Hog Wild - The Truth Behind Wild Pig Devastation

The hosts discuss the growing problem of feral pigs in Texas and across the nation. The devastation caused by wild pigs has increased over the years, affecting farming and ranching. Feral pigs have a high reproduction rate, producing up to 14 piglets twice a year. Various methods are used to control the population, such as hunting, trapping, and aerial eradication programs. The hosts discuss the use of toxicant baiting in Australia to lower the pig population, but express concerns about its safety and impact on non-target species. They emphasize the importance of addressing this issue before it becomes unmanageable. The episode ends with a thank you to the guest and listeners, urging everyone to work together to minimize the pig population and its devastation. Hey everybody, welcome to hog wild the truth behind wild pig devastation I'm your host Jeb Bradford and today with me is our co-host my dad as he speaks from the county agent and producers perspectives Thanks, Jed. It's nice to be here today to talk about a a growing situation With feral pigs across our state of Texas as well as the whole nation Thank you so much for being here today. And with that being said, let's jump right in How much devastation have you firsthand seen on your land and how has that devastation changed throughout the years? Jed is a young man growing up I guess and I'll talk about My roots in Caudill and Motley County. We saw no I never saw wild pigs I never saw as a kid never saw any damage from it And over the last 30 40 years that Devastation has grown in all aspects from cropping systems as well as farming and ranching And it's a growing a growing problem across the state even into the Texas Panhandle now where we live This issue has definitely gotten to be exponentially increasing throughout the past few decades And I've even gotten to seeing the changes throughout my lifetime and devastation in population and speaking of population Feral swine have some pretty unique reproduction abilities as they produce up to 14 piglets in a litter twice per year And I was just curious on how you are able to control population on your land And what are some ideas that you've maybe come up with to help solve this issue? Well, Jed, I guess traditional hunting methods have always been there and will continue to be there And bring some excitement to hunters as well as trapping And and we do have people that also use the sport of hunting with dogs As well as some counties. I know have aerial eradication programs in place I've always thought it would be interesting to find figure out if we could do some research on some type of Sterilant that we could bait pigs and feed if we can keep it in target species I'd like to discuss one population control method that they're conducting over in Australia And this was in an article titled the swine impacts on agriculture in the environment written by the University of Lincoln, Nebraska This is where they were using toxicant baiting, which is unapproved in America But in Australia, it was proved to lower the population of wild pigs by 58 to 73 percent And I was just curious on your take on this subject and if America could possibly benefit from using this idea So I really think that the thought process of toxic bait baiting Is not very good I think it poses too much threat to to non-target species out there that would also eat the bait I think there's a threat to hunters and consumers of feral pigs I Just don't think that it is a viable safe solution for us to look at as well as I think that there is always a potential to threaten or Get into water supplies, I just do not like the idea of toxic baiting I Think we just definitely have to get in front of this issue before it's too big for us to be able to handle Other than that Jody, we just want to thank you for being here and thank you the listeners for joining in As a whole we just got to do everything we can to keep the population down and keep the devastation to a minimum Other than that, thank you all for joining in. See you next time on hog wild