Aquaculture on the family farm

Brimin Lodge Murray Cod

Rutherglen, North East Victoria

Simon and Philippa Noble

Victorian Aquaculture• Currently output of about $25 m/year• $9m for trout• $6m for farmed abalone• $2.5m for ornamentals• $1.8m for mussels• $1m for eels• $1.6m for farmed finfish• $0.01 for yabbies

Current Farm Enterprise

• 600 Prime lamb producing ewes• 2 holiday cabins on the river• 10 hectares of Agroforestry• Murray Cod grow-out – started in 1993

Vision

“To develop the commercialization of true multiple water use on the property by using

the irrigation water from our bore for commercial aquaculture production prior to

application for timber and prime lamb production.

Resources• Human

o Training:Philippa- Bachelor of Agricultural science - Post Graduate Diploma of Aquaculture -Cert 111 in Aquaculture- BreedingSimon- Bachelor of Agricultural Economics -Cert 111 in Aquaculture- Breeding -Cert 111 in Animal Nutrition

o Stockmanship:Philippa and Simon, each over 30 years handling and

husbandry of livestock.o Determination

Resources

• Physical– 167 Hectares property with 4 km river frontage– Water Supply:

» Bore- 60mg license» River- 125mg license

– Water reuse:» 30 Hectares of pasture irrigation» 10 Hectares of Agroforestry

• Tanks: – Black Plastic- 25x1200lt

- 22 x 5000lt

• Water:• Bore Water- Passes through heat exchanger and into meg

250,000 litre tanks for storage• Fish tanks Recycle exchange once per day• Temp 19-210C

• Heating:» Large capacity wood fired boiler» Thinning from Agroforestry

• Effluent:» Piped to Agroforestry» Recycle drain to irrigation dam

• Stocking:» Currently purchases 20,000 fingerlings/year in

Feb/March» Working on breeding our own from genetically

selected stock.

Agroforestry

• 10 hectares with some now 12 years old and pruned to 12 meters

• Planted at 1000 trees per hectare then thinned to 300 trees with the thinnings being used in the boiler and poles

Wood Boiler

Products

• Fillets:» 2x200 grams from 700gm fish » 1 x 200 gm fillet from 350 gm fish

Processing

• Killing, Gutting and Filleting:» Carried out in our own facility

Marketing

• Overriding Policy:»Offer the market what it wants “Quality and convenience”» Sales of whole fish and fillets to local

restaurants» Concentration on printed menus» Consistent price year round to compete with

Atlantic Salmon

Output

Slowly increasing from 5 tons/year to

10 tons/ year as numbers increase.

Maintain a price of around $18 - $22/kg

Challenges

• Maintaining 7 days/week commitment year after year

• Maintaining water quality in a cost effective way.