How many panels do you use to keep cows away from your feeders? We still want to shoot deer and pigs but protect the feeders.

lots of answers, but the round about basic answer is 8 20' panels in a circle around the feeder with t-post every 4-8 feet should do fine. Deer will jump over the fence but hogs won't be able to get in. Cows will be kept out too

A 34 inch hog panel alone will not stop most cows. I'd reccomend putting about 2 strands of barbed wire above them. Deer will still jump over and I wouldn't guarantee a few aggressive cows won't. Speaking from experience.

8 to 10 16'x34" panels in a circle with one or two strands of barbed wire at the top if the cows won't leave it be. Some hogs can jump the 34 inch height if motivated, so a strand or two of barbed wire will help keep them out as well. If you pen the feeders like above, you will not see many hogs. Its a trade off. We keep a couple of feeders unpenned to shoot hogs as well, but do have to deal with the cows making an appearance if they are in the vicinity.

8 to 10 panels as described above, I put T post at each end with brace of some type in the middle such as rebar. Put a strand of barb just above the panel to discourage the cows.

Anywhere between 10 - 18 16' x 34" hog panels arraigned in a circle. Bigger is better.
But, hog panels are used to exclude hogs/pigs from eating / taking over the feed area.
More pigs coming to the feeder, less deer will show up.

I've only had one or two cows get into a feed pen made of 34" hog panels, most folks use the 50" panels to keep cows out & cut down a couple panels to make deer access easier. They too will exclude pigs.

Some folks use 3 or 4 strands of barbwire to keep cows away from feeders but still allow pigs into feed area.
You'll need to have a way to drive or set substantial posts at least in corners so you can tighten barbwire, loose floppy barbwire is a hazard to cows & calfs.

as stated above 8-10 hog panels and I have also used 6 cattle panels with 2 hog panels on opposite sides where there are cattle/horses, maybe a strand or three of barbed wire across the top ... and if I want to still have hogs come in, at the end of 2 panels, I leave a 14"-16" gap with wire between the t-posts at the top of the hog panel to allow an entry point for hogs and fawns but deters cattle & horses.

My feeder pen is 48' sq. made from 34" hog panels. I've got 30 head of cattle in that pasture and I've never had a cow jump into the pen.

1). On rare occasions, cows will jump a hog panel. Not usually in the Spring or Summer, more when it gets good & cold in December & there ain’t much else to eat.

2). I’d put up 1 strand of barbed wire about 1’ about the panel. I’m afraid with 2 wires a deer could get his leg hung up.

3). If that didn’t work, I’d electrify the hog panels

4). If you overlap the hog panels a little, you don’t need supports in the middle of the panel

5). Hog rings are your friend.

If you want to keep the cows out and let the pigs in, install a few panels a couple feet off the ground. Leave the openings in between you and the pen, so when the corn starts exploding, the hogs have to run out in front of you, not out the back of the pen.

Alternatively, if you're really industrious, install all of them (except the back side) off the ground, with a post in the middle for support.

Ten 16 foot hog panels and 20 T-posts in a circle will make a pen that is 44 feet across. Put T-post every 8 foot. and over lap the hog panels one square.

So OP, do you want hogs to be able to get to the corn?

x2

x2. If so, a 3 or 4 strand barbed-wire pen is a much cheaper option to build big. If you go this route, use the advice above and make strong corners. With the soil in our area, just tying back to a brace post is strong enough.

At least 8 hog panels, the more the better. Never seen cows get over a 34" panel in my life. If that is happening your rancher is not feeding his cows properly!

The key to keeping cattle out of feed pen is the size of it IME. You need to make sure that 90% of the corn stays far enough away from the edge of the feeder pen fence as you can. The only issue I had was in a feeder pen of 8-9 hog panels with 2-T post per panel with only a corn feeder in the pen. In wet years the buffelgrass grew thick in the pens around the feeder up to the hog panels. When it dried up some the bull ate the greener buffelgrass by reaching over the panels. As he ate the grass as far as he could reach he started pushing against the panels to reach the grass and eventually pushing over the panels into the pen. Once in he had to get out. Never touched the feeder. I finally replaced those panels with 50" tall cattle panels. Solved the problem.

We have zero issues with cows on hog panels or barbed wire pens but had 8. If only had one hunting area, I would do one with panels to only let deer feed and another for pigs using 3 strands of barbwire. Only one place I had a bull would jump the fence but it was only one bull and one pasture. Idiot. Took the pens down and he never messed with anything again. It's so green I sometimes never see the cows all weekend now.

I've had hog panels around my protein feeders for 17 years now. Never a hog or cow in them.

I would say - at least in my experience - that hog panels will stop almost all cows. I have never had a cow jump a panel, nor a hog...they may be capable of it, but it has never happened to me. With that said, I use 16 panels to build my feeder pens so 100% of corn is inside the pen, which may remove the incentive/curosity.

Same here. We use 10 panels per feeeder pen