I have ordered a bag of Melick Aquafeed from right here in PA, 42/16 in 7.5 mm size, cost was 28.50 for the feed, $28 to ship plus sales tax, gotta be close to $60 for 50 lb to my door. I have 200 lbs of grower 600 on back order. My local co op has very poor service anyway and I am seeking alternatives at this point. Anyone ever use Melick?
I have great respect for the Melick feed, and have literally used tons of it. However, to do so, we usually ordered a minimum of a "pup trailer" load - which is a 28-foot semi-trailer load. If there were other orders in our area, we would sometimes get one-third to one-half of a 48-foot or 53-foot trailer load. All was in 50 lb. bags on pallets. That was all we could reasonably store.
These feeds were always very high quality, and we were able to achieve incredible conversion rates with various sinking feeds for trout in large spring-fed concrete raceways.
We had very similar results with another company out of PA -- Zeigler Brothers, Inc. There too, we were buying full 28-foot pup trailers, or half of 48 to 53 foot trailer loads.
I broke down yesterday and got two bags of Cargill Sportsman's Choice TropyFish feed from Tractor Supply. It felt kind of like substituting tofu and Portobello mushrooms for a holiday cookout of Japanese Kobi beef.
But, that is what I had to choose from. Our two local Purina suppliers are far less than helpful for the small amount of food we individually buy. To me, it is a chicken and egg issue. I don't want to wait 2-4 weeks for a delivery that may or may not arrive. They don't want to stock something I won't pick up because it takes so damn long to get it into a store 30 miles away.
Based on the specs and ingredient list, what I bought yesterday seems similar, but a little inferior to the generic fish food I get at our local farm co-op for about 1/2 the Cargill price. Both show crude protein at a minimum of 36%. The Cargill crude fat is listed at a minimum of 4%, vs., the 6% for the generic. The Cargill crude fiber is listed at a maximum of 7% vs. 5.5% for the generic.
These are not at protein/ingredient levels I want. The products show animal protein either first (generic) or fourth (Cargill). The rest is grain and chemicals in both. I have no idea what "animal protein" might be. But there are many millions of chickens within a 25 mile radius of my place. About 200,000 to 250,000 usually reside less than a mile downstream from my place. They go to a processing plant about 30-40 miles away. Each day, many tractor trailer loads of feathers go off for processing from the main plant. It is just my guess that chicken feathers are a major part of the "animal protein."
I'm thinking we may now be a big enough US-lower-48 group, with clout and enough storage capacity, to start our own co-op to serve what I perceive as a rather large private water owners group in the lower 48.
I've got about a 2000 square foot climate-controllable
unused building on our farm, with its own 200 amp power service, telephone/DSL, water well, concrete floor, and well insulated walls. I'm about a mile off US Route 50, 15 miles from I-81 which is the major north-south transit route for drugs, moonshine, illegal cigarettes, and many legal shipments between the northeast and the gulf coast. I'm pretty close to where the west end of I-66 connects to I-81. I-66 connects I-81 to Washington DC and I-95, the other major east coast north-south transportation route from Florida to Maine.
I really don't want to go back into business or go back to a job. I'm loving retirement. But, maybe several of us could think about starting a non-profit regional delivery co-op, for various hard-to-get aquaculture supplies, to satisfy the market for high quality private waters products. Many of the wealthiest of the wealthiest in the world own farms within 50 miles east of me. They own huge farms, with trophy horses, the best of the best cattle, and many have multiple ponds they like to use for relaxation.
This may be something that shouldn't be on the PB forum -- at least not right now. I'm looking at this as a neutral production, where it is neither a money-making nor a money-losing venture. However, I see it as something that can help us all.
Send me a PM with your ideas. Maybe as a group we can do something to make our water/fish management more scientific and less stressful for all of us.
Just my feeble thoughts.
Ken
