Neighbours fighting feral pigs together

Introduction

Peter Campbell is a livestock and cropping farmer in the Western Hunter and is also the President of the Goulburn River Pest Animal Association. The productive grazing and cropping landscape of this area provides an ideal habitat for pest animals.

Peter has been working with his neighbours for many years to protect their livestock from wild dog attacks. Their focus has now shifted to a multi-species approach, with feral pigs firmly in the firing line.

Recent control programs have highlighted just how important it is for neighbours to work together, using all the tools available to keep on top of feral pigs and other pest animals.

“They are a devastatingly efficient pest, damaging and ruining crop, pasture and water sources.”

- Peter Campbell

Challenge 

Feral pigs have reduced the productivity of grain and livestock production on Peter’s farm.

Some of the damaging impacts include:

• destroying crops, reducing yields and quality
• spoiling water sources, reducing water quality
• spreading weeds across productive pastures
• damage to infrastructure such as troughs, earthworks  
• destruction of pastures, reducing quality and productivity
• risk of disease transmission to livestock, such as leptospirosis, and potentially foot-and-mouth disease if it was to enter Australia.

“Pigs have an enormous effect on production in our grain enterprise, the diggings in crop, the spread of weeds, the amount of crop that is damaged and made unharvestable due to nesting and laying over crop onto the ground.”  

- Peter Campbell

This group of farmers, together with their local biosecurity officer agreed that more needed to be done about feral pigs in their patch.

Solution

“We have made a conscious effort to use baiting, trapping, shooting methods of control ourselves, and the Hunter LLS Biosecurity Team have been fantastic in supporting us through that process.”  

- Peter Campbell 

Local Land Services biosecurity officers have worked closely with the landholders in this group, providing:

• coordination of ground and aerial control programs
• trapping and monitoring equipment loaned free to landholders
• free grain for landholders who don’t have ready access to grain for trapping and baiting and
• fully subsidised 1080 feral pig bait
• support of a trapping mentor providing practical support and building skills.

The most effective control for feral pigs is through a long-term approach with farmers working together with their neighbours and using a combination of control methods. 

Outcomes

The results from control programs in this area over the past three years clearly show the crucial need to combine aerial control with ground-based methods such as trapping and baiting.

Landholders are noticing far less damage to crops and pastures, meaning greater feed availability for livestock production and improved crop yields.

“It’s so important for landholders to continue to use control methods such as baiting and trapping on their farm, and not just rely on aerial control.”  

- Jack Feltham, local biosecurity officer

Results from the most recent aerial control program showed that:

• fewer pigs were seen on properties that undertook ground-based control since the previous aerial program, compared to properties that did not do any ground control.
• there was an average reduction of 153% across all properties who undertook ground control, with one property showing an 800% reduction in numbers.  
• for one property, almost 400 feral pigs were controlled during an aerial shooting program in 2023. Only 63 were controlled in the following aerial program. Sustained feral pig trapping programs were conducted between the aerial programs, which has helped achieve this reduction in numbers.

“Driving the headers into paddocks that are known for heavy pig populations we saw a significant decrease in pig activity, and an increase in yields across the grains but in particular the Canola and Barley.”  

- Peter Campbell

This is a great example of the success farmers can have by working with each other and Local Land Service to reduce the impacts caused by feral pigs on farm, using a combination of control methods.

“It’s obvious that without the ground control work, we’d still be seeing much higher numbers of feral pigs and the farmers would still be seeing severe damage to their crops.”  

- Jack Feltham 

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Video transcript

Neighbours fighting feral pigs together

So, feral pigs have always

been an issue in our area,

but after the 2019 and the 2020 drought

and then the subsequent

rainfall events that came out of that,

we've seen a massive increase

in pig numbers,

and therefore we've seen the impacts

of those pigs

increase,

which has just caused

devastating effects

across our productivity.

G’day, I’m Peter Campbell.

We run a family farm

here in the western

end of the Hunter Valley, around Merriwa.

We run a mixed enterprise

of sheep, cattle, and we crop as well.

Pigs, specifically, have impacted

our cropping program heavily

in terms of eating crop,

when it's in the green state,

and then coming up to harvest,

the flattening of the crops,

nesting in crops,

just knocking crop down,

making it unharvestable,

spread of weeds

throughout the environment,

both in our native country

and in our pasture country,

and through the crop country.

And since we've controlled them,

we've seen those impacts

reduce significantly.

Hi, I'm Jack Feltham,

a Biosecurity Officer

based in the Upper Hunter

out here at Merriwa.

Peter relies a lot on his cropping

and with the cropping,

the pigs were just knocking it down,

flattening all the crops,

so he wasn't be able

to get a good yield off the crops

which is his livelihood and his income.

Feral pigs don't have any boundaries.

They go wherever they like,

whenever they like,

so that's why you need a joint program

with neighbouring properties.

So, working as groups

has definitely been more effective.

Pigs know no boundaries.

They don't see the boundary

where I finish and my neighbour starts.

So having that cross-tenure approach

and using the group

as a vehicle for pig control

has been really helpful.

One of the catalysts

for incorporating pigs into our

pest animal plan,

was the threat of FMD or

Foot and Mouth Disease in Australia.

LLS has supported

Peter and his neighbours with issuing

pig traps, grain,

and also our contract pig trapper.

And then we helped out

with an aerial shoot as well.

It was really obvious on the properties

that had done ground control.

From the air,

you could just see a lot

fewer number of pigs than places

that didn't quite do as much.

You can't just use one method.

We have to use the full suite of tools

in our toolbox.

The coordination of the LLS staff

and control programs, has been key,

in order for us

to get these numbers of

pigs in the environment reduced.

They have helped us out with baiting,

where to bait, providing traps

for us, helping us establish those traps

after we've been able to

establish pathways where these...

where the pigs have been travelling.

The staff have been great in

coordinating all those processes,

to come together to culminate

in those pigs

being removed from the environment.

For landholders that don't know

too much about pigs,

they can give me a call.

I'll come out and run them through

what pig sign is,

what to look for,

do a bit of camera work

and actually show them

what the pigs are doing

and how much damage

they're doing to their property.

The next step is coordinating

a control program

with all the neighbouring properties,

so that they're all controlled

at the same time, over a bigger area,

which, at the end of the day,

you kill more pigs.

So, after these control mechanisms

both on ground

and with the LLS shoots

that have taken place,

we then got into harvest

and, rolling those headers

into the paddock,

we saw far less impacts on our canola

and barley, and a big increase

in our yields, in paddocks

that have been known

for heavy pig populations.

If we hadn't have undertaken

these control measures,

we would have seen significant decreases

in our yield,

pig population exploding, disease,

weeds, water sources ruined, damage

to crops, pastures...the list goes on.

Landholders have a responsibility

to manage feral pigs on their property.

It's known as a general biosecurity duty.

I'm big on it.

People have so got a biosecurity duty.

They have to control these pests,

no matter what it is, on their property.

It's part of your

responsibility as a farmer.

Ongoing work

“While we’ve seen good outcomes, it’s not time to stop. If we do, the feral pigs will just repopulate, and we’ll be back where we started.”  

- Jack Feltham

Trapping and baiting continues in this area, further reducing the remaining feral pig population and overall breeding potential.  

This group of farmers continue to work with Local Land Services to implement the Western Hunter Pest Animal Management Plan.  

This plan outlines to the group members what they need to do and when to effectively control pest animals in their area.