WEBVTT - Ep. 221: This Country Life - Hogs

0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:09.240
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves

0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:13.680
<v Speaker 1>from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.

0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:16.040
<v Speaker 1>I want you to stay a while as I share

0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:18.479
<v Speaker 1>my stories and the country skills that will help you

0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.360
<v Speaker 1>beat the system. This Country Life is proudly presented as

0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:25.880
<v Speaker 1>part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best

0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.960
<v Speaker 1>outdoor podcast the airways have to offer. All right, friends,

0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:33.080
<v Speaker 1>pull you up a chair or drop that tailgate. I

0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:38.599
<v Speaker 1>think I got a thing or two to teach you. Hogs,

0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:46.680
<v Speaker 1>pig suey. We're talking about hogs this week, and unfortunately

0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.400
<v Speaker 1>their presence on the landscape outside of the confines of

0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:54.319
<v Speaker 1>a pen or a skillet mostly bad. I'm gonna tell

0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.600
<v Speaker 1>you how this whole hog iss you started where we

0:00:57.640 --> 0:01:09.200
<v Speaker 1>are now, But first I'm gonna tell you a story. Now.

0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:11.600
<v Speaker 1>I've thought about whether to include this story or not

0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.040
<v Speaker 1>for quite a while. It's a little intense for how

0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:17.399
<v Speaker 1>I normally start to show. But our topic this week

0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.840
<v Speaker 1>is important, and I want to show you how serious

0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.600
<v Speaker 1>folks were back in the day and even recently when

0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:27.240
<v Speaker 1>it comes to hog claims and the hogs that roamed

0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.560
<v Speaker 1>on them. Now, this one comes from my brother Tim

0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:33.640
<v Speaker 1>and maybe one day I'll convince him to sit down

0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:36.120
<v Speaker 1>with me and talk, and y'all can hear these stories

0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:38.760
<v Speaker 1>straight from him. But I asked him to write it

0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.080
<v Speaker 1>in his own words and let me read it, and

0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:44.520
<v Speaker 1>he did just that. The only things I omitted from

0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:47.440
<v Speaker 1>Tim's version was the name of the man in the

0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:50.680
<v Speaker 1>boat who caused the problem, and the name of our

0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:53.360
<v Speaker 1>family friend who wanted to fix it when it happened.

0:01:54.360 --> 0:02:06.560
<v Speaker 1>Here it is my brother Tim's words in my voice.

0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.200
<v Speaker 1>In nineteen seventy seven, I was nineteen years old and

0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:14.800
<v Speaker 1>had been married a month in February when Dad called

0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:16.880
<v Speaker 1>me to see if I wanted to go squirrel hunting

0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:20.160
<v Speaker 1>with him and a family friend. And we started out

0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:23.760
<v Speaker 1>south of the little Lake on the lower Potlatch Road

0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:26.520
<v Speaker 1>where you go to Vince Bluff, which was a ferry

0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:30.160
<v Speaker 1>crossing during high water and just a place to cross

0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:34.240
<v Speaker 1>the saline River during the low water times. We downloaded

0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:40.160
<v Speaker 1>the horses, saddled up, and turned the dogs loose. Besides Peanut,

0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:42.360
<v Speaker 1>I don't remember what all dogs we had, but our

0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:45.120
<v Speaker 1>friend had brought a couple of his own, so I

0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:48.440
<v Speaker 1>know we had at least three. The river was about

0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.680
<v Speaker 1>half bank full, so all the sloughs had water in them,

0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:55.239
<v Speaker 1>and we'd killed several squirrels that morning. As we approached

0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:59.160
<v Speaker 1>the river at Vince Bluff, we hunted up along the

0:02:59.240 --> 0:03:02.480
<v Speaker 1>river from there and got to a place called Little Mill.

