BASIC TERMS USED IN FISH FARMING

Many of us in the process of making some researches always come across some terminologies being used in fishery, but here are some basic terms being used, it will definitely make it easier to understand your researches.

Aquaculture - also known as aquafarming, it is the controlled growth of aquatic species.

Pisciculture - aquaculture practice involving finned fish.

Extensive aquaculture - managed aquaculture dependent on the local natural setting, such as a pond or coastal sea area.

Intensive aquaculture - managed aquaculture controlled through human engineered means, such as managing water quality and sources of food.

Fish farm - locations used to grow populations of aquatic organisms, primarily fish.

Fish Hatchery - one form of a fish farm, managed with the intent of resupplying native wild populations in natural environments.

Ornamental fish - are small fish, such as koi, which are typically grown to be kept in aquariums or small landscape ponds.

Game fish - Fish, such as trout, raised to become replenishment stock for natural sport fisheries.

Wild fishing harvest - the commercial and personal fishing consumption in a specific area and over a specific time frame.

Fish farming Water Quality - the characteristics of water, such as water temperature and contamination, which define its ability to sustain life and its purity from chemicals.

Culture tanks - Artificial holding areas used to rear fish farm stocks.

Fish husbandry - the breeding and rearing of fish for a variety of reasons.

Anadromous fish - migratory fish that live in salt water but breed in fresh water.

Catadromous fish - migratory fish that live in fresh water but breed in salt water.

Amphidromous fish - migratory fish that live in both fresh and salt water, independent of breeding.

Potamodromous fish - migratory fish that move within fresh water only.

Oceanodromous fish - migratory fish that move within salt water only.

Genotyping - determining the genetic makeup of a fish or stock or the purpose of managing the efficiency of aquaculture production.

In vitro fertilization - artificially fertilizing fish eggs in a laboratory setting.

Fish meal - commercially processed food source used in fish farming as a source of protein for the fish stock.

Fry - Development stage of fish immediately after the larvae stage, at an age of less than a week.

Fingerling - Development stage of fish following the fry stage and continuing into the first three to four months of life.

Yearling - Development stage of fish following the fingerling stage and lasting until approximately one year of age. Brood stock - fish of any particular species which are raised for reproduction purposes.

Fish kill - a description of the number of fish stock to die in a specific amount of time. Pond acreage - area committed to extensive aquaculture holdings at a fish farm or company.

Environmental Overfishing - detrimental practice of removing more of a natural aquatic species than what natural reproduction can support.

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POULTRY MEDICATION

Antibiotics
for now i am still a lay-man when it comes to poultry medication and have no qualifications in this field yet so this information should, naturally be taken as a 'view' and part of your overall research into what is best for your poultry.

A ntibiotics are a fairly common treatment given to poultry on prescription to treat a variety of infections. Baytril or Tylan are often given to chickens with respiratory problems for example (and seem to work well for this complaint) but what is the risk is to our health when we are using antibiotics in animals that are producing food for human consumption?

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POULTRY SANITATION [cleaning and disinfecting]

Poultry-sanitation

After so many questions being asked on how our poultry can be sanitized [cleaned and disinfected] so I decided to be of help, the ravage of diseases has been a very big problem affecting poultry farms and these diseases are caused by some micro-organisms[bacteria, fungi, virus].
Not all micro-organisms are harmful, some are harmless[free-living], but the best way to eradicate diseases in your poultry is to treat all of them like they are severe and dangerous.
These disease, even though tough but can still be prevented, and this can be done by sanitation i.e cleaning and disinfecting.

CLEANING

Cleaning is to be done before disinfecting inorder to get the best out of the disinfectants and when I said cleaning I meant thorough cleaning, make sure you remove as much organic matter as practicable from surfaces to be disinfected. All debris including down, egg shells, droppings, tissue residues, etc. must be removed from the hatchery. This is followed by thorough cleaning using warm water and appropriate cleaning aides. Care is focused on selecting the proper detergent and thus producing the cleanest hatchery environment possible. Special attention is placed on compensating for variations in hardness, salinity and pH of the cleaning water. A thorough rinsing with abundant quantities of clean sanitized water completes the cleaning process and removes most lingering residues of detergents and organic matter or microbial organisms that can interfere with the effectiveness of a disinfectant.

