Feral pigs devour 99 out of every 100 lambs on this Central

[womble]

Feral pigs devour 99 out of every 100 lambs on this Central West NSW farm

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-04/feral-pigs-eating-lambs/105835106

Becoming increasingly trap shy. Not helpful.

[GQshayne]

I saw that article, and have seen numerous others on the subject. There are meetings going on everywhere on the problem, but it seems using recreational shooters is not considered an option.

[Billo]

I saw that article, and have seen numerous others on the subject. There are meetings going on everywhere on the problem, but it seems using recreational shooters is not considered an option.

Its very hilly country and very average soil where this farmer is trying to make a buck, would only take a few educated boars working the very late nights and early hours to destroy old mates lambing season. A few years back a dogging mate invited me to do a run to a property where they had a dog killing boar that was attacking sleeping ewe's at night. The old bugger had built a large nest only 150ms from where the sheep slept every nite. We didnt scale him but around the 115-120kg of pure old Mountain boar. Ears almost completely gone and nasty hooks

[womble]

Recreational shooters with suppressors for free.
This is the real damage the greens do when they block important bills. This is the human face of it.

Dogging is still popular in that region but if the dogs aren’t properly stock proofed then they could kill sheep as well. I dont think a sheep farmer would be keen on the idea.
And 120kg is a lot bigger in person. I’ve never seen one that big beyond photos. But I’m not going anywhere near it with a knife. I don’t care how many dogs you have.

[Jorlcrin]

Feral pigs devour 99 out of every 100 lambs on this Central West NSW farm

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-04/feral-pigs-eating-lambs/105835106

Becoming increasingly trap shy. Not helpful.

Maybe I've read that article wrong, but it doesnt seem like the bloke is prepared to bait the pigs.
I see someone else talked about the importance of shooting, trapping AND baiting, but the bloke himself neglects to mention baiting when he talks about his control methods.

I'd also suggest that a fall to 1% lambs marked, DIDNT happen in one year.
If we see a 5-10% fall in lamb-marking from long-term average, we are seriously examining the root cause of why the drop, and what we can do to address it.

If we had that big a pig problem, we'd have people fighting over who comes to assist to thin the porcine herd.

[Wapiti]

Just like the ABC to throw in the renewables projects rubbish as a diversification strategy for farmers. It's in every radio news bulletin, online story... anything these city university activists can think of.

That story isn't very informative of the measures old mate has used. We see his bike in a few pics, one in front of a supposed aerial shooting chopper.
He also says that ground shooting disperses lambs from ewes... well then mate, secure your lambing paddocks with adequate fencing, then go to town.
That's bullsh*t, and an excuse.

I know in our area, our council sponsors regular 1080 poisoning programs. I give them rhe OK for the coordinates of where the "master baiter" equipped chopper can spread baits, and in paddocks in use I can get offal meat baits injected with dog and pig strength 1080.
Pigs and foxes are the easy targets, it's the dogs that are the trouble when it comes to baits.
I see the chopper ... he's spending some money, poor bastard, well how I see it, the first paddocks you spend the exclusion fencing on (instead of the chopper and shooter costs) is where you're lambing. Make your animals safe is your first priority.

I reckon there's lots of opinions, fingers in pies, egos at stake, you name it.
With any business, you need security and stock. Premises, and saleable products. Well on a farm, stock security (FENCING) is your premises, your shop front. This comes before beer, holidays, new Landcruisers and dinners in town.
First priority is security of your stock. That's fencing. Feed and water and shelter at the same time.
Before anything else.
That story doesn't tell us the whole story.
And that's before we consider control methods. They come after security.

[GQshayne]

I hunted on a property for many years, and after the first few years we would go there in the month before the lambing. Property owner had accurate records, and told us lambing rates increased a lot due to our hunting presence leading up to it. Cannot remember the numbers now, but it was significant.

[Billo]

First time I hunted a large property out at the Mac Marshes we spotted a reasonable size western boar moving thru a timberline early one morning. Cant remember who put it on the ground but the animal had pulled up and was clearly busy feeding when shot.

In its mouth was a freshly born lamb already dead with its guts hanging out, we were less than 100yds from its mum who had just given birth and still on the ground.

They stopped running sheep on this place later on and the 11 stand shearing shed sits dormant. A few season later on this property 980 pigs were shot by in a single day by Heli. The largest boar went 400lbs. A flood plain Station with 2 major river and plenty of Lignum, a truly magical place for hunters.