0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:05.320
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if there was ever a saw mill

0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:07.920
<v Speaker 1>there or what, but there was a place on the

0:03:07.960 --> 0:03:11.160
<v Speaker 1>bank that pushed out towards the river where you could

0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:13.840
<v Speaker 1>make an easy trip to get down to the river

0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:17.560
<v Speaker 1>from because there was a fairly high bank there. We

0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.200
<v Speaker 1>got off the horses to let them rest and take

0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:23.720
<v Speaker 1>a break. We were sitting on the ground about ten

0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:27.400
<v Speaker 1>yards from where we had the horses tied. Our twenty

0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:31.280
<v Speaker 1>two rifles were secured in the scabbards. We just set

0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.360
<v Speaker 1>there visiting, resting the dogs and horses and ourselves, and

0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:37.600
<v Speaker 1>we heard a boat coming up the river. It was

0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:41.120
<v Speaker 1>an old man that we all knew. He knew us

0:03:41.160 --> 0:03:43.960
<v Speaker 1>as well, and he had a black and white shaggy

0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:46.440
<v Speaker 1>dog in the boat with him, and the dog looked

0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:50.040
<v Speaker 1>like some kind of shepherd. Anyway, the man seize us

0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:52.680
<v Speaker 1>and pulls up into the pushed out place and went

0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.680
<v Speaker 1>down to the river, and due to the river being up,

0:03:56.080 --> 0:03:58.680
<v Speaker 1>his boat hit the bank about even where we were sitting.

0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.560
<v Speaker 1>He was ten yards to our front, and we were

0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:06.119
<v Speaker 1>about as directly in the middle of him and our

0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:10.280
<v Speaker 1>horses as we could get. And when his boat came

0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.240
<v Speaker 1>to a stop, he stood up with a Remington Model

0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:17.279
<v Speaker 1>seven forty two rifles. I heard the safety click off

0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:20.720
<v Speaker 1>as he faced us and said, I've been listening to

0:04:20.800 --> 0:04:25.120
<v Speaker 1>y'all's dogs, and I know y'all are hog hunting. What

0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.440
<v Speaker 1>y'all need to remember is not very far from where

0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:33.680
<v Speaker 1>you're sitting. Someone got killed over this hog plane. He

0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.280
<v Speaker 1>had just killed the hog and got caught with it

0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:41.480
<v Speaker 1>and was killed right here close. Dad and our friend

0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:45.839
<v Speaker 1>both said, we ain't hog hunting, we're squirrel hunting. The

0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:48.840
<v Speaker 1>man in the boat said, I don't care what you say.

0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.359
<v Speaker 1>I know what you're doing, and you need to remember

0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.800
<v Speaker 1>when you're bent over gutting a hog, someone may be

0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.359
<v Speaker 1>behind a tree out there in the woods about to

0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:02.080
<v Speaker 1>kill you. Our friend said you need to remember that too,

0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:05.359
<v Speaker 1>the next time you're out in the woods. Now. My

0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:09.520
<v Speaker 1>dad called him by by name and said, my grandpa

0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:13.160
<v Speaker 1>ran hogs down here for fifty years. This was and

0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:17.000
<v Speaker 1>is our hog claim, not yours. The man yelled back,

0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.800
<v Speaker 1>it's mine now, and remember what I said. He laid

0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.080
<v Speaker 1>that rifle down in the boat, never put the safety

0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.120
<v Speaker 1>back on. He grabbed a bank beside where he was

0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:29.039
<v Speaker 1>sitting and pushed his boat out on the edge of

0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:33.719
<v Speaker 1>the river and up the river. He went, I don't

0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:35.760
<v Speaker 1>mind telling you. I was thinking to myself, I got

0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:37.840
<v Speaker 1>to get me a pistol to toad or never get

0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:41.560
<v Speaker 1>off the horse without a gun. Close by, while I

0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:44.240
<v Speaker 1>was thinking that, I heard our friend say to my

0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:46.520
<v Speaker 1>dad as he stood up and made his way toward

0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:49.839
<v Speaker 1>his horse, I'm fixed to kill that sob when he

0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:53.480
<v Speaker 1>comes back by us going down river. Now, that's when

0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.120
<v Speaker 1>Dad said, you sat down, now, you ain't gonna kill him.

