what should be the minimum height for hog panels or hog wire around feeders to keep pigs out?

36" should be plenty high, would 24" work?

We use 36" but after seeing some video of the hog trap you can set off with your cell phone, not sure what would be high enough. If they want in they will get in.

I've used horse, cattle, combination and hog panels ranging from 60" to 34".
The 34" hog panels have worked good for me as long as you build them big enough to contain all corn/feed inside the pen.
IMO, height didn't play as big a part as building the pens large enough so that no corn/feed ever gets outside of them.


Seems Ive had better luck with round pens versus square/rectangle.

What kind of livestock do you have also? That will do a lot to tell you height. I have used 34" hog panels for years with no problems. Make it big enough to keep all the corn inside the pen if using a spin feeder. Round works better for me and is easier to builed. If stocker cattle are run in the pasture then you might want to go taller at first. One thing about 48" or 52" panels is you can always cut them down but with 34" it is harder to add height. Use the search feature on here to find some old threads on this that might have some pics and some replies also.

TPW recommends: six 16'x34" panels; 12 T posts, to make a circle of 28" in diameter

Here is mine with 34" panels. Works great, never had anything other than deer get in.

I just set up 10 hog panels and need to setup another pen. Does anyone have any experience with the bulk hog wire rolls? Does it work just as well as the individual panels? I will also run a strand of barbed wire along the bottom.

300j: why 2 feeders? is one corn and one protein?

It doesn't work as well as the panels. It wont be as heavy duty and the hogs will get in. Adding barbed wire along the bottom would help but by the time you do all that your better off just using the panels to start with

Texas AgriLife Extension Service
News Release
Tuesday, September 08, 2009

OVERTON – Farmers and ranchers may be inadvertently aiding and abetting one of their worst enemies, the feral hog, by providing supplemental feed for white-tailed deer and other wildlife, said a Texas AgriLife Extension Service wildlife expert.

But a new study conducted at the Welder Wildlife Foundation near Sinton showed that is it possible to design fencing that allows deer access to feeders while excluding feral hogs, said Dr. Billy Higginbotham, AgriLife Extension fisheries and wildlife specialist.

In Texas alone, feral hogs cause $52 million of damage to crops and pastures annually, he said.

"And that does not include damage to wildlife food plots, wildlife feeds and feeders, or to recreational areas like parks, golf courses and landscapes," Higginbotham said.

In an attempt to curtail the damage, landowners hunt and trap feral hogs, he said. But at the same time, Texas hunters and landowners put out approximately 300 million pounds of shelled corn annually, primarily for white-tailed deer, spending an estimated $50 million. Feral hogs crash the party by raiding the feeding sites and eating the corn, often preventing deer and other wildlife from visiting at all.

The party crashing does more than just deny supplemental feed to white-tailed deer and other wildlife. Better-fed feral hog sows are more likely to produce more piglets per litter, and those piglets have a higher survival rate, Higginbotham said.

Fencing seemed the answer to the problem, he said, but how high was high enough to stop hogs and low enough to admit deer?

To answer this question Higginbotham devised a cooperative study with Dr. Tyler Campbell, wildlife biologist and station leader at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services-National Wildlife Research Center near Kingsville.

Higginbotham and Campbell enclosed deer-feeder sites with fences of three heights: 20 inches, 28 inches and 34 inches. All fences used six 16-foot long panels, staked with steel T-posts and arranged in a circular pattern around feeders. During July and August, remote sensing cameras, which are tripped by motion, were used to record deer and feral hog traffic. The cameras recorded traffic before the fencing was erected and then for two weeks after in late July and early August.

Before the fencing, the automatic cameras recorded 5.3, 3.1 and 4.7 hog visits per hour for sites no. 1 (34-inch fence), no. 2 (28-inch fence) and no. 3 (20-inch fence), respectively. Deer visits per hour were 0.8, 1.4 and 0.1 respectively for sites 1, 2 and 3.

Once the fencing was installed, all three heights limited feral-hog access, but the two highest fences excluded them completely. To a small degree, the 34-inch fencing and the 28-inch fencing limited some deer access as well, but the overall effect on deer traffic was minimal as they could easily jump the fences, Higginbotham said.

With the fencing, hog visits per hour were reduced to 0.0, 0.0 and 1.8 for sites 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Deer visits per hour were negligibly reduced to 0.66 from 0.8 for the 34-inch fencing, but actually doubled for the 24-inch fencing and more than quadrupled for the 20-inch fencing, he said.

And why the increase of deer visits for the two lower height fencing?

