Catfish Value of Sales Up 5 Percent from 2010

<p style="text-align: justify; line-height: 15pt; margin-top: 6pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; " class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black; font-size: 10pt">The top four States (Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas) accounted for 95 percent of the United States total sales. The United States total foodsize sales of 391 million dollars increased by 4 percent over 2010. Sales of stockers totaled 17.1 million dollars in 2011, compared to 13.8 million dollars in 2010. Fingerling and fry sales totaled 14.6 million dollars, up 9 percent from 2010. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify; line-height: 15pt; margin: 6pt 0in 0pt;background: white; mso-line-height-rule: exactly" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black; font-size: 10pt">By point of first sale, direct sales to processors accounted for 95 percent of total foodsize fish sales, unchanged from the previous year. Direct sales to other producers accounted for 73 percent of stocker sales compared with 83 percent in 2010. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify; line-height: 15pt; margin: 6pt 0in 0pt;background: white; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-outline-level: 3" class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black; font-size: 10pt">Water Surface Acres Down 10 Percent from January 1, 2011<o:p></o:p></span></strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify; line-height: 15pt; margin: 6pt 0in 0pt;background: white; mso-line-height-rule: exactly" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black; font-size: 10pt">The water surface acres being used for catfish production as of January 1, 2012, totaled 89.4 thousand acres, down 10 percent from the 99.6 thousand acres used a year earlier. Of the total acres, 3.08 thousand are to be renovated during the period of January 1 to June 30, 2012. An additional 420 acres are under construction or expected to be constructed and in use by July 1, 2012. During the period of July 1 through December 31, 2011, the area taken out of production totaled 2.96 thousand acres. As of January 1, 2012, foodsize fish were produced on 71.5 thousand acres, fingerling-producing acres totaled 13.7 thousand, and 2.24 thousand acres were being used for broodfish production. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify; line-height: 15pt; margin: 6pt 0in 0pt;background: white; mso-line-height-rule: exactly; mso-outline-level: 3" class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black; font-size: 10pt">Inventory Numbers<o:p></o:p></span></strong></p> <p style="text-align: justify; line-height: 15pt; margin: 6pt 0in 0pt;background: white; mso-line-height-rule: exactly" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black; font-size: 10pt">Catfish producers had 562 thousand broodfish on hand January 1, 2012, up 14 percent from January 1, 2011. Large foodsize fish on hand totaled 3.6 million on January 1, 2012, a 42 percent decrease from a year ago. The number of medium foodsize fish increased 20 percent to 64.7 million, while small foodsize fish numbers decreased 2 percent to 113 million. Large stockers on hand January 1, 2012, at 165 million fish, were up 4 percent from the previous year. Small stocker numbers increased 34 percent to 298 million. There were 451 million fingerlings on hand January 1, 2012, down 21 percent from January 1, 2011. <o:p></o:p></span></p>