What steps can Georgia farmers take to combat the growing threat of wild pigs that continue to damage farmlands? This is what a recent study published in Crop Protection hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how steps to mitigate crop damage from wild pigs. This study has the potential to help researchers and farmers better understand crop damage from wild pigs and the steps that can be taken to mitigate wild pig encroachment, which have increasingly been causing crop damage in recent decades.
“Think of a mouse or rabbit and how quickly and how much they reproduce,” said Justine Smith, who is a PhD student at the University of Georgia and lead author of the study. “Now make that into a large mammal and introduce it to an area where there’s no natural predators except for people. Wild pig populations basically just exploded, and it has been a growing problem ever since.”
For the study, the researchers evaluated the agricultural and financial damage incurred from wild pigs encroaching on farmland, along with steps to remove wild pigs and the impact that has on crop protection. During the summer months of 2021 and 2022, the researchers used unmanned aerial systems (drones) to observe and document wild pig damage, including agricultural and financial.
Video image of wild pigs near crops. (Credit: Justine Smith)
In the end, the researchers estimated that wild pig damage resulted in a yearly average of $107,694, along with noting that both summers exhibited the same level of damage to peanut fields, cotton, and corn. Regarding steps to mitigate wild pig damage, the researchers noted that removal of wild pigs before planting crops improves the chances of crop protection and production.
“You can’t take your foot off the pedal,” said Smith. “If there hadn’t been continuous removal, we can think about how much more damage there would be. It speaks to the fact that these agriculture-based landscapes need more boots on the ground.”
How will farmers continue to combat wild pigs in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Crop Protection, EurekAlert!