Pigs. The wild pigs at the Mohaka grove are the bain of Brad. When I visit the grove to look at the trees, the first thing I have to do is look at the photos of Brads close encounters with the natural wild life.
And it is wild.
If he spots one without his gun he’s not getting out of the tractor cab. ‘They’ll go ya’ he says. He has photos of the pigs alive and dead, taken from the cab and standing in the rows, and of course great stories about the ones that got away.
He likes to hunt, but his point is this: One pig makes a lot of damage. They root amongst the trees and destroy the ground, making unseen ruts and bumps that the tractor and gear crashes and bangs through. This slows down the speed of grove spraying and mowing and can damage the gear. “They’re costing us Geoff” he says (and they taste good)
