Just curious if anyone had any idea what was going on with Fur Farms, specifically in the U.S? I haven't heard anything about them for quite some time, there used to occasionally be discussion about them regarding profitability, etc.

Mink?
Fox?
Chinchilla still a thing?

Mink farms around here are downsizing drastically.

Several countries in Europe - Denmark and The Netherlands (I think) - have outlawed fur farming altogether.

I think the US mink ranchers keep a very low profile due to harassment and vandalizing by the antis. A few years ago (maybe 10 or so) there was an overproduction of mink (thanks mainly to the Chinese) which caused pelt prices to drop. Any number of mink ranchers pelted out because they were losing money. Pelt prices have improved some what and the back log of pelts has been used up. With rising production costs - feed and vaccines- going up. It still isn’t profitable for most mink ranchers to continue.

Ranch fox production in the US is basically non-existent. Most ranch fox come from Scandinavia.

Believe or not chinchilla is very profitable right now. Have no idea who raises them or where. Information I heard on a podcast can’t remember where. Ranch fox have not been profitable since probably 2012 and for all practical purposes done in the US. Might be a few raised for beautiful tanned pelts for hanging. A few low key small mink ranches still at it. Prices are slowly improving. A couple a huge ranches left at least one in Wisconsin that’s very large.

Below is a recent reporting of the ranch mink harvest in the USA for 2023 and 2024.

Bryce

https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Todays_Reports/reports/mink0725.pdf

There's only a few of us left. I have a few ranch fox and some ranch mink. We will see how the auction at saga goes in March. Should be better. Been a tough road to stay in the business. Only about 6 or 7 million fresh mink produced maybe less.

Cool to hear from someone in the buisness, best of luck with the sale.

There is some big chinchilla farms in Indiana. A big one closed in 2022. I looked into buying some of their cages, but they wanted to sell them all together. It was way more cages than I wanted. I could have resold the extra cages. The price was good. But it would have been more work than I wanted to move that many cages, for the profit. It would of tied up to much money, that could be better spent too.

Keith

Nancy, most fox are now produced in China, far more than in Scandinavia. Check with a broker.

Are the Chinese ranch fox the same quality as the Scandinavian ranch fox? I know that for a while the Chinese ranch mink were inferior quality.

Thank you.

I would doubt much has changed with the Chinese and fur quality. Like everything from China, I would still bet it is inferior.

Colors of mink that seem most popular are sapphire, Violet, pastel, black mink are making a strong come back, white mink are down from popularity.