Managing land-damaging, disease-carrying feral swine starts with good data, according to the Arkansas Forest Resources Center’s Nana Tian, a forest economics researcher, in a recent release.
Found in at least 35 states, landowners find physical and economic damage to croplands, forestlands, pastureland and livestock by the invasive species. According to USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the species root and wallow their way to an estimated $1.5 billion in economic damage annually across the U.S.
A problem for farmers with field crops and ranchers with livestock, feral swine have been known to evade traps and can trick even the most seasoned hunters and trappers, says Becky McPeake, Extension wildlife specialist with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, who also serves on the Arkansas Department of Agriculture’s Feral Hog Eradication Task Force.
The Study
A recently published survey estimates feral swine damages over five years across all of Arkansas, Louisiana and 38 eastern Texas counties, administered through the Division of Agriculture’s Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station by the Arkansas Forest Resources Center, a partnership between the University of Arkansas System Divisions of Agriculture and the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
A group of 4,500 landowners, who owned an average of 200 acres in the included areas, were surveyed, as the administrators felt this demographic may face more limitations than larger landowners in technical and financial assistance, Tian says.
Conducted in 2021 and published in January 2023, the project initiated by Tian with research partners Jianbang Gan, professor in the Department of Ecology and Conservation Biology at Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; and Gordon Holley, professor in the School of Agricultural Sciences and Forestry at Louisiana Tech University, obtained over 900 survey responses from the three-state area.
The Results
According to survey data, cropland, the combination of different land uses and pastureland, were the top three land use types for the respondents in all three states.
Respondents shared their major concerns of damage included damage to crops or food plots in Arkansas and Louisiana, while damage to pastures was the most important to landowners in east Texas. Additionally, landowners were concerned about losses in overall land values with the presence of feral swine on their properties, in addition to the direct damage they cause.
Using survey data, the researchers estimate that landowners averaged $28 per acre in damage over the past five years in both Arkansas and Louisiana and approximately $25 per acre in east Texas. Crops most reported to be effected include corn, soybeans, rice, wheat, hay, silage and forage crops.
Additionally, the three states experienced an average of approximately $11 per acre damage to pastureland.
Of all the landowners surveyed, the most important feral swine damage activities were rooting/grubbing and wallowing, the survey found. Rooting/grubbing is the major and primary food-searching method for the species.
“The results from this multi-state study provide a broader and deeper understanding of landowners’ perception and assessment of feral swine damage on their rural lands, which is of value for developing and implementing regionwide control measures,” concluded the article.
Read More:
Feral Swine Are Potential Hosts of JEV
