Day by day the demand of shrimps is increasing in the global market. These shrimps generally live in sea water but you can do arrangement to raise them in your farm.
Till the date, most of the people are unaware that they can do shrimp farming in their own farms.
By reading the following, you will get an overview of shrimp farming in one acre land and will understand the investment and profit terms in USA.
Shrimp(prawns) farming in the Alabama(USA)
People don't have shrimp farms everywhere in USA. Texas is the main place where most of the people practice shrimp farming.
Today, you will understand how can a person start shrimp farm in Alabama, USA.
Let's start with the requirements, investment, and profit per acre land.
Requirements for Shrimp farming in Alabama(USA)
If you reserve an acre of land area for your shrimp farming, then the best way is to make ponds in divided sections. It helps to clean and manage the ponds. If your shrimps get infections then this division of ponds helps to reduce infection just in a pond.
In one acre of land, you can make 7 to 8 maximum ponds of 500 square meters area each. These ponds should be 1.8 to 2 meters deep. Each pond can have 25x20 square meters(more or less) in measurement.
After measurement, you need to dig it with the help of digging machines and shape them square later even with manpower.
- Plastic sheet requirement
The next requirement is the plastic sheet to make the pond waterproof and to fill in the water. 25x30 square meter sheet is enough to cover the pond. This plastic sheet must be thickness between 0.4mm to 0.7 mm.
You need manpower to fix it in the pond. Avoid the cuts in the sheet otherwise, it will increase unwanted troubles for you.
After filling the salted water in the pond, you need to check its TDS and pH. The pH of salted water must be between 7.7 to 9. The TDS of this salted water should be between 120 to 200.
You have to buy both pH and TDS meters from the market. Digital meters show the best results.
You need an aerator in each water pond regularly. Aerator activation in a water tank increases the process of mixing oxygen with water. It also helps to sideline the waste floating in the tanks. For each tank, you need a powerful aerator. You can use small ones too but in that case, you need to add them in number in each pond.
One other major impact of the aerator is that it motivates the shrimps to do activities in water that helps shrimp to grow faster.
In the absence of huge seawater, you can't raise shrimps in a small culture because it has a limited amount of oxygen. So you need oxygen pumping electric system to provide the oxygen. It also reduces the impurities in pond water.
The packed market feed is enough in quality but you have to notice the consumption by shrimps. The best way to know the feed concentration in your ponds is to check it already in a small water tank first.
For that, you need to make a small model of the water tank. So take the smallest shrimps in the same pH and TDS water tank(use oxygen system in the tank).
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Now after two or three days, sprinkle that market shrimp feed in the tank. The shrimps will not consume feed in starting until they get used to the tank culture water. After a few days, they will regularly consume the feed and show their activity. This is the best time to calculate the feed. Apply this on each pond according to the number of shrimps.
Try every shrimp in your demo tank and after becoming familiar with the conditions, leave them in the big ponds.
For the oxygen pumping system and aerator system, you need a proper electricity connection. This connection must not be direct with the source line. Its control must be secure in every circumstance.
It is better to make the connection underground that will save the wires from heat and rain. The connection line must have a controller to match the power of both the oxygen pumping system and the aerator system.
You need a water pipeline to fill and change the water regularly. You can take a direct connection with the local government source.
This water pipeline can be either underground or overground. You must have to add a controller before joining it with the source.
The 500 liters drums are required to make smaller models of shrimp pond culture. These drums/tanks will help you to check the feed of shrimps. You can't fill them with ordinary water.
One more advantage of small tanks is you can leave the small shrimps to become familiar with your conditions and you can check their growth easily and regularly.
Investment in Shrimp farming pond in the Alabama(USA)
Here, we are dividing investment into two sections, one time and per cycle investment. Considering you already have a land. So here, we will not include the land cost.
One-time investment(for 1 pond of 500 square meters)
- Pond digging cost- 150 USD
- Plastic sheet requirement cost- 2000 USD
- Aerator system cost- 1350 USD
- Oxygen pumping system cost- 1350 USD
- Electricity connection cost- 1050 USD
- Water pipeline cost- 650 USD
- Water drums- 250 USD
Total cost of one time investment- 6800 USD
Per Cycle investment(for 1 pond of 500 square meters)
- Feed cost- 2550 USD
- Salted water cost- 100 USD
- Shrimp seeds cost- 300 USD
- Maintenance work cost- 300 USD
- Electricity bill- 900 USD
Total investment till the end of the first culture per acre
You have to include a one-time investment cost with the first shrimp culture cost. It means it will increase your investment by very high arranging and getting the first shrimp yield.
So till the first culture, you have to invest 6800(one time investment)+ 4150x5(20750 USD first cycle investment)= 27550 USD from your pocket.
Total investment of second shrimp culture per acre
This will include per cycle investment only. With this cost, you may or may not need maintenance work for that you have to invest some money too.
So in the second shrimp cycle, you have to invesT 4200 USD per pond. It means you have to invest 21000 USD per acre.
Total investment of third shrimp culture per acre
The third shrimp culture will follow the second culture cost. Similarly, it will cost you around 4300 USD in the third shrimp culture for each pond.
It means it will cost you 21500 USD per acre in third cycle.
Total investment of fourth shrimp culture per acre
Following the third investment in shrimp culture, you have to invest the same amount as the third cycle. In the fourth cycle, you just have to service your aerator and maintenance of pond culture. In the fourth shrimp cycle, you have to invest, 4300 USD from your side for each pond.
Similarly, it will cost you 21500 USD per acre in fourth cycle.
Profit margin in Shrimp farming in the Alabama(USA)
- Total investment till the first cycle- 27550 USD
- Total weight of shrimp yield per acre- 3500 kg/acre/cycle
- The market price of one kg of shrimp- 10 USD
- The total market price of pond culture shrimp- 35,000 USD
- Transportation cost of shrimp- 2000 USD
Margin on each cycle per acre
- The profit margin on the first cycle- 5450 USD/cycle/acre
- The profit margin on the second cycle- 12,000 USD/cycle/acre
- The profit margin on the third cycle- 11,500 USD/cycle/acre
- The profit margin on the fourth cycle- 11,500 USD/cycle/acre
Is Shrimp farming profitable in the Alabama(USA)?
Yes. It is. Let's understand this. Each year, you can do a maximum of 2 shrimp culture cycles. If you only have a small pond then you can't earn enough profit.
Each year, you can get 20,000 to 25,000 USD maximum from per acre shrimp ponds.
If you want to earn millions then you need to have at least 40 acres of land to earn so. But still, in comparison to other food crops, shrimp farming is a better business.