I seem to have many of the same questions regarding the grading of yotes as Nube does. Over the last 24 hours, I have gone back and forth between my fur descriptions and the NAFA grading explanations multiple times...trying to make sense of it all. The most confusing is the "clarity" section...I can't figure out what those numbers represent...what is 1-4 as compared to 1-2 or 3-4? I don't which of these are good, average or bad. Could someone clarify...I've given up trying to figure it out through the nafa website.
I really had high hopes when it came to my yotes as I really tried putting up quality fur this year. I should maybe explain first. I sent over 120 yotes to auction in 2012 and 13. Of these, not one was ever identified as a "select" and only 3 were identified as "I". Of those remaining, apprxly 65% were I and I-II...the others were all identified as having slight damage. These " damaged" pelts had me perplexed as I do all my snaring in the months of Dec and Jan. Prior to this year, lack of a decent skinning set-up made it necessary to bring all my coyotes to a "custom skinner" and all the aforementioned yotes went that route. I thought that maybe my northern coyotes were just of an inferior quality...it's no secret that the bigger, paler southern dogs are much more desirable at auction. Or could there be another factor/reason that I can't explain?
This year, I did things differently. I did all the skinning, fleshing, washing, boarding and brushing of my coyotes. I thought they looked very good. I sent 30 to auction and here are the results. Two were "selects", two were "I", and the remaining 26 were split 50/50 between "1-2" and "2". I'm happy that I have more Selects and I's than the past 2 years combined, but disappointed that I didn't have more. I really don't know if I should feel slightly disappointed or be satisfied. Again,all these were snared in Dec and Jan...no early yotes and no late ones. So...do I just have to accept that my northern dogs are generally just "average" when it comes to fur quality?
Also(like Nube), I was surprised how many were colour-categorized as being either Drk or Dbr(these 2 colours made up 70% of my yotes). I thought some of my pelts looked fairly pale or greyish but ...? Is this the most common colour category that these northern dogs fall into?
I am interested in what you know, what you think, and what you think you know(lol) regarding southern yotes vs northerns, clarity classifications and typical colour classifications.
Your thoughts and input are appreciated.
|