0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.360
<v Speaker 1>My friend just stood there looking at my dad, and

0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:04.280
<v Speaker 1>for a minute he looked like you wanted to say something,

0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:07.520
<v Speaker 1>but he never did, which is remarkable, especially if you

0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:11.279
<v Speaker 1>know this fellow. Now, I do believe if it hadn't

0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.680
<v Speaker 1>been for my dad that day, my friend might have

0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:20.640
<v Speaker 1>done the According to my brother Tim, that's just how

0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:30.120
<v Speaker 1>that happened. Now. Let me add a little extra here

0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:33.640
<v Speaker 1>about Tim's story. The old man in the boat referenced

0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:35.880
<v Speaker 1>an incident that took place on the river where a

0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:39.159
<v Speaker 1>person was killed over a hog, and the fellow that

0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.640
<v Speaker 1>shot him was acquitted. Due to the stock laws and

0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:46.480
<v Speaker 1>the feeling towards ownership of free range stock at the time,

0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:49.880
<v Speaker 1>and even though it had happened years before that day,

0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:52.720
<v Speaker 1>it would have been a little solace to those on

0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:55.880
<v Speaker 1>the wrong end of the gun, as was the case

0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:59.680
<v Speaker 1>up in North Arkansas in twenty seventeen when a man

0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:06.039
<v Speaker 1>was victed of murdering another fella over hog hunting territory. Unfortunately,

0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:09.720
<v Speaker 1>some folks take this stuff seriously, and there were plenty

0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:12.480
<v Speaker 1>more stories just like that one from our part of

0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:15.280
<v Speaker 1>the world, and they're not exclusive to South Arkansas. And

0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:18.400
<v Speaker 1>that was the feeling most everywhere, because hogs were such

0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:24.680
<v Speaker 1>a valuable commodity in each family's survival. Hogs running loose

0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.280
<v Speaker 1>were caught with dogs and traps, and the boarders would

0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.400
<v Speaker 1>be castrated and released, and the rest would be marked

0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:34.160
<v Speaker 1>and by cutting their ears in a specific way. Now

0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:37.920
<v Speaker 1>each family had their own mark, like a brand for cattle.

0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.840
<v Speaker 1>Three's family mark is a crop split on the right

0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:46.800
<v Speaker 1>and half under crop on the left. Now that translates

0:07:46.840 --> 0:07:50.080
<v Speaker 1>into the end quarter of the right ear of the

0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:54.280
<v Speaker 1>hog being cut off. Then that same ear was cut

0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:57.920
<v Speaker 1>right down in the middle for the split. The left

0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:01.360
<v Speaker 1>ear was then cut, removing the bottom quarter of the

0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.720
<v Speaker 1>ear in the vicinity of where the hog's earload would be.

0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:08.360
<v Speaker 1>If a hog had one, that was our mark, and

0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:11.920
<v Speaker 1>it was as proof positive of ownership as a fingerprint

0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:15.680
<v Speaker 1>back then, all right, you know what a marked hog

0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:19.280
<v Speaker 1>is and the feelings folks had for him. Let's get

0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:31.920
<v Speaker 1>on with the show. Wild hogs, pine routers, rousians, razorbacks,

0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:34.920
<v Speaker 1>whatever you want to call them. Pharaoh pigs have a

0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:38.640
<v Speaker 1>deep history woven into the tapestry of our culture. For me,

0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:41.040
<v Speaker 1>it runs deep in the heritage of my family, both

0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:45.760
<v Speaker 1>in survival and to a degree sport. Also, as you

0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:50.440
<v Speaker 1>just heard a little drama. Thankfully that all ended there,

0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:53.839
<v Speaker 1>but nine generations of reeves have run the salin ry

0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.200
<v Speaker 1>of botties in Cleveland County, Arkansas, making victials out of

0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:01.920
<v Speaker 1>the animals that lived there. Arkansas now has an estimated

