Fish farming in America is a landscape littered with broken dreams. Of course, there are some success stories, such as the trout and catfish industries, although production from the latter is in a downward spiral. Expensive land, high labor and energy costs and, above all, lower cost imports have made American aquaculture a challenging business.

Still, there are farmers who remain committed to finding a way to make fish farming a viable, sustainable business, albeit often on a relatively small scale. Durkee McMaster and Tark Rush are two such farmers who are carving out a successful niche in the parched Hyder Valley of Arizona.

Their fish farm originally was a cotton farm in the 1980s, but when salt water began seeping into the aquifer, that was the end of cotton farming. The land changed hands and the new owner elected to try inland shrimp farming seeing the partial salt water as a benefit in shrimp production. That lasted for a while, but the rising tide of farmed shrimp from Latin America and Asia eventually doomed that endeavor. Tad Smyth, who inherited the land from his father, turned it into a tilapia farm with the hope of selling it. When he found no takers, though, he turned it over to Rush about eight years ago to see if they could make a go of it.
        
Desert Springs Tilapia grows tilapia on 12 acres of lined ponds. Production this year should be just over a million pounds. But it hasn't been a steady growth curve. "We've had to learn an astronomical amount of stuff," says McMaster. They tried a new feeding regimen, for example, but it took them six months to figure out it didn't work. Another time, one of their employees mistakenly shipped out their hatchery's broodstock to fill a live order. "That turned out to be a much bigger deal than I originally thought."
        
One reason Desert Springs works is because the "dirty" water from the fish can be used to grow Bermuda grass, alfalfa, wheat, barley, and rye, which brings in added revenue. McMaster says about 75 percent of the tilapia are sold fresh whole and about 25 percent live. He has had inquiries about fillets, but the orders are too large and would require a significant investment in a processing plant. He says it takes about nine months to grow a two-pound fish.

 

McMasters and Rush have also jumped into hybrid striped bass with two acres of raceways about 50 miles from their tilapia farm. They have stocked 268,000 fingerlings, which could yield a harvest of more than half a million pounds.  “We have the potential to be a player in that market too, but we’re still on a learning curve.”

 

Click here to view Desert Springs Tilapia products, and remember to tell them you found them on FishChoice.