DISINFECTING

After getting rid of the visible organic matter by cleaning, we would ask ourselves "how can the unseen{microorganisms} be gotten rid of??". That's where the disinfectant solution comes in, it is used to kill microorganism, there are different types of disinfectants and not all disinfectants are suitable for every situation.
Only after the facilities have been thoroughly cleaned are the surfaces treated with an appropriate disinfectant solution.
When selecting a disinfectant carefully consider:

The type of surface being treated

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The cleanliness of the surface

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The type of organism being treated

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The durability of the equipment/surface material

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Time limitations on treatment duration

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residual activity requirements

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Disinfectants can be divided into seven categories;

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INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT FARM ANIMALS

PIG

Pigs, are very intelligent animals. They recognise and respond to their names by the time they are 2-3 weeks old

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Pigs are very clean and keep their toilet area far away from their main living and eating area

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HORSE

Early ancestors to the horse such as hyracatherium who lived 50 million years ago, were as small as cats

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A horses' height is measured in hands, each hand equals four inches

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A 1,200-pound horse eats about 7 times its own weight each year

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SHEEP

There are about one billion sheep on the planet New zealand has 10 times as many sheeps as humans.
When woodraw wilson was president of the USA, he kept sheeps on the white house lawn

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COW

Every cow has a unique pattern of spots

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Cows provide 90% of the world's milk, the best milkers can provide 400 glasses of milk a day

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Cows graze for about 8 hours a day

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CHICKEN

Hens lay an average of 300 eggs a year

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The chicken is the closest living relative of tyrannosaurus rex

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Hens lay larger eggs as they get older

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FISH FARMING

AQUACULTURE Fish farming is the principal form of aquaculture, while other methods may fall under mariculture. Fish farming involves raising fish commercially in tanks or enclosures, usually for food. A facility that releases juvenile fish into the wild for recreational fishing or to supplement a species' natural numbers is generally referred to as a fish hatchery. Worldwide, the most important fish species used in fish farming are carp, salmon, tilapia and catfish.
There is an increasing demand for fish and fish protein, which has resulted in widespread overfishing in wild fisheries. Fish farming offers fish marketers another source. However, farming carnivorous fish, such as salmon, does not always reduce pressure on wild fisheries, since carnivorous farmed fish are usually fed fishmeal and fish oil extracted from wild forage fish.
Major categories of fish aquaculture
There are two kinds of aquaculture: extensive aquaculture based on local photosynthetical production and intensive aquaculture, in which the fish are fed with external food supply. Extensive aquaculture

Limiting for growth here is the available food supply by natural sources, commonly zooplankton feeding on pelagic algae or benthic animals, such as crustaceans and mollusks. Tilapia species filter feed directly on phytoplankton, which makes higher production possible. The photosynthetic production can be increased by fertilizing the pond water with artificial fertilizer mixtures, such as potash, phosphorus, nitrogen and micro-elements.
Because most fish are carnivorous, they occupy a higher place in the trophic chain and therefore only a tiny fraction of primary photosynthetic production (typically 1%) will be converted into harvest-able fish.

Another issue is the risk of algal blooms.

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HOW TO START A POULTRY FARM

Poultry farming
poultry at your backyard
poultry on a largescale(intensive farming)

firstly, you have to know what aspect you want to be based on. Is it????

Egg production

Meat production

Poultry feed production

Chicken breeding

Secondly, you have to know the type of bird you want to breed.

Chicken

Turkey

Goose

Duck

Peacock

But I would be writing on chicken breeding for meat, there is hardly any person that doesn't eat meat.

thirdly, now you would look at how much you want to start with (capital)
Poultry farming is capital intensive depending on the scale, but if its a poultry behind your house(small scale), it would require littile capital (ranging from N5000 - N15000) depending on the size, but if its a large scale poultry depending on how large, it would require N100,000 - and above. The scale is directly proportional to the capital.

fourthly, look for a good location, because its vital to the success and profit of the farm. Locate your farm where there is large availability of cheap land and if its your backyard its still good, at the same time it shouldn't be situated in a residential area because the poultry produces odour which can be very offensive.

furthermore, how to house your birds is another challenge but there are three types of housing methods employed in respect to housing your bird.

