I have access to several thousand acres in northeast texas and a buddy of mine who lives in the area proposed the idea of starting a trapping business / service for all of the farmers whose properties we have hunting access to.

my questions:

1. has anyone ever owned / worked for a business like this? where was it, if so
2. what to charge for the service? by visit, by pig, by pound, etc.
3. I know there are some farmers on here - how would you like to be approached by someone who is advertising / looking to sell this service?
4. would it make sense to charge extra for coyote control?
5. is this a dumb idea? lol

any info / feedback is appreciated on this

Thanks!

I have a buddy that does this. He puts traps in places for free and makes his money selling the pigs at market. Make sure that there is a place to sell them close to that area he wants to target so not spending a fortune driving around.

good to know! just to a meat processor or where exactly?

The trapping services that I am familiar with set up the cages and trap the pigs. The land owner receives no income. The trapper charges nothing. The trapper's income is from the sale of the meat. I currently have a heli hunter service that flies the property 3-4 times a year. They pay nothing to me and receive nothing from me. They charge the hunters for the income side of the deal. I get dead pigs. Good for me.

highvelocity said:

---

good to know! just to a meat processor or where exactly?

---

Wild pigs hav eto go to a USDA inspected and certified buying facility, and they won't buy under 40 or 50 lbs IIRC because they can't get enough meat to make up for costs.

https://www.tahc.texas.gov/animal_health/swine/FeralSwineFacilities.pdf

Can you trap them, feed them out and then sell as livestock?

dont have the accommodations for this right now - the trap / sell option would make the most sense right now

The Green Dragon said:

---

Can you trap them, feed them out and then sell as livestock?

---

I don't think you can, outside of the food stand type sales anyway. You won't be able to sell them to a slaughterhouse as domestic swine, can't be sold in retail establishments, etc.

I'm sure Ursus can opine better, but pretty sure that once they are feral, they are always feral in terms of commercial meat production.

Quote:

---

He puts traps in places for free and makes his money selling the pigs at market

---

This is how it is generally done in our area.

If I ever did this, long-term I would want to train up a young whipper-snapper or motivated foreign technician to do the work for me & then take a cut of the action. That way I could concentrate on getting new business & not worry about dealing with those tick infested stinking hogs on a daily basis.

schmellba99 said:

---

The Green Dragon said:

---

Can you trap them, feed them out and then sell as livestock?

---

I don't think you can, outside of the food stand type sales anyway. You won't be able to sell them to a slaughterhouse as domestic swine, can't be sold in retail establishments, etc.

I'm sure Ursus can opine better, but pretty sure that once they are feral, they are always feral in terms of commercial meat production.

---

A few years back I heard of some old man who was buying live feral hogs and paying by the pound. He'd have some trucker load them up and they were shipped overseas.

I think it was in Brazoria/Wild Peach area.

You ever hear of that? Not sure how true it is/was.

this is what i plan to do. My buddy that lives up there is a blue collar guy, but a good friend of mine. if this works, i'll get him set up with trailer, traps, whatever equipment we need and then let him run the business. he has a couple people that we've discussed that could be "employees" of some such

i'll work on additional properties and then getting additional trailers set up if necessary

The guy we let trap on my parents place in Rye would help with mowing and road maintenance as a fee. He did okay on his part I guess(couldnt rake a road to save his life though). He would trap them and his wife and SILs would make tamales. At Christmas he would send us 10 or 12 dozen which was nice.

rlb28 said:

---

schmellba99 said:

---

The Green Dragon said:

---

Can you trap them, feed them out and then sell as livestock?

---

I don't think you can, outside of the food stand type sales anyway. You won't be able to sell them to a slaughterhouse as domestic swine, can't be sold in retail establishments, etc.

I'm sure Ursus can opine better, but pretty sure that once they are feral, they are always feral in terms of commercial meat production.

---

A few years back I heard of some old man who was buying live feral hogs and paying by the pound. He'd have some trucker load them up and they were shipped overseas.

I think it was in Brazoria/Wild Peach area.

You ever hear of that? Not sure how true it is/was.

---

Seems like I may have heard something along those lines, but cant' say for sure. Anything Brazoria/Wild Peach is pretty sketch to begin with and I tend to not go that direction unless I have to.

The only remaining pig buying station around here is in Brazoria though.

Wouldn't shock me if there is a market somehwere for wild US pig though. There is a market for anything and everything, why not wild pig as an exotic at some restaurant overseas?

Ive heard they ship them overseas for sport, like a canned hunt.

i heard that was a place around hearn that did this when i was in school back in 2014. is it still around? or do you know of a place similar?

highvelocity said:

---

i heard that was a place around hearn that did this when i was in school back in 2014. is it still around? or do you know of a place similar?

