Ridley has shared the results of its commercial feed trial with three prawn farms. The objective of the trial was to compare two nutritionally identical steam-pelleted prawn diets on each farm with the exception that one diet contained 5% Novacq and one did not.

Each operator began their trial in commercial sized ponds in January 2018, and harvested in late April/May. Overall the trials demonstrated a positive response to Novacq. Some operators reported record biomass harvest per hectare, and there was a high degree of variation in the survivability of prawns on the various farms in both treatments.

In addition, a low protein Novacq diet was successfully trialed at one farm, and results found it can potentially enable Australian farmers to increase biomass by up to 25% if they are at or reaching maximum nitrogen farming limits set by the EPA.

“We tried a reduced protein version of the Novacq diet and the results look very promising, as we saw healthier and faster growing prawns on the Novacq diets,” stated Matt West, General Manager of Australian Prawn Farms, one of the farms participating in the study. “We see the benefits from the last 2 years across survival, biomass productivity and nutrient reduction. This is important to APF, as well as the greater Australian prawn industry, as many farms are trying to become more sustainable and expand operations under the same strict EPA standards currently adopted.”