grading fur and he comes to a lot
of odd-shaped skins he will grade
down for size rather then guess at
what it will be after the tanning
process. So, by suggesting we start
doing little things like going to a
uniform stretcher there will be a
monetary reward for the effort.
The other issue that’s coming
up is female cats and nursing
swirls on the bellies. The money
in cats is the belly fur, not the
back and flanks, the big dollar
coats are basically belly fur with
the black sport with flank or back
fur as trim. And we are getting
to the point of overharvesting in
some areas when you dip into the
female cat population. In so doing you are going to end up with
a cat that is of little value, and the
most important part — the overall
population in a given area — is
damaged and slow to recover. The
best thing to do is find new populations to harvest from and not
dip into the female cats or we’ll
have nothing in the future to sell.
The 2010/2011 season is right
around the corner and now is
the time to start preparing for it.
There is equipment to upgrade,
the establishment of new land
access, fur-processing equipment
upgrades and building of fur
sheds amongst an endless list of
things to do. Right now is also a
good time to outline what didn’t
work or you had problems with
and resolve these issues so you
don’t have to deal with them
again this season. The purchase
of fur harvesting-designated rifles
in calibers that do not destroy
hides, but cleanly kill the animal, is also a sound investment.
Did you know these guns can
be a tax deduction if you report
income from the fur you harvest?
They’re “tools of the trade” and
this makes them a legitimate part
of your business. Having a rifle
for a specific task really simpli-fies the option of having to try
and make do with what you got.
