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Post by fishdaddy on Jan 9, 2012 18:46:13 GMT -6
i always hear people talking about the fur boom..when was it and could you get 10 bucks for a rat?
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Post by lumberjack on Jan 9, 2012 19:38:44 GMT -6
About 77-82 if I recall right. I never got 10.00 then, but got 7.00-9.00 in 1980.
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Post by thebeav2 on Jan 9, 2012 20:21:45 GMT -6
79, 80 and 81 were the big years.
If you could scrape a coon off the road It was worth 30 bucks I sold 23 red fox for $105.00 each. The best I ever did was around $8.00 on rats. I can remember $40.00 averages on mink. The best I ever got was $86.00 On one Huge Male mink.
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Post by Stef on Jan 9, 2012 20:48:54 GMT -6
And what was the price for a gallon of gas and a 4x4 truck those years?
That was good...
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Post by Nick C on Jan 9, 2012 20:49:31 GMT -6
Beav, what was considered a decent salary at the time?
$20k?
What were most people making on per hour basis?
Just trying to put this into perspective?
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Post by bblwi on Jan 9, 2012 20:57:27 GMT -6
The first big fur sale I was at was in 1980. Four of us combined our catch. We had about 64 coons that averaged $34. They were the same type of coon we get excited about now that can average $18-$22. We had about 180 rats that sold for $8.60 and they were all fall rats. We had 17 reds and they averaged $77.
We had about 12 mink and our average was $29 with 5 females.
My put up was considerably poorer than now but it did not seem to matter.
I know one guy that was about two lots from us that had between 350-400 in the grease coons from day one and took $28 in the grease.
It was amazing. There was a full two day sale with about 100 lots per day and there were 20,000 coons at the sale let alone rats.
Bryce
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Post by ChrisM on Jan 10, 2012 7:50:29 GMT -6
Wages in Nebraska at the time... full time farm hand 800 to 1200 per month. General labor at elevator/lumber yard etc.. round $5 per hour. Did summer road construction and lived on the road for $5 per hr.
Late 70's...could buy a brand new 4x4 truck for $7500 100 coyotes would pay for a new truck! How many would it take today?
The value of fur then was incredible compared to today.
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Post by mustelameister on Jan 10, 2012 7:52:25 GMT -6
Beav, what was considered a decent salary at the time? $20k? What were most people making on per hour basis? Just trying to put this into perspective? I started teaching high school biology in 1979 in a typical public school here in Wisconsin. My salary was $9850. That was starting base pay. I had sold off all my traps so I could focus on teaching and coaching football. That lasted 'till '83. Couldn't take it any longer. By 1983 my salary was about $13,500. I made over $6000 trapping 'rats after school in three weeks in November. The 'coon and mink were frosting on the cake. I was still getting an average of $9.45 on wet sloppy carcass 'rats fresh out of the marsh by 1986. I'd leave school at 3:45, be in the marsh by 4:45, and to the fur buyer's house, a couple miles away, by 7:00. Head home by 7:30 with a check, get cleaned up, eat dinner, and start grading papers by 9:00. Friends of mine who took vacation during November those years made a small fortune. |
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Post by trappnman on Jan 10, 2012 8:05:48 GMT -6
The cycle throughout the years, has been boom and bust.
But I really wonder, if a true fur boom, will occur in the future?
And I'm not talking the hype of a couple of years ago, when so many were talking "fur boom!" when prices on this or that advanced.
will the circumstances that led up to the boom, ever occur again?
Life was easy back then- we were on the cusp of a rapid growth period, overseas industries were booming, and money was out there.
what I'd be interested to know-
what was the volume of fur, in that area compared to now?
both ranch and wild?
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Post by mtcbrlatrap on Jan 10, 2012 8:41:35 GMT -6
This year could show what the definition of " a Market" is. We could have very high rat harvest with stable to good prices. We could have very high coon harvest with weak markets , more cherry picking and low clearances. We may find out just how many A-C color big north centrals and western heavies the world wants to use. If the prices drop enough maybe the coat guys will enter the market and buy up a bunch of low quality fur cheap and get a lot of hides out of the pipeline. It takes 20-25 average pelts to make a coon coat. 20-25 nice big trim coons could trim several hundred coats.
Bryce
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Post by Bigfoot on Jan 10, 2012 9:07:18 GMT -6
as long as the coat coon market is soft you will not see a "boom "it must happen from the bottum up .
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Post by trappnman on Jan 10, 2012 10:09:12 GMT -6
have to agree with that- as long as only a certain grade of coon is desired, yo uaren't going to have a boom on coon.
but remember the boom was across the floor- and longhairs were, for whatever reason, driving the market. And up til then, really, it was shorthairs long hairs were virtually worthless for many years. you think possums are a hard sell- think 50 cent-$1 coon not too long before the fur boom. Rat trappers threw them on the banks like coyote trappers do with possum today.
the last fur boom, had to be a perfect storm one would think.
someone must have the numbers of furs sold, at least through the auctions in the height of the boom- those numbers would be low without a doubt, since private treaty was more common- my buyer told me back in the day- he would have a bunch of new york buyers call preseason, ordering X amount of rats, mink, fox etc and this was the price, check was on the way.
interesting times- and while some say "wish we had a boom" be careful of what you wish for. A boom doesn't bring out the best, or the best in people.
if we had a true boom, immediately we would have countless trappers googling and setting traps.
All I wish for santa- is a stable market, that reflects production costs. $5 rats, $25-30 mink, $20 coon, 430 beaver & coyotes as true averages, a guy could make a decent income, and still not having all the instant trappers out there.
