I raise hogs on my farm -- along with beef and dairy cows, turkeys and chickens for eggs and meat. I don't need any more meat, as we have so much we give hundreds of pounds of freshly-slaughtered beef, pork and chicken away every year to friends and family.

So, when we go out our primary goal is feral depopulation, not for meat. What do you do with excess hogs you've killed on a hunt? Do you burn them on a fire, bury them en mass in a pit, line up some way to donate the meat? What?

I don't know anyone personally that wastes any meat, there is always someone who will take the meat if there is any extra.

First we shoot them, then we eat them....

Holy crap, SP! How many people do you have over to eat all that meat?

What do you do with the non-edible portions? Bury? Compost? Burn?

Coyote Bait for head, cape, and organs...




http://www.phossil.com/thom/SIG%20716%20Precision/SIG%20716P%20Pork%20Chop%20Coyote/SIG%20716P%20PorkChop%20Coyote.wmv

Donate

I throw them in a pit I dug out with a bulldozer

We at the Turkey Buzzard Preservation Society would appreciate your leaving your excess hogs out in a field for our feathered friends.

If you happen to hunt coyotes over the remains at night that would be an added bonus.

Feed the gators.

Throw them in a pile.

I'll clean a young female once in a blue moon but nothing about feral pigs is great, including their meat. When I shoot a feral hog, I see a successful hatch of Bobwhite, clean spring water pools, beautiful fields of Big Bluestem, Rio's strutting their stuff and fences without holes.

Destructive bass turds.

You'd think these guys would be able to spot that rifle from a mile away by now.

"Holy crap! It's Skypup! Run for your lives!"  

Eat the small ones. Take the big one's heads. The rest lay where they lay.

What do you do with their heads? Or is this hog hunting, Predator-style?  

Buzzards gotta eat same as worms

Heat of summer drag them into trees.

 

Exactly Josey.

I just wish I had a place to bag some hogs, my freezer has been empty for years.  We bought the deep freeze with the intention of filling it with meat but never could afford to fill it up.  There are hogs around but nowhere to hunt them unfortunately, my Grendel and Beowulf are starting to ask questions.... I keep telling them we'll get access somewhere someday but they are fooled anymore.

I'm hoping to move to Georgia in the next year or two, maybe I'll find some land access there.  Reading these stories where folks are so flush with hogs is hard on me LOL.

Aren't Grendel and Beowulf mortal enemies?  

SkyPup that BBQ is awesome. Thats what we do also. On the coyote bait, I tried it once and the vultures wait at the gut pile. They tear it up pretty quick before any of the coyotes can get to it. I guess they would come at night, but we arent allowed to hunt at night on my lease. Any recommendations? I know theyre there because I saw a huge one last year with 3 other smaller ones roaming around. I also hear them most mornings walking to my stand, sometimes VERY close.

I've eaten 200+ hogs and don't have any complaints other than all the trouble of cooking then going to waste because none of the city slickers I know would eat it when they find out it was produced on a farm and feed god only knows what

Anymore, unless it's a 40# or under that my buddy and his wife my girl and myself can eat, I gut shoot'em and let them run off and die so I don't have to drag them off myself...

They are an EXTREMELY destructive species that is the ONLY exception to my rule of never kill anything unless your going to eat it rule.

My thoughts exactly.

I used to try and give them away. Lots of people say they want them but when you call and say I just popped a few they back out.

Although I don't agree with this, I respect your opinion. I don't kill anything I don't plan on eating, just not my thing.

This.

It is not hunting, it is not sport, even though it might look like it and be fun at times. It no different than spraying a wasp nest, poisoning fire ants, or killing a copperhead snake or a rabid skunk.

The people that hunting the land next to our family farm set loose a number of hogs because they thought it would be fun to hunt them for a weekend.  Within a year we were over run with feral hogs.  We would spend every spring and early summer riding around shooting them from the trucks and then following them into the woods.  We trapped them in the fall and winter.  The man who managed our farm trapped and killed over 300 one year.  They destroyed our pastures.  Row cropping peanuts or corn was useless.  We finally got rid of them by not planting corn or peanuts and putting enough pressure on them to drive them down river to the next farms.  

Can you shoot the guys who released them on sight, too?  

I hear you guys. I see it from a hunters point of view and not a landowner. I would not want to be losing out on thousands of dollars every year!

I wish. The hogs are destroying Americas crop base and people are constantly letting them loose just so there dogs can bay one on a Saturday morning.

You telling us you let the mice and roaches run free in you house

 

LOL I kill roaches, rats, and coyotes with no mercy.

When you rely on your property to make a living a hog is your enemy
It may sound bad to a lot of folks but when they not only eat but DESTROY the very thing you are using to make a living with it will change your tune.
You CAN NOT EAT YOUR WAY OUT OF A HOG PROBLEM.

I scoped out a property for a potential night hunt, about 800 acres in Dekalb county.

Through thermal, there were dozens and dozens of them, probably 100 or more PLUS tons of babies. This guy has a serious infestation. I didn't have a rifle, but if I did I would've dumped a full mag on them, easily -- and that's the problem. The level of gunfire would sound like a war zone and could attract unwanted attention. As much as I hate to admit it, these guys need to start trapping, although this guy wants to participate in the hunt for a little "payback."

There is no way 100 people could "eat their way" through this infestation.

The sound helps.  Go dump a few mags into them.  That group won't be back for a week or so.  Put enough pressure on them and they won't be back for a month or so.

