Feral pigs are uncontrolled throughout components of NSW, with farmers calling for extra assets to cut back the numbers.
Mixed crop and sheep farmer Laurie Chaffey stated she was unable to regulate the pest regardless of culling of the feral animals on her property at Somerton, close to Tamworth.
“We don’t feel we can get on top of it,” she stated.
The northern NSW farmer has had lambs killed by feral pigs, whereas in video seen by AAP the pests overtly feed alongside her flock.
Ms Chaffey stated about 30 feral pigs had been being trapped or killed every week on her property.
“Sometimes you get more and other times you get less, and they reproduce really quickly because we’ve had a good season,” she advised AAP.
NSW Farmers is asking for extra assets to fight the explosion in feral pig numbers which it says is at disaster stage.
President Xavier Martin stated years of excessive rainfall had resulted in hundreds of thousands of feral pigs breeding, inflicting hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in injury.
He stated the rise meant extra assaults on native animals and livestock, in addition to large injury to crops and infrastructure.
On common, properties had been dropping about half a hectare in crops every night time, he stated.
“From the Western Riverina through the Central West and up into the Northern Tablelands, we’re hearing members tell us they’ve never seen pigs this bad before,” Mr Martin stated.
“Aerial shooting over the past year saw 80 per cent more pigs culled than the year before, and authorities have distributed 74 tonnes of baits to landholders, but the numbers continue to grow particularly on public land.
“It’s clear the pig numbers are rising uncontrolled now and we’d like a drastic and sustained enhance in assets for everybody concerned to get on prime of the issue as soon as and for all.”
Mr Martin said the Local Land Service had helped cull more than 63,000 feral pigs in the past year, but a lack of pest control on public lands was allowing pig numbers to flourish.
NSW Farmers say a government-funded feral pig eradication program, due to wind up on June 30, must be extended.
“We know the pigs are breeding in nationwide parks and different public land, as a result of we see them coming onto our farms from there,” Mr Martin stated.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
