J Applied Ecology: Livestock as biological paste control in oak savannas

In our new paper, just published in Journal of Applied Ecology, we suggest intensifying livestock predation on prematurely dropped-infested acorns by allowing livestock foraging from October 1st onward. Pigs are usually released free range in early November, once weevil larvae have completed their development and escaped predation. The proposed management would increase the availability of healthy acorns, thus increasing the farm capacity and the economic profit by up to 20%, tens of millions of euros of additional profits when translated into the prices of the Iberian pork market. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.70012