Just how bad are the piggies in TX?

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Somewhere around $50 million per year in crop damage...
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Not to contradict you, Art, as I have seen and used that number as well, but I think it is out of date. I know that there are different state offices and university people that have come up with various other estimates, but I think the $50 million has been used for at least the last 4-5 years.

Here is a 2007 article mentioning it as $52 million in crop damages...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-28-4083606463_x.htm

Given that the hog population is supposed to be growing, you would expect the number to go up. Recently I have been seeing articles stating losses in the hundreds of millions, but the damages also include things other than crops.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2771548/posts
For example, here they mention $400 million over from Aug 2011.

This article from a few days ago still has pigs only doing $52 million in crop damages, but $550 million overall.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/23/3759015/contest-rids-texas-of-over-12000.html

I am thinking that the crop damages have to have increased over 4-5 years. I don't think anyone has actually recalculated the crop damage estimate. In 2007, we were thought to have 2 million feral hogs and now we supposedly have 2.6 million, so more crop damage would be expected not only because of the increase in the hog population, but also because of inflation. Using 3% as an annual inflation average for the four years following the 2007 start date estimate, if pigs were doing the same physical amount of damage over the years, the damage values today would be over $58.52 million.

Of course, a lot of their damage is in ways that are not directly able to be tabulated such as their rooting activities promoting soil erosion, especially on inclined properties and in forests. Hog-loosened soil combined with rain events increases the sediment load of streams and rivers and so there is higher turbidity. Higher turbidity negatively affects aquatic ecosystems in numerous ways. Given the countless numbers of dammed streams and rivers in Texas, much the inflated sediment load carried by the stream is dropped when the flowing water reaches the pools/lakes/reservoirs where the current velocity drops. As such, the dammed pools fill with the eroded sentiments at a faster rate and shorten the use life of the reservoirs. Also, the higher the sediment load in the water, the greater the cost to filter and purify the water for consumer consumption.

Of course, hogs are not alone in contributing to the sediment load of streams/rivers/lakes. Their current impact is probably miniscule, but increasing.

Another increasing problem is vehicle/pig collisions. They are not to the point yet of darting out in front of cars like deer do, but roadkilled pigs are becoming a more comon sight which means there is going to be a corresponding increasing amount of vehicular damages (except maybe on 18 wheelers) and these damages I don't believe are being studied yet like they are for deer.

This article mentions pig vehicle collisions are up, but not by how much or how many that had been reported.
http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=44937

This article doesn't say how many either, but estimates the average vehicular damage at $1200 per collision with hogs.
http://www.tpwmagazine.com/archive/2010/sep/ed_2/

The damage estimate matches this South Carolina limited study dated 2011...
http://urbanwildlife2011.tpwd.state.tx.us/media/mayer.pdf

...but it appears to be the PowerPoint version of a paper by the authors dated from 2007...
http://sti.srs.gov/fulltext/WSRC-STI-2007-00269.pdf
...and so the vehicle damage amounts have probably increased as well because of more hogs being hit and in accounting for inflation.

Higginbotham from Texas A&M estimates 10,000 vehicle/pig collisions per million pigs of population. I don't quite follow how he came up with 1% of pigs being hit given he didn't know have many of such collisions have occurred or just what the actual hog population in Texas is. If based on the European data noted, then his estimate would be very conservative. Assuming that there are 2.6 million hogs in Texas with 1% being hit per year and with a conservative (out of date) estimate of $1200 damage per collision, then you would be looking at $31.2 million in damages alone from vehicle/pig collisions per year.

If that many are really occurring, then my guess would be that insurance complanies are probably tracking the number of vehicle/pig collisions filed for each year and the amount of damages incurred, but I don't see that sort of data presented on the web anywhere. Even if it was, it would undoubtedly be a conservative estimate as well given the number of drivers that don't carry collision insurance and hence don't file claims when they strike pigs on the road.
http://horsebackmagazine.com/hb/archives/4449
 
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Ricky, yeah, there are a few pigs around the state,especially in the southern and western part of the state. Not long ago on the local news, they showed a few feral hogs that were in folk's yards right in the suburbs of Birmingham, which is where I live.
Then again, we had 2 black bears show up here last year out of nowhere, one on one side of town which they darted and caught, and about 2 weeks later,another one about 30 miles from the first one. That one dissapeared and hasnt been seen since around here. It may have been something to do with last year's really bad tornados here, I dunno?
The problem is that unless you know some good soul that has land that will let you hunt his hogs or you have land yourself or belong to a hunting club, you are pretty much screwed.
I like your signature and remember the movie "The Jerk".
Remember the "Optigrab" ? :D I can relate to this well as I am an Optician by trade.
Thanks,
John
 
I just went with the only number I could recall from reading. :) For sure, the direct cash loss from crop damage is--as you showed--just part of the equation.

