Western NSW a feral pig control success story

Nic Job from Royalla Shorthorns, Yeoval. We ran a shorthorn stud in conjunction with my parents. I moved out here from another property in 2000. For the first few years, we didn't see any pigs at all and it probably, only 12, 12 or 15 years ago, we started to see a couple of pigs and then the numbers had just gradually increased and now we're seeing big numbers. Initially, it was a bit of a novelty because we had not seen them, but that that lasted for about two days. Then yeah, so went straight in trying to control them. 

We're starting to see a lot of poachers, trying to come in on our property without permission and that's becoming a nearly as bigger issue as the pigs in terms of we’re finding. Yeah, we'll find gates not only open, but gates pulled away and taken back. You know, some of the bulls on this place worth over $60,000. And if you get if you get two bulls that the gates are open, they get in joining each other. You can have broken legs and worse. 

My name's James Moses. I'm a biosecurity officer at Molong, which is part of the Local Land Services of the Central Tablelands. So we first, worked in with Nic with supplying traps and cameras, and grain, just to get him started. He's having trouble with pigs in one of his back paddocks and just worked with him with a few different techniques that he hadn't tried before with his previous trapping. Just to help him really get that good result when he did set the traps. You know, we've used LLS traps and LLS, we've tried baiting stations from the LLS, we are in contact with James fairly often and to try and see different methods and keep on top of the problem. The guys I work with are great, so yeah we've had really good communication with them. Prior to that, it was just, you know, on our own trying to do what we could, you know, occasionally take a dog out and try and catch some or shoot them and things like that, but that, that wasn't getting on top of the problem. We've got to kill 70, 73% every year just for the numbers to be stable. 

One of the most important tools the LLS has given us is the Feral Scan app. So we're able to report every time we see a pig. So they touch base. You know, if I put in numbers and if I've seen a big group, I'll get a call like, hey, you know, to see more. Are they the same group running around? Yeah. If they’re different pigs. So yeah, when we get constant feedback. I think what should be celebrated out here is that they have tried a few different techniques. It's not just been the one solution fixes the problem. We've trapped, we've looked at bait stations, opportunistic ground shooting. And it's all these combinations that really help get a handle on the pig numbers out here and also the data from Nic putting on Feral Scan has helped us plan aerial shoots and where we target areas through the Feral Fighters program, we, have been supplying free grain, free trap hire, free camera hire and free bait stations. And that's really help farmers and landholders just take that next step of, of doing control because, you know, it's it's not easy and it's time consuming and they've got a lot of jobs on. So if we can give them that little bit of a helping hand.

Yeah. That just gets the ball rolling. And once, once it's started, you know, it's much easier to maintain that and get a hold of pig numbers. I love getting out and talking to landholders and, you know, helping them, you know, we've got things now. We've got tools. We've got knowledge that we can pass on that can help that helps landholders, which helps their business, which helps everyone.

This pig problem is it's everyone's problem. It's all landholders. It's a serious threat to not only the cropping and the financial loss. And the pigs are doing a lot of damage to the environment as well. We really need a coordinated effort that all landholders are involved in.

Hello, Chris Maunder, Farmer and agronomist from Moree. We farm 6,000 hectares within 30 km of Moree.

Craig Thomas, my role in LLS is senior biosecurity officer for Local Land Services.

In my role, I undertake programs, coordinating landholders to do broader programs to control feral pigs in the broader landscape.
Chris, can you tell me about some of the damage that the feral pigs are doing here?

Last winter Craig they caused a lot of damage to our canola.

Came in from the from the west in huge numbers overnight and pretty much destroyed 30 hectares just up here on our western boundary.

Yep. So by not undertaking control to lose 30 hectares, that's going to have a fair impact on that cropping program.

Financially, that was a big hit for us and we thought we're doing a pretty good job locally controlling the pigs. Chris, can you tell me a bit about how a coordinated program within the area definitely helps in your local area? And if we did it further afield, it would help other farmers as well?

Absolutely. We need area wide management of this pest, it needs to be coordinated between a large group of growers and the key is monitoring and at a local level, when you're starting to see signs such as tracks, pads, wallows in your wet areas here like we're at today,
that's obviously giving you enough signs to undertake control.

But when you're starting to see damage in crop, you're almost looking at it too late. 

The horse has bolted, absolutely and it's like any pest management, you know, whether it's insect or vertebrate pests, you've got to, you got to know the numbers and you got to pounce on those numbers when they are low.

When we're talking about coordinated approach, not one control method would be working.