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Post by seldom on Jan 10, 2012 11:39:11 GMT -6
interesting times- and while some say "wish we had a boom" be careful of what you wish for. A boom doesn't bring out the best, or the best in people.
if we had a true boom, immediately we would have countless trappers googling and setting traps.
All I wish for santa- is a stable market, that reflects production costs. $5 rats, $25-30 mink, $20 coon, 430 beaver & coyotes as true averages, a guy could make a decent income, and still not having all the instant trappers out there. Well let me tell you what it's like in my neck of the woods right now and it's very reminiscent of the "boom" period and I've got a dang good memory!. I'm getting calls from rat and coon trappers for the past three weeks asking if I'm done on so-in-son's property? Or, if I trapped rats and or coon on so-in-son's place or just coyotes? It's literally been decades since I've observed so many people in the ditches and swamps!! The coon hunters I know are running 7 nights a week marathons and have been since the middle of December! Property owners have been calling as well telling me that they are getting asked weekly by different rat trappers for permission to trap. One old boy told me that he has started a list of names to call if I don't trap the rats! Property owners are telling me of entire families trespassing the length of ditches across sections instead of the usual ROW trespasser trapping rats and coon. When the big public marshes around Saginaw Bay get safe ice it'll be elbows and a-holes and chit will happen this year on them! |
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Post by thebeav2 on Jan 10, 2012 12:33:37 GMT -6
1980-81 season
Muskrat harvest In the mid west. = 5,696,210
estimated value= 34,946,215
1981-82
Muskrat harvest for the Midwest=4,405,753
Value= 16,594,317
As you can see the harvest was only off about a million but the value was less then half from the previous season.
1995 results:
harvest= 1,981,406
Value= 4,183,015
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Post by ksboy2 on Jan 10, 2012 12:54:41 GMT -6
i was setting on the tailgate of my vehicle with all my fur laying out in the parking lot as the fur buyer looked over it all.... i could not help but blurt out.... "man, i wish i would of had this pile of fur in 1980, I'd of went and bought a new 4x4 pickup"
the paycheck i got Sunday would maybe make two month's truck "payment"
i don't think there will ever be another "fur boom"
hell... a coyote would need to fetch 2,000.00 to be equal in value to the prices in 79-82
i was just a kid starting out... but my coon sold for 25.00 grease holes and tears of a kid skint animal all day long..........
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Post by thebeav2 on Jan 10, 2012 12:55:13 GMT -6
I remember the end of the boom. Guys were leaving the catch behind and just stealing the traps
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Post by blackhammer on Jan 10, 2012 12:57:40 GMT -6
interesting times- and while some say "wish we had a boom" be careful of what you wish for. A boom doesn't bring out the best, or the best in people.
if we had a true boom, immediately we would have countless trappers goggling and setting traps.
All I wish for Santa- is a stable market, that reflects production costs. $5 rats, $25-30 mink, $20 coon, 430 beaver & coyotes as true averages, a guy could make a decent income, and still not having all the instant trappers out there. Well let me tell you what it's like in my neck of the woods right now and it's very reminiscent of the "boom" period and I've got a dang good memory!. I'm getting calls from rat and coon trappers for the past three weeks asking if I'm done on so-in-son's property? Or, if I trapped rats and or coon on so-in-son's place or just coyotes? It's literally been decades since I've observed so many people in the ditches and swamps!! The coon hunters I know are running 7 nights a week marathons and have been since the middle of December! Property owners have been calling as well telling me that they are getting asked weekly by different rat trappers for permission to trap. One old boy told me that he has started a list of names to call if I don't trap the rats! Property owners are telling me of entire families trespassing the length of ditches across sections instead of the usual ROW trespasser trapping rats and coon. When the big public marshes around Saginaw Bay get safe ice it'll be elbows and a-holes and chit will happen this year on them! Perhaps there is a lot of people out of work.I don't know.Actually I've seen more trappers this week than about all season.This is sure no fur boom.With the price of fuel and living in general to equal the fur boom heydays a coon would I bet have to be a hundred dollars.Our seven dollar rats now look like they would be equal to maybe two three dollars rats in the 70s in spending power.In looking some charts I'm a little low on those numbers.Looking at it the fur boom was just unbelievable.It's funny today when coon get close to 30 bucks these yahoos come out of the woodwork and most of them make very little money. |
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Post by blackhammer on Jan 10, 2012 13:13:39 GMT -6
I sold bunches of coon for 50 dollar averages,red fox most were worth at least 70 and there were a decent number around.Coon and fox got so high that at times I had little competition for 7,8 dollar rats and that was great money.I don't remember hourly wages at that time I would guess 3,4 bucks was pretty good.I was just getting out of high school at the time and I didn't realize how unprecedented these prices were.Instead of running around like young kids do I should have been going 24-7.Hind site lol
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Post by ksboy2 on Jan 10, 2012 13:26:33 GMT -6
yeah... i remember trying to get my dad to "drive me" on a big line... loan me money for traps and haul me around to set/check... he said "no" not worth it.. haha
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Post by blackhammer on Jan 10, 2012 13:27:52 GMT -6
My favorite story from that time period was a farmer had a farm auction and sold his corn in the field.A smaller field but not tiny.The night after that sale I took my coon hound in his field ,mid November and coon were getting scarce.Took eight nice coon can't remember the exact amount those coon brought maybe in the 400 dollar range but do remember it was more then he got for the whole field of corn.
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