Are hogs in Texas really that bad?

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So to cut to the core,
NO!
They are not that big a problem.

Not yet anyway.

Leave the ranchers and the farmers alone.
If they need help they will ask.
If and when they need help badly they will not try to charge people that come to help them. Charging money is a 100% sure sign the help is not needed all that badly.
 
For what it is worth, my wife and I were hiking in a nice hilly park just north of 1604 in San Antonio, and a large group of hogs crossed the trail in front of us. I also saw a nice big old black boar dead on its back on the road by La Cantera - our richy, rich mall - :) Died by luxury car!

On the South side of town, I see them quite a bit.

However, the deer are everywhere. I've seen some horrendous deer car incidents.

My friends have a guy who traps hogs and gets about 20 at a time near Rock Springs and sells them to Europe as wild boar.
 
If and when they need help badly they will not try to charge people that come to help them. Charging money is a 100% sure sign the help is not needed all that badly.
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Maybe that will happen when the government stops paying farmers for losing crops. So right now they get government subsidies and they get paying hunters, like they do for deer.

This does not mean that hogs are not a big problem, but they are not as much of a problem as they are a subsidized source of income.
 
During the Guadalupe River flood of 1998, my cousin trapped 34 hogs right next to his house. The rising water had driven them out of the bottoms. This was south of Cuero some nine miles.

In my coastal bermuda hay pasture fairly close to the river, rooting hogs tore up somewhere around fifteen acres and made it almost impossible to mow and bale.
 
So right now they get government subsidies and they get paying hunters,
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The neighbor to a quarter section i own farms about 8-10 thousand acres. He rakes in $200,000 per year in farm subsidy payments. He does not take in hunters but does allow some trapping.
 
I have an open invitation to hunt near infinite land for hogs in Texas from a couple people I'm barely more than acquainted with. No one has made that offer to me for deer in Ohio, so I'd have to guess there is a problem.
People don't want total strangers on their property. If you want strangers wandering your property you buy a California Vineyard, not a Texas ranch.
 
People don't want total strangers on their property. If you want strangers wandering your property you buy a California Vineyard, not a Texas ranch.
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Yeah, a lot of us buy Texas land specifically because we like the property laws here that preclude strangers from our property. There is a VERY GOOD reason Texas has so little public lands. We like our private property.
 
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When the Republic of Texas joined the Union, it retained ownership of its public lands. These lands were then put into a system of homesteading and into payment for development of railroads and into public school lands. The public school lands were sold to the private sector, but the mineral rights were retained as part of the School Fund. The state now retains title to very little public land.

Trespass laws are no stricter than in many other states; Georgia is one example. Modern liability laws affect how landowners view access for any sort of visitor.

In brush country grazing lands, actual monetary losses from hogs are less than in farming areas. So, some ranches charge money for access to a hunting opportunity. Other areas may be more lenient about access, as a larger problem exists.
 
My great-grandparents homesteaded and "took up" some 4,500 acres in the Panhandle, in 1890. Their land was taken into the XIT, and "the boys" went to work for that ranch. The XIT, three million acres, was given by the state as payment for construction of the state capitol building--which established the price of land in Texas.

The limestone for the building was quarried at Oak Hill, and a railroad was built up Brazos St. to the capitol grounds. The RR was "discovered" some years back; it's six or eight feet below the present pavement level.

Enough drift. :D
 
"So right now they get government subsidies and they get paying hunters"

I believe this is a validation of what I said earlier.
The hogs are not THAT much of a problem. At least not yet.
How the ranchers and farmers get paid is not the issue.
As long as they are doing ok financially they are not too worried.

If a land owner wants to have hunters on his land that's his right. Private means just that. HE has that right.
If he wants to charge HE has that right.
If he wants to NOT CHARGE He has that right.
We need to respect that the land owner OWNS the land and has every right to make rules as and when he want to.
I own a bit of land and I allow hunters to come here openly. My neighbor doesn't. He is not "evil”. It’s HIS land.

I like to have hunters come to my land and so I do. I only demand that they treat it with respect and that they let me know they are going to be on it. I don't get paid by the government at all; I just like hunters (I find most of them to be good folks)

If the government tit was to dry up for Texas land owners you will see a difference.

Until then they are doing ok.

As with most working men and women they will tell you how “times are hard” but the proof that they are doing OK with the hogs is just exactly what I said before.

When and if things get desperate the “hunting’ will become control shooting and the farmers and ranchers will not be inclined or able to handle the whole problem themselves. They can’t shoot and protect their land all day every day.

