fur market?

[trappnman]

anyone with an ear to the ground hearing anything?

worldwide economy going to have any effect?

been awful quiet lately on the upcoming market predictions-

I haven't heard a thing, which is good news perhaps, so my thought is prices will open about like they were last year.

I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop on rat prices, hoping I'm wrong, but they just seem to me to be to high compared to other fur values, and can't/won't substain those prices.

hope they do, cause this is first year in 3 years where my water lines haven't (or at least not yet!) gotten a major (like never before) flood just before season.

be nice if mink would get up there to at least a $20 average overall- seems like there is just not enough interest in them.

I'm optimistic on yotes, but that seems to be such a fickle market, one never knows.

any comments, guesses, or info?

[mostinterestingmanintheworld]

I heard that the cat market will probbaly be like last year, nobody committing until spring.

Price of oil is dropping which doesn't help us with the Russian market. Dollar is weak which does.

[thebeav2]

As long as ranch mink stay high In price we should have a good rat market. $7.00 rats In the country I'm guessing.
Every one I talk to seems to think coon will do well this year. I'm not so optimistic. I'm betting if a trapper has average run of lets say 300 coon I'm betting you will see some where around a $12.00 average In the country. A little better If you have them put up.

A little less If you sell to groney THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT

I'm putting all my eggs In one basket and I'm going to concentrate on rats. Sure I'll take some coon but I'm not going to work them as hard as I have In the past.

[thorsmightyhammer]

Coon will be good gary. Have to wait until february to get paid for them.

If ranch mink are bringing a franklin rats will be fine.

The september mink auctions will tell us something

[blackhammer]

Rats will be very good,red fox very good but a lot of good that does most of us.Sept mink auctions I think will be a little weaker as I think there is a price ceiling somewhere soon.Coon will hang around where they are and for us guys in the golden triangle that isn't that bad.

[Nick C]

blackhammer if youre thinking red fox will be good, are you assuming the ranch fox market will be around Jan and May levels?

I hope to avg upper teens on mink and $20 on coon, all finished of course.

[blackhammer]

I really think ranch fox will hold or even go higher.The numbers aren't there and I'm very bullish on fox.Unfortunately I don't have many fox right now.The next few years could be good for long hair fur like ranch fox .I think you will meet your expectations for coon and mink for sure Nick.You just got to increase that ranch fox herd.Just reread the book "Bright with Silver"the past week.Which is a book about the pioneers of fox raising the Fromms from Wisconsin.Got me me half way fired up to start raising a few more fox again.Hopefully I'll come to my senses,been there done that.Iwill say it looks as promising as it has since I started raising fox 15 years ago or so.

[seldom]

In the "Wild Fur Newsletter" from NAFA I saw this comment.-

"Raccoons should continue to be in excellent demand, especially for the heavy goods, better sections. With the improved dressing and dyeing techniques, off-colors most likely will advance."

About 75% of my coon are off-color so maybe things are looking up for the greasers.

[trappnman]

I'm "tired" of upper teens on mink-

wonder if we will ever see them rebound to at least levels of upper $20 average males lower $20s on females.

been a while- quick looking through my slips- shows in 1992 sold mink for a $22.50 overall average in 1996 sold for $20 0verall- other than that- its been throughout the teens. acouple of years not even that.

[thebeav2]

It's funny how coon can change color from county to county. In my area about 40% of my coon would be considered OFF COLOR. You go 40 miles to the west of me and all of a sudden only about 10% of the coon caught would grade as off color.
The problem Is that I'm already running over 250 miles a day and expanding the line another 100 miles and running Into more competition may not be worth the added expense and aggravation.

[thebeav2]

Gapster I can remember when a run of mink would average In the high thirties. And looking through some of my past sales slips I was looking at averages In the fifties. I think the best price I ever got for one mink was $68.00


But then that was way before you were running a mink line.

[trappnman]

hardly before I was running a mink line- but long before I saved slips and reported income. in fact, I don't think old Charlie Miller out of Winona even gave out slips-

yes, mink were king in the 50s and 60s- and so were rats in comparative prices

[Rally Hess]

I believe wild mink were always consumed mostly by an older, finacially secure, bracket of women, and right now there aren't alot of those left, with the economy hurting most retirement accounts. Unless Jlo starts wearing it, it's all about square inches with the Chinese, and ranch mink take less grading and sizing. I personally never could understand how something that small could be worth so much. Couldn't believe it when I got $11.40 on some weasel either. It sure doesn't make any sense when a 72" beaver only brings $22.00 average and rats are doing $9.00-$10.00 either. I always thought when skinning a real cold coyote, they should be about $200.00 also. But, if you figure we are at the mercy of womens fashion sense, then it all makes sense!!!

[blackhammer]

I know I've been told dressing a wild mink is a lost art.It was a mom and pop shops Italian deal for many years.The new generation hasn;t carried it on or picked it up.The Chinese seem to be reluctent to move away fron ranch mink .A niche they must have down pretty well.

[BadDog]

The reason that wild mink are staying down is cuz Chinese ranch mink are way better than our wild mink. Chinese ranch mink are terribly inferior to the North American and Scandinavian mink, but they are growing a ton of them and wild mink are left on the wayside. The people using them? The bargain hunters only I suspect.

[RdFx]

Years back....way back i was paid by many differant buyers 25 bucks straight thru on females and 50 bucks straight thru on males. Also had two three buyers calling to look at my mink before December. Nice $$ when those low gas prices were around.

[blackhammer]

Aug 27, 2011 19:31:05 GMT -6 blackhammer said:

I know I've been told dressing a wild mink is a lost art.It was a mom and pop shops Italian deal for many years.The new generation hasn;t carried it on or picked it up.The Chinese seem to be reluctent to move away fron ranch mink .A niche they must have down pretty well.

This is right from two different major country buyers mouths.

[possumpincher]

Rally Hess post

[orcatdog]

More of a general comment, me and my dad were talking the other day, and it seems that Western cat /coyote prices have historically went way up whenever our economy goes to crap. Don't understand the economics / dynamics behind it, but its been true. So besides some terrible gas prices, I'm hoping the prices stay up.

[Gibb]

Watch what happens in Kopenhagen Sept 13th to 19th, they will be offering roughly 5 million mink followed by Finnish Fur Sales selling 682,000 fox on the 22th to 26th. You will be able to see the direction of the fur market after those two sales.

With the price of oil sliding I would be worried for the wild fur market. Unless the Russia market is active not much hope for beaver and raccoon markets.
Jim