America’s Bell Aquaculture LLC has opened its new Bell Farms Aqua Feed Mill in Indiana representing the last major step toward completion of a vertically integrated aquaculture farm that has long been in development.
This vertical integration includes a 1000 metric tonne fish farm, an in-house processing facility and production of value added products generated from capture and cultivation of by-products.
“I am very proud of our team, our partners and our community for working together to make this dream a reality and take this critical step toward providing a solution to our coming food deficit.” said Norman McCowan, President & CEO of Bell Aquaculture LLC.
Led by Dr Steven Craig with over 25 years of experience in fish nutrition, the feeds from this mill will be tailored to the nutritional, biological and physiological needs of specific species at key points in the life cycle of the fish.
Bell said that the mill will be the first of its kind to produce feed locally to service the aquaculture industry on a mass scale. The company expects to produce approximately two million pounds of feed per month sourcing over half of its ingredients locally.
The new mill fits in well with the National Strategic Plan for Federal Aquaculture Research announced by President Barack Obama on 17 June 2014.
Bell was started in 2005 with a vision to bring a local favourite, yellow perch, back to the area. The yellow perch are grown indoors using Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) technology.
