Sorry Noah, missed the question about the pig buyers.
Various companies operate chillers or boxes (refrigerated truck bodies or shipping containers) and pay for dressed wild pigs. Dressed means head on, skin on and heart, lungs, liver and kidneys in. Testicles are in too.
They pay on the kg weight (2.2lbs) usually around the $1 a kg. The pigs are taken to a central processing plant, cut up and then exported to Germany, Poland and Japan for the restaurant trade. The market has collapsed at the moment but some guys can make a living catching, but not many. Mostly it's for fuel money and vet bills. There are size limits on the pigs (usually none under 20kgs dressed and none over 160kg) based on the needs of the processing plant.
I can't make a living out of it so I have a contract gardening business with a couple of blokes working for me and we do a lot of work on game rich properties and stations (ranches). I also catch for the box when it's open, and we take a handful of paying visitors along for the ride. It's all designed to keep me in touch with pigs and my dogs as a lifestyle as well as a means of staying afloat.
So this is a pix of son Paul with a boar being weighed in at the chiller. The pig went 78kgs dressed (about 170 lbs) although it might not look it in the photo. There's a fair bit of Paul (he's 6ft 3 or 4 tall and 120kgs...between 260lbs and 270lbs) so he makes the pigs look very average.
Cheers.
