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Gate Assessment

Let’s compare our field data in a side-by-side gate assessment. The neighbor’s trap was a two-foot-wide drop gate and our M.I.N.E.® Trap employs an eight-foot-wide drop gate. The neighbor removed zero pigs which failed the performance standard. He is a NO GO for being untrained. The process of trapping is still a GO since it is winter and pigs can be conditioned to automatic feeders with digital timers. The two-foot-wide drop gate failed to make any captures. The M.I.N.E.® Trap captured 31 of 32 for a 97 percent Capture Rate, but we removed all 32 targeted pigs for a 100 percent Removal Success Rate … with all GOs, despite the neighbor’s interference. This is the reason performance-based decisions are important. 

Plan the Mission

The I.C.E.® Cam photo shows the month is March and the overnight temperature is 63°F. We have established an automatic hog feeder as a food source. Sounder Intel verifies 14 adults and eight juveniles for a total of 22. We have determined one trained and certified Hog Control Operator™ will employ the trapping process using one M.I.N.E.® Trapping System. Our performance standard is 100 percent success which means we must remove all 22 pigs expending the least amount of fuel, time, labor and money.

Harvest Efficiency Report

Date of the Mud Puddle capture was 09 March 2017. We effectively captured nine adult boars, four adult sows and two juveniles expending 3.25 labor hours. One sow was pregnant with three fetuses. The coyote trapper removed a total of six juveniles from this sounder while running his morning trap line. The surviving boar, Club Foot, was removed from Sawtooth on 08 September 2017. The shooting event expended 5.25 labor hours. Harvest Efficiency Report column totals for Episode 08 verify 25 pigs were impacted in four events expending 9.25 hours of labor which equated to a little over 22 minutes of labor per pig.

Mission Assessment

We removed 22 of 22 targeted pigs for a 100 percent removal success rate. Therefore, we accomplished our performance goals, using a trained and certified Hog Control Operator, by trapping and shooting during winter months, using our M.I.N.E.® Trapping System and thermal scoped rifles for hog hunting. We were successful in harvesting the surviving boar plus preventing three fetuses from being born. The total number of pigs impacted during this mission was 25.

Return on Labor

Our total trapping labor was 3.75 hours. Trapping labor per pig was 11.84 minutes. We arrive at this number by multiplying 2.75 hours times 60 minutes which equals 225 minutes. Divide this number by 19 pigs trapped to equal 11.84 minutes of labor per pig. Total shooting labor was 5.5 hours. Shooting labor per pig was 55 minutes.

The annual damage prevented by trapping was $7,600. Annual damage prevented by shooting was $2,400. To calculate our annual return on labor per method, we must take our annual damage prevented and divide it by the labor hours. $7,600 divided by 3.75 hours gives us a return on labor of $2,026.67 per hour from trapping. $2,400 divided by 5.5 hours gives us a return on labor of $436.36 per hour from shooting.

Be sure to tune in next week’s episode of JAGER PRO® on RFD-TV, next Tuesday at 9:30 pm ET (8:30 pm CT). Watch the episode preview here. Check local listings for availability near you and enjoy the episode promo.

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