Did you know that wild pigs are found on 6 of the 7 continents? Over the past four decades, wild pigs have expanded into 35 states in the United States, with an estimated population of 6.9 million. They are highly adaptable with high reproductive rates.
There have been multiple studies across the globe which have reported the negative impact of wild pigs to agricultural crops. This damage has cost the Ag Industry millions of dollars annually.
A recently released study using drones was based primarily in Delta County with a small part in Lamar County. Farmland in this area covers between 51 and 60% of the county. The major crops in this region include corn, wheat, sorghum, forage or hay, and cotton. Drones flights were conducted monitoring 10 corn fields assessing damage from wild pigs. These flights were flown throughout the stages of corn growth. With the help of drones, they were able to cover more than 95% of the area than they would have been able to cover with ground surveys. After 36 flights, the results showed that the most damage occurred in the later growth stages when the corn plants are mature and provide cover. Wild pigs damaged up to 9.2% of a single monitored field, which resulted in an average loss of 3,416 kg of corn per hectare and a direct cost to producers of $17.18 to $48.24 per hectare of damage.
For more information on this study, be sure to read the full article here, for the news article release click here.
Wild pigs are not just affecting North Texas but all of Texas. Have wild pigs in your area and not sure what to do?
RWFM Stewardship has a webinar coming up in their webinar series just for you. Join us as James Long talks all things Wild Pigs in Texas including; disease risks, Texas laws, population reduction strategies, and more!
To register for this webinar, be sure to click here.