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crawfish farming in texas...

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    #16
    While most of the crawfish acreage in Texas is in the southeastern part of the state (Orange, Jefferson, Chambers, and Liberty counties) there are some farms scattered in Brazoria, Matagorda, Wharton, and maybe still some in Calhoun county. That is about as far south as they go, although there may be some small acreage or trial ponds in other areas. The biggest obstacle facing crawfish farming in Texas is the available/cost of water as mentioned. The water budget for crawfish is about 3 to 3.5 times that of rice. Also, the lack of infrastructure in Texas (bait supplies, boat and trap builders, processors and wholesale buying stations) is not nearly as developed as in South Louisiana. Part of this is the chicken or egg situation . . . without large concentrated acreage of production, the incentive to develop specific infrastructure is not there, but because it is not there, the incentive to expand acreage is not as good either. Much of the infrastructure in Louisiana was already there during the early stages of crawfish development . . . from the existing seafood industry.

    Once one gets out of the rice growing region in Texas, then it becomes harder to grow crawfish. The clay soils (necessary for burrowing and water holding), flat level ground (for growing vegetation and shallow water harvesting) that are needed is often not there, and of course abundant and cheap water is a must. The peak of crawfish production acreage in Texas occurred in the early 1980s, but during the oil bust of the mid 1980s the acreage declined and much of it never came back. Only hardworking persistent farm families like Herff Cornelius near Bay City and John Gaulding in Winnie, and others (often rice farmers), have keep it going.

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      #17
      I got nothing to add worthwhile to this post but we were duck hunting in West Texas years ago and an old farmer saw my ProDrive and couldn’t figure out what it was and said we weren’t from around there! I told him no sir! That was a crawfish boat and I was on my way to Lubbock to become a millionaire because I had just bought the only crawfish farm in the panhandle on EBay! That old man smiled and told me good luck with that!!

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        #18
        great stuff guys. interesting. ive researched a fair amount, and this one page has filled in many of the missing links. seems the water boards are hurting some good farms, but with salt water intrusion taking place, that is a serious issue.

        with 3x more water needed for crawfish than rice, as doc explained, plus the cost of the water, no wonder it is an industry under the gun.

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          #19
          Whole bunch of crawfish farms in the east.

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            #20
            Very few rice farmers left in Jackson co . There use to be a lot of them .

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              #21
              Used to be tons of crawfish and rice farms around the Mauriceville area, in fact Mauriceville used to self proclaim itself the crawfish capitol of the world. That was the 70s and 80s. Now I don’t think there’s any crawfish or rice farming in the area now.

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                #22
                Originally posted by Strummer View Post
                Very few rice farmers left in Jackson co . There use to be a lot of them .
                yes sir, i thought the ganado area would be prime for crawfish. declining rice fields, and crawfish extinction, seems to be the theme here.

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