Farmers will consider a $20 bounty on every feral pig in NSW in a bid to tackle the destructive pests wreaking havoc on crops and leaving producers out of pocket.
Coolah farmer Tom Dunlop has been in the farming business for more than 27 years as a livestock and crop producer in western NSW.
But his cropping business has suffered as feral pig numbers explode and hoards of the pests invade his farmlands, bringing destruction and disease.
“They will come from surrounding hills, and they’ll travel basically 27 kilometres or more to get to a sorghum crop and they just love it,” Mr Dunlop told AAP.
Mr Dunlop experienced his worst sorghum crop loss in 2022 when an estimated 350 tonnes was destroyed by feral pigs, costing him more than $80,000 in damage before the pests wreaked more than $12,000 in damage to his grain crop.
“They breed in it. They burrow in it. They nest in it. If there’s water nearby, they will live in it. It’s very hard to eradicate them,” he said.
“During the drought, we weren’t seeing pigs but since we’ve had those three wet years, they’ve just exploded (in numbers) and bred quickly out of control.”
The feral pests also bring ticks and lice and diseases which require farmers to vaccinate their livestock, costing more money.
Current pig controls, including poisoning. trapping and shooting, have not changed since the 1960s and farmers were now looking for novel ways to reduce pig numbers.
Mr Dunlop traps and shoots on average 50 pigs per week while his neighbours send up helicopters every month at a cost of $1600 an hour to eradicate the pigs.
“They still haven’t got on top of the problem,” he said.
“We’re still seeing mobs of 50 or 60 so at the moment it’s been totally ineffective.”
Farmers and industry stakeholders will debate whether to back a new policy to implement a $20 per head feral pig bounty across NSW at the NSW Farmers annual conference on Tuesday.
An ardent supporter of the motion, Mr Dunlop said the cash offer would result in more landowners playing their part to eradicate feral pigs.
“Everyone’s short of money at the moment. There’s not a lot of cash floating around so if you had an incentive to go out and shoot pigs, I can’t see a problem with it.” Mr Dunlop said.
“It’s costing me a lot more than $20 a pig, but it would entice a lot of farmers because at the moment every farmer is getting zero.”
If the motion passes, the association representing NSW farmers will call on the state government to implement the bounty after the agriculture minister delivered $13 million in feral pig control funding in 2023.
Critical issues around the energy transition and future food production will be discussed at the two-day event with Premier Chris Minns and his ministers making an appearance.