FHA June Auction numbers
https://furharvesters.com/auctionquantities.html

I think those beaver numbers must be wrong.

Why is that Steve?

What about the badger number? How many of those have been in cold storage for who knows how long.

Nope !!!

Groeny & Carlson Mink got all the spring beaver away from FHA !!!

GRONEY ROCKS !!!!

w

Where's the STINK KITTY (skunk) numbers ?

w

BP, I had been hearing about all the FHA routes having lots of beaver, apparently not.

45 thousand?....apparently so.

May 2023 sale had 40,757 beaver, June of 22 sale had 39,231. So 45,000 isn't much of an uptick considering that everybody knew that beaver prices were good this year. Between Groeny and the association sales a lot of beaver apparently didn't make it to North Bay. Too bad we don't have numbers for the others.

Indication of the lack of trappers...

It all boils back to a hastily prepared press release that FHA put out.( after the last sale)
Treating trappers as little children has turned some off and they found other avenues to sell and have cash in hand.

I understand they are still processing skins. I thought Nancy said before, it's only an estimate.

Might better be an indication that the skill for putting up beavers has been generationally lost due to low beaver prices over the last 20 years or more.

It is a good estimate. At this point, all goods for the sale are in house. Just waiting to be graded and lotted. I think it is probably fairly close. Unless a dealer shows up with his own graded lots with limits. Or unless FH pulls a rabbit out of a hat. LOL

Dealers were hitting the country hard buying beaver this spring. And as folks have said - cash in hand talks.

X2 beaverpeeler, if it were not for buyers like groney, purchasing green pelts, there would be even fewer beaver trappers.

I daresay I have put up 600 to 800 beaver since the early 1980's.

I know how to properly put up beaver and have a few Top Lots to my credit.

Up until circa 2013, every beaver I ever caught were all nicely put up.

Unfortunately my bad back issues, arthritis & carpal tunnel in my hands, & other
health problems preclude me from fleshing, nailing, & boarding any more beaver.

That's why Groeny still rocks !!!

walleyed

Fur prices are as low as they have ever been. Just to show how far and hard our industry has fallen, here is a sampling of the fur harvest in the 1937-1938 season. Information taken from the book, Professional Trapping by Walter Arnold, copyright 1939.

Louisiana alone produced 4,000,000 muskrats, 150,000 opossum, 100,000 raccoon, 80,000 mink, 1.000 otter, and 45,000 skunks

Pennsylvania estimated that between 75,000 and 100,000 persons trapped to some extent. There were 500 fur buyers licensed that year in PA. Estimated catch was 313,000 muskrats, 255,000 skunks, 6,000 mink, 85,000 opossums, 500 beaver, 22,000 raccoons, 28,000 weasels, 4,000 red fox, and 7,000 grey fox.

Ohio estimated 100,000 trappers trapped to some extent, the muskrat catch was estimated to be 1,200,000.

Iowa had approximately 32,000 trappers and 900 licensed fur buyers. They produced 13,000 raccoon, 11,000 opossum, 176,000 muskrats, 21,000 mink, 102,000 skunks, 26,000 civet, 7,000 red fox, 1800 grey fox, 4,000 weasel, 100 coyotes and 500 badgers.

The report stated that for 1937-1938, "raw fur prices were at a low level which reduced the number of active trappers, this resulting in considerable less than an average season's take."

Totally agree with this thought BP. We skipped at least one; maybe 2 generations with low beaver demand , plus no secret on work involved - which also takes out anyone that doesn’t have a serious work ethic. New normal I suspect…. But limited volumes will probably keep market buoyant for those crazies that still want to trap the big rodents in numbers.

Would love the muskrat market to repair , hopefully at same time the wet weather cycle returns here

Say whaaaaa? when I started trapping a few years ago, I was expecting about 3-10 bucks for my beaver. The spring auction was a nice surprise averaging $40+CAD, that’s fur put up by a rookie learning by wrecking the first 3 beaver…lol. So which fur is lower than ever? Yotes are even up.

Amazing stats Gerald … the one number that really blew me away was # of fur buyers in a Iowa, Pennsylvania etc . We had years in 40s, 50s in this province of approximately 2-4 million red squirrels; 1/4 million muskrats ; 60,000 beaver etc ,

With coyote market mortally wounded we lost probably half of the buyers left, which was already pitiful

Oh well ; many of us will keep producing, cause that’s what we do