0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.920
<v Speaker 1>whitetail deer herd of one million, but back in the

0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:10.440
<v Speaker 1>day they just about hunting to zero before Europeans lit

0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.719
<v Speaker 1>in Arkansas deer where everywhere. Old Hernando de Soto and

0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:17.640
<v Speaker 1>encountered Native American folks dressed in deer skins. The Catto

0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:22.760
<v Speaker 1>people depended heavily on deer meat for survival. Early settlers

0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:27.880
<v Speaker 1>hunted the whitetail deer without restriction for decades. Roads, houses, farms,

0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:31.760
<v Speaker 1>and towns soon encroached on their habitat, and it led

0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:35.559
<v Speaker 1>to a steep decline in deer populations. In nineteen sixteen,

0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:40.520
<v Speaker 1>the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission established the state's first

0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:44.120
<v Speaker 1>deer season, and in the nineteen twenties created deer refuges.

0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:47.040
<v Speaker 1>By the mid thirties, however, there was only a few

0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:52.120
<v Speaker 1>hundred remaining in Arkansas now. My family, no doubt played

0:09:52.120 --> 0:09:54.600
<v Speaker 1>a part in the almost extirpation of deer from the

0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.480
<v Speaker 1>state on the micro scale as it related to the

0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.760
<v Speaker 1>area where I'm from, as did every everyone else who

0:10:00.800 --> 0:10:02.920
<v Speaker 1>was struggling to scratch out of living on the edge

0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:06.920
<v Speaker 1>of the American expansion. We also shoulder some of the

0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:11.600
<v Speaker 1>responsibility for the current situation when it comes to wild hogs.

0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.160
<v Speaker 1>Pigs have been here since introduced by wait for it,

0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:19.920
<v Speaker 1>wait for it, Hernando de Soto in fifteen forty one.

0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.640
<v Speaker 1>It's believed that that well meaning, that adventure seeking spaniard

0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:25.839
<v Speaker 1>let some of its hogs get loose, and from that

0:10:25.920 --> 0:10:29.600
<v Speaker 1>moment on, the poor science courage on humanity has been

0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.760
<v Speaker 1>at the root of a lot of problems, both environmentally

0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:38.280
<v Speaker 1>and socially. Once a breeding pair gets loose, lookout hogs everywhere.

0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:45.120
<v Speaker 1>It's literally that simple. Check this out. Female paral hogs

0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.120
<v Speaker 1>can be ready to start making bacon as young as

0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.600
<v Speaker 1>three to four months age, the majority of waiting till

0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:53.640
<v Speaker 1>e're about a year old, but not all of them.

0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:58.040
<v Speaker 1>sALS come in season every eighteen to twenty four days

0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:03.440
<v Speaker 1>until they're successfully bred. Then an average about four months later,

0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:07.640
<v Speaker 1>congratulations Earth, one to fourteen more little piggies are dropped

0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:11.400
<v Speaker 1>on your landscape to do their evil bitting, the average

0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.480
<v Speaker 1>doing that twice a year, all of them every year.

0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.720
<v Speaker 1>It's estimated that it would take a mortality rate of

0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:22.800
<v Speaker 1>at least sixty six percent to keep the population of

0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:25.760
<v Speaker 1>hogs in check, just to keep it where it's at

0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:30.680
<v Speaker 1>without letting it grow anymore sixty six percent. Arkansas is

0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.200
<v Speaker 1>one of the top ten states with the largest wild

0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:37.320
<v Speaker 1>pig populations. They're reported in all seventy five counties, with

0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.480
<v Speaker 1>as many as four to five million total in the

0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:45.080
<v Speaker 1>natural state, and they'll eat anything they can find. They're

0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:48.360
<v Speaker 1>the catfish of the landscape. Anything and everything is on

0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:53.360
<v Speaker 1>the menu for the plant or animal, alive or dead. Frog, snakes, deer, fongs,

0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.880
<v Speaker 1>turkey posts. It don't matter. They can catch it, they'll

0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:59.920
<v Speaker 1>eat it. Don't let them fool you either. They're quick,

0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:03.680
<v Speaker 1>They're vicious and adept catching their own groceries on the

0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:06.240
<v Speaker 1>hoof as they were rooting them up out of the ground.

