TKFGS
Trip to Brett’s Koi Farm 2008 – Special Koi Harvest Event - Recap
There
was a large turnout at Brett's Koi Farm for their 3rd
annual Harvest Event. The weather was perfect and tons of fun stuff to
see and due all day. From hay rides around the farm to live music and
of course all the beautiful fish and lots of fun folks t hang out
with.
Special
guest long fin koi breeder Vance Schultze of Tank Hollow Fisheries
located in Poteet, Texas was also in
attendance with a great selection of his best 1 & 2 year old
longfin koi for sale as well. Those of you that attended this event
the past few years know what a great experience this can be. All
koi hobbyists, koi clubs, as well as the general public are invited to
attend. Special koi never before offered for sale will be
available from both breeders during this special event. Most of the
attendees were members of Texas Koi & Fancy Goldfish Society, Lone
Star Koi Club & Moto Kara Koi Kai of Houston and Austin
Pond Society.
This
was a great opportunity to purchase young show quality potential koi
and long fin koi directly from the breeder. Fish of this quality are
not usually offered for sale until the second or third year when they
cost three to ten times more than when sold as babies. Buying such
high quality fish are possible due to the event being held at the farm
which does not require breaking quarantine protocols by returning koi
from events away from the farm.
This
event is a special opportunity to see a real working koi farm and
learn just how rare show quality koi are in the overall breeding
process. Even with the
best quality parent koi and dedicated breeding methods and strict
culling processes only about 1 baby koi in a thousand has the
qualities needed to make a high quality koi. Even at that remember
that specific 1 in a 1,000 baby koi has to survive predators and
diseases and a number of harvest and selection processes to be offered
for sale at the end of a single season. It takes both a numbers game
and successful fish
farming practices and a lot of money to produce just a few precious
show quality koi.
Koi
are harvested by pulling large specially made seines to collect the
baby koi
Ralph
Bates and Brett Rowley loading the seine on a trailer used to move
from pond to pond
Very
nice examples of some of Brett’s show quality baby Koi. Brett
offered a new service to buyer during this event. You could for a
small fee leave your selected koi to grow another years in Brett’s
larger nisai pond.
Some
beautiful Long Fin Koi offered by Vance at the fall harvest event.
Special
thanks to the Lone Star Koi Club for bringing and providing a great
lunch of grilled hot dogs and all the trimmings. Few of us will likely
travel to Japan and visit the koi farms and koi breeders there. The
domestic breeders are making lots of progress and there is not doubt
that for most of us and for most of our budgets buying koi and long
fins from top quality domestic koi breeders is a great way to get top
value for our money. Brett
& Vance donated $250 of their show quality koi and long fins for a
special raffle held at the event. TKFGS was able to raise $455 as
a result. We really want to thank Brett & Vance and all the raffle
participants for giving us this opportunity to make up some of the
losses incurred at our recent show.
If
you want to visit Brett’s farm on your own you can check out his
website for specific information on how to do that. Here is a link
Brett’s website to show some more examples of his special koi.
http://www.brettsfishfarm.com/koi.html
Our
Club will be visiting Vances farm March 9th. He is not open
for retail sales except for our events. Here is a link to Vances
website to see some examples of the long fins bred by Vance. http://www.tankhollowfisheries.com/
Brett’s 3rd Koi Harvest event was another big success and we are already looking forward to next year’s event. Hope to see everyone there.