How a Texas Rancher Traps Hogs Around His Livestock
On a working ranch, hog control competes with everything else: cattle work, fence building, hauling feed and family. George Wardlaw knows that better than most. He's a sixth-generation sheep, goat and cattle rancher north of Del Rio, Texas, and he's been trapping feral hogs on his land for about 15 years. (You can read more about what wild pigs have cost his ranch and the tactics he uses in dry country.)
In a recent Pig Brig webinar with Aaron Sumrall, PhD, Pig Brig's Director of Outreach, Education and Research, Wardlaw explained how he fits trapping into the rhythm of his operation. His approach is simple: treat hog control like any other ranch job, and schedule it around your livestock.
Wardlaw has run the Pig Brig Trap System long enough to build his own routines around it, shaped by his arid country, his livestock and his schedule. Some of what he does differs from Pig Brig's standard protocol. That's part of what makes his story useful: it shows how the trap adapts to a real operation. Where his methods differ from what we recommend for most landowners, we'll say so.
Timing Trapping Around Livestock
"I trap where there's livestock," Wardlaw said, "but it's easier to trap ahead of your rotation and then again behind your rotation."
How Dry Country Changes the Timing
On Wardlaw's ranch, vegetation is sparse to begin with, so a net can lay flat on the ground even in a pasture livestock haven't grazed yet. That lets him clear hogs before his animals move in.
That won't work the same way on most land. Pig Brig recommends trapping behind your rotation. Once livestock have grazed a pasture down, the net makes better contact with the ground and lays flush. Hogs also feed on undigested feed in livestock manure, which draws them into recently grazed pastures. In wetter country to the east, with heavier vegetation, trapping ahead of livestock is much harder to do well.
Trapping Is Easier Without Livestock in the Pasture
When livestock share a pasture with a trap, they can eat the bait, damage the net or end up inside it. Trapping a pasture after livestock move out removes all of that. "It is easier to trap without livestock there," Wardlaw said.
Build Your Calendar Backward From Birthing Season
Wardlaw plans his heaviest trapping around his most vulnerable window. Hogs carry diseases that can spread to livestock, they damage water troughs, and they prey on newborns. Kid goats and lambs are the most vulnerable, but Wardlaw has even seen big boars kill newborn calves when the cows couldn't fend them off.
This year, his bucks and billies go out with the herd on October 12, which puts kidding and lambing in March. Everything he does between now and then is aimed at having hog numbers as low as possible when babies hit the ground.
"That's the main thing, is to have the numbers low at that time."
For ranchers, that means fall and winter trapping is really spring protection. Our guide to trapping hogs in fall and getting ready for peak season covers how to use this window.
Pre-Set Nets in Pastures Ahead of Birthing Season
When Wardlaw knows he'll be kidding or lambing in a pasture, he moves nets there well in advance, raised and not in catch mode. Bait isn't even required at this stage.
"It's just something that they're gonna be seeing and smelling," he said. By the time he's ready to trap, the hogs are used to it.
Expect Numbers to Climb When You Let Up
Wardlaw is honest that trapping doesn't always come first. When cattle work, fence building or family time pulls him away, hog numbers climb. When he gets back to it, they drop again. Consistency is what keeps the numbers down.
Keeping Livestock Out of Your Trap
Sometimes you have to trap where livestock are. Wardlaw uses a few methods to keep sheep, goats and cattle out while still letting hogs in.
Electric Exclusion
Electric wire around the trap is the approach Pig Brig recommends for keeping livestock out. Wardlaw has walked other ranchers through setting it up with good results. We have two how-to videos depending on your setup: electric exclusion using T-posts and electric exclusion using plastic step-in posts.
Elevated Feed Pens
Wardlaw's ranch has elevated sheep and goat feed pens from generations past. They're full frames with net wire and a gate, built to keep cattle out. Wardlaw sets T-posts inside these pens and hangs his net inside. Because the pens are wider than the trap, cattle can't get to it at all, and the pens still work for sheep and goats later.