I am sure they will be selective about who they ask to help, and who they allow to help, but they will not charge money if the problem is serious anymore than a farmer would demand the fire department pay him to put out the fire in his barn.
 
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I do love how people want to come down to Texas and help us shoot hogs. They don't want to come help mend fences or muck out stalls, but instead just assume that we don't have enough people here who can or want to shoot hogs, LOL. We do. Not only that, we have a LOT of non-landowning people here who want to come and shoot for free as well, some of whom get rather ugly about the notion about why they won't be allowed to shoot for free.

Feral hogs are a problem, no doubt. So are deer. Deer still do a tremendous amount of damage, several times more than hogs (of course there are more deer, right?). However, feral hogs are a commodity as well.

Farmers may hate hogs, but they know something that seemingly every wannabe-free hunter does not realize. Shooting a few hogs on your weekend trip isn't really going to help out the farmer that much as you can't keep the hogs from returning.

Do the math. Say we do have 2 million hogs (see below) and $52 million annual damage. That means each hog does just $26 a year in damage. How much damage does a Johnny-come-lately hunter do if he puts a bullet through your tractor, house, drives across your wheat field in his truck to retrieve a hog, leaves a gate open, etc.?
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Exactly DNS....Some folks just don't get it and seem kinda bitter....? :rolleyes:
 
"How the ranchers and farmers get paid is not the issue."

Sure it is. For a rancher, repairing fences is additive overhead, along with extra costs from disking torn up hay fields. He's not subsidized by anybody. About the only government subsidy I know of in ranching is for mohair goats, and those are a tiny percentage. Seems like Boer goats are the big deal, nowadays, along with pet-food goats.

Farm subsidies are Federal, and the amounts are dependent on the amount of production. Production losses to feral hogs reduce income. I see no justification for indifference to any reduction in somebody's standard of living. The ad valorem property tax guy is indifferent to profits, of course.

As far as losses to deer, note that deer don't tear up fences or land. They don't root the ground. They certainly don't hurt cotton crops; not much consumption of young corn, and apparently are not a problem in rice or wheat country. Lots of deer in milo maize and cabbage country, with no apparent problems.
 
he says that if it really was a problem that land owners would not be charging to hunt and would be welcoming people to come rid them of a problem.
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Your friend at the range is *exactly* correct. Nail, meet head. Hunting would be free or dirt cheap to those known to be law-abiding and ethical, if the problem were big enough. It's not, cuz it's not.

Shooting a few hogs on your weekend trip isn't really going to help out the farmer that much
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He went wrong there. Of course it will, if they're sows. Every little bit helps. At the rate they breed, taking even ONE sow out will help reduces the number of offspring. Won't eliminate the problem, but chips away at it. If they don't want to let people hunt free, fine. It's their land. But that tells me it's really not THAT big of a problem.
 
Wyosmith makes excellent points.

Yes, landowners have the right to determine who ison their land. They can be selective in who they allow to hunt. No argument here.

From my viewpoint and YES DNS, I get it. It is your right to keep hunters off OR to charge them for helping rid your place of vermin.

But, quit crying about the "problem" since you've already determined the best solution :eek:
 
The only folks I see crying are those who want to hunt for free, lol. They seem to think that we can't, or don't have the right to complain about our problem unless we let them help with it. Sorry, but it don't work that way.
 
So if a hillbilly or two who brought their own fencing pliers, post driver and leather gloves, and was willing to spend a couple days fixing fence for someone reckon they would then be in good graces enough with the landowner to be allowed to hunt for a day or two. Some of use don't have much spare cash but do have an ability to sweat and work. Just thinking to cause I know I could likely round up at least 1 probably 3 of my hunting buddies to work in exchange for a little hog hunting. We used to do it for deer hunting in North Missouri, hauled hay, worked cattle, built stuff for the farmer etc. Worked out great for us and made some long term friends out of the deal. Having grown up around hogs I have no doubt the damage they could do to a field of corn or cotton, in a very short while.
 
Panfisher, I imagine that if a guy showed up at a farm or ranch with that sort of trade-out offer, and looked like a squared-away person, there are good odds of finding a place to hunt hogs.
 
Agreed. And with a gracious offer like that, you might not even end up fixing any fences.

Lots of folks show up acting more like modern day carpetbaggers and that doesn't go over so well.
 
The only folks I see crying are those who want to hunt for free, lol. They seem to think that we can't, or don't have the right to complain about our problem unless we let them help with it. Sorry, but it don't work that way.
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Exactly...Some folks wanna hunt for free..and if they can't..they wanna cry about it....:(

Boy am I glad I did'nt let a particular person on this thread hunt any of my places....I made the right call....
 
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