0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:10.040
<v Speaker 1>I remember seeing them catch live chickens off the ground

0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.240
<v Speaker 1>with the quickness and speed of a cutting horse. Now

0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:16.920
<v Speaker 1>those live chickens got caught in a chicken house, todd

0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:19.240
<v Speaker 1>across the field over a fence and chucked in the

0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:23.040
<v Speaker 1>hog pen is a mystery to me. The important part

0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:24.920
<v Speaker 1>of that story is that they'll get you if they

0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:28.280
<v Speaker 1>want to get you. Now. Recently, I was watching an

0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:31.520
<v Speaker 1>Arkansas Game and Fish Commission meeting that was recorded on

0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:34.640
<v Speaker 1>May the sixteenth of this year, and among the items

0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:38.360
<v Speaker 1>presented that day was an annual report by Ryan Farney,

0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.840
<v Speaker 1>the Farreal Hall coordinator for the Game and Fish. It's

0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.800
<v Speaker 1>been out for two weeks and as the particular moment

0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:48.880
<v Speaker 1>in which I'm looking at it, it's only been viewed

0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:52.080
<v Speaker 1>one thousand, nine hundred and fifty six times on the

0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:55.480
<v Speaker 1>YouTube channel owned by the Game of Fish. Good gosh,

0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:57.520
<v Speaker 1>there was more folks than that at last March is

0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:00.920
<v Speaker 1>Black Bear Bonanza. There's some good info in these meetings,

0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:03.280
<v Speaker 1>and those of us that liked to ramble around or

0:13:03.320 --> 0:13:06.160
<v Speaker 1>even have a general interest in what the Game of

0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:08.599
<v Speaker 1>Fish is doing, owe it to themselves to watch it

0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.240
<v Speaker 1>when you have a chance. But Ryan gave a great

0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:15.480
<v Speaker 1>presentation on the state of faral hogs in Arkansas. The

0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:18.320
<v Speaker 1>numbers were quite staggering for me, and I've been around

0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:22.439
<v Speaker 1>woods hogs all my life. We've already established the fact

0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.560
<v Speaker 1>that they were important to folks, some more than others.

0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.360
<v Speaker 1>But the facts that during the times when deer numbers

0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:32.079
<v Speaker 1>were thin and money was tight, hogs were a valuable commodity.

0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.240
<v Speaker 1>They were a main source of protein in the advent

0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:37.360
<v Speaker 1>of being able to cure and store me to downright

0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:42.120
<v Speaker 1>necessity for families living in the country like mine. But

0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:45.640
<v Speaker 1>they'd always been pretty well held in check. Their numbers

0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.200
<v Speaker 1>were fairly levelized by the folks that handled them, and

0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:51.560
<v Speaker 1>it wasn't until the nineteen eighties that hog hunting got

0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:57.400
<v Speaker 1>popular and hog numbers started to increase. Now that mirrors

0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:00.600
<v Speaker 1>the pinnacle of turkey numbers, at least here my state.

0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.480
<v Speaker 1>And with the hog numbers increasing, the turkey numbers did

0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.080
<v Speaker 1>just the opposite. I was listening to an interview of

0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.600
<v Speaker 1>doctor Steven Ditchkoff, a leading authority on the topic, down

0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:16.040
<v Speaker 1>at Auburn University, in preparation for this episode, and doctor

0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:20.040
<v Speaker 1>Ditchcoff said, hogs move slowly from one area to another,

0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:24.000
<v Speaker 1>but on the interstate they move at seventy miles an hour.

