what do you recommend to use to "fence in" my feeders?
 

...in other words, the lease i'm on has cattle from Dec to the spring, and I want to run the feeders year round.

Do you just run some Tposts and barbed wire, with a big enough space around it that the deer jump into the area with the corn? chicken wire?

kind of new to this, and this is really perplexing me and what is probably an easy fix:)

thanks for all the help,

Ken B
North Texas

RE: what do you recommend to use to "fence in" my feeders?
 

Use T-posts and barbed wire. I would probably just make it about a three wire fence, leaving the bottom wire up enough that smaller deer can crawl under and the top wire low enough so that the larger deer can clear it without much risk of getting tangled.

RE: what do you recommend to use to "fence in" my feeders?
 

I'd hold off on the barbed wire, as you want to simply create a physical barrier, keeping anything that can't jump out. I'd recommend using rectangular goat proof fence, using the proper steel uprights, of course. Be sure to also make a gate of the approximate width plus a couple feet of your vehicle. Ideally, you want the deer to jump over, the cows to get discouraged, and the hogs..... well... nevermind the hogs. Just make sure the fence is far enough from the feeder that the deer feel comfortable jumping over it, and not hitting the feeder. Granted, a cow can knock over just about any fence it wants to, but a sturdy fence such as one I've described will make grass seem like a much easier option. However, when a wild pig gets its mind wrapped around the idea of a barrel that spews corn, you must expect quite a bit more determination.
I have seen a younger longhorn jump a fence, and it is about as graceful as a sumo wrestler trying on a pair of 32-34 Jeans, but this is not something you should have to deal with.
The one downside to the rectangular "goat proof" fence material is that I've had trouble with a goat sticking her head through and getting stuck from the horns. This is not much of a potential problem, but a heads up.
One thing to be sure before buying the materials would be the terms of your lease. You may need to create a lease ammendment that allows for a certain small square footage to be fenced off for hunting purposes. This is important because if the landowner is not the owner of the cattle, it has implications for the Grazing Lease. However, the amount of square footage is so small that this should not be a difficult thing to do, just a neccessary thing to do.

RE: what do you recommend to use to "fence in" my feeders?
 

wow good ideas, I appreciate it.

No problem with the landowner, their his cattle and he was the one that gave me the hint that i might want to 'fence off' my feeders. He said he figured I wasn't wanting to supplement his cows! I have a pretty good landowner, though I'm careful to run everythign by him first before I do it, since this is my first lease with the gentleman.

He's only running a bout a dozen ont he property, just for the winter.

i appreciate both ideas, the owner said the last men to have the lease just used barbed wire and Tposts, but i wanted to check with the congregation to see if there was some other ideas or something better.

thanks again

Ken B

RE: what do you recommend to use to "fence in" my feeders?
 

The goat fence works good and so does the barbed wire. Just drive those t post in real good and know that this fence will not keep hogs out. You do need to drive 2 t post cross wise on each leg, just as deep as you can then bolt a chain to the leg of your feeder and wrap said chain around the post. This may keep the hogs from tiping it over.
Good luck

RE: what do you recommend to use to "fence in" my feeders?
 

Use hog panels. Much easier than stringing any kind of wire. They are also stiff, and you don't need as many posts. Eight panels will make a 24x24 feed pen.

RE: what do you recommend to use to "fence in" my feeders?
 

On our lease we have tried cattle panels, hog panels, hog wire and barbed wire. T post and barb wire have worked best. 3 wire is ok but 4 wire keeps the cows out. You dont have to stretch the wire real tight. A little slack allows the deer to step through and still keeps the cows out. Cattle panels keep the fawns out and makes shooting anything inside the pen almost impossible. You can set two post about three feet apart on the side and hang a chain link gate for easy feeder filling, or just make one side a barb wire gap big enough to back your truck into to refill feeders. If you have hogs, drive t post in by your feeder legs at the same angle and tie wire the legs to the t post. Hogs love to knock over feeders and cause all around mayhem.