I drag them off for the Buzzards

If this is your offer to process and ship free meat up to Iowa, consider it accepted. Would love to make it down south and participate in the extermination sometime.

I'm a Biologist originally specializing in Herpetology, as it was part of my plan to get a Ph.D. in Biotechnology to study amino acids in venom in search of medical and technological uses for the unique amino acids created by Herps. During my undergrad years I changed directions and found a passion working with a Biologist focused on studying our native quail and turkey species. As their numbers in the wild were on the downfall, specifically the Bobwhite, we searched for the root of the cause. Fireants and predators such as hawks, coyotes and bobcats were what we initially fingered as main reasons for the rapid drop in quail numbers, however we quickly discovered a strong correlation between feral pig and quail populations.

Feral hog control became the forefront of our efforts when trying to strengthen and reastablish quail numbers. The pigs' incredible sense of smell and their ability to destroy everything in their path when searching out food, gives ground nesting birds the nearly impossible task of hiding their brood.  This also was affecting turkey and pheasant numbers. Our second largest enemy, and one that was unexpected and quite shocking, and not evident until we started using cameras and thermal, was the discovery of large feral house cat populations.  Rarely did we see feral house cats during the day, however the game cameras and thermography revealed a disturbing trend on many of the large ranches we worked; feral house cats are as great a danger and threat to quail when present in quail habitat.

Our feral hog control eventually led me to start a full time eradication business and I now work with land owners all over Texas in their feral hog control efforts. Most of my work consists of consultations and population surveys, as well as working with wildlife management firms to instigate hog control programs and measures. In the past few years this has led to taking to the air quite often as we have found that population control is most effective when done in this manner. Trapping only goes so far, but shooting pigs from helicopters has proven very successful in lowering their numbers and completely eliminating them over a short period of time. I've flown over hundreds of thousands of acres across this state and have seen first hand the magnitude of feral pig destruction to the land and native habitat and thus our native animal species, and have spoken to hundreds of ranchers and farmers and heard their desperate calls for help.

Of course it was an exciting venture at the start, but I'll admit that I lost sleep early on wondering if what we were doing was right or ethical. I don't enjoy slaughtering animals and had a hard time knowing that many of the pigs we were shooting had slow deaths, which I don't wish upon any animal. I try to keep in mind the good we are doing for land owners and the natural habitat and native species of this great state. The destruction feral pigs cause is amazing to say the least and their numbers are exploding, and without a full on eradication assult we will only continue to loose ground in this battle. Unfortunately, as stated above by a member here, one of our biggest enemies is ourselves. Part of our studies is to track pig populations and their origins, and all too often we discover that pigs were purposely introduced to areas where they once did not exist. More often than not, they were rounded up and relocated by individuals who see dollar signs and seek to gain fanacially from the hunting of feral pigs. Charging hunters a few hundred dollars per hunt will keep the trapping and releasing of pigs a consistant way to earn easy money for many, yet they rarely give thought to the negative impact they're causing to their neighbors. Currently, I'm working a part of the Texas Hill Country were this exact scenario has resulted in a large number of pigs spreading into three counties where ranchers who have been on the land for 60 plus years say they've never seen them before; one of these properties is owned by my wife's family who's ancestors settled the area in the early 1800's. Her grandfather was born there in 1929 and saw his first pig on the property this past fall. It was only a matter of time I told him. These pigs were tracked back to a new land owner who released hogs on his property less than a year earlier over 20 miles away so that he would have something to shoot outside of deer season.

The good news is that those high up at the GLO and within the Ag Comm finally understand the levity of the infestation and are willing to help.  I still have a passion for the Bobwhite and hope that my efforts result in the return of their habitat and a strong recovery across Texas. I'll die a happy man if I play just a small part in their success.

bobweaver,
that is the best post I've ever read on pigs.  I am not a farmer but am a hunter and I (obsessively) enjoy hunting pigs.  I eat what I shoot for the most part, but if one makes it to the big woods wounded, I don't usually put a hell of a lot of effort into tracking him down.  With game animals, it's a whole different story.  Your post above should be sent in to some of the hunting mags.  It would be a great follow up to the article in last month's NRA Hunting mag on night hog hunting.  I am sure that there will be some critical letters submitted for next month's issue.

I agree 100% Thanks for posting and sharing your expertise bobweaver!!! And your findings only make sense.  Hawks/Coyotes/Bobcats/ect have always been a NATIVE species.  Feral hogs on the other hand are an invasive species that need to be killed on sight regardless if your going to eat them or let the buzzards eat them.

The hogs are also the worst for the other ground nesting birds such as the turkeys, I have seen allot less wild turkey poults the past few years with the large increase in wild hogs destroying their nests.

Lol +1

Coyote bait.

Leave some floating


Hang some up


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95% of them are eaten. Field dressed on the spot, hams and backstraps and shoulders placed in the cooler.

I admire you guys that have vast amounts of them. I have to travel a few hundred miles to get them.....last thing im gonna do is leave that meat behind!

Call me crazy, but once I buy my thermal scope, my deer lease is out and im 100% hog hunting!

If I need meet for the freezer I'll load one up and dress it otherwise, I call as soon as I kill one and let some less fortunate know where they can find some free meat. It is a nice relationship and they know not to poach. Others are less likely to poach the more they see people on the land.

It already is.
http://www.tahc.state.tx.us/animal_health/feral_swine.html