0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:27.280
<v Speaker 1>Now what he means by that is folks are catching

0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.280
<v Speaker 1>them in other places and moving them to areas where

0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.200
<v Speaker 1>they can hunt them. And then folks ought to be

0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.400
<v Speaker 1>in jail. Now, when I was a kid growing up,

0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:39.680
<v Speaker 1>seeing hogs in the woods wasn't uncommon in certain places.

0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:43.560
<v Speaker 1>The areas with hogs in Southeast Arkansas were all historically

0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:48.560
<v Speaker 1>the same places that they'd always been, But now they're everywhere.

0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:51.640
<v Speaker 1>Tim has them in his yard at night, rooting up

0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:55.320
<v Speaker 1>the world like there's no tomorrow. He's trapped them, shot them,

0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.400
<v Speaker 1>and just like the jelly of the month club, hogs

0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:01.600
<v Speaker 1>are the gifts that keeps on give it. As we've

0:15:01.640 --> 0:15:04.600
<v Speaker 1>already said, a hog normally has two litters a year,

0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:07.720
<v Speaker 1>but if she times you right, she can dominate another

0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:10.560
<v Speaker 1>bushel of infestious pork chops at the end of the year,

0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:14.400
<v Speaker 1>just as the females in her first litter are prepping

0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:19.480
<v Speaker 1>to drop theirs too. That's a lot of hogs. Now,

0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:21.320
<v Speaker 1>you don't have to be a brain scientist or a

0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:23.800
<v Speaker 1>rocket surgeon to see that if we're going to have

0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.480
<v Speaker 1>a chance of getting ahead of them, that hunting them

0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:31.360
<v Speaker 1>the traditional way ain't the answer. It's an enjoyable pastime

0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:33.880
<v Speaker 1>for sure, and I love it and I support my

0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:36.920
<v Speaker 1>friends that do the traditional way that we've always done

0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:41.200
<v Speaker 1>it with hog dogs, But as a sound tool of conservation,

0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:45.240
<v Speaker 1>it doesn't even rest her on the scale of effectiveness.

0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:50.080
<v Speaker 1>Arkansas Gaming Fish partner with numerous state and federal agencies

0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:55.280
<v Speaker 1>through a conservation incentive program and are helping private landowners

0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.200
<v Speaker 1>battle the problem. There's a lot of information on the

0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:00.720
<v Speaker 1>program on the Game and Fish Well website, and for

0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:03.680
<v Speaker 1>those that don't live in Arkansas, well, first I'm sorry,

0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:09.800
<v Speaker 1>but secondly, check with your state's Department of Natural Resources

0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:12.680
<v Speaker 1>or Game Commission and see if you're part of the program.

0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:14.880
<v Speaker 1>You can just about bet that if you have a

0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:18.200
<v Speaker 1>team competing in the SEC or from a state next

0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.200
<v Speaker 1>to one that does. You've got a program that covers you,

0:16:22.800 --> 0:16:25.760
<v Speaker 1>so big deal. There's hogs in the bottoms. Who cares

0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:27.720
<v Speaker 1>if some folks turn some loose to hunt them on

0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:32.520
<v Speaker 1>the weekends. Why should I care? Well, here's why. As

0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:36.119
<v Speaker 1>we've already found out, once they get started having piglets,

0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:38.960
<v Speaker 1>there's no way to get ahead of them. And I

0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:42.440
<v Speaker 1>mentioned turkey is at the beginning, saying that they started

0:16:42.480 --> 0:16:45.600
<v Speaker 1>a downward trend as soon as hogs started, there's upward.

0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.760
<v Speaker 1>That's just my opinion and observation. I can't back that

0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.120
<v Speaker 1>up with anything other than what I saw on the landscape.

