My account isn't updated yet, but the castor prices are up.

"Castoreum West Select
$75.20/lb
Grade #1
$64.80/lb
Grade #2
$44.80/lb
Grade #3
$28.00/lb"

Source: March 2025 FHA

Mine will stay in the freezer.

It looks like as the season went on the price went up on the leftover #2 castor. Started out at the $44 valuation and increased $4 over time. Big difference in the #3 grade. Up $10 since last June.

I'm told that the #1 grades go immediately every time. Very little difference from last June until now, but that could be because it sold so fast.

Will be interesting to see castor prices on the June sale.

It's the Gr 1 & 2 that got my attention. They hung onto my Gr2 for quite a while until a couple auctions ago. But about 80% of mine is Western Select. Should tack on another grand or so to the check. Not bad for an extra couple minutes while skinning.

When I say "up".........I mean posted....lol. Lower grades moved.

There’s such a thing as western select? Hmmm, I’m keeping a little Lake of the Woods stuff close to home, even though I have enough lure made for the rest of my life

Show us a pic when you can of your "western select" Shakey. I was told it was the well filled light colored castor. I have a lot like that and was surprised (that's the Canadian vernacular for miffed) that not one ounce of 13 lbs graded that way for me last year. When I trap the big river near home most of it is that kind imho.

I ain’t no grader, but these are just over a pound together. Taken over the last couple weeks, hung to dry for 1-2 days and into the freezer. I’m guessing these will be western selects except the greyish one, but not 100% sure.

Jim Gibb has a good video for the trappers that don’t cut out the castors or don’t really care about em. It’s older but still applied. Unfortunately he mentions Western Select but doesn’t show any. I chose to sell at this auction. Dirt is hanging onto his, he figures he’ll do better and I think he’s right. I’ll be freezing mine for probably a couple seasons. Wait until the beaver market tanks then maybe send em in a 1-2 years later? Who knows…..lol

I turned down $40 a pound, all in and my weight. Probably should have took it.

I’ve never had any luck shipping our type castor. Their weight and my weight were always a long ways apart lol.

The shrinkage that they apply has always been the rub. The last time I shipped I got docked for 17% which is the lowest shrinkage they've ever hit me with. Usually it's been in the low 20's. Now, if'm I had got a bunch of western select at $100/lb in there I wouldn't have cared diddly about the dang shrinkage.

Working with castor shrinkage is always a big issue.

I buy it all the time and you have it either to dry or to wet.

The worse is when guys tie strings to each pod and trap the liquid inside.

Follow my video and it works for both the seller and buyer.

40 a lb, clay did you not sell castor back when it was 3.00 a lb? lol. I remember when it got to 20 a lb that was a BIG deal.

Cheapest I ever sold it was at $20 a pound many years ago.
I don’t remember it being $3 lol.

Shrinkage is the killer on the Canadian auctions. (NAFA did the same as FHA), their prices always look good, but you need to knock 20% off when comparing them to prices you can get locally. They automatically take a percentage off for shrinkage regardless of whether your castor is going to shrink that much or not. There are years you can take that hit and come out ahead, but more years than not you would likely come out ahead selling locally for less per pound but getting paid for your full weight.

Even when I sent all my furs to Canada I didn't send my castor there. I have a local guy who has markets in the perfume trade. I don't take it to him, I wait until he comes by my house asking if I have castor. I may have to wait a few years, but when he comes asking he is willing to pay more than anyone else. lol

Funny thing, I used to hear that the buyers wanted that liquid in the pods and obviously to have it leak out you lost weight. I started tying a tiny piece of hemp string around each side and when dry you couldn't even see it as it was the same color as dry castor. Wasn't until later I learned that I was wrong on both counts. Haven't done that for 20 years now.

What I do these days is squeeze out the liquid castor before I even start skinning (it's going to want to come out anyway while you handling the castors). I save this and use it as lure. Next I hang the castors in my cold fur shed for a few days as I accumulate more castor. Then it goes into my drying room on a refrigerator rack laying down. Fan and dehumidifier do their work for about a week, I turn them regularly every day or so. Next I put them in zip lock and freeze them. Just before selling them I take them back out and re-dry them for about 24 hours in the drying room. They are dry but still a little squishy in the interior. Not sloshy though.

As you can see from my pics I take care to get all the shrugging muscle off the castor. On males I remove the penal plug which is that white kind of plastic like piece located just at the cloaca entrance.

That plug thing is great lure all on its own.....awesome stuff.

Why is it bad to tie the castors shut?
I've never thought about tieing it as I've never had big amounts of fluid leak out, seems like it's already kinda sealed on their own.

Shakey, I've never thought to use the plug on its own. How do you use it?

As far as tying I was later told that any adulteration of castors with foreign material was strictly verboten in the perfume trade.

Haha, good to know.......picky buggers.....lol.
As for that plug thing, I've just tossed it in a box, DP or whatever, nothing fancy. Some I've ground up and tossed it in my beaver lure. The first one I ever pulled out, I found it felt like a stem of cauliflower and the fragrance was wicked! I figured there's no way I'm tossing this little piece of gold out.