Hold em’, fold em’ and drop em’ all. Patience and intelligence win out and bring us a 34-hog gate drop!

Yesterday morning the sounder strolled into the trap for their regular pre-dawn snack. Every MINE photo added more hogs to the picture. Finally, the exterior cameras were clear, and the interior of the trap was pleasantly full. Employing multiple cameras brings us a level of confidence that we are in fact catching the entire group.

From the information we gathered about the original sounder, Josey knew all the hogs we watched previously were there.  Josey waited, counted, checked, and rechecked; this would be the hogs last free meal. The gate slammed home to seal the deal.

Now, a funny thing happens to Josey when he drops certain gates. Especially one he plans and works so diligently to execute. This drop was a big win. The first call from the farmer telling him the sounder was hitting 4 of his deer feeders was the start of a tactical plan. The scouting to create a plan of diversion between the hog’s bedroom and the food source in the deer feeders. Coordinating feed and bait placement to entice the hogs and keep their interest at the new bait site. Then building the double gate system around the food source without scaring them away. The constant watching of cameras for movements and changes. It all builds up like a static charge. So, when Sara saw Josey standing at the kitchen sink looking at his cell phone, his hands shaking, she knew before he told her he was getting ready to leave. As Josey described it to me, “I shake more than a hound pooping out a peach seed”.

As Zeb and Wyatt begrudgingly pulled on their school clothes, Josey broke the news he was responding without them on their first day back in the new year. He never minds handling the workload on his own, but the effort has more meaning when his sons are working by his side. It was time to roll before the sun came up.

Once on the farm, it was a quick hike with his thermal scope to the trap. He could tell the hogs caught his scent at some point but stayed relatively calm as he began dropping them. The dominant sow realized how dire the situation was and she began to charge and leap at the top of the panels in desperation. She rammed the bottom of a panel under water and was trying to lift it with her thick snout. No escape from this trap sow, and the chaos was over.

Making his way back to get the gator and hog trailer, Josey realized the sun was coming up enough to see the land around him. When he pulled back to the trap, the dawn light was not enough to take the chill from the air. Josey was looking over the trap, and saw the heat escaping the hog’s bodies into the cold morning.

The sounder was lined up to photograph and loaded onto the trailer. The weight of the load making Josey wonder if the latest axle upgrade was enough.

All total we brought down 34 feral hogs. They were all exceptionally well fed, especially the dominant sow. Only 2 of the group were boars, and 5 of the sows were pregnant. In less than 3 months, this sounder would have possibly grown by another 20 to 30 hogs. In that time more pregnancies would have probably begun. Thankfully now this cycle has been stopped. The farmer can breathe a bit easier for a day, in the hopes of less damage to his livelihood this spring.

Unfortunately, as I type this post, an alert catches my ear.   On a field in the next county over, 2 sows and a few noticeably young hogs suddenly appear in a trap. They are not conditioned, and their body language shows their wariness. A few moments of feeding and they are off. We must now scout and formulate a plan for their removal. The job continues.