Early results indicate corn could feed surging shrimp industry

While 1.6 billion pounds of shrimp is consumed annually in the United States, 80 percent of its supply is imported. Balaton-based trū Shrimp is looking to change that by growing healthy shrimp in southwestern Minnesota, and it is researching corn as its main food source.

The Minnesota Corn Growers Association, under the direction of the Minnesota Corn Research & Promotion Council, is working with trū Shrimp researchers to explore corn as a cost-efficient and nutritious feed for its growing shrimp. By using corn, trū Shrimp would be less dependent on traditional fishmeal, which has limited availability and a high cost.

Over the last three years, trū Shrimp researchers have been incorporating corn into the diet of shrimp under a number of conditions and testing the feed attractability and overall nutritional benefits of each diet.

Each test incorporates varying levels of corn as a substitute portion of wheat middlings. The nutritional challenges for using corn in shrimp diets is its high carbohydrate content, which has limited nutritional value to shrimp, and the lack of the amino acid lysine. For these reasons, the company’s research is considering a mixture of different plant ingredients and added amino acids that could allow more corn to be successfully used as an ingredient.

The team first tested the nutritional and physical properties of each diet. For example, each was evaluated on how it held up in the water before it was consumed. Once it was actually fed to the shrimp, trū Shrimp researchers measured how much remained, indicating how attractive the feed mixture was to the shrimp. And once it was consumed, the health of the shrimp was evaluated, which included their feed conversion ratio and growth rate.

Initial stages in the study have indicated that corn could substitute for a portion of wheat middlings in a shrimp diet. A future where shrimp feed could be cited as a new use for corn is certainly possible; however, trū Shrimp researchers will need to further assess the physical performance of feed using corn and how it impacts water quality, shrimp health and growth rate. In the near future, trū Shrimp hopes to confirm growth rates with a larger production setting. The overall timeline will depend on these results.

Overall, trū Shrimp researchers are encouraged with the preliminary findings. Minnesota’s corn farmers would benefit from the added corn demand to feed this exploding industry, and trū Shrimp would benefit from reducing feed costs using an ingredient that is plentiful in its own backyard.