FARMERS are feeling the pinch from a feral pig plague that threatens to wipe out crops and spread disease among livestock.
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Favourable climate conditions in recent months has the North West region awash with the quick-breeding wild swine.
Somerton cattle farmer Wayne Chaffey said the feral pig problem was a growing concern for a lot of local primary producers.
In fact, Mr Chaffey has invited experts in invasive species, biosecurity and pest control to his Naours property next month.
The free day-long seminar on July 1 will provide advice on techniques and tactics farmers can employ to mitigate the pigs’ destruction.
“They make a mess around the dams and waterholes – wherever water pools – and in cropping areas they make holes in fences big enough for kangaroos to get through,” he said.
“They leave tracks all through your crops and sometimes dig up crops and make large nests in the middle of your paddocks.
“So come harvest time, you can find quite large areas where the crop is just absolutely flattened and not harvestable at all.”
Inverell-based pig hunter Ned Makim, who will speak at the seminar, said while eradication was impossible, numbers could be managed to the point where they have “negligible impacts”.
“You can’t kill them all, you just can’t,” he said. “But it’s about control and keeping populations at a level that causes the least possible damage to agriculture and the natural environment.
“They can reproduce so quickly that they can go from nearly zero to a catastrophic number within 12 months.
“Right at the moment, there are patches of the North West that have had good rain, and good rain and good feed are the keys to an explosion in pig numbers.”
Maules Creek farmer Cliff Wallace said he was facing a $40,000 loss this season due to damage caused by feral pigs in the area.
Mr Wallace, who until recently hosted an anti-mining protest group on his Black Mountain Rd property, said coal companies clearing vegetation in the area were not doing enough to control the pests.
“It’s a major problem this year – worse than usual – (and) the worst I have seen in 28 years farming here,” he said.
Email wayne.chaffey@det.nsw.gov.au for more information about the forum.
