Dan in North Houston
Member
I spent Saturday repairing damage to the hay fields. For those of you that don't have feral hogs, you cannot believe the damage they do. I lost about 5% of my hay crop last year. They are too smart to successfully trap. Neighbor has one of the fancy traps that sends a video to his cell phone, so you can trip the gate at the best time to catch the most hogs. He has taken over 300 in 3 years, but then are getting smart to it. He started out catching a dozen at a time, now it is just the occasional single hog. You can't hunt them fast enough, and you'd have to stay out all night every night. Problem is, they can range 5 miles a day, and they might be back tonight, or you may not see any sign of them for months.
So I thought it would be interesting to see how other people repair the damage. I disc, re-seed, and the run a roller packer over the ground.
First photo shows typical damage. They root holes about 6" deep, although occasionally they can be a foot deep or more. The strip in the back is where I've made a pass with the disc.
When the grass is short, I pull a chain harrow with the spikes down behind the disc. If the grass gets much taller, it will roll up in bunches under the chain harrow, so I won't use the chain harrow much longer, unless after the hay is cut.
So I thought it would be interesting to see how other people repair the damage. I disc, re-seed, and the run a roller packer over the ground.
First photo shows typical damage. They root holes about 6" deep, although occasionally they can be a foot deep or more. The strip in the back is where I've made a pass with the disc.
When the grass is short, I pull a chain harrow with the spikes down behind the disc. If the grass gets much taller, it will roll up in bunches under the chain harrow, so I won't use the chain harrow much longer, unless after the hay is cut.