Wednesday June 28, 2023
Volume 38 No. 22
$1 inc. GST
The Cobar Weekly Pilot dies in gyrocopter crash Pg 2
Business Association starts making plans Pg 3
Local earns an engineering scholarship Pg 5
Feral pig numbers are out of control
Farmers around the state are calling for Belinda said. numbers. more resources to combat a huge rise in the Megan Mosely in the south east of the shire “Every night he’s shooting two or three, number of feral pigs which are destroying said their pig numbers were “out of control”. when it used to be we’d get two or three a their properties and killing their stock. “We’ve been on Etiwanda 26 years and this week,” Bob said. The Cobar Weekly spoke with a number of is by far the worst we’ve seen them. He said with a recent Barbers Pole worm landholders across the region and all report “Fox numbers are also very high,” Megan infestation in the area that killed stock, it was seeing dramatic increases in pig numbers. reported. easy picking for the pigs with a lot of dead “It seems to be a problem for everyone you Bob Sinclair in the south west of the shire animals on the ground to feed off. talk to at the moment,” Cathy Francisco, from said he’s got a shooter in to help control the Continued Page 6. Carline Station north of Cobar, said. “It’s definitely escalated and they’re much bigger and breeding very well. “We’ll regularly see mum, dad and about eight little ones,” she said. Cathy said they are currently lambing and, along with baby goats, the pigs are having a “feeding frenzy”. In addition to dead carcasses, Cathy said there’s also plenty of evidence of where they’ve been digging, and also wallowing in the tanks which is making them muddy which is a nuisance for stock. Cathy’s husband Glen regularly patrols the property shooting pigs each day and also goes out at night shooting. Driving in and out of town, Cathy said she’s also seeing more pigs on the Kidman Way. “It’s not always at night, we see them during the day which is a danger to travellers. “There’s no baiting programs out our way. “It definitely is becoming a real problem and something needs to be done about it.” Belinda Blake, also north of Cobar, reports numbers have swelled on their property due to the wet conditions last year and the abundance of feed on the property. “We estimate upwards of a 50 per cent reduction in lambs due to the impact of pigs, Sarah Johnson regularly sees mobs of 20-40 pigs in their crop on their property north of along with damage to pastures and wetlands,” Cobar and they’re getting bigger like this 90kg boar she shot recently. ▪ Contributed
