Neighbours join forces to reduce feral pigs and disease risk

Introduction

Liam Johnston is a grazier from North West NSW, working with his family on a 7,000 acre property, running mainly cattle with a small mob of sheep and a very large feral pig problem.

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Video transcript

Neighbours join forces to reduce feral pigs and disease risk

Our biggest concern with the pigs is probably disease carrying. We do have a lot of damage. Twelve months ago, the pigs in this area were in plague proportion. You’d go out on a single day mustering you’d see 5 to 6 mobs of pigs while mustering. After 12 months of this LLS controlled baiting program, we're down to barely seeing pigs at all. 

 

Hi I'm Liam. My occupation is I work on a family farm. It’s my in-laws’ farm, near Barraba, New South Wales. Seven thousand acres, mainly cattle, a little killing mob of sheep.

 

About 12 or 18 months ago, I was approached at a field day by a couple of landowners and farm managers here in this area. They knew that they had a feral pig problem. They knew that, the feral pig problem was getting worse and it was just getting too hard to manage with the existing controls that they had and they wanted to know how best LLS could help them. I'm Karen, I'm a senior biosecurity officer with Local Land Services.

 

One of the biggest concerns for this pest animal group is the disease risk of feral pigs. Leptospirosis, brucellosis and now even Japanese encephalitis has been found in pigs across New South Wales. And so vaccinating your livestock for leptospirosis is an added cost is an added cost that these guys are having to wear now. To mitigate the risk of disease transfer is high on the list of priorities here for this group. This paddock here, we put cows in these hills and we've actually seen cows grooming pigs in the paddock. They’ll lick them. We have feeders on the farm now too, we pellet feed. The pigs love the feeders obviously so they are in the feeders with them feeding. Disease can spread that quickly, let alone water sharing and licking each other in the paddock. So the threat is huge. So we've got a bit over 20 neighbours in an area here that are doing excellent control. They are coordinating their control a couple of times a year all together and there's still a lot of those landowners doing ad hoc controls all throughout the year as well.  If we didn't have our neighbours in a group with us, with the LLS helping, those pig numbers would be still be what they were 12 months ago. You just can’t get on top of them without everyone being in a control group and helping.

 

So we are baiting better, knowing how the pig performs out with all their studies they've done. A big help as been these traps, you see behind us. They've given us grain, They've given us grain, which is quite expensive when you're doing these baiting programs. We had one site where we were feeding out nearly 500 kilos of barley a night. So if also we had to pay for it ourselves, it's another burden on the farm. Part of our group they’ve got us on feral pig scan app, which is a very handy tool. We know where our neighbours are baiting their pigs, so we make sure we're not in the same vicinity. So therefore, if they’re on the other side of the hill, we can go on the other side of our property. And we're getting much better numbers and results. 

 

Having a pest control group is a great way to build your confidence and your skills to be able to manage the feral pigs, not only for your own farm economics and your farm business, but also in the event of an outbreak of an exotic or notifiable disease. I think New South Wales or Australia wide, if they could get more of these programs going across the country, we could definitely get a dint in the feral pig population. Some of the positive outcomes after working with this group for 12 or 18 months is that they're just not seeing the pig numbers that they had 12 months ago. I drove out here on our very first meeting and nearly hit a mob of pigs on the road and we just don't see that here anymore. Get in touch with your local biosecurity officer who can help assist getting a coordinated group together so that your pig control efforts are much more efficient. 

Challenge

To reduce the risk of disease being transmitted to livestock from feral pigs. 

Mobs of feral pigs were seen mixing with cattle in the paddocks, congregating at their feeders and using their waterpoints, which:

• reduced the stock’s available feed
• polluted water sources
• damaged farming infrastructure
• destroyed pasture and vegetation.

One of the biggest concerns for livestock producers is the disease risk of feral pigs. Feral pigs can transmit leptospirosis, brucellosis and Japanese encephalitis.

“Twelve months ago pigs in this area were in plague proportion. You'd go out a single day mustering see 5-6 mobs of pigs...disease could spread that quickly...the threat is huge.”

- Liam Johnston

Solution

Local Land Services (LLS) worked with Liam and his neighbouring landholders to provide the following support: 

• assisted the ongoing use of the FeralScan app to help coordinate control including the setup of a private group to share data such as sightings, damage and control efforts with group members. 

Outcomes

“After 12 months of this LLS controlled baiting program we’re down to barely seeing pigs at all...If we didn’t have our neighbours in a group with us with the LLS helping, those pig numbers would still be what they were 12 months ago.” 

- Liam Johnston.

Over a period of 12 to 18 months: 

• over 20 landholders actively participated in group control programs
• a mix of ground and aerial control was carried out across the properties
• land managers saw a significant drop in feral pig numbers and damaging impacts  
• the disease risk to livestock was also reduced significantly  
• 5,948 feral pigs were culled in an aerial control shoot in May 2024, helping protect over 50,000 hectares across 43 private holdings
• 855 feral pigs were controlled through ground control programs recorded by landholders from October 2022 to May 2024 (via FeralScan)
• the group made use of the FeralScan app to target efforts and get much better results
• land managers saw more efficient and cost-effective feral pig control by coordinating efforts between neighbours and utilising free tools and equipment  
• LLS noted an increase in landholder confidence to undertake feral pig control and collaborate with neighbours to see the benefit for their property and wider community. 

Ongoing work

Local Land Services continues to work with this group of land managers to keep on top of feral pig numbers and remain committed to assisting land managers to understand and comply with their general biosecurity duty.  

This group of neighbours continues to coordinate their control twice a year and follow up with ad hoc control throughout the year. These actions are reported via the FeralScan group, helping to motivate other group members.