Most all who install feeders try to shortcut the pens and it always bites them in the bunns..I will not give you a lesson in
fencebuilding 101, but will simply say that if it works, it won't
when the cows or stock is hungry, and the rancher will charge you
for any stock that's injured in it..There's is only 3 things one
can do if he leases..leave the feeders in the open, fence them in
properly, or do it on a shoestring and suffer any consequence..'
Even in proper panel wire pens w/good corners and gate you can have some problems..if one shortcuts it..they leave themselves liable..oh, by the way Cows are about $900 each nowadays..DD

well. . . .that's what i said
to do, but he's not me


'bout the 13th post i think. . .

The advice being given about not taking short-cuts on your pen is sound.

Once cattle or hogs realize your feeder is the source of the corn, they will repeatedly rub against the feeder's legs trying to shake more corn out on the ground. Eventually the legs give and the whole thing comes down. This year we experienced exactly that, with a 55-gallon drum feeder on a tripod made of 2" tubing. Somebody left the gate on the pen open , and the hogs finally knocked a leg so far out of whack that it creased the tubing and it collapsed under its own weight.

In previous years, I had a brand new smaller feeder (about the size of the one in your picture) get knocked down by cows and they stomped the whole thing into pieces. I never put up a feeder without a pen after that.

If you don't want to fool with cattle panels you better plan on 4 (better yet, 5) strands of tight barb wire. Don't worry about it becoming a 'deer trap' unless you are building it out of that 12-foot, "high fence" stuff.

I personally recommend 16' by 50" cattle panels. They can be unwieldy to transport, but they sure are easy to put up--and take down when its time to relocate. (Plus, I never been snarled up in a cattle panel backlash!) Cattle panels are running about $22 each, and T-posts about $5 each. This year I built several 50-foot diameter pens for about $250 each.

OK, update. I got a wire stretcher and pulled the wires tight in multiple locations in this fence, so it is pretty twangy at this point (as evidence by the lean in the t-posts in the gate photo). I pulled the top tight first, and then pulled the bottom tight enough to not loosen the top, but made sure the bottom was tight. I added several more t-posts in some areas where they were originally spaced apart a little too much. I will probably add at least one more strand in the future.



For the gate, I used a 5 foot t-post and wired the top strand to the t-post and used a 3 inch pvc pipe buried 15-18 inches below ground (thank you rain for making the ground workable!) and then used the lean of the t-posts to make sure things were nice and snug between the mobile "gate" t-post and the immobile fence t-post. I added another section of pvc pipe as a place to put the gate t-post when I am going in and out with feed. The bottom wire is static, not attached to the gate t-post.



I realize this is a work in progress, and appreciate all the feedback you all have given me. If the cows attack my feeder as the natural forrage becomes scarce in the fall/winter, I will amend with hog panels, but this was an effort to get something up right now, and I had no method of getting panels to the lease. Purely a logistical issue.

At least so far (I know many of you will swear by that statement), this pen is working. I have lots of pics of the cattle right up along the pen, but they have not tried to get in yet. With the fencing tighter, I hope that further deters them in the future...

hope it works for you.

maybe cattle just hate me
more because of my carnivorous habits

Without substantial corners, preferably set in concrete, along with braces and kickers, a wire fence will eventually loosen to the extent that animals will be able to crawl through. Been there and done that.