It is a well a known fact that aquaculture is one of the most promising and developing fields among the animals-growing industries on one hand, while it is one of the most under-developed industries on the other hand.
Up to my point of view, there are several reasons for that:
- In many places, Fish farming is still acting as a back-yard family business, aiming to grow a very small amounts of fish
- Fish-farmers tend to be afraid of technology
- Fish farmers and stakeholders do not yet aware of the huge advantages of using modern tools in the ponds, tanks, and cages
- Fish farmers and stakeholders do not yet aware enough of the advantages of supporting technology for the fish performances
- Water is a problematic medium for operating for many reasons, which makes technological sollutions sometimes too expensive at purchasing and it might be hard to see advantages in short-term
- The quantification might be hard, it might take more than one growing cycle to understand the profit, the advantage, and the value-for-money of that investment
There are probably more reasons, but I think I made my point here.
I would like to share my experience and try to demonstrate 2 case-studies that will shine a little-bit light here, and might help to make a smart decision in the future.
The using of mobile application to register data into a management software
Usually, one of the barriers for fish farm operators and fish farm managers is how to register data from the field, and how to make the team more involved in the production.
You probably ask how those 2 issues connected each other… well, I believe that once a team member have registered data, and he is aware of the huge importance of accuracy and reliability of the data, he will be more involve in the day-to-day life of the farm (and I have already proved it to myself in the past).
The traditional way of registration involves with papers and notebooks, which unfortunately tend to get lost or to get wet, whether it causes by the water from the pond, or from the rain. This causes, at the end of the day, for wrong registration into the system. The technicians on the field might lose the paper, because of many reasons as mentioned above, and the result is either using memory (which is never as good as writing), or a total erasing of the numbers or activities due to lack of information.
Today, when our world is in a huge progress, we can find smart phones in almost every lo
cation, with a relatively good connectivity, and we can use it for our benefits. AquaManager, for example, has developed a fantastic tool for that, and registration of the exact data is easier than ever before. Data (of feeding, measurements, mortality, sampling and more) is registered directly into the system, and there are numeros benefits using this method:
- The manager can see the data on a real-time
- Therefore, the manager can monitor activities on real-time and not after-act
- The data is real, not based on memory and wet pages
- The technicians, the feeders, the team mates on the field – they will fill more and more relevant, more and more involved, and therefore – will do a better job
- The management level of the farm will have less work to do with registration and paperwork, and will have more time for the important stuff (analyzing, reporting, planning etc.)
This practice is good for the AquaManager software, but it could easily be managed also w
ith any other available cloud tool and data tool that is free of charge. Performances at that case will be lower, this will be more labor-intensive, and also the data accuracy and confidence will be lower, but it is better than keeping papers in the system.
You can see that with a very low investment, of an existing tool available for all, or a little bit more sophisticated tool designed especially for that purpose, you can save time and reach better results and better performances that will be notices in no time.
Using real-time sensors for pond monitoring and operating
One of the biggest challenges of ponds culture is controlling the levels of oxygen throughout a full day.
We can go for sporadic measurements, 2 times a day or even 3 time, but there are several problems here:
- This is a time-consuming practice
- We know what is happening while measuring but don’t know the results 3 minutes later
- According to the sporadic measurements we make big decisions (such as oxygen-supporting system operating, feeding etc.)
With a relatively low investment we can purchase a system that will perform a constant measurement, send results to the selected devices, and even make simple decisions for us
(such as operating aerators, start and stop feeding and more).
The results here are immediate: aerators operational costs will decrease dramatically (it
will be operated on a need basis, and not on guess basis or by the hour), the growth will be faster since the oxygen levels will be accurate according to fish demands, and mortality will decrease dramatically.
Systems like mentioned above are already exists, you may approach me for adjusting a tailor-made system for your farm because no farm is like the other and each one has it’s own demands.