Protect Nets Even When They Aren't Set to Catch
A raised net still needs protection. "Cattle will eat the cords," Wardlaw said. "You have to protect the net, even if it's not in catch mode, from livestock."
Running Multiple Traps in One Morning
Wardlaw runs traps across a big piece of country, so catch mornings need a plan.
Group Your Traps in One Direction
Early on, Wardlaw trapped in every direction, which meant too many miles between traps. Now he works one direction at a time, with sites in several canyons spaced roughly a mile and a half to two miles apart.
Set 4 to 6 Traps per Catch Night
Wardlaw baits all his active traps at the same time, watches sign on each one, and drops them all on the same catch night. He's run as many as eight in one morning, but he won't do it again.
"That's too many miles," he said, "and I don't like the hogs staying in that net that long." Four to six is his sweet spot.
Check Every Trap in Catch Mode Every Morning
Wardlaw sometimes leaves a net in catch mode for several days at a time, but he checks every one of those traps every morning. A net is never left in catch mode without a daily check.
That isn't our standard recommendation. For most trappers, Pig Brig advises leaving a net in catch mode no more than two nights in a row, and only if you can check it every morning. Non-target animals can get into or tear a net that sits unchecked. In Wardlaw's arid country, non-targets are less of an issue. Landowners farther east, with more rain and vegetation, will likely see more non-target activity around their traps.
Check Your Repaired Traps First
Wardlaw plans his route to avoid backtracking, but distance isn't the only factor. Any trap that's ever been torn or repaired gets checked first. His traps that have never needed repair can hold a catch a little longer, so they come later on the route.
Dispatch First, Then Clean Up
Wardlaw works down the line dispatching hogs at every trap, then goes back through to clean up. One lesson he learned early: pull hogs from the net before rigor sets in, or they become much harder to remove.
Where Cameras Can Help
Without cameras, you don't know which traps caught until you drive to them. As Sumrall pointed out during the webinar, a trapper running several traps with no cameras doesn't know what's waiting at each site. Where you have cell coverage, a cellular trail camera on each trap shows you which ones caught before you leave the house, so you can plan the most efficient route. You can see the cameras we carry in our SMART Gear collection.
Can You Catch Again in the Same Spot?
A common question from trappers is whether blood from a catch will keep hogs away from that site. Wardlaw's numbers suggest it doesn't have to.
On his first big catch, he caught 34 hogs. He raised the net, added feed, and dropped it again two nights later. The second catch was 17 hogs, the young of the sows from the first catch. In one canyon, he removed 106 hogs in about three weeks across four locations, and one net caught four times in the same spot with blood still on the ground.
Sumrall has seen the same thing in his own work. He has caught hogs in the same trap, in the same location, for 19 nights in a row, dispatching every hog in that trap. His protocol was to stomp blood into the soil or cover it with dirt and remove any intact feces from the trap.
"There's not a lot of basis for that," Sumrall said of the concern about blood. "We know that we can go back into an area and catch a lot of pigs where we've just dispatched a lot of pigs."
Wardlaw did notice one difference. When he ran box traps, he struggled to get hogs back into one after shooting hogs inside it. With his nets, he hasn't had the same problem.
Caring for Your Nets
Here's how Wardlaw keeps his nets working in the field, and what Pig Brig recommends when a net comes out of use.
Don't Raise a Net Where Blood Is on It
Blood on the net is a bigger concern than blood on the ground. If a bloody section of net gets raised and strapped up, the blood dries stiff. "It makes it hard as leather," Wardlaw said, and that section of skirt won't lay flat or move freely.
When there's blood on his net, Wardlaw leaves that section flat on the ground rather than raising it. A good rain cleans everything up, and he rinses nets with water when he can. Pig Brig recommends cleaning with water only, with no soaps or chemicals.
