THERE ARE REPORTS THAT CHINA'S MINK RANCHERS have reduced their production drastically because of high feed costs and other problems. Production in that country had been soaring, reaching an estimated 20 million pelts last year, according to Oslo Fur Auctions, which analyzes fur farming around the world and issues figures annually. The growth was fueled by huge purchases of breeding stock from major North American and European farms. But in their haste to multiply their production, the largely inexperienced Chinese farmers were reported to have used breeding practices that resulted in mink that were inferior to their starting stock and brought disappointing prices.

Feed costs are said to be disproportionately higher in China than in North America or Europe. A major reason is that the Western farmers have access to large amounts of offal, including chicken heads, viscera and other waste parts of butchered animals, that go into their feed. Food processors in China, however, have found ways to make such items fit for human consumption, thus resulting in higher costs to animal feed producers. But China's well-publicized pollution problems also have become a factor. Water polluted by the e-coli virus has been blamed for the loss of thousands of kits that were born to bred females bought from American ranchers.

EARLY REPORTS FROM THE RANCHES INDICATE IT WAS A NORMAL WHELPING SEASON for North American mink and few problems so far with the weather or with the mothers feeding their kits. Production is said to be on a par with last year, but from now through mid-June is a critical period during which abnormal heat or high winds can raise the mortality rate among the newborn kits. As previously reported, the number of females bred was up slightly in the U.S., but down about 5% to 10% in Canada, primarily in the important Nova Scotia area.