Wondering what yalls opinions are on feeder pens. I really hate to have to have one, but with cows around it seems the only sure way to keep them out. I firmly believe in leaving as LITTLE human sign around as possible, and i feel like the feeder pen will keep big bucks away. Hell, If i were a deer and i saw all that fencing id sure as hell stay away. But, im not a deer.

Three strands of barb wire works well. Our deer don't mind it at all. Plenty of big bucks come into the pen

The deer will get used to it and hop in assuming it's big enough.

Hogs and cattle will scare away that big buck faster than the feeder pen. Build it large (60'x60' minimum), include some native brush inside the pen rather than nuking all vegetation, and your big deer will be very happy.

My pen is 48'×48' built with 34" tall hog panels. We've seen plenty of nice bucks jump right in. It's situated about 20-30 feet from cover. Sometimes they do get a little nervous and run into the brush but they usually come right back.

I left every bit of brush inside my pen, but it was quickly beaten down as soon as the deer started using the pen. That's good brush management.

The most important two variables to remember:

1) Don't build it too high. Use 34" hog panels. They are great at keeping out the hogs and easy for the deer to jump.

2) Build it at least twice the size you are planning to build. Ideally as big as a nice sized front yard of a house. The more space you give them the more comfortable mature bucks will be in it.

and if wanting to just keep the cattle out (allow for hogs and fawn/yearlings), what I have done was take a cattle panel (50" tall x 16' or 20') and used bolt cutters to rip it down the middle leaving you with 2x 25" x 16' (or 20') panels. Lift the panels about a foot or so off the ground with cut side pointed up (acts like barbed wire on top for cattle deterrent). Fawns/yearlings and hogs can crawl under, mature deer will hop over, cattle will lose interest pretty quickly as long as you make the pen big enough that the corn doesn't sling outside of pen area.

I have 50x50 feeder pens and the deer come right in. Three strands and give them generous amount of room on the bottom strand.....

Bucks don't mind the pens at all........ I have a 16 foot gate on one corner to get in an out of the pen to fill protein feeders and corn feeders......

Set up works well for me.

Make it round. A mature buck will kill a younger buck in the corner during rut. Seen it happen in South Texas.

Deer see a lot more fences than they do humans!

No other ranch fence bothers them so why would a pen? Just make it big enough that they don't feel threatened.

For me, I will not put up a feeder for deer that is not in a feed pen using at least a 34" hog panel. I make them at least 10 panels in size and round. I always take all brush out and leave a good amount of walking space around my pens. Deer have poor depth perception and to much clutter in a pen that will make them hesitant to jump in. They need to be able to walk around the outside and have access anywhere they want. They also need to be able to see predators approaching or inside the pen and have an easy escape route. In the Hill Country or areas of poor rainfall/habitat the pen size is not so much an issue. The bigger the pen the more deer you can get inside it. They will jump into it quicker also. Like posted above, the more hogs and cows you have around the less deer will use the feeder. I am also around or in my pens every few days. I want as much human scent around the pens as I can get so they are used to it. They get used to houses, deer blinds, highways, drilling rigs, farming, oilfield gaugers, etc so they get used to human traffic and scent also. I feed at night in the spring till late summer when it is hot so the mature bucks will use the pens frequently. Then switch early and later daylight feedings in late summer. I have done this for a long time now and it works for me.

Some good info here....Good yo see your posts again stx.

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I avoid any type of strung wire around feed pens. In my experience wire becomes a matter of "when" not "if" a deer will get hung up in it.

3 strands of barbed wire will not keep cows out. They will climb thru or over or attempt until they push it over. If going barbed wire go at least 4 strand.

Best solution is hog panels.

We used 54 inch cattle panels with the top 2 squares cut off. Put up a pen last year about a month before the season started. In that month deer activity slowed for about a week and then sky rocketed. The hogs were dominating our feeders and keeping the deer away. In short order we observed that the penned feeder was seeing much more deer activity than the non penned feeders. Added another pen last time we were down and will see what the results look like.

We used 8 panels for each pen and made them round. So far a t-post at each seam has been plenty and we did not overlap the panels either.

You gotta pull your wire tighter. I've had two pens made with three strings of barbed wire going for years. Not a cow it in.

In my experience the more overgrazed the property is the better feed pen you will need.

I have 8 pens with three strands on one ranch and not a cow one on a game cam over 6 years. I have it going 365 days a year...... 3 strands is enough or maybe you should feed your cows more if they want in that bad....

That's what I did, 54" panels, and at two or three places cut 4 squares across and two down, when I was feeding. If you can lower the panel near a path they use great, but it doesn't really matter, because they will find the place it takes the least energy to get in. Just like humans. My pens were usually square or rectangular simply because it was easier. I did make an occasional round pen and on one ranch they were all octagonal. On the rectangular one, in the first pic, we added chicken wire to the outside using re-bar ties because the ranch had goats and the littler ones would get their heads caught in the squares.

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Octagon

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I don't have any cattle, but if you think that one that wants to get to corn wont/cant get through 3 strands of barbed wire your mistaken.

Enough with the pens... Look at that freaking truck!!

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Oh, and here's the other one.

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They will both be for sale shortly. 4 wheel one carries ten people or one ton of feed, six wheel one will carry 12 in the back or 1 and 1/2 tons of feed. No need to trailer a Ranger.