I need some opinions. We have had 5 feeders out for several weeks now and there are no pens around them. There are cattle on the place, and they are beginning to cause problems. We have several hogs coming to the feeders, but need to pen the feeders. We have always used T posts and paneling when hunting strictly deer, but now have hogs.

What is the best way to pen the feeders, keep cows out and not prevent the hogs from coming ? Will 2 strands of barbed wire keep cows out ?

Thanks for reading and giving any opinions.

if u can afford it, go with hog pannels, if u still want the hogs to come in, just raise one pannel a couple feet, and the hogs willl still be able to come in, u will also notice that a lot of deeer would rather squueze under the panel than try t jump in. thats what i did. if u cant afford pannels, 3 strands of barbed wire will do the trick, only problem is that a lot of deer could get hung up. but it should stop the cows.

Man I like that idea. That way we can dictate where they go into the feeder if we just raise one panel.We bowhunt almost exclusively and that would help.

here is a pic of the one i built. mind you i built mine as a high fence to keep the elk out, but the deer and hogs go right under. you would not need to put the top run of wire. you could even use mesh field fence like i did since the hogs are not being kept out and the cattle wont go thru it. but if you ever decide to keep the hogs out, they will do damage to the field fence. so, if you are not certain about longterm, i would go with hog panels. if you are like me and are ok with the hogs having access, then the mesh is good.

here are some pics of the fence going up and one showing how the animals walk under the raised gates. mine are set at 2 ft above ground. i have three total gates. when i hunt the bowstand i have near there, i can cover the two gates that are not near my bow stand and that makes the hogs or aoudad have to come to the gate nearest me to get in to the feeder. dont think i will hunt whitetail off this stand, just exotics.

good luck

EXCELLENT.......great pics. Thank you very much !

Very cool pen.

my experience with barbed wire is if you do not wire it up as you would a pasture, yard, property, etc. then the cows will eventually work it free. No two strands will not do especially when calfs are born. They will crawl right underneith it. 3-5 stands should be good. 4-5 better. Make sure you have stong corner posts. "T" post bend under to much tension and keep your slack out. Cows will work the slack until they get inside. They are not smart but they are persistant. Keep your wire tight. my two cents.

agree on the corners.. if i had it to do again, i would have built that pen in a big square instead of a circle and then put some corner posts in for support.

mine is not real sturdy, but we dont allow cattle on the ranch.
elk are mostly lazy, so i just have to encourage them to look elsewhere. so far, it is working like a champ.

last year 75% of my pics from the protein feeder were of bull elk camping out. this year only about 10% of the pics were elk, male or female.

just keeping cows out? i wouldnt spend the money on panels...i would just plant T posts and stick up 3-5 strands of barbed wire.

Its expensive but a good concreted pipe fence works for cows! even just runnin 2 pipe rails...and boy it looks great!

ac