bait to accustom the pigs to come into the area. Farmers and landowners also must be flexible.


“Hogs adapt,” Norman said. He ex- plained that feral pigs will adapt to trapping or night hunting and will move to another field or come into the fields to feed at differ- ent times. “A lot of trapping is going on, but hunting at night to keep them out of corn is more effective for me.”


He says feral hogs prefer corn. “They damage soybeans some and will graze on wheat, but the biggest issue is corn damage.” Leland said agricultural damage de- pends on several factors, including density of the pig population and the crop planted. He agrees that corn is a favorite for feral pigs. “In some cases, corn farmers have switched to milo, cotton or something else where pigs typically cause less damage.”


Norman said trapping and baiting are time-consuming and expensive. “The feeders with toxicants have had limited suc- cess,” he said.


“The key is to slowly transition from a corn pre-bait to a placebo bait with no toxin,” Leland said. “When the hogs learn to open the containers and become accustomed to eating the placebo, that’s when to add the toxicant.” Training begins with the bait container doors raised, Leland noted. As the hogs get accustomed to the site, the doors are lowered a little at a time until the pigs have to exert some effort to raise it.


“Some learn quicker than others,” he said. “When they learn to open the door, the toxicant is added, and doors stay closed. From starting the corn pre-bait until adding the toxi- cant typically runs ten days to two weeks. “Landowners have to be patient in training,” Leland said. “Don’t take shortcuts.” Researchers are working with sodium nitrite as a potential toxin, he added. “Traps are expensive to set up, and it takes somebody full time feeding them, checking on them and cleaning them out when they catch pigs,” Norman said. “I’ve had the most success with guys who love to hunt hogs and will stay up all night. “We don’t have a lot of time to mess with the traps, but some have had success trapping them, catching 200 to 300 a year. But it seems like a never-ending process.” Norman said pig populations seem to cycle. “Hogs travel over a wide area, so one year they will be bad and gradually dissipate. Then they’ll show up out of the blue some- where different, and you don’t ever know where.”


They have tried to run dogs to scare December 2025 | Goat Rancher 11


feral hogs out of the fields. “We found that we just moved them to another farm or another area.” Norman’s best option is for hunters with thermal imagery to locate the pigs and shoot them in the field. Northeast Texas provides a good habitat


for feral pigs. “We have good rainfall, a lot of timber, a lot of grass, a lot of water, ample places to survive, and things to eat other than crops,” he said. “But they 100 % know what a corn planter is and will come to it.” Norman recalled planting corn one night in 2004. “When I got to the end and turned back, hogs were eating the seed I had just planted. There were more than 100 of them eating the rows just planted.” Complete wipeouts are not typical but 50% of his fields will have some damage every year. “Last year, hunters were not available when I was planting. Hogs ate one field in two days.”


Regardless of the control method, bringing feral hog numbers down to accept- able levels requires a coordinated effort, Le- land said. “A lot depends on the neighbors. Everyone in a defined geographic area must work together. If a neighbor wants to keep hogs around for recreation purposes, the area will have less success in decreasing the pop-


ulation. Landowners who want to work to- gether, who are willing to get after the pigs and stay with them, will be successful. The key is keeping numbers down.”


Leland said landowners on the edge of the coordinated effort will be the first to see hogs repopulate.


“I wish we had a coordinated effort to eliminate numbers,” Norman said. “Land- owners get calls from people wanting to hunt hogs,” he said, adding that hunting is not ef- fective unless it’s ongoing every night during planting season.


He would like to see a statewide effort


or an effort across the Southern states to de- crease the feral hog population. “Maybe something to make them sterile could reduce the numbers,” Norman said.


“Since 2004, we’ve had no year with- out some hog damage. Feral hogs are a big nuisance, and we are giving them the ends of our fields. We have become accustomed to replanting, but that is costly.”


(Ron Smith has spent more than 30 years covering Sunbelt agriculture. Ron began his career in agricultural journalism as an Experiment Station and Extension ed- itor at Clemson University, where he earned a Master’s Degree in English in 1975.)


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32