Confused about Hogs

NV_ARCH3R · Sep 22, 2012

I'm confused here,If the hogs in the South and California etc. are such a problem, destoying property, killing livestock. Driving farmers out of business. Wouldn't you think they would be paying hunters to come in and kill as many as possible instead of charging $ to hunt em?

kansasdad · Sep 22, 2012

Today's Wichita Eagle ran a story on the success Kansas seems to be having in combating feral hogs.
http://www.kansas.com/2012/09/21/2499236/kansas-winning-war-against-wild.html

spook12 · Sep 22, 2012

I'm not an expert on the subject but seems like lots of people want them GONE. On the other hand i think that there is another group who want to manage them like big game and ''cash in'' on another opportunity.

IMO they should be shot on sight, nothing more than vermin.

jabber · Sep 22, 2012

I can't get that link to work for me, but here is my take on it.

I can't answer for everybody, but hunting hogs is not an effective way to eradicate them, whether we are doing it or you paid someone to do it. We have hunted with guns, we have had hunters with dogs, we have had traps (which is probably the best method we have found) but they are still here.

The hogs are nomadic, when they show up and get pressured, they simply move on and leave their carnage behind. When they come back, we do it again. Hunting them either by gun or dogs, you can kill a few before they are gone, but nowhere near enough to hurt the population. The damage the can do in one night alone is astounding when you get a herd of 15 to 20 or more rooting in moist sandy soil,

noharleyyet · Sep 22, 2012

NV_ARCH3R said:
I'm confused here,If the hogs in the South and California etc. are such a problem, destoying property, killing livestock. Driving farmers out of business. Wouldn't you think they would be paying hunters to come in and kill as many as possible instead of charging $ to hunt em?

Archer as long as shooters will pay, they will be money 'hunted'. Like jabber said, they are nomadic and destructive eating machines with truncated gestation periods, keen to pressure, and breed like mosquitoes.

mlbuck84 · Sep 22, 2012

UC Davis in CA did a study on Cow/Calf operations and the affect that acorns have on calving. The results were that cows that ate a mixture of Oak leaves and acorns produced low weight, deformed and small boned calves. Some were still born.

Because of this, some ranchers here in california brought pigs onto their properties to eat the acorns. And then, after the hogs populate, ranchers would offer pig hunts for profit.

RUT JUNKEY · Sep 24, 2012

noharleyyet said:
Archer as long as shooters will pay, they will be money 'hunted'. Like jabber said, they are nomadic and destructive eating machines with truncated gestation periods, keen to pressure, and breed like mosquitoes.

How true about the breeding part. Think about if a sow has a litter of 10 piglets 3 times a year. . .1/2 of the first litter will be ready to breed and have 10 piglets by the time the 3rd litter is born. . .its a battle that can't be won by hunting alone. If there is money to be made we all know people are going to try and do whatever they can to grab it. ( might even make more money than cattle farming anyway, especially this year)

jryoung · Sep 24, 2012

A litter of 10 3x a year is a bit generous, studies have shown it's more like litters of 6-8 about every 6 months. But that is still very significant. I also know many have transported/introduced pigs from one part of the state to another here in CA.

npaden · Sep 24, 2012

Here's the quote from the article that kansasdad linked that sums it up the best IMO.

Though it works well with deer, sport hunting does little to control the number of the highly intelligent, mostly nocturnal and very fertile wild hogs.

“It’s just not an effective way to control pig populations,” Salter said.

“If (sport hunters) get on a group of 20, they may get three or four. After that the pigs take off and become someone else’s problem. When they come back, there’ll be more of them.”

Kansas doesn't allow sport hunting of hogs and they are doing about the best of any state at controlling their populations.

You aren't going to control hogs by sport hunting. Period. If anything it might actually increase the population because of the losers out there who catch and release them for something to do when deer season is over.

There are landowners who pay for aerial gunning and trapping of hogs. But that's work, not fun. Most landowners will allow trapping on their property, but when the price of live hogs droppped through the floor back in 2008 along with fuel prices going up, the trappers can't make enough money to warrant running the traps. Letting some stranger come tromp around on your land for a weekend hoping to shoot a couple pigs just isn't going to get anything accomplished compared to the potential risks involved to the landowner.

RUT JUNKEY · Sep 24, 2012

jryoung said:
A litter of 10 3x a year is a bit generous, studies have shown it's more like litters of 6-8 about every 6 months. But that is still very significant. I also know many have transported/introduced pigs from one part of the state to another here in CA.

agree, just a hypothetical situation. The gestation period for gilts/sow is on average 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days, or 112-115 days. Piglets will be ready to breed @ 32 weeks. . . . A wild hog may take longer to reach their breeding age and will have smaller litters and take longer to wean the piglets. like I said its all about the $$$.

Tom · Sep 24, 2012

A 2000 acre place I used to hunt and kill 4-5/ summer at would have hunters come in when the hogs started eating the crops in the spring. They'd still eat about $5000 of milo, though they were hunted by many. The profit went down on his milo, so he stopped growing the milo and set up hog hunting stations around his ranch perimeter. He does that now instead of grow crops, get money from hog hunters.

NV_ARCH3R · Sep 27, 2012

I'm not sayin sport hunting is the answer, but it could be a part, I'd make a trip to hog hunt if I didn't have to pay big bucks, and could shoot as many as possible while there. Big, little it wouldn't matter. Treat em like the varmits they are.

Confused about Hogs

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