Abstract
This study was designed to evaluate the economic analysis of channel catfish production in 1998 based on fish value and total feed cost. Catfish received higher protein feeds with lesser amount based on the dietary protein levels, but received the constant total protein input for all treatments. Weight gain per pond for treatment 1 $(28\%\;protein,\;100\%\;of\;satiation)$ was higher (P<0.10) than for treatment 3 $(36\%\;protein,\;77.8\%\;of\;satiation)$, but not significantly higher than for treatment 2 $(32\%\;protein,\;87.5\%\;of\;satiation)$ at constant DE. At constant DE/P (treatments 4, 2 and 5), weight gain per pond for treatment 5 $(36\%\;protein,\;77.8\%\;of\;satiation)$ was lower (P<0.10) than for treatment 2, but not significantly lower than for treatment 4 $(28\%\;protein,\;100\%\;of\;satiation)$. At constant DE, feed conversion slightly improved as dietary protein level increased from $28\%\;to\;32\%$ and feed allowance decreased by $12.5\%$, but did not improve further as dietary protein level increased from $28\%\;to\;36\%$ and feed allowance decreased by $22.2\%$. At constant DE/P, feed conversion improved as dietary protein level increased from $28\%\;to\;32\%$ increased and feed allowance decreased by $12.5\%$, but did not improve as dietary protein level increased from $28\%\;to\;36\%$ and feed allowance decreased by $22.2\%$ Total feed cost for treatment 1 was slightly, but not significantly higher than for treatments 2 and 3 at constant DE. At constant DE/P, total feed cost for treatment 5 was higher (P<0.05) than for treatment 2, but not significantly higher than for treatment 4. Total value of fish ($ /ha) produced for treatment 1 was highest and lowest was for treatment 5. Return above feed cost was highest for treatment 1 and nearly the same as treatment 2. Return over feed cost for treatments 3 and 4 were slightly lower than for treatments 1 and 2. Economic analysis showed that feeding fish the diet containing $28\%$ protein and 3.08 kcal/g DE to satiation and the diet containing $32\%$ protein and 3.08 kcal/g DE to $87.5\%$ of satiation produced the highest profit to farmer.