LMB were year 1, or shooters from that year, but I'm leaning towards year 1.
Well if that is the case it provides at least one anecdote that an LMB can lose its first year and still take off when the conditions are favorable. Sometimes I think we worry to much about the how the start affects the finish. An LMB lives a long time, they are designed to handle changing fortunes and will exploit favorable conditions when they prevail.
The BG couldn't eat the FHM because they were too small to eat them.
Well they weren't to small to eat any. I have caught more than few 2" BG on 3/4 inch Gam and the FHM YOY could definitely supplement the diet of a 2" BG. Every one a BG eats is one that will not continue to grow and feed an LMB. But for sure a >4" BG would eat a lot more of them than 2 inchers. How big did the BG get by September?
Alabama is different but the Swingle's recipe of LMB-BG-FHM very similar to the one you described where the difference was the GSH. Looking back at Swingle's results where FHM added 179 lbs of production over just LMB-BG in the same combination (54 LMB to 1530 BG) ... what portion of that gain might be given to LMB production and BG production severally? If we try to give all the gain to the LMB ... even if the LMB with only BG didn't grow a wit ... the LMB would have gained 3.31 lbs each. That doesn't seem likely but still I don't know how much the LMB weighed. If I were forced to guess, I would guess they averaged over a pound but less than 2. It would be interesting to understand how reducing the stocking rate of BG would have affected the LMB growth. Particularly if more rapid growth of the BG might help a lower number of BG compete for the diminishing FHM resource.
