I've been feeding a new area since early February. At that time I cut nearly 500 yards of Senderos and installed three corn feeders.The deer immediately began feeding and last month I built a 12 panel feed pen for protein around one of the corn feeders as the pasture has goats. I've cut 5 panels down to 40" which is the standard on the rest of our pens throughout ranch yet few if any deer will feed at the pen. Any suggestions?

I've had a new pen spook them as well....pour a few bags in and around the pen....they'll start using it. I literally had to turn the ground yellow to get them to start using one of mine.

Agree bait them in from the outside. Whats that old saying? Bait them and they will come

I think 40" is too high, but many deer will jump them. I like the hog panel height. Have never had any cattle jump over it.

Deer have a built in defense mechanism when trying new food or browse. They will only eat small amounts first to make sure it doesn't kill them or make them sick. After they eat a little eventually they will eat it like corn.

If you have been getting good rains and browse is abundant it can take several weeks before they try to eat it.

33" is all you need........

Mark we have goats in this pasture. Goats are tough on shorter panels.

Yes they are. That's why I won't lease a pasture that protects them. They eat everything in sight and climb up trees and brush to create the highest ugliest browse line you'll ever see in a pasture.

Any goats that venture into where I hunt get turned into cabrito.

Hmm. I just built one Sunday with 50" panel to keep cows out. It looks like the deer are using it, but I wonder if I messed that up...

I agree, 34 inch high hog panels can be jumped by most goats. I would have used 34 inch hog panels and then run a strand of barbed wire 6 inches above to keep the goats at bay. Give it some time and see if the deer get used to the 40 inch panels.

I'm glad I don't deal with goats anymore.

We lease a working ranch. With that said we have cattle goats and horses. Not one strain of Barbed wire on 3500 acres. My blind is 45 minuets from my bedroom. I can be on the ranch in 30 minuets. It's a great place and great owners. Its just odd they just don't like this pen.

Used to lease from a zoo veterinarian.... He would tell us stories of things he would do to try to keep the deer from eating his wife's flowers and fruit trees around his house....he started with scarecrows....then the aluminum pie plates hung from a string.....then the motion sensing lights.....then actually connected a CD Player to the motion detectors to blare rock music when tripped.....all of these worked for a few weeks and they got used to it and began to ignore them....give them some time I'm sure it will be fine.

Sounds great to me. Didn't mean to come across as bashing your lease. I'm sure they will get used to it. Protein takes longer than anything I've fed for them to get used to.

I built my pen out of 38" no climb fence, had does eating corn the next day.
Moving to a new lease and building a pen this weekend, wish me luck

oline 40" is just fine, we all know how high deer can jump I helped a naive expert a while back, he did not know the difference between a hog panel 34" high or cattle panel 50" high, so I cut down two rows of the middle sections of the cattle panels they bought from 50" to about 36-40", whatever two rows will lower it by? . A big old mature buck is smart and knows how to avoid danger, but just like big old men, they like the path of least resistance. 50" high might deter a big old buck from jumping for a little corn, 40" inches no biggy just like 34"

Good luck

I used a role of 4 ft chain link fence for a feeder pen in a pinch one time. The deer didn't care and jumped over it all season.

Just a little paranoid I guess. I have 5 slots with 2 panels cut about 5'wide.theyll figure it out. Thanks

You can take some bolt cutter and cut you some notches at key locations. This has worked in the past for me.

I had to cut down 2 courses to get more than 1-2 deer to jump in an 8 panel pen. I was spreading out 25 lbs of corn on the ground to entice them every couple of weeks. Now I we have 6-7 deer of all ages and shapes at a time.

40 inches is perfect height.

I deal with goats and started with 48 inch panels, but ended up with a couple dead deer hung in them after a few months. I cut everything down to 40 and i like that height.

I have a lot of 36 inch pens but the goats can actually jump them.

I've had three deer in two years hung in my 34" hog panel feed pen.

It happens

if you can pour water thru it, a goat can get thru it ... had an old rancher tell me that probably 50 years ago.

in a pinch, I have made several pens by cutting the 50" x 16' panels in half length ways & cross ways giving ~25"x8' panel with the sharp points upward and putting those in between the full size 50"x16' panels without any issues with cattle (feral), horses (feral) or hogs. That is similar to cutting gaps in the full length panels only shorter ... goats would be a different story.

happens when you plan a trip out in the boondocks and realize you are several panels short ...