Instead of cows or traditional crops, the Powells are raising fish – yellow perch, to be exact. Five thousand perch are growing in three 12-foot deep outdoor ponds at their Brillion aquafarm.

"We've been planning it for about 3 years," Stacy Powell said, adding that they have plans to build a home on the Brillion property within the next decade.

"We'd like to do that now, but our kids are entrenched in the Kaukauna school system," she said. "One is involved in soccer. If Brillion had a soccer program we might consider it now."

The Powells hope to start processing fish this winter, so on Aug. 4 Stacy Powell took another step in establishing the fish farm by meeting with the Calumet County Planning, Zoning and Farmland Preservation Committee to obtain a conditional use permit for an on-site processing facility so they can harvest the perch this winter.

"We're doing this step by step before we spend money to build a kitchen," she explained to the committee members. Duaine Stillman, committee vice chairman and acting chairman at this meeting, summed up the committee's consensus on the project when he described it as "very exciting, very progressive."

The Powells have bigger plans for their property, including a pick-your-own berry operation and a fish-for-fee pond. They also want to expand beyond perch by raising shrimp and fast-growing tilapia.

"Tilapia and shrimp I can raise in the same tank, but my water temperatures need to be higher," Stacy said.

That's where the couple's plan for sustainable energy to run the farm come in. The business plan calls for a 10k wind turbine to generate electricity for the basic operation, and solar heating to raise the water temperature for tilapia and shrimp.

"We want to be as ecologically and environmentally friendly as possible," Stacy told the committee.

Three different entities are willing to supply grants that will cover 75% of the cost of the wind turbine, but all three are in the form of refunds after the purchase.

"We have to come up with $90,000 upfront. That's the stumbling block right now," Stacy said. "Banks don't want to give a loan because we have nothing to repossess. Well, the energy it is producing will pay for itself. It will produce enough power right now that I will get a small refund. It won't produce enough for the whole operation when I get up and running, but that's where the solar comes in."

The Powells are not the first to obtain aquaculture permits in Calumet County. For the past year dairy farmer Don Mielke of Ameri-milk Farm, N8127 State Park Road, Menasha, has been raising perch and crappie in a former ravine that he dammed with the permission of the Wiscosnin Department of Natural Resources. The ravine is now a 23-foot deep, one-acre pond.

But eventually he hopes to start producing fish for the public.

"I want to be able to sell because of a shortage of perch in the Fox Valley," he said. "We went for a fish dinner at Gobbler's Knob the other day and they had bluegill. Didn't even have perch. I'll have the milk house for about two more years, and then I'd like to supply perch to local fish fry restaurants."

While aquaculture may be new to Calumet County, fish farming has been a fast-growing business around the world. It's a $70 billion global industry.

Today, 50% of all fish consumed in the world are farm-raised fish. In Wisconsin alone there are 2,314 registered fish farms, including 94 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources facilities, according to the Wisconsin Aquaculture Associ-ation.

"We're really seeing a lot more diverse agriculture in our county," said Kelly Nieforth, the county' economic development specialist. "We're seeing a lot of people getting into different things. We have the traditional diary farming/cropping, but we're seeing more people branching off on things like that, doing just produce, agri-tourism such as a corn maze, petting zoo.

Wineries, people growing grapes on the Niagara Escarpment. Some people have had the traditional dairy farms, some are hobbyists who say let's try this. Calumet County is growing that diverse agriculture niche. I think it has a lot of potential and I think it's going to help us."

FISH FARM
Wisconsin's top aquaculture products
(sales in dollar value, 2007)
1. Baitfish $4.65 million
2. Trout $4.58 million
3. Game fish $3.07 million
4. Other food fish $0.884 million
Wisconsin fish farms
2,314 registered fish farms, including 94 WDNR facilities.
1,984 private farms with ponds.
125 business farms.
213 public fee fishing farms.
6 wholesale fish processing farms.
95 farms process fish for human
consumption.

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