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The one pig that got away, can produce up to 50 piglets.

Shelley E. Huguley, Editor

June 28, 2019

Feral swine reproduction, like domestic swine, is three months, three weeks and three days. One sow may have between five and eight piglets and, if she doesn’t get bred, comes into heat every 18 to 24 days. “They have many chances to breed, so their potential to put young on the ground is high,” says Dr. John Tomecek, assistant professor and Extension wildlife specialist, Stiles Farm, Thrall, Texas. "Not all of them survive but many of them do and within six to 12 months all of those young are ready to have their piglets.”

As the hog population continues to grow in Texas, Tomecek says just to keep numbers where they are, two-thirds of the living pigs would need to be killed annually. “We estimate we only kill about one-third of the pigs.”

Watch this video, to hear more.

To read more about feral hogs go to:

To view additional interviews with Tomecek, go to:

About the Author(s)

Shelley E. Huguley

Editor, Southwest Farm Press

Shelley Huguley has been involved in agriculture for the last 25 years. She began her career in agricultural communications at the Texas Forest Service West Texas Nursery in Lubbock, where she developed and produced the Windbreak Quarterly, a newspaper about windbreak trees and their benefit to wildlife, production agriculture and livestock operations. While with the Forest Service she also served as an information officer and team leader on fires during the 1998 fire season and later produced the Firebrands newsletter that was distributed quarterly throughout Texas to Volunteer Fire Departments. Her most personal involvement in agriculture also came in 1998, when she married the love of her life and cotton farmer Preston Huguley of Olton, Texas. As a farmwife, she knows first-hand the ups and downs of farming, the endless decisions made each season based on “if” it rains, “if” the drought continues, “if” the market holds. She is the bookkeeper for their family farming operation and cherishes moments on the farm such as taking harvest meals to the field or starting a sprinkler in the summer with the whole family lending a hand. Shelley has also freelanced for agricultural companies such as Olton CO-OP Gin, producing the newsletter Cotton Connections while also designing marketing materials to promote the gin. She has published articles in agricultural publications such as Southwest Farm Press while also volunteering her marketing and writing skills to non-profit organizations such as Refuge Services, an equine-assisted therapy group in Lubbock. She and her husband reside in Olton with their three children Breely, Brennon and HalleeKate.

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