A year on a mink ranch

The Hillsdale Fur Farm has gone through 75 generation of mink.

It all started with three mink in 1931. This last winter they kept 24,000 breeders– 20,000 females and 4,000 males.

Each male is mated to five females starting in early March. “He’s got a few days to catch her,” says Genos Sullivan, farm foreman. “He’s got a smile on his face the first of March but by the 15th his eyes are closed.”

The kits are born through the first three weeks of April with four to ten kits per litter. Sullivan expects there’ll be 100,000 mink when the birthing is all done.

At two months the kits will have grown to almost full body weight.

They stay with their mothers into July when they are separated two to a nest and vaccinated. “In the summer this is a happening place,” says Lindon Mullen, president of the farm. “Just putting 80,000 pounds of food through here every day. And the mink have to be watered and looked after too.”

In November the fur is “prime,” and the mink are killed and pelted.

There are four auctions every year, two in Seattle and two in Toronto. “I sell 100,000 pelts in three minutes,” says Lindon. “That’s my whole year’s work, my whole year’s income.”

Lindon usually goes to Seattle in February. “You can try to beat the market but you can get hit too. We usually go in February and over the years it will work out.”

He says it is nice to go to the auction for a lot of reasons. “You at least see what is going on. You can sit here and wait for the phone to ring but if you’re there, you know.”

He also likes to see what other ranchers are doing differently in case there’s something he can learn.

And when he gets back from the auction, it’s time to start breeding the next generation, just as they’ve done for 75 years.