A year of 2 halves
Back in February(2013) we stocked out our small 1st year barbel at just over 3 grams into their second year ongrowing pond. I wrote a blog called ‘planning your barbel growth’ to show how we aimed to feed them and projected a potential growth to an average size of 40ish grams in October – over 10 times their original body weight!
My projections had been based on our typical average monthly temperatures. However, our weather has become totally unpredictable and so my plan didn’t quite go to plan…
1st half
Up until May we enjoyed record low temperatures and the barbel that I had projected to be nearly 6 grams had barely grown at all and at only 4 grams were a month behind my projections.
2nd Half
Summer arrived in June and stayed with us the rest of the year. However, barbel can only grow at 2% body weight a day and we were unable to fully catch up the lost early part of the year. At harvest last week the average size was 34 grams – just over 6 inches long. Fortunately the temperatures are staying high with consistent South Westerlies blowing in mild air. With luck we can put them out for another 2 – 3 weeks of growth and move them up to 50 grams, an average of 7 inches.
