Feral pigs are not native to Oklahoma or any of the 35-40 states reportedly dealing with damage the animals cause to ranches and farms, but long-term solutions tend to be elusive.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, hogs were brought to the continent in the 1500s as a source of food. The practice of free-range livestock management practices, and regular escape of the animals from their pens, started the establishment of feral pigs.
The Eurasian or Russian wild boar was introduced in the 1900s for sports hunting, and today’s swine are a combination of the domestic pigs that escaped, Eurasian wild boars, and hybrids of the two.
Range expansion over the past few decades is due to the animals’ adaptability to a variety of climates and conditions, relocation by humans, and a lack of natural predators, states the USDA site.
Craig Loftin, a local rancher and president of the Cherokee County Cattlemen’s Association, deals with the pesky swine on ranch land he owns and property he leases.
“These hogs overnight can root up two or three acres of pasture,” Loftin said. “It looks like it is being readied for a garden. They eat grass, roots, grubs, worms – anything that lives in the soil.”
In hay meadows, the haying equipment can’t go over the ruts created by the animals’ foraging.
“So it has to be dragged and leveled and [the pigs] turn the rocks over. They will come back continually, but they are very smart, and if there is any pressure from hunters or strange activity, they will move to another area,” Loftin said.
The animals eat dead carcasses, snakes, nuts and Johnsongrass roots. They stay in the mountains during the day and come out in the late evening and night. If the night is stormy, the pigs come out during the day. This year, Loftin said, has produced a bumper crop of nuts such as hickory, walnut and acorn.
“They will adjust. They will build a nest of big, tall weeds. They’ll cut the grass and carry it around and make a nest,” Loftin said.
The issue of how to eradicate the animal and relieve the financial pressure on ranchers and farmers has yet to be properly addressed, Loftin said.
“I go to Farm Bureau meetings and they are trying to address the hog problem. The Cattlemen’s Association is trying to address it and [so is] the [Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Department]. Nobody wants to tackle it; they just kick it down the road,” Loftin said.
Doss Briggs, a local rancher who owns 400 acres and runs 120 head of cattle, wants the problem given more serious consideration.
“[The] pigs are going north, too. The state needs to provide something to incentivize ranchers, farm owners and hunters to go out and control the problem,” Briggs said.
Briggs said hunters can take their dogs out and hunt the swine, using rifles with multiple rounds, but the flash from the guns scares the animals. Suppressors are needed, and since the hogs are nocturnal, night vision equipment is required. Thermal imaging can differentiate better, Briggs said, but all the necessary equipment is expensive.
“One hunter isn’t sufficient – you need multiple hunters. Small [pigs] are edible, but the big ones are waste,” Briggs said. “My suggestion: Can we get a tax credit to defray or offset the costs? It benefits everybody. Farmers along the rivers are having thousands of acres of farmland destroyed.”
Briggs emphasized that the pigs have got to be eradicated before they destroy the property that supports the agricultural businesses of Oklahoma.
According to the OWCD website, landowners or anyone with an agricultural lease can control feral swine without a permit day or night, and without limit, except during gun seasons for deer hunting. Hunters can use any legal means to kill the animals to protect agricultural crops, livestock, or processed feed or seeds.
An agricultural exemption permit is required from the Oklahoma Tax Commission, and hunters may use a headlight, thermal or night enhancement equipment to hunt feral pigs at night.
“I have spent the past 25 years hunting hogs,” Loftin said. “I hunted all over Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas, doing wild hog removal on people’s places and deer hunting leases. We would catch them with the dogs and kill them with knives.”
There are different classifications of dogs, according to Loftin, and his system of hunting is intense. He described the process of how the dogs work together so the hunter can gain access to the animal and kill it.
“The dogs that find them are the most valuable; then bay dogs that [stay around the cornered animals], and then mostly bulldog types that you lead into the bay. [You] turn the bulldog loose and it catches the pig by the head or ear. Sometimes you’ll have three or four at one time, or you could have all the dogs on one big hog. Then you walk up and stick [the hog] with a knife,” Loftin said. “It is a young hunter’s sport.”
He prefers smoking the meat and says animals of 100 pounds or less are the best for eating.
Learn more
Spencer Roth, an industrial coordinator, has organized a meeting for Jan. 10, 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., at Indian Capital Technology Center in Muskogee, to brainstorm the feral hog problem.
What’s next
A second article on the efforts of Oklahoma ranchers and farmers to eradicate the feral swine and “super pigs” that are moving south out of Canada will appear on the TDP website Wednesday, Dec. 6.