The Rural Voice, 1992-12, Page 29are 100 per cent black. There are
other colours, that show up as
recessive, such as white, violet,
pastel, and demi-buff.
Care is taken in the breeding, with
the mink in the best coat and in the
best condition kept for breeding the
next spring. Some breeding stock is
sold and some is traded with other
ranchers who have other blood lines.
Mink are not registered but note is
made of the area where they
originated.
Grading of the animals begins in
late fall, about November 15 in this
area. The mink are held under four
fluorescent tubes in a home-made
cart which is wheeled along the
passageway. Since the light
conditions are always the same, a
consistent judgement can be made as
to the quality of the pelts. "When
you run your hand against the grain
of the pelt and then smooth it down,
you can tell if it's a good pelt or not."
Chuter admits that his wife, Sharon,
who works for the Tuckersmith
Telephone, is much better at grading
than he is and he depends on her
judgement. Chuter's son Jeff also
helps out on the ranch.
Two mink are run to a pen which
is made of wire mesh with a plywood
nesting box. The pens are regulation
size. The nesting box is filled with
shavings. Sometimes, mink will
gnaw through their pens and escape.
Since mink can squeeze through a
relatively small space, new partitions
must be made out of plywood.
In the breeding pens, the nesting
box has a partition and is filled with
straw, so the mink can build a nest
for her kits and run in to feed them.
A moveable plywood floor is placed
in the bottom of the cage so that the
kits don't fall through the wire.
The first mink are bred about the
first of March and the first litters of
young born about the first of May.
The mink are watched during
parturition. "Sometimes she won't
nip the navel cord, then we have to,"
said Chuter.
Almost all his animals survive the
whelping and weaning process
whereas in the wild, very few would
reach maturity.
The mink is a good mother, gentle
with her kits, but she can be ferocious
in defending them against intruders.
She may have four or six kits to raise
(the average litter size on the Chuter
farm is 4.5) and, if there are too
many, another mink will take them
without reservation. This is a bit of a
surprise since the females who have
just whelped may dislike each other
intensely and have to be kept in
sturdy separated pens.
The female is smaller than the
male, about half the size. Chuter has
about 1700 females. The mink are
inquisitive but they are not tame.
They can bite very hard with their
teeth, and their long claws can also
do damage, so they are handled with
long leather gloves. They are easily
startled and don't like strangers. A
sudden movement and they all run to
the back of the pen.
Since mink ranching has been
established for many decades, there
are guidelines for operation.
Periodically, the vet presents a list of
questions to be answered about how
the ranch is run. Problems that
develop can be solved. Complaints
Today's mink farm
mechanized for feeding
and cleaning
about smells can be alleviated with
the help of vets or supervisors from
the University of Guelph.
Chuter mentioned that his average
size farm of about 8,000 mink now
makes use of mechanized equipment.
When he didn't have so many
animals, they were fed and cleaned
out by hand.
Since mink are carnivorous, they
must be fed fresh meat and fish. In
the early days of fur farms, the mink
were fed horsemeat or beef. Old
horses or cattle were collected from
farms for the trouble of picking them
up.
Chuter says that his mink are very
particular about what they eat. "The
feed has to be fresh and cold," he
said. In the immaculate feed shed,
there is a cold storage, a large drive-
in freezer, a grinder for preparing
feed, and a bin with an auger to mix
it.
"The feed for tonight is turkey,
liver, raw eggs, cereal, minerals, and
vitamins," said Chuter, a high -protein
diet to put a sheen on their coats. He
maintains that high-quality feed is
even more important when prices are
low so that sales can be made in
quality pelts.
The feed is balanced to avoid
deficiency problems: poultry by-
products are ground with about 35
per cent cereals and stirred to a thick
consistency. Fish and fish products
are fed during the growing season
until about mid-August. The day of
the interview, he was expecting a
load of liver from Peterborough. A
front-end loader will assist removing
the liver from the truck into the
freezer.
The mink are fed mechanically.
From a hose on a power -driven cart,
the mixed feed is deposited on the top
of the cage. The amount is controlled
by a push button. Males are fed
about 9 oz. and females 5 oz. at
eleven in the morning.
The mink thrive on fresh water.
Each pen is equipped with an
automatic water supply with lines
running across the top of the pens.
The mink can stand to operate the
nipple. Since the water is
continuously circulating it doesn't
freeze in winter.
Arranged in long rows, the pens
are raised off the ground which helps
keep the animals clean and dry.
Since the mink shed a great deal, the
hair falls through the open pens. The
dung is shovelled onto a conveyor
belt.
"It makes great fertilizer for the
roses and the garden," says Chuter.
He maintains he doesn't need to buy
fertilizer for his fifteen acres of
soybeans.
Chuter has designed his mink
ranch on 50 acres of land. The pens
and many of the carts arc home -built
and home -repaired. Chuter has seven
sheds for his mink. Naturally
ventilated, the sheds are open at the
bottom for breezes in summer and are
closed with plastic for the winter
months. Since the mink is a cold
weather animal, they can stand cold
with protection much better than they
can stand the summer heat and
humidity.
Despite the low prices and low
economic conditions at the present
time, Chuter will use his resources
and long experience to continue his
very successful fur farm, until his
mahogany mink pelts once again
fetch a very good price in the auction
house with the other ranch mink, the
chinchilla and the fox.0
DECEMBER 1992 25