From the Ground Up: Feral hog damage costs farmers, state millions

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - The damage feral hogs do is detrimental at best and irreversible at its very worst. John Tomecek, an associate professor with Texas A&M Agrilife Research says the damage comes with a hefty price tag as well.

“Agricultural damages we understand very well from feral hogs. So when you talk about farming damages in Texas, it’s several $100 million a year,” Tomecek said.

Feral hogs wreak havoc wherever they go, rooting in the ground for any food they can find.

“The scope of that damage is insane when you think about the investment, the time, the cost of seed and the cost of replanting and what it takes to rework that ground,” he said.

Besides the damage to farmlands and front lawns, feral hogs also carry diseases with them. Those diseases can prevent livestock from reproducing or even cause epidemics.

“Is she not having a calf or is she being prevented from having a calf because that feral hog has given her disease? So as we understand more about that, we’re looking at hundreds of millions of dollars of lost revenues to ranchers because of those disease problems,” Tomecek said.

But, Tomecek says while it’s a widespread problem, it has been solved before.

“I think the reality we also need to think about is parts of this state that we don’t have a lot of feral hogs. There are areas like the top northwest corner of the Panhandle, we actually succeeded in eradicating feral hogs from Dallam County last year,” he said.

That success included many organizations, cooperation from everyone and the results didn’t happen overnight.

“That’s an impressive feat now that took a lot of work. It took several years of effort from our friends at Wildlife Services, but it was done in cooperation with those big ranches.”

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