When the market is hot the "Golden Triangle" expands. During tough markets not so. There were some years just prior to the huge run up in 2013-14 when color was a huge driver and a lot of the semi heavies from NE, KS, MO brought very good money as many were good color. Also clarity comes into the picture. The westerns just seem to glisten more or look less dull . As to what is the cause? It has to be something to do with local or regional populations. Sure they move some but in general most coons that live in North East IA have many generations of being there.
I can't see it being to much about envirnonment as an eastern IN coon that is a central or north central eats the same crops as do the western ILL, southern MN or northern IA.

Bryce

Good info bblwi, didn't realize there was a huge difference in color.

I think environment on color has to do with habitat. Plains coon tend to be paler. Forest coon tend to be darker. Not sure what gives us school bus coon or the marsh pumpkins you see on the coasts

Sniper- I wonder if the "school bus" comes when boars get older. Almost all the "buses" I've caught are big boars. Maybe its sort of like the declining WTD bucks that end up having smaller and more gnarly racks at age then when they were in their prime. I will check the teeth on my next "school buses" I catch.

School bus coon are ground denners, the ones in trees are the better grades generally, until they hole up.
Over here we can change grades just by County, this shows at District sales.

A few times I trapped North of I-80 early, South later.
Big difference with the earlier coon being much nicer.

At one local, the coon had trails to were someone was feeding domestics with high protein feed.
Those coon were beauties.
I've seen this with city coon also.

Sometimes my auction grade sheets suggested I must have trapped several states, and mostly I did not.

Coyotes. My opinion on them here, the nice ones are nice most of the season and the uglies are not going to be nice this season.

Like most of us this is my opinion from experience and I'm no biologist.

Color being the most important with the silvers being the most desirable but size matters too. Not sure but I think the midwestern areas mentioned have a larger average size than the eastern coon.. Coon ranging from 25 to 35 pounds here are not all that uncommon.

Sounds like genetics and environment. Wife recently hired a dog trainer to help her get control of a new pup, and one of the first things he asked was "what is she eating?" She needs more fat. Coat was dull....added some fat and meats to the kibble and it now has a glossy shine to it.

In past couple of months, traveled to over 10 states.......including a drive from MO up Hwy 63 to Rochester, MN. Thinking back to stories about Iowa coon, while driving, I was also paying attention to what might be different. Aside from the fact that it is obviously colder climate, one thing that changes if the flowing water. Spring and tile fed ditches are different than our seasonally wet mud bottoms. Fish and aquatics different. Enough to matter? Maybe. Have also made drive several times from Cedar Rapids to Madison........and that area is also different. Different from us and most of the rest of IA, IL and much of WI. Enough to matter? Maybe.

As for prices, if supply and demand works, there is more supply of coon than any demand could ever meet. Driving from MO to NE CO, was amused to see road kill coon in western Kansas and eastern CO along I-70......no tree of any size within miles.....yet there was a dead coon on the road. Over 2000 mile loop and dead coons on the road the entire way. Locally they are now running about 2 to 3 roadkill coon per mile. I lost some apples a year or so ago so set up a game camera on my gala tree and that night documented about 14 different coons coming in to polish off the tree. It was quit the party. If they were worth anything, I could probably catch 50 within a 1/4 mile of my house. Walk to the sets.

Caught two identical silver tips 12' apart several years ago in Pottawattamie County in SW IA. Sent them to North Bay auction and got $85 and $90.

Tree and ground coon still have better fur than barn coon

Wont disagree with that Sniper. Often thought urine in the bed matters too.

A tree man told me of wild black cherry trees that are unique to Western Pa.
I found a real mature stand like he mentioned, surrounded by corn. The mast was
real heavy and coon sign too. I set it a few weeks later and those coons were dandy.
Very next year those trees were harvested, and that pattern ended.
Back to regular color, texture.

The barn coon thing is more about the fur quality not so much the color. Barn coon dont suffer the cold as much as their more wild brethren so their fur isnt as heavy.

Caught 4 coon around a dairy one year,they were exceptional color and densely fured buyer picked them out of 98 that I sold said they had been eating medicated calf feed.

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Yep