Metals in Crawfish - Aquaculture and the Environment: A Shared Destiny - page 200

Crawfish pond with a row of traps/ Courtesy of Joel Richert
4. Production systems
4.1 Monocropping system
Monoculture or “single crop” aquaculture of crawfish is used on small farms or in areas
where agriculturally marginal land is available. Ponds devoted to numerous production
cycles are typically used for this strategy. The size of these operations range from 300 acres
with little management or input to small 15 acres sites that are highly managed. The big
advantage to monocropping is that farmers manage the acreage for maximum crawfish
production without concerns of other crops, such as pesticide contamination and seasonal
limitations. The yields from this kind of system range from 100 kg/ac in large low input
ponds to more than 600 kg/ac in small intensively managed ponds. “Permanent” ponds
yields will generally increase over a period of three to four consecutive years of production.
Rice is the standard forage crop used in a monocropping system. It is planted in the summer
months after the crawfish harvesting season. Emphasis is on the growth of stem and leaf
production for use as forage. The rice planted is not harvested for grain at maturity, rather it
is allowed to die and begin decomposition. One of the advantages of permanent ponds is
earlier, intense harvesting of crawfish. The early harvesting of crawfish is economically
important because early harvest is almost always rewarded by high market prices. The
disadvantages to monocropping include: 1) the need to construct dedicated ponds, costs
must be amortized over only one crop, and crawfish overcrowding can occur after a few
years which leads to stunted, low-priced crawfish that are difficult to market. Production
schedules for monocropping can vary, but generally follow the schedule on Table 4.1.
4.2 Crop rotation systems
In rotation systems, crawfish is alternated with a plant crop in order to grow two crops in
one year. Rotational strategies have the advantage of efficient use of labor, farm equipment