Latest News From Chris Bennett

The history of wild pig hunts is filled with unusual stories, but the chase for a 750-lb. beast hiding in plain sight on a Mississippi farm ranks as a standalone account. Farming reality outshines fiction.

When Max Miller opened the Pig Motel and charged 2 cents for room and board, the venture was about more than math.

“The public doesn’t realize what these animals are capable of,” says wildlife trapper James Dean. “Unfortunately, you’re going to see more and more reports of people getting hurt in wild pig encounters.”

When a pair of Midwest farmers dropped a backhoe bucket 8’ below mature soybeans, they made one of the most unlikely scientific discoveries of the 21st century—a woolly mammoth.

Nobody does wild pigs like the Yawt Yawt, aka David Ellis. From backwoods redneck to rising star, Yawt Yawt delivers a rip-roaring hunt as the grim reaper of wild pigs.

Jeff Pybus is farming’s invisible grim reaper, slaying rats in the dark as he shoots and films for an addicting, no-frills YouTube channel.

How low and wide can a farmer go? 30,000 seeds per acre, or a lean 20,000, or even a bare-bones 5,000 on 60” rows, and still maintain profit levels?

What happens when wild pigs are given 1,000 tons of groceries per day in the form of landfill trash? Expect a ticking time bomb, and quite possibly, a $50 billion blow to the entire U.S. pork industry.

Farming success is chained to the highest premium paid across a long series of benchmarks, and Matt Brechwald’s farm tale, split between dirt and the digital world, firmly fits the mold.

When hunter Michael Bennett bought eight pigs at a sale barn, the wheels began turning on one of the most bizarre feral hog stories on record, and unleashed questions over guilt, innocence, and state power.

Wild pig control is one of the greatest challenges in U.S. wildlife management history, and in many ways, wild pig prosperity starts in the fascinating belly of a beast like no other.

Legendary. In the annals of survival history, Todd Orr’s account is incredible and magnified by a deuce: He skirted death in two separate grizzly bear attacks separated by mere minutes.

Legendary. In the annals of survival history, Todd Orr’s account is incredible and magnified by a deuce: He skirted death in two separate grizzly bear attacks separated by mere minutes.

Welcome to four hours of rat hell and a hunt like no other. Jordan Reed is tackling one of agriculture’s most pervasive financial drains—rats, and his dog pack may be farming’s greatest show on legs.

When Arick Baker and Buddy Schumacher tumbled into corn flows, but emerged to tell harrowing tales separated by three years and 250 miles, the rookie and the veteran became remarkable survival exceptions.

Wild pig horizon: Missouri officials believe a no-hunting policy is highly potent and conducive to elimination of wild pigs, while some landowners believe the no-hunting approach is a recipe for a population increase.

The Year-End Unreserved Online Dealer Auction, featuring a complete range of farm machinery, will kick off opening bids on Dec. 6 and close on Dec. 27. Unreserved. Nationwide. Adios to buyer’s fees.

The history of wild pig hunts is filled with unusual stories, but the chase for a 750-lb. beast hiding in plain sight on a Mississippi farm ranks as a standalone account. Farming reality outshines fiction.

A spirited group of farmers is drawing a line in the dirt for town, county and history, and preparing a path toward economic revival.

Ten years after Charles Hood bought 30 acres, USDA officials claimed he violated wetlands rules. Hood won in court, but the victory may ring hollow. How many bites at the same wetlands apple does the government get?

Wild pigs, the most reproductively capable large animal in North America, are hitching a human ride. Illegal transport of wild pigs contributes to an annual multi-billion dollar bill. Wild pigs cause up to $2.5 billion in damage to the U.S. economy each year and $1 billion of the total is exclusive to agriculture.

J.D. Dulaney no longer drives back and forth to his shop for tools and equipment. “The time savings are stacking up to an incredible degree.”

Shoot, trap, pressure and push, but the march of wild pigs continues across the United States. However, a chemical cavalry is approaching and may provide a major weapon in the control arsenal used by landowners and farmers: Kill the ultimate beast of survival with a poison pill?

Proliferation of wild pig populations necessarily means a persistent bleed on farm profits. Dale Nolte, national coordinator for the NFSDMP, leads USDA’s nationwide effort to reduce the impact of wild pigs.

The wild pig bomb has detonated across U.S. agriculture, ripping and rooting billion-dollar scars every year, with high end estimates of 11 million feral swine running riot. Will a new effort halt the wild pig advance?

Wild pigs are responsible for an estimated $1.5 billion in agricultural damage and control costs each year in the United States, not including the costs from environmental damage, property damage, vehicle collisions, and water quality impacts. They are established in 36 states and population estimates place wild pig numbers at 6.3 million nationwide.