0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:59.240
<v Speaker 1>Maybe it's a coincidence that here's something that ain't farl

0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:03.400
<v Speaker 1>Hoggs hack turkeys in three ways. They consume their eggs,

0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:06.520
<v Speaker 1>they compete for resources and als of the habitat. That's

0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:10.520
<v Speaker 1>three out of three. Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of

0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.760
<v Speaker 1>the Green Bay Packers, was famous for not wanting to

0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:17.000
<v Speaker 1>pass the football. He said, there are three things that

0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.800
<v Speaker 1>can happen when you throw a pass. Two of them

0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:24.080
<v Speaker 1>are bad. There is no one out of three with faril,

0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:28.959
<v Speaker 1>hogs and turkeys. They're all bad. Sixty four percent of

0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:33.640
<v Speaker 1>a farrel hog's diet is massed. That's not only affecting turkeys,

0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:37.760
<v Speaker 1>but deer, quail, squirrels, and every other native game and

0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.560
<v Speaker 1>non game animal in the ecosystem. One study showed that

0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:45.880
<v Speaker 1>farrel hogs accounted for twenty five percent of turkey nespidation.

0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:50.520
<v Speaker 1>That was higher than any other known nest robbery, including

0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:55.280
<v Speaker 1>skunks and coons. Some control studies showed hogs hitting eighty

0:17:55.320 --> 0:18:01.320
<v Speaker 1>percent of nest predated. These rascals have got to go now.

0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.200
<v Speaker 1>I touched on it earlier, but I was surprised at

0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:06.879
<v Speaker 1>how much of an issue it is. I can also

0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:10.640
<v Speaker 1>see how it can get misconstrued with a narrow mindset

0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:13.719
<v Speaker 1>on how all this works. But cutting a few hogs

0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:17.120
<v Speaker 1>loose to chase on the weekends is exactly how all

0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:20.000
<v Speaker 1>this has got to where it is now. Now, y'all

0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:22.000
<v Speaker 1>hang on with me through this part. We've got some

0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:28.040
<v Speaker 1>forgotten to do. Ryan Farley's Band of Untouchables pulled genetic

0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:31.000
<v Speaker 1>samples from the hogs that were taking off wildlife management

0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:35.240
<v Speaker 1>areas in Arkansas. By the way, that's twenty three thousand

0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:39.680
<v Speaker 1>and eighty one over the last ten years from these hogs.

0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:44.399
<v Speaker 1>They've identified six distinct populations. Only one of those was

0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:49.359
<v Speaker 1>exclusive to one spot. Now, those hogs live on Fort Chaffee,

0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:53.440
<v Speaker 1>a US Army installation famous for seed tics Cuban refugees

0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:58.240
<v Speaker 1>in Elvis's first military haircut. Now, why is that significant

0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:01.760
<v Speaker 1>in the grand scheme of hogs Arkansas? I'm glad you asked,

0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:07.320
<v Speaker 1>because access is extremely limited. Folks ain't just running around

0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:09.919
<v Speaker 1>at Fort Chaffee for the fun of it. Trust me,

0:19:10.200 --> 0:19:13.800
<v Speaker 1>I've been there. It ain't fun. I'm the one that

0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:17.439
<v Speaker 1>can testify to the seriousness of the seed ticks Elvis

0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:22.320
<v Speaker 1>and the Cubans were before my time. Anyway, limited access

0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.800
<v Speaker 1>means hogs aren't being brought in there or taken from

0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:30.359
<v Speaker 1>there to other areas. Of all the other areas tested,

0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:34.399
<v Speaker 1>sixty percent were found to be from other places, and

0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:38.320
<v Speaker 1>the distance had to be significant. The Arkansas information said

0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:41.280
<v Speaker 1>that over two hundred kilometers would raise a flag because

0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:44.919
<v Speaker 1>the genetics of place found in a hog would only

0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:49.679
<v Speaker 1>remain for three generations. And since we've already learned that

0:19:49.760 --> 0:19:53.440
<v Speaker 1>one hog can theoretically have three generations in one year,

0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:57.960
<v Speaker 1>that's pretty compelling evidence that either these pigs can fly

0:19:58.720 --> 0:20:00.960
<v Speaker 1>or someone has given them a ride down the road.