Watch for Chewed Cords
Nets in the field still face wildlife. Wardlaw has had cottontails chew his cords, which is one more reason to look over your nets on every check.
Store Nets in a Container With a Lid
When a net isn't in use, Pig Brig recommends storing it. Rinse it with water, let it air dry, and store it in a container with a lid, away from extreme temperatures. A lidded container keeps out mice and rats, which can chew through cords in a barn or shed. Our guide on how to maintain your Pig Brig Trap System covers the full process.
Disposing of Hogs Away From Livestock
Where you haul your hogs matters as much as where you catch them.
Wardlaw once dumped hogs in a few piles and ended up with more than a thousand vultures feeding across four sites. That kind of activity draws transient predators onto your land. He also realized that cattle low on minerals are drawn to bones and can choke on them. Now he disposes of every hog somewhere his livestock won't be.
He's found one upside to carcass piles, though. Coyotes that come to investigate tend to approach from downwind, so he sets coyote traps on the downwind side.
Always follow your state and local regulations for carcass disposal.
Built for a Rancher's Schedule
Wardlaw's whole system depends on being able to set, move and reset traps without losing a day's work. He rotates nets between 14 main catch sites, and by his own timing, he can lower a net, haul it and set it back up in under 20 minutes, not counting drive time.
The Pig Brig® Trap System has no gate to maintain and no trigger to fail, and one person can set and run it. That leaves more of the morning for the rest of the ranch. To learn more, see how the Pig Brig Trap System works.
Have questions about trapping around livestock? Browse our Help Center for answers to common trapping questions, or text or call our trap support team at 1-833-PIG-BRIG. And once you own a Pig Brig, you'll have access to our private Pig Brig Owners Facebook group, where owners swap tips, share catches and help each other troubleshoot in the field.
Want to hear more from Wardlaw? Watch the full webinar on our YouTube channel.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do you keep cattle out of a hog trap?
A: Electric wire around the trap is the method Pig Brig recommends, and you can set it up with either T-posts or plastic step-in posts. Some ranchers also hang the net inside an existing structure livestock can't reach, like an elevated feed pen. Hogs get in, but cattle stay out.
Q: Should you trap ahead of or behind your livestock rotation?
A: For most landowners, Pig Brig recommends trapping behind the rotation. Grazed pastures let the net lay flush with the ground, and hogs are drawn to undigested feed in manure. Wardlaw traps ahead of his rotation too, but that works because his arid ranch has little vegetation to begin with.
Q: When should ranchers trap hogs before calving or lambing?
A: Start well ahead of birthing season so you have time to locate hog activity, establish bait sites and condition hogs to enter the trap. Continue monitoring through lambing, kidding or calving, since hogs can move in from neighboring land. Wardlaw puts his bucks and billies out in October for March kidding and lambing, and he focuses his trapping on getting hog numbers as low as possible before newborns arrive. Pre-setting nets in birthing pastures early helps hogs get comfortable with the trap.
Q: Does blood keep hogs away from a trap?
A: Not necessarily. Wardlaw has caught hogs repeatedly in the same spot with blood still on the ground, and Aaron Sumrall, PhD, has caught hogs in the same trap for 19 nights in a row. Stomping blood into the soil, covering it with dirt and removing intact feces can help.
Q: How many hog traps can one person run?
A: It depends on distance, terrain and whether you can check every trap each morning. Wardlaw typically runs 4 to 6 traps on a catch night. That fits his operation and isn't a target for every trapper. He has run as many as 8, but found that was too many miles and kept hogs in the nets too long.
Q: How often should you check a trap in catch mode?
A: Every morning. Pig Brig recommends leaving a net in catch mode no more than two nights in a row, and only if you can check it daily, since non-target animals can get into or damage a net that sits unchecked.
Q: How should you store a hog trap net?
A: Rinse it with water, let it air dry, and store it in a container with a lid, away from extreme temperatures. The lid keeps out mice and rats. For the full process, see our guide on how to maintain your Pig Brig Trap System.
