IF YOU’VE EVER enjoyed rainbow trout in
upscale restaurants in the eastern U.S., you
might thank Ho ward Brown of Andrews, N.C.
He and his business, C.R. Brown Enterprises,
have played a large part in developing the
trout farming industry in western North
Carolina.
A farmer for 30 years, he produces up to
70,000 pounds per acre of fish that’s sold
under the Carolina Mountain Trout brand
name.
Brown’s success as a trout farmer has
resulted in his selection as state winner of the
Swisher Sweets/Sunbelt Expo Southeastern
Farmer of the Year award for North Carolina.
He is the first trout farmer to be named a state
winner of the award.
Measured by acreage, his farming system
isn’t large — only about 30 acres, with 20
acres rented and 10 acres owned — but on
that limited amount of land, he produces an
impressive amount of fish, about 1,000 tons
of rainbow trout per year.
He is also a feed distributor. He buys about
1,700 tons of trout feed per year and uses
most of it on his own farms, but sells about a
third to other trout farms. Organic fertilizer is
manufactured from the waste byproducts of
the processed fish and is sold as Brown’s Fish
Fertilizer. It’s made by a cold process, using
natural enzymes
to transform the
product from a solid
state to a liquid.
Brown used to
have to pay to get
this byproduct hauled
away. Now, it’s a major
profit center. Last
year, he shipped more
than 300,000 gallons
of the liquid natural
product throughout
the eastern t wo thirds
of the U.S. “This mini-
mized our waste, and
helped our bottom
line,” he says. The fer-
tilizer products are
marketed through
a website. His son,
Brandon, generates
the sales by calling clients and meeting them
at organic food conferences.
“Our Carolina Mountain Trout is marketed
via telephone and word of mouth,” Brown
HOWARDBROWN
named
2018NorthCarolina
FarmeroftheYear
NORTH CAROLINA
FARMEROFTHEYEAR
DEBBIE AND HOWARD BROWN
