bhf,
As soarkrebel said its for keeping cattle out. I have not seen cattle eating corn but they do like to rub on the legs of the feeders and knock them over. As for keeping the hogs out, thats another story. LOL I dont know if thats possible. A friend of mine used cattle panels for a pen and the crazy things dug under this and knocked over the feeder.
It is to Try and keep unwanted animals out. I also plant wheat or somthing in mine as a small food plot. Oh and that was feet not inches.
My main food plot was one acre and I had planted it in strips of wheat, blackeye peas, hay grazer, sunflowers, and one other thing but I cant think of what it was right off hand. Don' t matter now its gone.[:@]
I did ask the farmer about why he removed the fence and he said it was his land and he needed the area to graze his cattle. It was after the season was over and that was that.
Im not telling you that using a feeder is the way to do things. I am telling you that there are reasons to use them. With natural food being eaten by cattle the deer will naturaly move to areas that have food, water, cover ect.... I hope that by using these I can keep them around the lease and by using a high quality of deer feed I hope to help keep them, in some small way, a little healthier.
I will be talking with the farmer about replanting my food plot. I dont know what he will say about it. I think the least he can do is to let me use his tractor to plow and plant.
Most of the farmers " Dry Land" farm. They depend on rain to water the fields. This works some times but here its not very dependable. Use of irrigation wells is expencive. I planted and the rain came at the right time last year. He did not.
I understand why some of you do not want to hunt Baited areas. I could place a stand near the food plot or feeder and shoot deer, I choose not to do so. What gets me is people who say this is bad and will hunt a " planted" field or water hole and clam its not a baited area.
Well I was hopeing that some one would take me up on changing hunting areas. lol
Take care,
Rick