The total number of catfish operations in Florida on January 1, 1997 was 12 with a water surface area of 100 acres and total sales in 1996 of $148,000. Of these 100 acres, 20 acres were used for broodfish.

    Catfish growers in the 15 selected States had sales of $417 million during 1996. These sales were up 4 percent from the 1995 total of $400 million. Sales of all foodsize fish totaled $389 million, up 3 percent from last year's total of $378 million. Sales of fingerlings and fry totaled $21.6 million, compared with $16.1 million in sales during 1995. Sales of stockers totaled $4.81 million, up 1 percent from the $4.76 million in sales during 1995. Sales of broodfish previously used for breeding totaled $383 thousand, compared with $319 thousand during 1995.

    Direct sales to processors accounted for 96 percent of the total sales of foodsize fish. Thirty-six percent of the stocker sales were to other producers.

    The total number of operations on January 1, 1997, in the 15 selected States was 1,302, down 2 percent from the January 1, 1996, total of 1,328. The number of operations in the top 4 producing States (AL, AR, LA, and MS), however, increased 1 percent from January 1, 1996.

    The water surface acres being used for catfish production totaled 177,000 acres, up 6 percent from the January 1, 1996, total. Of the total acres, 5,530 are to be renovated during the period of January 1, 1997, to June 30, 1997. An additional 4,650 acres are under construction or expected to be constructed and in use by July 1, 1997. During the period of July 1, 1996, through December 31, 1996, 2,475 acres were taken out of production. As of January 1, 1997, 6,055 acres were being used for broodfish production.

    Catfish producers had 1.16 million broodfish on hand January 1, 1997, down 1 percent from the 1.17 million on hand January, 1, 1996. All foodsize fish on hand totaled 271 million on January 1, 1997, up 19 percent from the 228 million fish on hand the previous year. Medium foodsize showed the largest increase of the three categories from January 1, 1996 rising 30 percent. Of the total number of foodsize fish, 7.8 million were large foodsize (over 3 pounds per fish), 84.6 million were medium foodsize (1 1/2 pounds to 3 pounds per fish), and 178.4 million were small foodsize fish (3/4 pound to 1 1/2 pounds per fish). Total number of stockers on hand January 1, 1997, at 755 million, were up 20 percent from the previous year's 628 million stockers. The 755 million stockers included 390 million large stockers (over 180 lbs. to 750 lbs./1,000 fish) and 364 million small stockers (over 60 lbs. to 180 lbs.1,000 fish). There were 872 million fingerlings on hand January 1, 1997, up 6 percent from the 823 million fingerlings on hand January 1, 1996.

CATFISH: Water surface acres; acres being renovated; new ponds under construction; acres out of production; and acres used for broodfish; January 1
State	Water surface acres		Acres being renovated	New acres under construction	Acres out of production	Acres used for broodfish
	Jan 1 1996	Jan 1 1997
AL	19,600	21,000	580	850	330	580
AR	23,000	28,500	1,000	1,000	400	750
FL	240	100	10	1/	1/	20
LA	13,700	14,300	240	210	400	400
MS	99,000	102,000	3,100	2,300	900	3,500
MO	2,400	2,400	150	1/	180	60
Oth 1/	9,400	9,060	450	290	265	745
Total	167,340	177,360	5,530	4,650	2,475	6,055
1/ Includes CA, KY, NC, OK, SC, TN, and TX.

CATFISH: Number of operations and total sales
State	Number of operations		Total sales
	January 1 1996	January 1 1997	1995	1996
			Thousand dollars
AL	250	245	50,909	45,126
AR	190	180	41,034	52,214
FL	17	12	280	148
LA	105	108	18,862	27,273
MS	337	360	271,875	274,559
MO	70	65	2,924	1,746
Oth 1/	359	332	13,658	15,712
Total	1,328	1,302	399,542	416,778
1/ Includes CA, KY, NC, OK, SC, TN, and TX.

CATFISH: Number and liveweight of broodfish, January 1
State	Total number of fish		Total liveweight of fish
	1996	1997	1996	1997
	Thousands
AL	112	138	549	686
AR	150	150	640	730
FL	5	7	24	31
LA	80	100	340	460
MS	691	641	3,236	3,120
MO	17	8	71	38
Oth 1/	116	114	544	589
Total	1,171	1,158	5,404	5,654
1/ Includes CA, KY, NC, OK, SC, TN, and TX.

CATFISH: Number and liveweight of all foodsizes, January 1
State	Total number of fish		Total liveweight of fish
	1996	1997	1996	1997
	Thousands
AL	30,858	40,043	37,575	52,341
AR	24,570	40,730	36,870	57,040
FL	65	28	84	76
LA	15,250	27,360	23,650	40,500
MS	148,310	153,746	190,150	202,819
MO	835	1,504	1,269	2,249
Oth 1/	7,911	7,396	10,762	10,524
Total	227,799	270,833	300,360	365,548
1/ Includes CA, KY, NC, OK, SC, TN, and TX.

