Tim Kennedy on agriculture: what the evidence says · JRE #1117

What the evidence says 01 / RECORD

Tim Kennedy asserted that farms are losing 10 to 15 percent of their agricultural output annually to wild pigs, illustrating the claim with a hypothetical $10 million ranch losing $1.5 million per year. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, citing research from 2016 and 2019, estimates statewide agricultural damage from wild pigs in Texas at approximately $118.8 million per year, up from an earlier 2006 estimate of about $52 million. USDA Economic Research Service data put Texas's total farm sector cash receipts at roughly $21 billion in 2016, meaning the documented statewide wild-pig damage figure represents well under one percent of total Texas agricultural output, not 10 to 15 percent. A national survey of wild pig damage to crop production across 12 states (via Texas A&M AgriLife's feral hog resource) found about $272 million per year in direct crop losses, and separate 2021 Texas research found some individual producers lose up to $200,000 per year when management costs and lost opportunities are included; those figures describe specific crops or specific hard-hit producers, not whole-farm agricultural output statewide. No published USDA, Texas A&M, or Texas state agency estimate supports a blanket claim that Texas ranches or farms lose 10 to 15 percent of total agricultural value to wild pigs each year; the aggregate statewide figures are an order of magnitude lower.