The trū Shrimp Co., an affiliate of Ralco, recently completed a major renovation of its Innovation Center and Laboratory.

Highlights of the renovation include extending the length of production tidal basins as well as replacing flat-bottom nursery tanks with scaled-down versions of the production tidal basins.

Jon Holt, trū Shrimp senior technical director, says the Innovation Center and Laboratory is a state-of-the-art facility where a vast array of research is conducted.

“In the clear-water recirculating tanks, we conduct various types of nutrition studies, including feed additive and alternative ingredient studies, and we can look at other aquaculture supplements,” he says. Researchers create diets for the trials on-site. In the closed-water system, scientists also are evaluating different water treatments.

The facility includes 144 clear-water primary research tanks, 36 closed-water primary research tanks, water quality and shrimp feed laboratories, and two production and two nursery tidal basins. The company’s patented tidal basin technology allows shrimp to be raised in an average depth of 12 inches of water.

In addition to the lab renovation, construction of Balaton Bay Reef Training and Engineering Center, which will serve as a production research center, continues to move forward. The 40-foot-high building will house eight 150-foot-long stacked tidal basins that create a low-stress natural current for shrimp.

Largest shrimp facility in Midwest
The reef will be capable of producing 65,000 pounds of shrimp annually, which the company says will make it the largest shrimp facility in the Midwest. The reef is scheduled to open this spring.

“The reef enhances our production research capabilities,” Holt says. “We’ll go from 54-foot-long tidal basins in the lab to 150 feet in the reef,” he says.

Holt adds that the research facility is unique.

“We are the only ones working with the tidal basin technology,” he says. “Also, with the clear-water tanks as well as the closed-loop tanks, we are one of the top shrimp research facilities in the world. We are solely dedicated to shrimp research, and that is very important.”

The trū Shrimp Co. is an affiliate of Ralco, a third-generation, family-owned multinational company with distribution in more than 20 countries. Ralco supports large segments of the livestock, poultry, aquaculture and crop industries.

Source: trū Shrimp