Feral hog damage: what hogs cost Texas land

Most landowners meet feral hogs through their damage, not the hogs. AgriLife Today explains why: wild pigs are "largely nocturnal, which means you are more likely to see the damage they do than see the animals themselves." This guide covers what that damage looks like, what it costs according to the studies that measured it, and why it grows. Each figure is tied to its source and year, and we don't blend estimates from different studies into one number. It's part of our hog control and Texas rules section.

What hog damage looks like

Texas A&M AgriLife's trapping guidance lists four signs of feral hog activity:

• Rooting: ground turned over where hogs have dug for food.
• Wallows: muddy spots where hogs have been lying in the mud.
• Tracks and scat, often along the trails hogs use between food, cover and water.

Add to that the damage that sends most people looking: an emptied feeder, a torn-up food plot, a rooted lawn.

If you're not sure it's hogs, or you want to know how many, put a camera on it. A few nights of photos tell you what's visiting, when it comes and how big the group is. Our ranking of the best cellular trail cameras compares cameras that send those photos to your phone.

Crops

AgriLife's impacts page describes crop damage in three forms: "Rooted areas can cause loss of harvestable crops, seeds and seedlings can be consumed during foraging, and irrigation systems can be damaged by rooting or wallowing." It cites a 2020 study of crop damage across 12 states that estimated hog damage caused $272 million in losses to crop production in a single year.

For a single operation, the same page cites a 2021 Texas study which found that impacts to individual producers can cost upwards of two hundred thousand dollars a year "when losses, management efforts, and lost opportunities are all taken into account." That last part matters: the cost isn't just the crop in the ground, it's the time and money spent fighting hogs and the plantings you don't make because of them.

Pasture and livestock

AgriLife lists four ways hogs cost livestock producers:

• Pasture: "The rooting behavior of feral hogs can damage pastures and sometimes facilitate weed encroachment."
• Feed: hogs can cause conflicts with supplemental feeding by "consuming the feed intended for livestock."
• Disease: hogs "can impact the health of livestock populations through the potential transmission of diseases" (more below).
• Predation: feral hogs "have been documented predating young goats, sheep, and in some cases, young calves."

If your pasture is already torn up, our guide on how to repair hog damage in pastures covers the fix. Repairing ground that hogs are still using risks doing the work twice, so pair the repair with removal.

Ponds, creeks and water quality

Ponds and creeks take damage too, and AgriLife describes it: "Rooting and wallowing behaviors can damage and uproot aquatic vegetation, can contribute to increased erosion of banks, increased sedimentation of waterbodies, and increase turbidity or murkiness of water." Hogs also "distribute fecal matter that introduces E.coli to the water system," can alter the water's pH, and can reduce dissolved oxygen (AgriLife impacts). For a stock tank your cattle drink from, that's more than a cosmetic problem.

Wildlife, deer and feeders

Hogs eat more than roots and grain. AgriLife notes studies that found remains of freshwater mussels, birds, armadillos and toads in feral hog stomachs, and documented depredation of white-tailed deer fawns, turkey nests and quail nests (AgriLife impacts).

They also eat the corn you put out for deer. Texas A&M's Natural Resources Institute has studied fencing hogs out of feeding stations; its December 2025 article found that a 20-inch fence reduced feral pig access without stopping it, while fences 28 to 34 inches high kept feral pigs off the feed completely. It recommends 34-inch hog panels and says an exclusion fence "pays for itself" in feed that would otherwise have been lost. Our guide to keeping hogs away from a deer feeder covers the options.

Lawns, property and roads

Hog damage isn't only a ranch problem. AgriLife says "rooting and wallowing behaviors can cause costly damage to lawns and sport fields, as well as the irrigation systems that care for them," and that hogs damage outdoor furniture and fencing. In January 2026, AgriLife Today reported on a new AgriLife publication on urban and suburban feral hog management.

On the road, AgriLife notes that feral hogs "can cause property damage, human injury, and human fatalities through vehicle collisions." A December 2019 Texas A&M Today report said vehicle-versus-pig accidents cost Texas drivers more than $1,100 per accident, and that hog damage had been reported in nearly all 254 Texas counties.

Disease risk

Disease is the reason Texas regulates moving live hogs: the Legislature gave the Texas Animal Health Commission that authority in 2007 as a disease-control measure. TAHC's swine page gives historical figures: about 10% of feral swine carry swine brucellosis, and about 20% may carry pseudorabies. Nationally, USDA APHIS lists 8% of feral swine as infected with brucellosis, which it notes affects livestock and people (APHIS). The two figures come from different agencies and populations, so read each on its own.

The numbers, source by source

You'll see a lot of hog damage figures quoted, often without a date. Here is each one we could trace to a source, with what it measures. They come from different years, places and methods, which is why they don't agree, and why we don't combine them.

The two Texas totals show why dates matter. The $52 million figure is a 2004 survey of agricultural damage; the more than $500 million figure, from 2023, also counts private property. They measure different things nearly 20 years apart.

How many hogs are we talking about?

• AgriLife Today, January 2026: "an estimated population of 2.6 million feral hogs" in Texas (source).
• AgriLife Today, August 2023: "more than 3 million feral hogs" in Texas (source).
• Texas A&M NRI, November 2019: a 2012 study put Texas at 2.6 million, with models then "closer to 3 million" (source).

These are estimates from different years and methods. The newest one isn't necessarily a sign the population fell; it's a different estimate.

Why the damage keeps growing

Hogs replace themselves fast. Texas A&M NRI (Nov. 2019) reports that "a sow can average 1.5 litters a year and each litter typically produces five to six piglets," which works out to 7.5 to 9 piglets per sow per year (1.5 × 5 and 1.5 × 6). The same source estimates Texas would need to remove 66% of its wild pig population every year just to stop it from growing, and says more than 79% of Texas is suitable habitat.

To see what that means on one property, take AgriLife's own example of a small sounder: two sows and several juveniles (AgriLife trapping). At the NRI averages, those two sows alone could produce 15 to 18 piglets in a year (2 × 7.5 = 15; 2 × 9 = 18). That is an illustration from average figures, not a forecast, but it shows why damage on your place tends to grow unless removal outpaces the litters. Our explainer on how fast feral hogs reproduce walks through the math.

Write it down

Before you start fixing anything, keep a simple record. It costs nothing, and it pays off three ways: it shows whether your control work is actually reducing damage, it gives you something concrete to show a county Extension agent or a wildlife damage professional if you ask for help, and it tells you which spots to protect first.

• Dated photos of each damaged area, taken from the same spot each time so you can compare.
• A rough note of the size of rooted areas, and which fields, plots or tanks they're in.
• Feed you've lost at feeders, and any livestock losses you suspect were hogs.
• Camera photos with dates and times, and your best count of the sounder.
• What you did and when: traps set, hogs caught, fences built.

That last list becomes your management log. AgriLife's own measure of producer costs counts management efforts and lost opportunities alongside losses, so it's worth tracking your time and spending on hogs too.

What to do next

The fix is the same whatever the damage: find the hogs, remove whole sounders, then protect what matters. Our plan to get rid of feral hogs lays out the four steps, and how to trap feral hogs covers the step that does most of the removal. For the places you can't afford to lose, see the best electric fence for hogs. Two first purchases follow from that: a camera to confirm and count the hogs, and a trap big enough to take the whole group.