---

There was a place south of Luling that used to do that as well. Famous for giving out "free" hunts that when you added up all of the fees and what not, was a thousand dollar pig hunt. Can't remember the name though - Independence Ranch maybe?

I've been quoted $1,600 and $1800 per month for a large coral trap (rental).

was this something you went forward with?

wanted to follow-up on this

schmellba99 said:

---

highvelocity said:

---

i heard that was a place around hearn that did this when i was in school back in 2014. is it still around? or do you know of a place similar?

---

There was a place south of Luling that used to do that as well. Famous for giving out "free" hunts that when you added up all of the fees and what not, was a thousand dollar pig hunt. Can't remember the name though - Independence Ranch maybe?

---

there was a threat about independence ranch on here a while back and it was as you described, except worse and dangerous. At least that was the consensus on that thread.

highvelocity said:

---

was this something you went forward with?

---

No. We have been using a wildlife specialist provided by the state. He runs two traps (box) free of charge and hunts the property at night when we see increased activity.

Not many details on the web page. They want a phone call.

https://www.lonestartrapping.com/hog-removal

This article may be pay walled.

https://www.expressnews.com/lifestyle/article/Texas-feral-hog-trapper-17255863.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZXhwcmVzc25ld3MuY29tL2xpZmVzdHlsZS9hcnRpY2xlL1RleGFzLWZlcmFsLWhvZy10cmFwcGVyLTE3MjU1ODYzLnBocA==&time=MTY3NjQyNDE3NzQ2Mg==&rid=MjA0MDAxMWYtOTY5Zi00ZDc0LWIzZGYtZmNhZDUyNjZiMzUy&sharecount=MQ==

But his web site has a bit more detail than the business listed above.

http://www.ogmhogremovaloftexas.com/

highvelocity said:

---

I have access to several thousand acres in northeast texas and a buddy of mine who lives in the area proposed the idea of starting a trapping business / service for all of the farmers whose properties we have hunting access to.

my questions:

1. has anyone ever owned / worked for a business like this? where was it, if so
2. what to charge for the service? by visit, by pig, by pound, etc.
3. I know there are some farmers on here - how would you like to be approached by someone who is advertising / looking to sell this service?
4. would it make sense to charge extra for coyote control?
5. is this a dumb idea? lol

any info / feedback is appreciated on this

Thanks!

---

Have a cousin who used to have a hog trapping service. Now he just hunts them with dogs. But when he trapped, it depended on the customer and if there was any local competition. When he first started, I don't think there were many others offering the service but that has changed.

I know he had some arrangements where he paid nothing for trapping access and got nothing for the hogs he removed. I think that was mostly large landowners/farmers. But when the hogs started invading a subdivision or a golf course, those people were in a bind and he charged by the hog. Did quite well too.

Seems like there was a meateater episode (some hunting show at least) where someone was doing this. I believe they had traps set up and a trailer designed to more easily transfer the hogs from the trap to a trailer. Trapper droppd them off at a usda processing facility. If I remember correctly a lot of the meat was going to Germany.

rlb28 said:

---

schmellba99 said:

---

The Green Dragon said:

---

Can you trap them, feed them out and then sell as livestock?

---

I don't think you can, outside of the food stand type sales anyway. You won't be able to sell them to a slaughterhouse as domestic swine, can't be sold in retail establishments, etc.

I'm sure Ursus can opine better, but pretty sure that once they are feral, they are always feral in terms of commercial meat production.

---

A few years back I heard of some old man who was buying live feral hogs and paying by the pound. He'd have some trucker load them up and they were shipped overseas.

I think it was in Brazoria/Wild Peach area.

You ever hear of that? Not sure how true it is/was.

---

Well don't remember that specifically BUT IF that ever happened…it would've been there.

Always heard a processor in Devine would buy them on the hoof.

Years ago a BIL day-worked for Roger Williams ranches near Victoria. They had a 20(?) acre or so well-fenced trap they would dump all the wild hogs in and they fed them corn in long concrete feeders. Once they had enough of them put together a double-decker 18 wheeler would come haul them out to somewhere.

As a rancher/landowner it seems like you definitely have a service you can sell.
One thing I can offer is to make sure you are bonded and have good liability insurance.
Lots of ranchers ( including myself) have had bad experiences as this relates. Myself and a lot of my neighbor/ friend ranches won't let anybody on our places to do work or anything any longer without being shown proof of such.
You might want to consider that cost in your planning.

thanks, gunny. this is helpful!

is there a specific type of insurance guy i should go to, or can any insurance person help with that

I don't know but would think the larger brands should be able and help you.