Precinct 4 County Commissioner Chip Reed reported to the court about the feral hog bounty program that is currently in place.  The bounty was started in February 2020 in an attempt slow down the growth of the continuingly growing feral hog problem affecting Austin County.  The current bounty is $5 for a set of hog ears and the bounty is currently only redeemable at Steinhauser’s Feed Store in Sealy.  

The Austin County Agri-Life is going to be brought onboard with the program to help get the word out.  They are also working on expanding the locations where the bounty can be collected.  Linseisen’s Feed & Supply Store in Bellville has agreed to be an additional drop-off location with other locations being looked into.  The addition of the program to the county is the first step in the possibility of its expansion with its inception being the necessary first step in opening up the opportunity for additional grant funding becoming available to the county for that purpose.

Just for perspective on the issue facing the county, a female feral hog can have her first litter at 7-months old and she can have as many as 12 to a litter.  She can continue this cycle every 3-4 months.  So, 2-3 litters per year is easily within the realm of possibility.  Since the program’s inception roughly $10,000 dollars in bounties has been paid out (that comes to around 2000 pairs of hog ears).  The only limitations on the current bounty is 20 pair of ears per household per month.

The complete discussion can be viewed in the video below from 00:08:49 to 00:15:57 of the video:

Floating Vimeo Video