There are three basic ways to present and sell your fur.
On the Carcass
Green Skinned
and
Finished.
On the Carcass
“On the carcass” means selling the whole animal without any type of skinning. Taking good care of your carcass animals after harvest is very important, and will result in measurably higher averages over a season.
Heat, sunlight, and plastic bags are your enemies. As soon as you get home clean up your animals. Brush out any blood, mud, or dirt. Your local dollar store is a good place to find inexpensive hair brushes, and they do a fine job.
Using cord, twine, or bailing wire, hang your animals up by the back feet. Hang them in an unheated outbuilding, old barn/chicken coop/car port/ etc., even the north side of your garage will work. Just make sure no direct sunlight can hit them, and they have good air circulation all around them.
Quality Fur handled and presented in this manner is a joy to your furbuyer.
Green Skinned
Also known as “In the Grease”, green skinned refers to pelts that are just skinned, without any other fleshing or stretching. After skinning turn the pelt fur side out and freeze flat for short tem storage (1 to 3 months)
Don’t over load your freezer, freeze one layer at a time. Too many layers of fur placed in the freezer at one time can insulate each other and result in the middle layers spoiling. (please do not roll your furs or place in plastic bags)
I personally don’t care if you bring your furs to us frozen, more people in this world are honest, than not. Some buyers however won’t buy frozen fur, so you may have to thaw your furs before taking them to the buyer. Furs frozen flat thaw easier and faster.
Finished Fur
“Finished” fur refers to furs skinned, fleshed, stretched and dried to the generally accepted industry dimensions. There are numerous sources of information on the proper methods for finishing your fur. All most all of them show, and describe the methods in a much better manner than is possible here. Below is a links to one of the best free sources of fur handling info. If you have further questions please feel free to call and ask me about them in person.
Trapperman.com Fur Handling Archives
Hands on experience is the best way to learn. If you can find an established fur harvester in your region that will let come over and watch him put up some fur, you will shorten your learning process considerably.
Join your state Trappers Association. Not only do they need your voting power, they have a convention every year. There’s always someone putting on a fur handling demonstration at these conventions. You can ask questions and see exactly what you’ve been reading about. These are friendly, informal, and designed just for newcomers to the industry.
There are several different fur handling DVD’s available from the big trapping supply mail order businesses. Listed below are a few of those supply companys. I use RK Trapline Products a lot, not only because they are fellow Nebraskans, but they also have great customer service.
RK Trapline Products
Minnesota Trapline Products
Schmidtt Enterprises
Always Remember:
Heat, sunlight, and plastic bags ruin your furs.
Freezers, shade, and good air circulation saves your furs.
If you have any questions what so ever, please call
Greg Petska
308-750-0700