WILLMAR—A unique working relationship between a former dairy farmer from Blomkest, two former poultry farmers from Danube and a high-tech engineering company in Willmar could produce the first commercial-scale saltwater shrimp to be born, raised and processed in Minnesota.
There are some moving pieces to the puzzle to fit together yet, but the picture looks promising.
“Everyone’s watching to see what happens,” said Becky Bruns, who is nearly done upgrading equipment at her farm-raised shrimp
WILLMAR—If Paul Damhof is able to secure the capital he needs to complete a $10 million expansion of his saltwater shrimp farm near Blomkest, he said he believes he would be able to produce 250,000 pounds of Pacific white shrimp a year.
Pretty impressive considering the Pacific Ocean is more than 2,000 miles away.
“We are raising shrimp in salt water,” Damhof said. “All we are doing is mimicking the ocean water and raising saltwater shrimp right here in Minnesota.”
Damhof
For aquaculture farmer Paul Damhof, putting up the “sold out” placard along his roadside billboard has become almost as much of a daily chore as checking the pH levels of his shrimp tanks.
With customers across a 150-mile radius and few industry competitors to contend with, Blomkest shrimp farm Simply Shrimp LLC continues with meeting demand.
“On weekends, holidays, it’s nothing to have 20, 30, 40 people driving up on the yard, “Damhof said. “It’s gone as soon as we get (shrimp) up
BLOMKEST—When the Damhof family of Blomkest retired from the dairy business after 50 years of milking cows earlier this year, they didn’t retire from raising livestock completely. Today, instead of Holstein dairy cows filling the barns, there are now tens of thousands of Pacific white shrimp being raised in what was once a calving barn.
“It has been very rewarding, very successful,” said Paul Damhof, who founded and is running Simply Shrimp LLC. Assisting him are members of his
