Ridge Runner

I know how the system is played, don't go there!

Oldtimr

The word Feral indicates the hogs do not belong to anyone so why should the government pay for hog damage? The farmers are free to kill them at will or have others kill them for them. Why should farmers be allowed to double did, get money from the government for damage from hogs while charging hunters who would kill them for free? Sounds like you are afflicted with the government can solve problems syndrome.

North Texan

I've always had trouble navigating that site. Where are you finding the numbers for hog damages?

North Texan

Being burned by people wanting to "help" by hunting hogs is one reason a lot say "no". Been there, done that. Not sure how anyone can mistake a 600 lb. angus steer for a wild boar, but it happened.

Also, hunting is just not effective. Shooting 1, 2, or even 3 pigs at a time as time allows doesn't dent the population. Especially if all the neighbors aren't doing the same. It takes solid, consistent pressure from multiple sources to keep the pigs away. Trapping as many as possible, then specifically targeting and shooting those pigs that are trap-wise. Even then, something like poison would still likely be necessary to take the numbers required to decrease the population, and getting poisons approved has been a difficult, slow process.

Father Forkhorn

This will sound convoluted, but here in Kansas, what you described actually resulted in a ban on shooting any wild hogs. What happened was about 10-15 years ago, there were some instances of people who like hog hunting dumping pigs at random to get a population established for hunting. Farmers were starting to discover groups hogs on their property that had gone feral.

Luckily, the state got them eradicated before they spread far and wide. To dash any hopes of ever hunting hogs in Kansas, they convinced the legislature to pass a law against shooting any wild hogs.

Ridge Runner

It won't specificly say hog damage, just like here in wv its not listed as deer or bear damage, but you can bet the farmers are using it as "farmer's welfare" its a well known fact that 69% of the money goes to 10% of the farmers all accross the country. Don't know what crops are prevalent in the hog areas but you can bet that the big farmers are taking full advantage of the program.

falcon

i have permission to hunt on a few ranches in Oklahoma: But seldom hunt those places. It's much easier to hunt hogs on our deer lease which is located on a major stream. That section of the county is over run with wild hogs. Talked with a rancher who owns 1.5 miles of property north of the Red River. He hired a professional hog trapper who took 1,500 hogs off the place. Within a month the place was again over run with hogs.

The hog population of that entire section of the county will dramatically increase in a few months. Hogs have been devouring the huge crop of pecans and are very fat. Among the hogs we recently trapped was this 250 pound sow. She was pregnant with nine pigs. Her chops are huge and delicious:



The best controller of wild hogs is severe drought. Southwestern Oklahoma was in the clutches of a severe drought from 2010-2015. i often hunt a section of wheat north of the Red River that was previously over run with wild hogs. For several years after the drought i never saw a hog on the property, they are only now starting to frequent the place.