Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

sorry to hear mate

commercial is something i would love to get to but that is a long way off... good luck with it all, i hope you get something going

Hang in there Stuart, one day it will happen

2 acres ...all under glass/poly/ That's a large area. Wish you luck.

2.5acres under glass. Economics of poly don't stack up.

Mind you it can only happen if I can find people willing to back me and the team. Right now I'm reconsidering the tried and corpse littered path of starting small and trying to grow organically

Sorry Stuart, I simply meant that I would not appreciate anything that assists the current Gov't retaining power as in a success story with them taking a bit of cred. I tend to get a bit cryptic after a few beers.

How's the Aquaculture industry in Vic? Any chance of moving into that in a commercial way then having a bit of a sideline in vegies.
If Aquaculture is doing well you may make a quid, if its not you may be able to buy up a current operation at a really good price (then it would be up to you to make it work ).

Sorry to hear Stuart. I'm curious why you choose glass over poly and why glass has better economics. climate?

As an economic rationalist I couldn't agree more. So many of the cuts they are making and the money they are spending seem designed to make things worse not better.



Pretty small but there are some good people doing good work especially on Murray Cod.



Funny you should mention that. Victoria produced over 2000t pa of rainbow trout before the last drought during which production dropped under 800t pa. Post drought and Black Saturday bush fires production is rose and has topped out at about 1400t pa (several operations closed down while others have shifted to native production). That means that there is a good chance that there is about 600t of unfilled demand. Although probably less due to change in customer buying habits and supply coming from Tassie.

I've had an idea of how I could strip a system to the bone focus on fish production with the veg side of things only designed to pay for itself. Completely opposite to normal but I could do it with relatively small amounts of capital albeit with smaller returns.

I haven't done any numbers yet but I would need:

Land in cool climate (around here or may be Gippsland or the Otways)
Water storage (as distinct from the water itself)
A digger
A new team (the old one has basically broken up through having to find other work, family issues and stuff).

I reckon I could grow such an operation organically growing over time until large enough to feed itself.
I could then use it to leverage investment into a Glasshouse system with higher returns.

First commercial attempt was in a 2000m2 house. Quotes came in from $220,000 to $260,000 for poly (5-6m to the gutter) while glass was $240,000 (6m to the gutter).

While there was a quality poly house cheaper than the glass house it was estimated that it would cost $30,000 to recover in poly every 2-5 years.

The numbers are worse/better with bigger houses. I've talked to more poly suppliers over the years and keep telling them they are welcome to supply a quote if they can better $100/m2 for a decent (8000m2+) installation but none have come back to me yet

Ok I see now. how about your climate, whats that like? I'm curious because I have never seen the glass greenhouses where I'm located (USA Zone 10b) and I always assumed it was climate related and not cost related.

Australia has a pretty varied climate (much like America) and I know of Glass houses going up in the deserts of South Australai, Mild temperate areas of Gippsland, Central NSW, and Queenslands tropical north.

A big part of the cost of recladding poly houses is the labour component and that might be why poly is still going strong in the US since you have a lower minimum wage?

Wish you the best Stuart I have a feeling this might be one of those times where you'll find something better.

Cheers