WILD PIGS KILL LAMBS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22320, 18 January 1936, Page 15

WILD PIGS KILL LAMBS

DISTRICT IN TARANAKI ] HEAVY LOSSES SUFFERED STATEMENTS BY FARMERS Serious mortality among lambs through attacks by wild pigs have c been reported by farmers of the Wha- c ngamomona district, 40 miles from i Stratford. Taranaki. It is stated that [ much damage is done during the lamb- i ing season by pigs which live in great 1 numbers in the bush behind Whanga- ( niomona. ( "I have seen pigs preying on lambs •( myself," said one farmer. "There are many farmers round here who can tell you the same. It is no fairy taje, but a very serious thing for the farmer, r Often a man will lose 30 to 40 lambs a season that way." The sows with a litter »t foot were j the worst offenders, he said. It was j not very long ago that from the top j of a ridge he saw a wild pig at work, j He thought at first it was feeding i among the thistles near the edge of j ' the bush, but as he watched he saw ! it gradually working its way toward j ; a well-grown lamb ,u little apart from the others. Presently the lamb became ! curious about the noise behind the i thistles and moved over to look. The sow seized it in one bite, without having a yard to run. That was in daylight, but most of the damage, he said, was done at night. At the beginning c of the lambing season a neighbour lost two or three lambs every night for a i ] while. : The continuous loss of lambs had j ( had serious results for not a few j < farmers, stated another settler. He ! } said he knew of a man who was man- | aging a property and who lost his j position because his lambing percentages were so low —about 60 to 70 per cent. It was not until the sheep were moved to another quarter that the source of the trouble was realised. He had himself noticed that his percent- 1 ages would very often be 100 to 114 for the sheep in the front paddocks and j down to 70 in the back country, the j sheep in each case receiving the same attention. The differences were too consistent to be mere coincidences. ( "Pigs have put many a man off his < farm," asserted the settler. "The value i of the 40, 50 or 60 lambs lost each year , would easily pay the interest on the j property in many cases."