All them silky yankee beaver being shredded up with these floor mat southern beaver, what a shame, lol. I doubt you ever see a market for the better beaver again, China pretty much goofed that up forever.

Were beaverpeelers sold at FHA? I believe so. Sometimes it’s luck of the draw which lot your fur lands in. Like the bidders can’t keep up or miss something. Same graded fur, different lot, and one will go 4 bucks more than the last. I noticed while watching that sometimes they’d jump back 10 lots or you could hear a bidder asking if he got lot 123 which was done 20 lots before. Beaver are clearing out and they realize they haven’t filled their order.

The antis must be bummed out that the beaver market is on the upswing.

Do you think the antis even know what felt is made out of? I'm not sure they even know what leather is made out of.

They dont even know what meat is made of.

No

Vegan felt made from Spanish moss. It's coming ....bet on it!

So what's the verdict? Should I plan my line with beaver in mind or forget about these mid south felt-less beaver and just concentrate on cats?

Why not both? Lean towards cats and hit a bit of water along the way if you can.

If you can sell them green, I would trap them. If not, the risk of loss is increased along with the work involved, if everybody goes all in and floods the market, which is a REAL possibility with low quality beaver in a market where almost every other furbearer is selling at rock bottom prices.

Beaver will do fine this coming season. And ya'll know I'm never wrong!

Did you ever see the "felt" on vegan women's legs? Shears that stuff off and the market would collapse!

Send the felt-less beaver to me and I'll sell them for up to $40 each. Just skin em and freeze em. Ship em to me on a Monday so I'll get em b4 they thaw....lol

Marten is looking good,rising on the last two auction sales with avg of 55 and 60 respectively after deductions on my statement.Much better than the 25 avg couple years ago.
Money to be made there for sure especially if the marten are thick.I will set for them this year.
Lynx price is also on the rise though not high enough yet per sq in for such a quality species.Numbers are on the ebb now anyway.

Mike makes some good points about the smaller size beaver. I hadn't stopped to think about that but it sure does make sense.

Pi R squared. The problem with smaller beaver in the use of garments, at least for me, is the price of tanning is similar to the price for larger beaver. Thin leather of the smaller beaver is also not attractive. From a Pi R squared, a 60 inch beaver has 706 sq in fur ; a 40 inch beaver has 314 sq in. of fur. So for felting purposes a small beaver should be worth about half the price of a 1X. They are not selling beaver by the pound at FHA, but by the sq. inch. and other than damaged by quality.

PS. The FHA May 2023 Sold Catalog magically appeared on their website again if interested.

Don't look too close or you might notice the pattern Swamp Wolf has been talking about. Premium for low grade goods. Not much difference in price between a HVY (very dense underfur) and an LT (lacks underfur).

As far as Lynx goes, it appears FHA sectioned 52 from Alaska. Apparently we don't find FHA lynx prices that attractive. Not where I sold mine.

To market lynx in todays world you got to be a good grader.
I get good returns for tanned lynx and tanned lynx products,Of course some of this is value added,but not all.
I still ship surplus lynx to the auction,but those are the ones with the clear bellies.

Last time the felt market collapsed it was because of silk being used to make hats. Somehow I can't see silk Cowboy hats ever catching on. Might be a little to "Nancy".

Silk cowboy hats? Ask the Brokeback Mountain cowboys. Imagine most cowboys prefer real beaver though lol.

The size of a skin most certainly has everything to do with the amount of fiber available in the same weight grade of skin.
Dirt is also correct in that tanning costs for him(and me) to make articles from the smaller skins is prohibitive compared to having larger skins sent to the tanner for fur articles.
Not every beaver user makes felt hats.