I tried to search for this topic, but nothing comes up when I search pen and feeder gets too many results so forgive me if I am duplicating a topic.

I had feeders out this year and I only got pictures of hogs and cows. I need to put a pen up next year. What is the cheapest most durable way of accomplishing this?

Tractor supply has cattle panels that are 16' long and cost $21.99. I assume I can put this up with some T-Posts, but will the cows push this over?

How big should my feeder pen be?

The bigger the better on pen size. If you are having cattle and hog trouble then you want to keep all the corn that is spun inside the pen. I like 2 posts per panel and a round pen at least 40' across. You might look into a 6' 4"x4" panel that is 20' long and cut it in half to see if it will cheapen the price. Most cattle panels are 4 gauge and you can get 4"x4" panels in a 6 guage. Also might look into rolls of concrete remesh wire. Might be a little cheaper also.

The closer the cows are to the feed the more they will try to get to it.Like Ranchman said make it as big as you can. Good luck trying to keep out the hogs though.

10 34" hog panels and 20 t posts and some bailing wire. Make it round, overlap and wire together the end squares on the panels and put the t posts at the junctions and half way between.

Also get you some concrete wire ties and the tool to put them on with it makes building a pen twice as fast.

Yup, you'll be glad you did. Tool's called a pigtail.

Cattle panels will work as will hog panels. You will be keeping out the hogs too which stinks but I would go a minimum of 8 panels per pen.

Go with the hog panels instead of cattle panels. Have used them for 11 years with 0 issue. As said, make it big and round. My smallest is 45' across.

use this formula for how many panels and T-post.

Feet across x 3.14.
Example 45' across x 3.14= 141.3, divide by 16= 8.8 panels and divide by 8' for T-post,,141 divide by 8= 17.6 T-posts.

Find your center point for the pen, get a tape measure and marking paint. Measure out 22.5' and pivot around your center point with the tape measure and marking paint and you have your pen. Put your T-post 8' apart and install the wire.

To make a perfect circle do a above but we lay the panels down in 2 rows of four and wire them together. Then we stand them up and form the circle. Once the 2 rows are tied together it will stand on it's own. Then we drive the posts, tie to them and done. I found that driving the posts first then putting panels up usually caused a odd shaped circle.

I get to bite the bullet this coming season as well - looks like around $300 per pen. Looks like I will be building one pen a year So sick of pigs and cows.

All the above is good advice, but there are some places where cattle will jump hog panels. Depends on the nature of the cows and how much other groceries there are around. If you don't have livestock it doesn't matter. If ya have goats then eventually the little ones will get themselves caught in cattle panels. A lot depends on your particular situation.

If you want to exclude cattle but not the feral hogs (not sure why anyone would want to contribute to the hog problem, but anyway), I am told there is an outfit out of Lometa that is making sectional panels for feeders with a small 'V' opening that will allow hogs to access the pen. I don't have the name of the company, but apparently they are pretty well known for making sectional panels for portable corrals for livestock. Lometa isn't that big, so it should be relatively easy to find out the name of the company making cattle pens there.

Posted this in 2010.

I use eight 16 foot x 52 inch panels arranged in a circle (ok it is an octagon). That gives you about 20% more area inside as compared to the same number of panels arranged in a square. That works out to 40 feet across. Take a 20 foot rope, stake it down where you want your feeder, and stretch it out. Drive your first post, tie off the first panel, swing the rope and panel and presto....you have your next location.

Voice of experience. Hog panels will not stop a charolais cow when she smells your protein pellets. If you are lucky, she will clear the panel but probably what will happen is that she comes down on top of the panel. Now you have a crushed panel with a flashing sign that says COME AND GET IT.

Dang fellas.. I have to do two feeders and I really don't have cash falling out of my pockets these days.. Can I get away with using 4 ea. 20' panels for each pen? What will happen if I do that?

you can get away with it but 4 panels is kinda small

If you use 4 20 foot panels and you get a dominant buck or a mean doe in there they will keep all the other deer out until they get tired of eating. I enlarged 2 of mine after I poor-boyed them and saw this happening.

For the last two years, I have made a couple of pens out of concrete re-enforcement panels. I use three per side of the square. I have very curious cows and have had zero problems. You can buy the panels for around $5 each at Lowes.

Build one now and then one later on when you can. Better to do one right than two half azz IMO.

Ok, I have 150' of field fence and a bunch of T Posts. My only prob is the hogs, no cattle. Will this make a big enough pen and will it keep the piggies out???

Yep, that will make a round pen about 47' across.

We are also fortunate that we have no cattle on the property, just hogs. I have a square pen using four t-posts and four 16' hog panels. The deer have never seemed reluctant to jump in.