Guides · Updated August 2026
USDA feral swine money in 2026: how it actually reaches landowners
The short version, verified on grants.gov: USDA's Feral Swine Eradication and Control Pilot Program (FSCP) has an estimated $35 million for fiscal year 2026, spread over roughly 25 awards of $75,000 to $3 million. The call opened July 23 and closes September 21, 2026. Texas is one of the 14 eligible states. And here is the part most articles get wrong: you don't apply. Partner organizations do — and their grants are what pay for trapping help on your land.
Understanding that mechanism is the difference between wasting an afternoon on grants.gov and actually getting a trapping crew or cost-share on your place next year. Here's how the program is built, who the deadline really concerns, and what a landowner can usefully do before September 21.
How the program is built: three moving parts
The FY26 notice (USDA-NRCS-NHQ-FSCP-26, on grants.gov) describes pilot projects with three coordinated components. One: feral swine removal carried out by APHIS Wildlife Services. Two: land restoration supported by NRCS or a non-federal partner. Three — the one that touches you — assistance to producers for feral swine control, delivered through grants to non-federal partners: state agencies, counties, tribes, universities, nonprofits.
In other words, the $35 million doesn't go to individual ranches. It goes to organizations that then run landowner assistance — on-farm trapping support, restoration help — inside designated project areas. The program dates back to the 2018 Farm Bill, and its authority was extended by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is why there's a fresh round now.
Who the September 21 deadline actually concerns
The deadline is for those partner organizations. Eligible applicants, per the notice: state and local governments, federally recognized tribes, institutions of higher education, and nonprofits. If you sit on the board of a soil and water conservation district, a cattlemen's association or a watershed group in hog country — this is your paperwork, and $75k to $3M per project is worth the effort.
The 14 states in play for FY26: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee — and Texas. Proposed pilot project areas are listed on the NRCS program page, defined with state technical committees in areas APHIS identifies as high-density.
What a landowner can do right now
Three things, none of which involve grants.gov. First, find out whether your county falls in a proposed FY26 pilot area — the NRCS FSCP page lists them, and your local NRCS field office will know. Second, make yourself easy to help: partners who win these grants need participating landowners to show results, and the ones with documented hog damage and camera evidence go to the front of the line. Third, if you're in a landowner association, ask whether anyone is applying — and if not, why not. The clock runs out September 21.
On the documentation point: this is exactly where your trail cameras earn their keep. A dated photo record of sounder activity — how many animals, how often, where — is the evidence a partner project wants to see. If you need a refresher on reading what your cameras are showing you, start with counting hogs in a sounder from trail camera photos.
Keep the programs straight
One caution, because the acronyms blur together in forum threads: the FSCP — this pilot, NRCS-led, $35M, September deadline — is not the same thing as APHIS's broader feral swine damage management operations. Different programs, different money, different doors. Everything on this page describes the FSCP notice as posted on grants.gov, and nothing else.
The bigger funding picture — what happens to feral swine programs when the current Farm Bill authority lapses September 30 — is a separate, moving story: where Farm Bill reauthorization stands.
Why this matters beyond the money
Federal cost-share is the difference between fighting a sounder alone and fighting it as a coordinated area — and hogs don't respect fence lines. Knowing what's actually on your cameras, before and after a removal effort, is how you know whether any of it worked. That's the job HogSight does: reading your camera roll into a picture of the sounder — who's there, how many, and whether they came back. See how HogSight reads your camera roll →
Go further
This guide is informational. Program terms, areas and deadlines are set by USDA — always verify current details on grants.gov (notice USDA-NRCS-NHQ-FSCP-26) and with your local NRCS office before acting. Content drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by the publisher before publication.