So you utilise many control methods?

Absolutely. It’s got to be an integrated approach where we're monitoring and then we’re utilising all control methods such as trapping, baiting and aerial control and across a broader area that's definitely make an impact on the pig numbers?

That's the key to get all the landholders in together. It's everyone's problem. At the moment, the property’s fallow, we don't have any crop in and the numbers are down. We're not seeing many pigs on this property at the moment.

They've all just moved on to the neighbours and the neighbours' neighbours. There's a lot of damage in sorghum crops in the district
at the moment and irrigated cotton. They've just moved into those crops over the last 3 weeks while it was hot and just living in underneath that canopy and causing a lot of damage.

And utilising your Local Land Services office to coordinate and get those baiting groups or pest control groups to undertake control.
That’s definitely a trigger for local landholders to take part and increase the effect? That's the key.

It needs to be a coordinated approach and we need that one person sort of coordinating it and the LLS is a great vehicle to support that.
So if you're facing a feral pig problem, make sure you talk to your Local Land Services staff members in the local region. Don't tackle the problem on your own. Coordinate effort, talk to local landholders and widen the effect of control options in that area, and you'll find that the problem isn't so big trying to face it on your own.

Introduction

Our biggest concern with the pigs is probably disease carrying.

We do have a lot of damage.

Twelve months ago, the pigs in this area were in plague proportion.

You’d go out on a single day mustering you’d see 5 to 6 mobs of pigs while mustering.

After 12 months of this LLS controlled baiting program, we're down to barely seeing pigs at all.

Hi I'm Liam.

My occupation is I work on a family farm.

It’s my in-laws’ farm, near Barraba, New South Wales.

Seven thousand acres, mainly cattle, a little killing mob of sheep.

Background

About 12 or 18 months ago, I was approached at a field day by a couple of landowners and farm managers here in this area.

They knew that they had a feral pig problem.

They knew that, the feral pig problem was getting worse and it was just getting too hard to manage with the existing controls that they had.

And they wanted to know how best LLS could help them.

I'm Karen, I'm a senior biosecurity officer with Local Land Services.

One of the biggest concerns for this pest animal group is the disease risk of feral pigs.

Leptospirosis, brucellosis and now even Japanese encephalitis has been found in pigs across New South Wales.

And so vaccinating your livestock for leptospirosis is an added cost is an added cost that these guys are having to wear now.

To mitigate the risk of disease transfer is high on the list of priorities here for this group.

Disease risk

This paddock here, we put cows in these hills and we've actually seen cows grooming pigs in the paddock.

They’ll lick them.

We have feeders on the farm now too, we pellet feed.

The pigs love the feeders obviously so they are in the feeders with them feeding.

Disease can spread that quickly, let alone water sharing and licking each other in the paddock.

So the threat is huge.

Neighbours

So we've got a bit over 20 So we've got a bit over 20 neighbours in an area here that are doing excellent control.

They are coordinating their control a couple of times a year all together and there's still a lot of those landowners doing ad hoc controls all throughout the year as well.

Control

If we didn't have our neighbours in a group with us, with the LLS helping, those pig numbers would be still be what they were 12 months ago.

You just can’t get on top of them without everyone being in a control group and helping.

Baiting

So we are baiting better, knowing how the pig performs out with all their studies they've done.

A big help as been these traps, you see behind us.

They've given us grain, They've given us grain, which is quite expensive when you're doing these baiting programs.

We had one site where we were feeding out nearly 500 kilos of barley a night.

So if also we had to pay for it ourselves, it's another burden on the farm.

Part of our group they’ve got us on feral pig scan app, which is a very handy tool.

We know where our neighbours are baiting their pigs, so we make sure we're not in the same vicinity.

So therefore, if they’re on the other side of the hill, we can go on the other side of our property.

And we're getting much better numbers and results.

Conclusion

Having a pest control group is a great way to build your confidence and your skills to be able to manage the feral pigs, not only for your own farm economics and your farm business, but also in the event of an outbreak of an exotic or notifiable disease.

I think New South Wales or Australia wide, if they could get more of these programs going across the country, we could definitely get a dint in the feral pig population.

Some of the positive outcomes after working with this group for 12 or 18 months is that they're just not seeing the pig numbers that they had 12 months ago.

I drove out here on our very first meeting and nearly hit a mob of pigs on the road and we just don't see that here anymore.

Get in touch with your local biosecurity officer who can help assist getting a coordinated group together so that your pig control efforts are much more efficient.