[wrenchman]

it made the news here in the states

[bigrich]

I hunted on a property for many years, and after the first few years we would go there in the month before the lambing. Property owner had accurate records, and told us lambing rates increased a lot due to our hunting presence leading up to it. Cannot remember the numbers now, but it was significant.

shame this information isn't out in MSM . but positive stories about recreational shooters making a difference just won't fly in this increasingly lefty woke dominated country . i get out on a cattle/sheep station around 4-5 times a year and i've been told i'm making a difference with the ferals . it's also about getting eyes on the fences and letting the property owner know where things are at, as they don't have time to get around some of the more remote areas on the block. i've come across sheep missed in a muster to another paddock and used the CB to let the owner know where to find them . it's these little things that help and are appreciated . i've heard some horror stories from some property owners about rude , selfish, ignorant hunters and poachers. makes it hard for honest hunters to get a go these days

[Fester]

In NSW, you have Buckley's chance of getting onto properties unless you know people or live in the rural areas.

You just have to look at the SSAA Farmer Assist site that has been running for a few years now.
Even with the current pig numbers, still no job requests for hunters to help.

The only job I ever got was driving up to Qld with huge roo numbers.
The roos were so skittish as the place was obviously heavily shot.

[bigrich]

In NSW, you have Buckley's chance of getting onto properties unless you know people or live in the rural areas.

You just have to look at the SSAA Farmer Assist site that has been running for a few years now.
Even with the current pig numbers, still no job requests for hunters to help.

The only job I ever got was driving up to Qld with huge roo numbers.
The roos were so skittish as the place was obviously heavily shot.

some properties i've been , the roo's see you from a k away and their outa there

[GQshayne]

Yep, QLD is the same. The SSAA Farmer Assist appears to not be favoured by farmers. No jobs last time I looked, despite the widespread pig problem.

I cannot remember exactly what the lambing rates were originally, but will take a guess in the 80% range. One year they got 103%. Obviously we cleaned up a few pigs while we were there, but I think also our presence in their favourite spots upset their routines and moved some on into other properties too.

[Wapiti]

Yep, QLD is the same. The SSAA Farmer Assist appears to not be favoured by farmers. No jobs last time I looked, despite the widespread pig problem.

It's because they do not indemnify the landowner legally against litigation arising from one of these casual hunters hurting themselves. All it takes is a weekender rolling a quad bike or tipping a ute into a creek bed and snapping a few vertebrae or worse, or shooting a mate, or owner/worker.
All you get is lip service and all the supposed benefits, with the way-worse outcomes that unfortunately do happen all the time ssssshhhhhh... don't bring that up.
Until they do that, the SSAA half-organised Farmer Assist is going to keep dying a slow but definite death.

[GQshayne]

Yep, QLD is the same. The SSAA Farmer Assist appears to not be favoured by farmers. No jobs last time I looked, despite the widespread pig problem.

It's because they do not indemnify the landowner legally against litigation arising from one of these casual hunters hurting themselves. All it takes is a weekender rolling a quad bike or tipping a ute into a creek bed and snapping a few vertebrae or worse, or shooting a mate, or owner/worker.
All you get is lip service and all the supposed benefits, with the way-worse outcomes that unfortunately do happen all the time ssssshhhhhh... don't bring that up.
Until they do that, the SSAA half-organised Farmer Assist is going to keep dying a slow but definite death.

That has always been the case, and I do not see that changing, SSAA program or not.

The other issue is many sensible, experienced, and very safe shooters have no experience on the land or with livestock. Being safe with a firearm is not the biggest risk for a landowner. But given the scope of the current problem I would have expected some using Farmer Assist. But no! The people have spoken!

[Wapiti]

It is a big deal nowadays, how quick people are to blame someone else at their own errors of judgement.
And I don't like it one bit, because it makes life difficult for all of us. And way more expensive.

Because we as a country are moving towards a big problem in this country, and governments are already setting the stage for a blanket conclusion that as hunting has a very minimal effect on feral animal numbers, it will soon fade away as not required.

Someone of the weekender drunken bearded know-it-all disposition flipped a quad bike at high speed on a neighbouring property recently and had to be choppered out, the wife was talking to one of the emergency doctor on this particular chopper who told her this bloke is essentially f**ked, had certain essential large bones sticking out everywhere and a depressed skull.
So now this place, prior to this a haven for men who behave like little children when on R&R , has closed up shop.

If the SSAA wants to be professional, and says it moves with the times, they could easily use their huge membership size to properly fund the activities it says prove the worth of hunting in the community. Their community is not just urban rifle ranges and strangling their members like chickens with fees there.

[GQshayne]

This is the issue as I see it, from a liability perspective.

A professional contractor will have insurance to cover property damage, and also for liability. And potentially also income protection. Us recreational hunters do not. So the contractor is out on a job, and is injured in an accident. His insurance has him covered. But his insurance company will investigate the accident, and if they determine that the accident was caused by the landowners negligence, they will take action against the landowner to recover their costs.

We have had landowners on this forum some time back discussiong this problem. They tried, and simply cannot insure themselves against these issues. Not good news for us hunters, and the reason why people like me have nowhere to hunt nowadays. In the old days the place I hunted on had many hunters on there, but for the last 20 years it was just us. Owner said he could not take the risk of letting anyone else on any more. But eventually the property was sold.