Production of redclaw crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus) decreased marginally from 104.9 tonnes in 2005–06 to 100.2 tonnes in 2006–07.
Over the same period a strong increase in the average price resulted in the total value of the industry increasing by 5% from $1.30 million $1.45 million.
In addition to food sales, there was a small quantity of juveniles sold to aquaculture farms and some stock was sold to the aquarium trade (now reported under Section 8.3.3 of this report).
From the 204 returns mailed (211 in 2005–06) there were 186 responses (187 in 2005–06). Forty six farms produced redclaw crayfish in 2006–07, compared with 59 farms in the previous year (Table 10).
Growout:
The number of farms that produced more than one tonne increased from 15 in 2005–06 to 17 in 2006–07. These 17 farms produced 91% of the state’s production with the top 6 farms producing 71% of the total production. There were 140 farms that reported no production at all for 2006–07 (compared with 128 farms in 2005–06).
In 2006–07 the average price obtained for redclaw crayfish was $14.45. This was a 16% increase on the $12.43 achieved in 2005–06. The average price reported ranged from $11.27/kg to $19.16/kg/, although most sold in the $13/kg to $16/kg range.
The total available ponded area on farms decreased from 125 hectares in 2005–06 to 100 hectares in 2006–07. There were 684 ponds stocked with redclaw in 2006–07, totalling 83 hectares; however, only 555 ponds (60 hectares) were harvested. The average pond size has remained at 0.012 hectares.
Average farm productivity (calculated from harvested growout area) was 1670 kg/ha, which was a slight increase on the 1495 kg/ha achieved in 2005–06. The average yield for the 25 farms producing over 500 kg was 1900 kg/ha. For the 17 farms producing over 1000 kg the average was 1990 kg/ha and for the 6 farms producing over 5000 kg the average productivity was 2250 kg/ha.
Average yields for the 17 farms producing over 1000 kg ranged from 670 kg/ha to 4170 kg/ha with 8 of these farms producing over 2000 kg/ha. Total feed purchased was 227 tonnes in 2006–07 (compared with 257 tonnes purchased in 2005–06).
The estimated average feed conversion ratio
improved slightly from 2.5:1 in 2005–06 to 2.3:1 in 2006–07.
In 2006–07 the majority of product (88%) was sold on the domestic market. This was similar to the previous year when 86% of product was sold domestically.
Tank-based production:
No tank-based production was reported in 2006–07:
Juvenile production
The reported juvenile production decreased from 6.5 million in 2005–06 to 3.4 million in 2006–07. Sales decreased from 83 000 ($18 000) in 2005–06 to just 5000 ($850) in 2006–07. Over the same period the average price payed for juveniles decreased from $0.22 to $0.17.
The reported number of juveniles stocked decreased from 5.0 million (46 farms) in 2005–06 to 4.2 million (30 farms) in 2006–07. The average stocking rate of juveniles into growout ponds decreased from 6.2/m2 to 5.3/m2.
Labour:
Total permanent labour employed increased from 37 units in 2005–06 to 38 units in 2006–07. The total hours of casual labour used on farms also increased from 1120 hours to 2168 hours.
In terms of labour effciency the number of permanent labour units used to produce one tonne of crayfish has increased from 0.3 units in 2005–06 to 0.4 units in 2006–07. The n
umber of casual hours has doubled from 11 hours per tonne in 2005–06 to 22 hours per tonne in 2006–07 When the permanent and casual labour inputs were combined, the sector employ 39 FTE labour units (compared with 47 FTE labour units the previous year). The product output per labour unit increased from 2200 kilograms ($27 500) to 2570 kilograms ($37 200) in 2006–07.
Information Sourced From:
