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Feral hog elimination efforts increase in Missouri

Feral hog elimination efforts are ramping up in Missouri thanks to a three-year federal grant.

In partnership with University of Missouri Extension, four feral hog outreach educator positions have come to the state and three have already been filled.

Kevin Crider – based in Salem, Missouri – has years of experience trapping hogs, telling Brownfield his job is to educate on anti-feral hog measures and coordinate feral hog trapping and harvesting resources…

“Talking with landowners and working with our partners, meeting with county commissioners, talking to farm bureau members, the [Missouri] Farm Bureau president, people that just have hogs on their property that call us and say ‘hey, I need help’,” he said.

Jerry Richards – who is operating out of Ironton, Missouri – says he’s personally experienced feral hog damage on his farm. He tells Brownfield farmers and ranchers are warming up to working with MU Extension and the Missouri Department of Conservation to remove feral hogs from their property.

“Before I’d ever seen feral hog damage, I had heard about it,” he said. “I assumed it would look like a football field after a rainy game; roughed up some. I had no idea that it would look like you’d turned a drunk loose on a skid-steer loader, going around taking huge chunks of dirt and rocks and just totally devastating it.”

Crider says around 10,000 hogs were eliminated in 2019, 12,000 in 2020 and around 9,000 in 2021 which is a good sign.

“Our hope is that we’ll go into more of a monitoring position verses actually having to go out there and deal with damage on a regular basis like we are now,” Crider said.

Feral hog outreach educator Megan Crane is based in Ava, Missouri. All the feral hog outreach educators can be reached through MU Extension.