extensive system - free range

semi-intensive

intensive system - deep litter, battery cage, wire and slated floor

if you are running a small scale poultry and you are using your backyard, adopt the method of building a cage (intensive system) and start breeding your birds, but if its in large scale, you should adopt the intensive system, I think I prefer the deep litter system but you know its your farm, your choices count. NOTE each type of housing has its own advantages and disadvantages. Now your poultry house should be built.

the following equipment may be needed on your poultry farm.

feeders

drinkers

lighting system

waste disposal system

heaters and brooders

cages and coops

nests

crates

egg tray

incubator

but for people small scale you may only need the first five.
Now you all what you need to start your farm, let's put it all together, when you have your building erected, go and search for place to get healthy day old chicks put them in a very. Warm place that has been thoroughly disinfected to prevent them from diseases, make sure no cold breeze comes in because of their body temperature you can put even put source of heat like lantern or bulb, then u'ld feed them with chick starters feed and give them a lot of water with appropriate vitamins and antibiotics (see your vet) continue till about 6 weeks with constant supervision,when they are strong enough you can now bring them out to the place you have built for them and feed them morning and evening. You can start selling off your birds when they reach full maturity between 20 – 24 weeks. The payback period of a poultry farming business is between 3 – 5 years.

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HOW TO START A PIG FARM

Pig farming Pigs on the farm A sow and her piglets
Pigs can be farmed as free range, being allowed to wander around a village, kept in fields, or tethered in a simple shelter. In developed countries, farming has moved away from traditional pig farming and pigs are now typically intensively farmed.
Today, pig farms are much larger than in the past, with most large-scale farms housing 5,000 or more pigs in climate-controlled buildings. With 100 million pigs slaughtered each year, these efficiencies deliver affordable meat for consumers and larger profits for producers.
Individual farm management focuses on housing facilities, feeding and ventilation systems, temperature and environmental controls and the economic viability of their operations. Just as producers have to determine profit margins and types of facilities and equipment for their farm, they must also find the practices that best fit their specific situation. Some procedures and treatments are known to stress the animals and producers should consider the animals' welfare, health and management in correspondence with accepted husbandry skills.

how to start a pig farm

The first thing you have to do is get a suitable place for your pigs' pen, it has to be spacious and well ventilated because pigs don't have sweat glands so they need the ventilation to keep them cool, pigs needs space so they can move around but not too much so their muscle tissue won't develop too much, therefore making their meat tough.
A good pen should be 10 by 10 feet of moving space and 5 by 5 feet of eating space. Pigs produce foul smell so try and locate your pen in an isolated area.

Secondly, check the internet or your neighbourhood for places and people that sell piglets, buy healthy piglets ranging from the age of four weeks and eight weeks old.

Thirdly, you must also provide a strong and seperate food and water trough, if possible let it be a galvanized iron so its easy to clean.
Now you have to get a good source of NUTRITION, you must have a regular source of food for your pigs. This is kind of easy because pigs eat anything that is edible, but make sure you boil any scrap food you give them to prevent them from bacteria and diseases. Mix their feed with something full of nutrients like vitamins and minerals. You can go the natural way and give them lots of fruits and vegetables. Some prefer commercial supplements.

Water is essential in keeping your pigs healthy, pigs need water to stay hydrated especially since they don't sweat, so provide a source of water where they can wash themselves or even stay in it to keep themselves cool, you can change the water regularly if necessary.

Pig manure is one of the problems if you’re keeping pigs for meat or breeding. Aside from the annoying smell, you need to manually clean their pens to get rid of the manure. More often than not, their drinking water will have some waste in them too. However, this can be a welcome annoyance. Find someone who is willing to buy pig manure from you. This is valuable in crop farming as they are excellent fertilizers. You can earn a little extra from something a bit disgusting.

Another important thing to know on how to start pig farming to generate money is determine the possible market. For huge pig farms, there won’t be much of a problem. Usually, large companies will be the one to approach you to see if your pigs are of high quality so they can start purchasing from you. You should be wary of the competition, though. With the high demand for quality pork, more and more people are entering the industry. You will still need to advertise and approach the companies if necessary. For small-time pig farmers, your market will circle around your neighbourhood or community. In any case, you must be aware of the standard selling price of pork cuts or whole pigs to avoid unscrupulous people.

The biggest secrets on how to start a pig farm is to have the determination to succeed and to have ample knowledge on the subject. And knowledge? you already have, so go out there and make some money for yourself.

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