FARGO, N.D. (AP) &045; An abundance of deer in North Dakota and Minnesota coupled with warm weather early in the hunting season is keeping butcher shops hopping.

On Sunday, hunters brought a record 160 deer carcasses to Casselton Cold Storage. The 10-member team at the facility, which does not refrigerate unskinned deer, worked until midnight to butcher them all, after a week of 16- to 18-hour work days. The hectic pace had forced the workers to suspend sausage making.

&8220;All we’ve been doing is cutting deer and skinning it,&8221; owner Craig Halverson said.

Bob Nelson, who runs a butcher shop in Dilworth, Minn., said he has been drinking a lot of

caffeinated soda as he works nine hours a day, seven days a week.

&8220;My wife says I’m holding up pretty well,&8221; he said. &8220;I’m not too crabby.&8221;

Nelson estimated his business has increased 50 percent over last year. &8220;They just keep coming,&8221; he said.

A record 145,600 deer licenses were available in North Dakota this year, according to the state Game and Fish Department. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said an estimated 200,000 deer were expected to be killed in that state this season.

Unseasonable warm weather &045; some parts of North Dakota had record-high temperatures last week &045; have led to a lot of hunters in the field.

Neal Braasch, owner of Dilworth’s Gourmet Game Processing, said he had 508 orders as of Saturday. Last year at the same time, he had about 350.

&8220;We’re almost at our maximum right now as to what we can really handle,&8221; he said. &8220;If we don’t stay on the ball right now, it will get to the point where I’ll be turning people away.&8221;

Busy butcher shops mean longer waits for hunters. Braasch said orders he typically turns around in six to seven weeks now might take as long as 10 weeks.

The wait at Casselton Cold Storage is four to five weeks, compared with three to four weeks last year. Halverson said hunters generally accept the delays without complaints, but some impatient hunters have started calling.

West Fargo hunter Todd Kirchoffner, who was turned away by a busy butcher last year, said many hunters have started skinning their own deer.

&8220;They want the hunters to go out and shoot the deer to bring the numbers down,&8221; he said. &8220;And yet there’s no place to take your meat in.&8221;