IN THENEWS The Lure of Catfish Row-crop farmers throughout the South are taking
ID: 1137326 • Letter: I
Question
IN THENEWS The Lure of Catfish Row-crop farmers throughout the South are taking a liking to catfish. Rising prices for catfish, combined with falling feed prices have made the lure of catfish farming irresistible. Crop farmers are building ponds, buying aeration equipment, and breeding catfish in record numbers. Production has doubled in the last 15 years-to 340 million pounds this year-and looks to keep increasing as farmers shift from row crops to catfish. Steve Hollingsworth, a Greensboro, Alabama farmer, now has ten ponds, each holding about 100,000 fish. He spends $18,000 a week on feed for the 1 million fish in his ponds. But he says the business is good; he takes in about $60,000 a week in sales. Crop farmers in Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana are taking the bait. Source: Media reports, 1993 Instructions: In part a, enter your response a. How many fish did farmer Hollingsworth have in inventory? as a whole number. In part b, round your response to two decimal places 100000 fish b. f each of his fish weighed 2 pounds, what percent of the market did he have?Explanation / Answer
ANSWER:
A) The answer is 1,000,000 fish
B) weight of each fish = 2 pounds
total weight of 1,000,000 fish = 1,000,000 * 2 = 2,000,000 pounds.
total weight of all the fish in the market = 340,000,000
percent of market of hollingsworth = (total weight of 1,000,000 fish / total weight of all the fish in the market) * 100
percent of market of hollingsworth = (2,000,000 / 340,000,000) * 100 = 0.005882 * 100 = 0.5882% or 0.59%