With the price for hatters in the ballpark of 50% cheaper this season will the harvest be off a lot?

I hope so.

The few local sales to date would indicate a big yes!

There are still plenty of beavers in dealers freezers. FHA had 45,000 beaver on the March sale last year (2024) this March (2025) they have 50,000 where did they come from?

Most of those beaver were dead before there was news of any price drop.

I think that is right. Probably a lot of them were caught spring of '24.

Probably two years of castor in freezers. I probably have three years worth at least.

Harvest is definately off-but I also believe Fur Harvesters has beavers left over from last year. Beavers need to be harvested each season or you get a lot of them taken out of the market in summertime nuisance calls.If there isn't a big harvest this spring-there will be lots of nuisance calls this summer. Castor may go up again if the harvest is off as bad as everyone thinks it is. I know I have 2 seasons worth of castors as well. Guys are not out trapping like last season either. I truly believe the market hasn't been set for beavers yet believe it not.This next auction will tell some of the story. Not only is the harvest off but what happens to fur coming back and forth over the border-tariffs? We are in no mans land at the moment

Means you have to increase your catch rate by 50% !

I better get busy Cory!

That was always the way I figured things.

In Minnesota, IMO, The population has been hammered. No pun intended. along with the low prices it may be time to take a year off?

In the 30's, farmers had this same conception about wheat. Flooded the market for far less money and helped create the depression. I'm agree with Finlander.

The beaver market will come back, Fedora's and Cowboy hats are still popular and selling well. The problem for trappers is that the Felters have a 2 1/2 year supply of skins at the moment, and there are still a lot of beaver pelts in trappers and dealers freezers. So my guess would be 2-3 years before there is a significant increase in price again. Possibly with the exception of Northern mid winter shearing beaver being needed and [picking up in price

only problem with beaver that have been frozen for 2-3 years is they get freezer burnt/dried out and its very hard to flesh those green skinned hides-I am working on some of those right now and they are way too much work compared to fresh goods.Now if guys are selling green guess it doesn't matter but I put everything up so just saying.

I've sent goods to the dresser (beaver) that were 8 & 9 years old, but fleshed and dried properly, they dressed fine for longhair. You begin to have small issues with longtime frozen pelts for plucking and shearing.

If you can believe it, I'm going fishing.

If a guys got freezers, would it be better to put them up and just freeze em in a fur bag for a couple years or do they get burnt? FHA hung onto a bunch of my nicer beaver last auction, wouldn’t go lower that $40.
Guessing FHA stores their fur in big walk-in freezers?

"Guessing FHA stores their fur in big walk-in freezers? "
No they don't.you're guessing wrong... (no way near all of it anyway..)
Buyers have told me..more than one big buyer from different regions of the country...That have physically been. To the auction.. they have it in big buildings with guys whose job is to solely walk around and spray for bugs..

That's why one year your fur grades good..then is held.over and the next year your grade for that fur drops..bug damaged fur always drops in grades.


FHA guys and gals...jump on me if you want but the fur buyers that told me wouldnt make it up..and they werent together when they told me either....its got so bad that they'd rather buy straight from the trappers..which is why they often contact us asking us to get them in contact with trappers that the can provide quality pelts they know aren't damaged.

Theyll say hey..we need 200 reds(has happened) we send the info on to fur buyers we know so they can fill the orders.

Jerry doesn't buy the fur(he's not a buyer) he just puts the buyer in contactt with the guy that can get then what they need.
Jerry himself has sold.to guys clear across the country cause the buyers want to ensure the quality so he goes.striqght

Yes this would be better Jake but who has freezers big enough to put 200 put up beavers into? Green skun frozen can take on any shape pretty well. A lot of guys don't put up their beavers they sell them green.The problem arises when they have been in the freezer a couple 3 seasons the fat gets yellow and hard-very hard to flesh off the hide when they are like this-I am working on some for another guy right now-never again.Soaking them down just in order to try to get them soft enough to flesh and board.I put up all my beaver within the same year each and every season