0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:07.520
<v Speaker 1>Sixty percent sixty percent of the efforts used in controlling

0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:13.440
<v Speaker 1>the feral hog issue were because of translocated hogs. Come on, man,

0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:16.679
<v Speaker 1>we need to do what Barded five said and nip it,

0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:21.600
<v Speaker 1>nip that in the bud. But they can't do it

0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:25.000
<v Speaker 1>without us, and we can't do it without them. We

0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:27.520
<v Speaker 1>got to decide right now, and I'm not just talking

0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.639
<v Speaker 1>about us here in Arkansas, but everywhere. We got to

0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:33.280
<v Speaker 1>decide if we're ever going to have turkeys like we

0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.160
<v Speaker 1>used to, or even have a remote chance of getting

0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:40.120
<v Speaker 1>our quail numbers up to a respectable level. We got

0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.200
<v Speaker 1>to act now. Michael Rosemann and I bumped a covey

0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:46.119
<v Speaker 1>of birds last February when we were rabbit hunting, and

0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:49.239
<v Speaker 1>I about fainted. It had to be thirty in that

0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:52.880
<v Speaker 1>covey and was the first wild birds I'd seen in years.

0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:56.160
<v Speaker 1>One place you won't find quail now where you used

0:20:56.200 --> 0:21:00.640
<v Speaker 1>to is in southeast Arkansas, where I grew up. They're

0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:03.600
<v Speaker 1>delicate creatures to begin with and are fighting a number

0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:07.760
<v Speaker 1>of environmental factors. But a rising tide of dead hogs

0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:12.440
<v Speaker 1>raises all the ground nest and bird boats. Dang mistretch

0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:14.520
<v Speaker 1>that analogy to death. But you know what I mean,

0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:22.280
<v Speaker 1>Fewer hogs, more turkeys and quail. That's it in a nutshell. Also,

0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:26.160
<v Speaker 1>I want you to understand that I love hogs. They

0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:29.080
<v Speaker 1>hold a cherished part of my memories and the stories

0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:31.640
<v Speaker 1>of hunting them with my father and our family dealing

0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:36.920
<v Speaker 1>with hogs both wild and domesticated or innumerable. But right now,

0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:40.480
<v Speaker 1>at this moment, knowing what I know about the situation

0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:43.720
<v Speaker 1>we're in and in neighboring states, if I could mash

0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:46.720
<v Speaker 1>a button and get rid of every feral hog in

0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:49.960
<v Speaker 1>the country, I'd mash it twice just to make sure

0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:53.360
<v Speaker 1>I got em all. Brent, that was harsh. Well, these

0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:57.520
<v Speaker 1>are harsh times. And who knew there was such a

0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:02.320
<v Speaker 1>storied history of hogs at Arkansas well, with the University

0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:05.920
<v Speaker 1>of Arkansas's mascot named the Razorbacks, just about everybody, Yeah,

0:22:05.960 --> 0:22:08.919
<v Speaker 1>that's probably true. That's going to do it for me

0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:12.879
<v Speaker 1>this week. I appreciate y'all listening and all the wonderful feedback.

0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:15.360
<v Speaker 1>It's not all doom and gloom, and I don't want

0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:17.560
<v Speaker 1>to end on a bad note. But we can all

0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:20.280
<v Speaker 1>work together. We can solve this hog problem. We're just

0:22:20.280 --> 0:22:21.520
<v Speaker 1>going to have to work, and we're going to have

0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:25.440
<v Speaker 1>to work hard. Please share our podcast with someone who

0:22:25.800 --> 0:22:29.480
<v Speaker 1>you think might enjoy it really helps in connecting us

0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:33.160
<v Speaker 1>with the like minded folks. Check out our other podcast

0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:35.359
<v Speaker 1>in the media or family when you can. There's something

0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:39.199
<v Speaker 1>for everyone in one of them and guarantee it. But

0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:43.400
<v Speaker 1>until next week, this is Brent Reeves signing off. Y'all

0:22:43.440 --> 0:23:00.920
<v Speaker 1>be careful STI