Feral swine tear through row crops, bulldoze pastureland and destroy perimeter fencing overnight, inflicting billions of dollars in annual agricultural losses. Beyond physical devastation, their unchecked expansion presents a serious biosecurity threat to the domestic pork industry through the risk of transmitting devastating foreign animal and livestock diseases.
To ramp up suppression efforts, the USDA is investing $51.9 million across 29 partnership projects in 13 states. The funding marks the latest phase of the broader $105 million Feral Swine Eradication and Control Pilot Program (FSCP), a coordinated federal initiative pairing on-the-ground producer assistance from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) with the wildlife management and surveillance capabilities of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
The awards target high-impact agricultural corridors across Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
“Feral swine pose a threat to America’s working lands, and through this program, we’re bringing together America’s agricultural producers and partners to combat feral swine and protect agricultural landscapes,” NRCS Chief Colton L. Buckley says in a release. “The selected projects will take critical steps to eradicate and control feral swine across the nation where their impact is creating the most harm.”
Coordinated Defense on Working Lands
Feral swine management requires far more than casual sport hunting, which frequently scatters herds—known as sounders—and accelerates reproductive rates. Instead, the USDA pilot relies on whole-sounder trapping, telemetry and basin-wide eradication campaigns managed cooperatively by local land boards, state wildlife agencies and private landowners.
Under the pilot framework, NRCS funds partner grant agreements to supply landowners with heavy-duty corral traps, remote monitoring technology and technical training, while helping producers replant and restore rooted crop ground. In tandem, APHIS provides wildlife biologists and technical field operators to conduct disease surveillance, aerial monitoring, and targeted removal.
“Feral swine continue to inflict serious damage on America’s farms, ranches, and natural resources,” said APHIS Administrator Kelly Moore. “APHIS looks forward to continuing to work with NRCS partners to augment our eradication operations and safeguard American farmers from the economic and biological harm these invasive populations cause.”
Ground-Level Impact: Texas, Alabama, and Louisiana
The newly funded projects tailor eradication strategies to regional agricultural topographies:
- Texas (1 Million Working Acres): The Texas State Soil & Water Conservation Board (TSSWCB) secured funding for three projects covering nine counties (Baylor, Brown, Coleman, Fannin, Haskell, Knox, Lamar, Runnels and Red River). Spanning five years, the initiative will directly equip roughly 200 producers with science-based trapping systems and coordinated neighbor-to-neighbor management plans across approximately 1 million acres.
- Alabama (100,000 Acres Restored): The Alabama Soil & Water Conservation Committee (ASWCC) will direct four projects across Baldwin, Barbour, Bullock, Lamar, Mobile, Monroe, Pickens, Sumter and Wilcox counties. The work focuses on aggressive population reduction paired with technical support to repair degraded soils and wildlife habitat.
- Louisiana (16.6 Million River-Basin Acres): In the largest continuous footprint awarded, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture & Forestry (LDAF) will target 27 parishes across the Red River and Mississippi River basins. The project deploys high-tech surveillance, expanded trapping methods, uniform damage-assessment protocols, and community field training across 16.6 million acres.
Building on Proven Momentum
This latest round of funding builds on substantial operational headway. Since launching the pilot program in 2020, NRCS has deployed $92.9 million across 63 projects. To date, the program has:
- Assisted more than 6,700 landowners in controlling local populations
- Treated and monitored nearly 9 million acres of private and working land
- Conducted over 800 hands-on workshops teaching producers advanced trapping and monitoring techniques.
Landowners, ranchers and producers located in eligible project counties can learn more about available trapping assistance, cost-share opportunities and upcoming workshops by contacting their local USDA Service Center or visiting the NRCS Feral Swine Eradication and Control Pilot Program portal.
