That’s what farmer Chad Berry of Glenboro tweeted back on February 9, 2023, when spotting some wild pigs on his property.  
Phil Gervais asked, “Is the meat any good? Or is it like bear meat? The few that I have seen guys shoot, they just garbage it. I’ve never had any to try.”  
Berry replied to Gervais, “Yes, but not the big boars.” 
Devon Baete oversees the field operations for the Manitoba Invasive Swine Eradication Project [MISEP] funded by CAP from 2021 through March 2023.  
“Manitoba Pork Council has supported our efforts since 2018 to get more traps on the ground and administer and manage the CAP project.”
The trapping of wild pigs in Manitoba is a partnership with landowners and Baete strives to keep it that way.  
“We don’t come onto farms to trap pigs; we provide the tools and expertise so farmers can successfully remove them. Farmers know their land and are there on-site to manage their sites. I make sure they have the tools and expertise to succeed.” 
The MISEP program receives a report through the squealonpigsmb.org website or call-in line. A field technician makes contact and if needed does a site visit to confirm the sighting. The technicians use several tools such as a thermal drone to scout locations, but overall, mainly rely on observations such as rooting or when available photos. 
“When we suspect a wild pig, we set up cellular trail cameras where we expect pig presence. Landowners then connect to these cameras to monitor activity. Then, we use a bait attractant that will vary by the season and then wait,” said Baete. 
When pig confirmation happens, work begins with the landowner setting up a specialized corral trap and monitoring the area.  
The technicians have learned a lot about wild pigs and their movements during five years of trapping which otherwise can be very random.  
“By understanding pig behaviours we can plan to set up where pigs will be, not always where they last were. We also know areas that pigs will move to during the winter when food supplies are scarce and pigs are more attracted to baits,” said Baete.  
He said successful trapping takes patience and in some key locations they’ve gone eight months without seeing a pig to capturing 20 in a few days. Having these traps ready and out there, especially in years like this with deep snow still in late March is essential. Human scent or disturbance will push pigs from an area, so keeping camera and trap locations confidential is vital.  
Berry is part of a family-run potato, corn, wheat, peas, granola, beans, and flax in Manitoba’s Glenboro, Stockton area. With the wild pig sightings in the area for five or six years a local person builds the circular traps about 20 feet round with a trip gate made mostly of cattle pen panels. 
After catching wild pigs Berry shoots the animals and keeps the smaller wild pigs for meat but disposes of the big boars another way.  
While very intermittent Berry has trapped some wild pigs in the last year and a half and most recently in March.  
“The idea is to catch a bunch at once, not one or two because they’ll get smart to the traps.” 
As mentioned earlier the Manitoba Invasive Swine Eradication Project supplies a camera that goes up in these traps.  
“We can keep an eye on them and bait them for a while before we arm the traps. So they get used to the traps. So, they’re going in and out of the traps without being worried. And then when they’re going in the trap consistently, we arm it so that the gate will go up,” said Berry. 
The wild pigs are good at uprooting corn by eating it down the row.  
“They haven’t acquired a taste for potatoes yet on our farm, which is good. But they root up around the edges of wet and low spots. They look like they’re digging for worms. They root up the ground well,” said the Glenboro farmer.  
He recommends any producer that spots a wild pig report it via squealonpigsmb.org or toll-free at 1-833-SPOT-PIG (1-833-776-8744). •
— By Harry Siemens