Live weight, however, at 26.3 million pounds, increased 8 percent from the 24.3 million pounds a year ago. These 105 million fish consisted of 16.5 million large stockers, 34.9 million small stockers, and 54.0 million fingerlings. Price includes charges for any services provided by the processing plant, but does not include any adjustments based on year-end settlements. An attempt was made to contact all known catfish producers during this time. States use every available source of producer names to make their list as complete as possible.
Great care is exercised to ensure that all operations are accounted for in the estimates.
Sound statistical methodology is employed to derive the estimates from reported data. All data are analyzed for unusual values. Data from each operation are compared to their own past operating profile and to trends from similar operations. Data for missing operations are estimated based on similar operations or historical data. Catfish production estimates are based on a census of all known active producers and, therefore, have no sampling variability.