The Alabama Soil and Water Conservation Program is working to help landowners with a statewide hog problem. The State's Feral Swine Control Program started taking applications back in January. It’s a USDA funded program that helps applicants with feral swine removal. Organizers will meet with landowners today in Bay Minette on the program. Wild hogs cause around forty four million dollars in agricultural damage each year in Alabama. Cayla Mitchell is with the Alabama Soil and Water Conservation Committee. She says that the Swine Control Program helps out farmers in two ways.
“Yeah, so there’s two different aspects to this program,” she said. “We offer a 70% rebate on receipts of trap purchase and other eligible components like game cameras, directional antennas, and the USDA wild life services offers free trapping and removal of feral swine on landowners who are in the target zone of our program.”
Cayla Mitchell says feral swine isn’t just a nuisance for Alabama landowners, and the pigs are a major and costly issue for Alabama’s agriculture industry.
“Yeah, so feral pigs cause roughly 44 million dollars in agricultural damage in a year, they root up sprouts, they trample crops, they cause ruts in fields with actually cause damage to heavy machinery, and it’s really hard to drive over when they create these deep ruts,” said Mitchell.
Wild Hogs also carry forty diseases that can be given to farm animals and pets.