The Feral Hog Bounty In Texas Was Just Increased

Feral hogs continue to cause "significant problems" in Texas.

Last month, Caldwell and Hays counties implemented a $5 bounty per tail for feral hogs in the area. Hill County has now entered the chat — and they're upping the ante to compete with other counties.

Hill County is now offering $10 per tail, according to KWTX. The county has had a bounty program in place since 2014 and over 10,000 tails have been turned in since then. But there's a catch — participants must attend a free, one-hour class on feral hog management.

"It’s an opportunity to try to have a coordinated effort and get neighbors working together to try to mitigate the issue that we’re dealing with. ... We’re offering landowners some ideas of things they can do to abate some of these hogs. It’s a way to help with the control of the hog population and offer our citizens a way to be involved in a local issue here in Hill County," Zach Davis, Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service Agent for agriculture and natural resources for Hill County, told KWTX.

Davis said there's about four to five million feral hogs in the U.S. — and about 2.6 million of them live in Texas. "When you think about the destruction they can cause, we’re looking at somewhere around $52 million in damage alone, statewide," Davis added.

You can sign up for the one-hour feral hog management course at the Hill County Fairgrounds on March 1 and March 3 at 6 p.m. For more information, call 254-582-4022.