Wildlife biologist for Noble Research Institute, feral hog and white-tailed deer researcher, rangelands professional
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Articles by Josh Gaskamp
How multiple livestock species can be used to benefit your ranch
Sheep and cattle grazing can reduce the fuel load for a potential wildfire. Photo by Dan Macon, courtesy of UC Cooperative Extension. Adaptive grazing with more than one species of livestock can multiply regenerative benefits, shape your landscape and add income to your operation.
When hogs go wild
The author is a wildlife and range consultant and technical consultation manager for the Noble Research Institute. Wild pigs cause damage to both agricultural and non-agricultural lands, creating financial burdens for landowners and complicating future management. It almost seems the holes created by wild pig rooting behavior are strategically placed to inflict the most damage or pain possible to equipment and ranchers.
Promoting accuracy in estimating grazeable acres
— Know your ranch Estimating grazeable acreage as well as forage availability is vital to understanding the carrying capacity of a ranch and accurately setting a proper stocking rate. Mapping software (i.e., ArcGIS) is a tool commonly used to estimate grazeable acreage for cattle, with minimal technical expertise required.
Feeding deer: How does your supplement compare to common native deer foods?
Many hunters feed deer. The perceived benefits of feeding include the hope of larger antlers, better body condition and survivability. The practice of supplementation in feeders is based on the assumption that food is a limiting factor to deer. In actuality, food is less limiting in Texas and Oklahoma than some people imagine.
High-Tech Traps Are Worth the Investment
Feral hogs have plagued agricultural lands in Oklahoma for long enough that most landowners have adopted some sort of control strategy on their properties. Many natural resource management experts recommend an integrated approach as a best practice to control feral hogs. An integrated approach uses many different control strategies in unison to have a cumulative population reduction. But is the continued use of some techniques causing more harm than actually reducing populations?
Ask the Consultant: Feral pigs: A formidable pest
Although feral pigs cause plenty of damage to native ecosystems and agricultural land, we must let go of the philosophy that any pig removed is progress toward solving the problem. To be good stewards of the land and maintain economic viability, successful management of feral pigs requires discipline in using best management practices and continued innovation to focus control at the population level rather than the individual pig level.
High-tech feral hog traps may be worth the greater investment for producers
Feral hogs have plagued agricultural lands in Oklahoma for long enough that most landowners have adopted some sort of control strategy on their properties. Many natural resource management experts recommend an integrated approach as a best practice to control feral hogs.An integrated approach uses many different control strategies in unison to have a cumulative population reduction.
Toxicants for feral hogs: Silver bullet or short fuse?
During the past 30 years, new techniques and modifications to existing ones have continued in an effort to find a silver bullet to control feral hogs. Many landowners who repeatedly incur costly damage due to feral hogs question when a toxicant will become available. Some landowners believe a toxicant will be the silver bullet.Currently, there are no approved poisons or toxicants legal for use on feral hogs in Texas or Oklahoma.
BoarBuster thinks outside the box trap
Encounters of widespread damage associated with feral hogs are becoming increasingly more frequent for farmers and ranchers in the South. One study reports that feral hogs cause at least $52 million in agricultural losses each year in Texas (Adams, et al., 2005) and raise concerns about disease transmission to livestock and humans, competition for resources with native wildlife, and contamination of drinking water.
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