CATFISH: Number and liveweight of total stockers, *January 1
State	Total number of fish		Total liveweight of fish
	1996	1997	1996	1997
	Thousands
AL	51,813	49,153	15,646	13,484
AR	74,410	124,285	15,370	23,345
FL	70	144	5	10
LA	23,100	99,800	3,250	20,200
MS	462,779	466,641	117,433	129,478
MO	5,084	2,137	730	714
Oth 1/	10,578	12,496	2,399	2,309
Total	627,834	754,656	154,833	189,540
*Total stockers: Over 60 lbs to 750 lbs/ 1,000 fish. 1/ Includes CA, KY, NC, OK, SC, TN, and TX.

CATFISH: Number and liveweight of fingerling, *January 1
State	Total number of fish		Total liveweight of fish
	1996	1997	1996	1997
	Thousands
AL	43,665	36,802	1,618	1,310
AR	113,310	130,575	3,930	4,970
FL	1,886	1,000	42	14
LA	39,300	34,000	1,700	1,280
MS	590,499	631,382	14,503	18,303
MO	8,578	10,402	143	223
Oth 1/	26,159	27,586	876	802
Total	823,397	871,747	22,812	26,902
* Fingerling: Over 2 lbs to 60 lbs/1,000 fish. 1/ Includes CA, GA, KS, KY, NC, OK, SC, TN, and TX.

CATFISH: Number, weight, and value of sales; all stockers
State	Number sold		Total pounds sold		Total value of sales		Average value per pound
	1995	1996	1995	1996	1995	1996	1995	1996
	Thousands				Thousand dollars		Dollars
AL	1/	1/	1/	1/	1/	1/	1/	1/
AR	8,500	6,535	2,600	2,200	2,600	2,760	1 .00	1 .25
FL	35	23	5	12	6	12	1 .20	1 .00
MS	4,451	7,264	461	575	502	737	1 .00	1 .28
MO	3,351	1/	572	1/	666	1/	1 .16	1/
Oth 1/	4,503	6,224	797	1,489	982	1,305	1 .09	.90
Total	20,840	20,046	4,435	4,276	4,756	4,814	1 .07	1 .13
1/ Includes AL, CA, GA, KS, KY, LA, NC, OK, SC, TN, and TX.

CATFISH: Foodsize percent sold by outlet type, 1996
State	Live- haul	Fee/Rec fishing	Other producers	Govt	Direct to consumer	Process	Retail rest. &Fd. Stor	Other outlets
AL	0	1	0	0	1	97	1	0
AR	3	1	0	0	1	94	1	0
FL	15	0	0	0	45	40	0	0
LA	0	0	0	0	0	100	0	0
MS	1	0	0	0	0	99	0	0
MO	56	21	1	2	5	8	3	4
Wt.avg. 1/	2	1	0	0	0	96	1	0
1/ Includes AL, CA, GA, KS, KY, NC, OK, SC, TN, and TX.

CATFISH: Stockers percent sold by outlet type, 1996
State	Livehauls	Fee/rec fishing	Other producers	Government	Other outlets
AL	0	0	0	0	0
AR	55	35	9	1	0
FL	0	0	20	0	80
LA	0	0	0	0	0
MS	0	2	95	0	3
MO	20	11	66	3	0
Wt. avg. 1/	35	23	36	2	4
1/ Includes AL, CA, GA, KS, KY, NC, OK, SC, and TN.

CATFISH: Number, weight, and value of sales; all foodsize
State	Number sold		Total pounds sold		Total value of sales		Average value per pound
	1995	1996	1995	1996	1995	1996	1995	1996
	Thousands				Thousand dollars		Dollars
AL	50,021	36,711	68,067	62,002	49,284	43,942	0.72	0.71
AR	28,000	40,352	46,700	57,680	36,500	44,088	0.78	0.76
FL	55	7	100	14	135	6	1.35	0.43
LA	16,000	19,410	23,000	29,500	18,150	20,949	0.79	0.71
MS	220,521	258,883	330,961	344,480	259,537	265,250	0.78	0.77
MO	1,265	711	2,561	1,388	2,153	1,030	0.84	0.74
Oth 1/	5,951	6,978	10,114	11,755	12,325	13,973	1.13	1.18
Total	321,813	363,052	481,503	506,819	378,084	389,238	0.79	0.77
1/ Includes CA, GA, KS, KY, NC, OK, SC, TN, and TX.

CATFISH: Number, weight, and value of sales; fingerling and fry
State	Number sold		Total pounds sold		Total value of sales		Average value per pound
	1995	1996	1995	1996	1995	1996	1995	1996
	Thousands				Thousand dollars		Dollars
AL	1/	1/	1/	1/	1/	1/	1/	1/
AR	86,000	169,270	1,550	3,350	1,700	5,220	1 .10	1 .56
FL	2,800	2,900	52	43	139	130	2 .67	3 .02
LA	1/	98,600	1/	3,720	1/	6,280	1/	1.69
MS	278,506	336,809	6,937	4,888	11,534	7,980	1 .66	1 .63
Oth 2/	58,789	48,184	1,177	1,139	2,708	2,008	2 .61	2 .50
Total	426,095	655,763	9,716	13,140	16,081	21,618	1 .66	1 .65
1/ Included in other States to avoid disclosure of individual operations. 2/ Includes CA, GA, KS, KY, MO, NC, OK, SC, TN, and TX.