great service that the university provides.”
Alabama Fish Farming Center
Catfish farming has become a way of life for many in Greensboro. Alabama’s Cooperative Extension System recognized this and paved the way for the Alabama Fish Farming Center. According to the Alabama Catfish Producers, Alabama is the second leading catfish producer in the United States and home to the one of the largest catfish processing plants, Southern Pride located in Greensboro.
According to Whitis, one out of four people in Greensboro, the catfish capital of Alabama, has a job relating to catfish. Mitt Walker, director of the Alabama Catfish Producers, said that in 2006 farms supported more than 2,700 jobs tied to the industry in fish harvest, processing and feed manufacturing.
Unexpectedly, catfish farming has brought Greensboro a pulse in an economically depressed area known as the Black Belt.
“In fact, the farm gate value of catfish, not accounting for feed mills or processing, had an economic impact in excess of $228 million on the state in 2005,” said Walker.
After a lack of funding caused the farming center to be cut from state benefits, Auburn University took the center under its wing as part of AU Outreach.
The farming center is working together with the university to spawn a new catfish hybrid that will revolutionize aquaculture. The center primarily works with channel catfish, but crossing the channels with blue catfish results in a stronger, faster growing super fish.
The Alabama Fish Farming Center also raises marine life, like flounder, and is experimenting with growing tilapia since a decrease in catfish sales due to Chinese imports has caused much of the American catfish producers to suffer in recent years. According to a recent USDA report, catfish farming was down by 21 percent from March 2006. This drop is due to imported catfish.
Catfish processing plants such as South Fresh in Newbern, Ala., seek help from time to time from the Alabama Fish Farming Center as well. Whitis disperses the latest research information to the company, which helps to create a better consumer product.
David Phillips, chief financial officer of South Fresh, says that in conjunction with the help of organizations like the farming center they can create a “good tasting, very environmentally safe product.”
The Alabama Fish Farming Center grows and brings their own 100,000 pound crops of catfish to a local processor where the fish are freshly packed for local consumers for about $5 to $15 a box.
The plain,, red brick building is not suspect, with no huge signs indicating “here lay dead catfish,” and there are no pungent fishy odors. Only an inkling of what goes on inside is visible: a conveyor belt that loads fish through a 110 volt shock machine.
After the shock is delivered, the fish are shipped along to a taster. The taster sits quietly in his office waiting to microwave and sample a piece of catfish filet from each new batch to test flavor quality. Microwave fish do not seem all that appealing, but still no odor. The plant is whistle clean and smells like Clorox bleach.
The workers float around like busy ghosts in their all white uniforms packing fish. This is a stark contrast to the workers at the ponds who suit up in waders to sift through dead fish in an effort to load the frenzied live fish into a giant sock crane.
Bringing home the filets
After a long day in the beating hot sun of West Alabama, farmers have created a market for themselves. The Alabama Fish Farming Center has been in Greensboro since 1982 to witness the change in the area.
It is stories like of farmers like Bates that keep the Alabama Fish Farming Center alive and well. Working with the center has shed new light on catfish farming for the 260 area farmers and those affiliated with fish production. Whitis hopes to bring more and more fish farmers to the Black Belt area to sustain the flow of money from Greensboro’s ponds.
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Last updated May 03, 2007