Higginbotham posits that deer started visiting the feeders once "the neighborhood improved" as the hogs were excluded.

"We don't know for sure but that's a good bet," he said.

Because of these results, Higginbotham and Campbell are recommending 28-inch fencing.

The 28-inch high panels worked as well as the 34-inch high panels at excluding hogs," Higginbotham said. "Therefore, 60-inch wide panels can be purchased and ripped lengthwise down the middle to create a least-cost exclosure."

The cost of the panels and T-posts was $115 for the 20-inch high fencing, $170 for the 28-inch, and $187 for the 34-inch, he said.

However, Higginbotham said, landowners should not use this data to reduce the standard height of trap cages, which is usually 60 inches.

"I have always believed that the height of a fence necessary to keep feral hogs out was lower than the height necessary to keep feral hogs in," he said. "We'll repeat the trials this winter to better assess whether the fence heights limit fawn access to the feeders."

The winter study will be conducted with the help of Duane Campion, AgriLife Extension agent for San Patricio County, Higginbotham noted.

That is correct JJH. They are both timed feeders goin off 20 mins apart.

IME 34" is the best all around height for keeping hog out and allowing deer in. The only problem with this height is that stocker type cattle or over stocked cow/calf pastures could be an issue. The size of the pens is more critical with cattle. I have never had cattle in a pen. The larger the pen the better. Round pens seem to work better to keep hogs from going over or going under. With round pens you can use 1 less panel to get the same size pens as square- 12 panel square you could go 11 panels round. If using a corn feeder/protein feeder combo keep all the feed inside the pens. Keep the feeders in the center. Cattle will push against the panels and roll the tops over. Pens of 10-16' panels seems to work the best, if you can afford more panels then 12 makes a really big pen. I have gotten by with 1 t-post per panel or 10 posts when going round. The rigidity of the panels helps a lot bent into a circle. Once grass/weeds gets going on the bottom wires it really keeps hogs from causing issues. I have seen instances where once a hog learns to layover the top of the panels or learns to jump into the pen a problem will arise until you get rid of that hog(s). I have seen some pens that were 24" high that did not have any problems but they had no livestock and not a lot of hogs. If you have cattle and it is a concern buy the 52" stock panels and they will cost about if not the same as the 34" hog panels. Cut down a section of panels spaced around the pn to allow deer to access easier to a height of 40" or so to experiment if deer are using your pens better and keeping cattle out. It is easier to cut down a pen than to add to it. I have also learned that pens with no brush and trees in them are utilized faster and it is easier to get deer on feed and in the pen. Deer have poor depth perseption IME. So to much clutter from feeders, brush,etc makes them hesitant to jump in. If I were going shorter heights to allow deer ease of jumping in I would make the pens as large as I could afford as insurance against hogs. Hog numbers are going no where but up.
Here is a pen in South Texas with a timered trough protein feeder. I believe this pen was either 9 or 11 panels in size of 34" hog panels.

I am going to try and use a combination of 50' of welded wire and about 8 hog panels to build a round pen for one feeder. I am hoping by making it bigger and not letting the corn outside the enclosure, the pigs won't try to get in as bad. Plus, it is easier for the deer to jump the hog panels than the 5' welded wire. The hog panels will be facing my stand to make it easier to sling an arrow over the top and in the pump house of the deer!
May not work, but I am going to try it....already have the welded wire, and no pen, so have nothing to lose.

Stxranchman, I am going to go out on a limb and say that the buck in your pic is mature and a shooter

I only saw this buck once the year before doing a helicopter survey and he in the last pass next to the gate. Then I saw him here during the rut and once more and I had him 5.5 so he got a pass.

We've had problems in the past with hogs and this year dad put up a round pen around his feeder with cattle panel. He cut the cattle panel in half making it 2' tall and the hogs haven't tried getting in it since. Deer jump right over the top and feed. Just make sure it is big enough to keep all the corn inside the pen. We feed year round so this should cut down on the hogs reaping the benefits of those high dollar yellow acorns.

The first pen that I built was with hog panels left behind by some hunters years ago. Worked fine until a part Brahma cow almost cleared it. Bent it down and thrashed it around pretty good. The rest of the herd smelled "blood" and moved in on the feeder. During the protein feeding fiesta, a couple of big cows got into a dispute. A 10 panel deer pen just does allow enough room for two cows to fight. So much for the other side of the pen! The hogs dropped in for a visit after the cows left and finished off what was left. It looked like WW3 and all the guilty parties were captured on a game camera. Needless to say, I use full height cattle panels with a couple of cut-outs at each feeder now.