Missing Lambs, Broken Fences and the Feral Hogs Behind One Rancher’s Daily Fight
Some people catch hogs for sport. George Wardlaw traps them to keep his ranch running.
George is a sixth-generation rancher and joint owner of the White Ranch, a sheep, goat and cattle operation just north of Del Rio, Texas. It's rocky, hilly, arid country where water is scarce and trapping takes work. He was recently named Outstanding Trapper of the Year by the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Association, and he's been fighting feral hogs on his land for roughly 15 years.
In a recent Pig Brig webinar with Aaron Sumrall, PhD, Pig Brig's Director of Outreach, Education and Research, and Abby Good, Pig Brig's Product Support Specialist, Wardlaw talked openly about what wild pigs have done to his operation. His answer to how hogs have affected him was simple.
"I get up in the morning and go hog trapping because I have to, not because I want to."
Here's what that looks like on a working ranch.
How Wild Pigs Showed Up on an Arid Texas Ranch
It Started With Released Hogs
The first hogs Wardlaw ran into weren't wild born. They were castrated boars, many of them earmarked, which meant someone had caught them, handled them and turned them loose. Over time he caught 20 to 25 of them, and they were some of the hardest hogs he's ever had to remove.
Those first hogs shaped how he handles every hog he catches today.
"A hog's not gonna leave my place alive," Wardlaw said. "I don't want it to be turned loose and be someone else's problem. That's what happened to me."
After the released hogs came the sounders. Wardlaw's ranch borders a 30,000-acre state natural area and several large absentee properties, and the hogs seemed to move in from every direction at once.
Rain Brings More Hogs
In dry country, water controls where hogs can live. During a drought, hogs have to stay close enough to return to their usual watering spots each night. When it rains and water fills the draws, they follow it and don't have to go back.
"We pray for rain three times a day, and we need it," Wardlaw said. "But anytime it rains, I have more hogs show up."
The Losses You Can't See
Newborns Disappear Without a Trace
For a sheep and goat rancher, the worst damage happens at birth. A newborn kid goat is about the size of a house cat, and hogs can catch kids and lambs as they're being born.
"When they eat a baby, they eat the entire thing," Wardlaw said. There's no carcass, no hide and often no sign that anything happened at all.
Hogs Erase the Evidence
Feral hogs don't only kill. They scavenge, too. When a coyote or bobcat makes a kill, hogs often clean it up before the rancher ever finds it. Each predator kills and feeds in its own way, and that pattern usually tells a rancher what he's dealing with. When hogs get there first, the evidence is gone.
Even the usual warning signs disappear. Vultures normally lead ranchers to a kill, but there's nothing left for them to find.
"I'm driving around saying I'm not seeing any buzzards," Wardlaw said. "And then we go round up a pasture full of livestock, and there's no babies. At all."
When asked how much hog damage has cost him over the years, he couldn't put a number on it. "It's almost embarrassing to tell you how many kid goats and lambs we've lost," he said.
From Record Lamb Crops to Today
Wardlaw grew up watching his dad raise lamb crops of 110% and kid crops of 115%, numbers that made a ranch easier to run because there was more to sell. Back then there were no coyotes and no hogs, and bobcats were the main predator.
He watched those numbers slowly drop as coyotes and hogs moved in. As Sumrall put it during the webinar, "If you don't take care of the pig issue, you may not have sheep and goats to chase around."
The Damage You Can See: Fences, Water and Herd Health
Fifty Miles of Fence
For years, Wardlaw repaired fences damaged by three invasive species: aoudad, axis deer and feral hogs. Over the past four years, the ranch has built about 25 miles of new fence, with roughly another 25 miles still to go.
Water Lines, Troughs and Float Covers
On an arid ranch, water infrastructure is everything. Hogs have broken troughs and damaged water lines on his place, and he's had to change his float covers to keep up with them.
Disease Pressure and a New Vaccine Program
Feral hogs carry diseases that can spread to livestock, and leptospirosis is one Wardlaw deals with directly. Lepto is linked to reproductive losses in cattle, including calves lost before birth.
"We've completely changed our vaccine program on our cattle because of the lepto," Wardlaw said. That means another product to buy and more time and cost every time cattle are worked.
Hogs also foul the water sources other animals depend on, which leaves them in rough shape for the next animal that comes through.
How Hogs Complicate Every Other Predator Problem
On Wardlaw's ranch, controlling hogs and predators is a constant balancing act: hogs disrupt traps set for coyotes, while coyotes and mountain lions drive hogs away from the places he can catch them.
Hogs trot down roads and trails and hit coyote snares before the coyotes do, either blowing the snare out or getting caught and tearing up the fence. They step on and root up foothold traps. Meanwhile, coyotes chase sounders to catch piglets, which makes sows wary of bringing their young to bait sites. Most recently, a mountain lion pushed the hogs off the canyon where most of Wardlaw's traps sit, stopping his catches until he removed the lion.
"Both predators affect each other, and you gotta remove one to get the other," Wardlaw said. "It's always like juggling which one I'm gonna go after."
Signs Hogs May Be Behind Your Livestock Losses
Because hogs leave so little behind, many ranchers don't realize how much they're losing. Some signs worth watching for:
- Fewer newborns than expected at roundup, with no carcasses to explain it
- Few or no vultures, even when you suspect losses
- Fences lifted or torn at water gaps and along draws
- Damaged troughs, water lines or float valves
- Mud rubs on fence posts, trap posts or salt blocks
- Rooted ground near water and along property boundaries
One tip from Wardlaw: sweep out a trail in the evening, and in the morning you'll only be reading one night's worth of tracks.
Why Hog Control Became a Daily Job
For Wardlaw, hog control isn't something he gets to when he has free time. It's built into how he runs the ranch. He traps ahead of his livestock rotation so hog numbers are low before animals move in, and he times his heaviest trapping around kidding and lambing. This year, his bucks and billies go out October 12, which puts kidding and lambing in March.
Most of his trapping happens along the ranch boundaries, where hogs come in from neighboring properties. The damage doesn't stop at his fence line. Every hog he removes is one less hog tearing up the land next door.
He also knows what happens when he lets up. When cattle work, fence building or family time slows his trapping, the numbers climb. When he gets back to it, the hogs disappear. The difference is clear on the roads, too.
"Anytime you left the house and went north, south, east or west, hogs would run across the road right in front of you," Wardlaw said. "It's been years since that's been the case."
If you're planning your own fall trapping ahead of livestock season, our guide to trapping hogs in fall and getting ready for peak season covers what to expect as natural food sources peak.
What Changed When the Catches Got Bigger
Wardlaw was trapping long before hogs reached his ranch. He started as a kid catching raccoons after the family's chickens, and he's trapped wild goats and wild cattle since. When hogs arrived, he started with snares and box traps. The most he ever caught in a box trap was five.
His first catch in a Pig Brig® Trap System was four hogs. His second was 30.
"From then on, I knew that this is the way to do it," he said.
He's also caught castrated hogs in a Pig Brig, which he never managed in a metal cage. And because he runs nets across 14 main catch sites, portability matters. By his own timing, he can take down his net trap, haul it and set it back up in under 20 minutes, not counting drive time.
Today, Wardlaw has removed nearly 3,000 hogs. "My trapping wouldn't be as successful without the Pig Brig," he said.
If you're running a livestock operation and want to see how the system works, start with our How It Works page. You can also read more from landowners like Wardlaw on our Success Stories