Vehicles? Hitting a fully-grown hog is like hitting a rock. If you don't center it, you can easily have a rollover. Never hit one with a front tire!

A drifting generalization: Try to go in front of a deer, since in fear they nearly always retreat to the last known place of safety. Try to go behind a cow, because cows hate to be "headed" away from a goal. Horses? Good luck. Horses are suicidal and will try to stay directly in front of you. Hogs? Hey, whatever seems righteous at the moment. Again, good luck.
 
My central Texas hay field is a mess. I'll be hooking up my tractor tiller this afternoon to go flatten out and reseed some of the many places the hogs have rooted up. As for killing them, I was doing pretty well shooting them but haven't seen any lately. It seems that where ever I find them on my place and shoot a few, they go somewhere else. Lately, I can't find a hog. That's good and that's bad. As for what to do with the dead ones, I'll put pig in the freezer when I get low on supply. When I have plenty of meat I'll just drag them to where I coyote hunt. I can get more coyotes over dead pigs than I can by calling them (which might tell you a little something about my calling skills). As much as I hate those feral pigs, I think I'd miss them if they left town forever. I'd have to go back to just shooting targets. Boring...
 
All the pigs I deal with have gone NINJA stealth mode lately. Very unusual.

Like you its a double edged sword. The goal was to get rid of them, but I miss them so, sigh. LOL. My whole free time has revolved around pigs for the last few years.
 
Where did the pigs go? I've spent about 4 or 5 hours on the tractor, tilling up the rooted up ground on my hay field. I noticed that none of the digging was fresh. I'm about half way through with 'resurfacing' my pasture. If those devil hogs come back and root my pasture up again, I may sent airline tickets to any of ya'll that'll shoot at night with IR scopes. Driving a tractor is NOT mentally stimulating.

And rickyrick is SO right. Prior to moving to the country, I never gave a minutes thought to pigs. Now I hate them, hunt them, eat them, clean up pasture after them, think about them, plot vengeance on them. I even developed the new load in the 260 with hogs in mind - so I could hit them out to 400. Am I overly pig focused? I need to go see my shrink. I need wine.
 
603country,

Very weird right???.

This time last year I was up to my elbows in pigs, blood and spit.

I can't figger it out for crap.
 
Yep, where'd they go? Do hogs go on Spring Break? Are they down in Florida? There are no acorns to eat. They quit torturing my pasture. No muddy wallows in the tanks. Very puzzling! Well...I have sworn vengeance for my pasture damage. I'll be waiting! Sooner or later they'll come tippy-toeing out of the wood edge, and a very ugly surprise will happen.
 
603, I'll do one better , I'll go in half with ya on the airline ticket if you want someone to come down and help you rid your property of these vial vermin!:D
Yeah man , Im serious,... Ive always wanted to bust a cap or 4 into these no good,pasture destroying,poop dropping, squeeling slew footed bastages.

Spring break down at the beach maybe? Lets be on the lookout for some bootleg videos to be hitting the store shelves soon
... Spring Break '12 Hogs Gone Wild! :eek:

Signed: Have Ruger 270 Winchester with 130 gr Ballsitic tips, will travel!!!

John
 
603Country, hogs can and will travel quite large distances between feeding, bedding, and pooping areas. They are about the only animal that will actually go to a favorite poop spot rather than spoil their feeding or bedding area. There is an absolutely beautiful oak grove standing by itself in the public huntling area I hunt. It is so covered in pig poop that you'd think you were standing in a barnyard. Other hunters keep watching it thinking they'll surprise a hog entering or leaving a bed. Nope. They just stop there in the middle of the night to poop then leave.
 
I have a place on my property that was a restroom area being used by hogs for several months last year. They were coming across onto my property just far enough to do this, but were failing to make the additional 50-75 yards to make it to a feeder which seemed odd.

With that said, we find that the hogs will often poop in the immediate vicinity of feeders. They will poop in a food plot they are rooting.

There are lots of animals that will not pee or poop in their bedding area. If you have a lot of hog poop in one area, it is a good bet the hogs are bedding nearby.
 
Well, one things for sure...when you shoot a pig, they poop! LOL!


I guess the OP is thinking the pigs ain't that bad, with the way we're talking.

Who wants to start a poll about where they is and where they ain't?
 
The pigs have a representative that's reading this forum. I typed in my pig comments this morning, saying that I didn't know where the hogs were, then I hopped on the tractor and went in the back to finish tilling up the hog rooting damage. I had tilled about 2/3 of the damaged ground yesterday. Well, overnight the pigs came back and rooted up about half of what I had tilled. What a mess! All I can think is that the smell of tilled earth probably drew them in. They did most of their rooting in areas that I had tilled. I'm sunburned and low on diesel...and irritated.

To the OP: the piggies are indeed bad in TX.
 
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