Economic Feed Pen

[peterp63]

Looking to build a new feed pen on a budget. Wanting it to be at least 60' in diameter. We have cattle, but no hogs or other livestock to keep out. Was thinking woven/welded rolls of wire fence or possibly 4 or 5 strand. Will these options keep cattle at bay? Planning to feed with a corn flinger and alfalfa feeder. Will have plenty of t-posts.

Thoughts???


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[BolilloLoco]

3 or 4 strands of barbed wire

[mpotts]

^^^ this^^^

[Matt_C]

^^^^^^^^
yep 3-4 strands of barbwire.

[axisbuck]

Same situation here. tagged

[Fishndude]

I have a pen with 2 strands of barb wire. Never had a bovine trespasser yet.

[lab man]

It will be hard to build a round pen with barbwire. It is hard to get it tight. I would build it square if you are using barbwire with three or four strands.
If you have hungry cows then it will be nearly impossible to keep them out with the alfalfa in there.
If it is just a corn feeder, then set some good corner posts and get the barb wire tight and it should work.

[Codie]

I used 2 strands of barbed wire and trees as the corner post one time and never had a cow in that feeder pen during the 2 years that I had it. I did wire the 2 strands about 2' apart in height about ever 10' so the wires could not be spread apart

[Sofee]

We have cows on our lease and they destroyed our barb wire fences every time, 3 or 4 strand if they want in they got in. Built the new pens with cattle panels has kept them out.

[flywise]

I have a pen with 2 strands of barb wire. Never had a bovine trespasser yet.

I ran two strands using trees as my post and had plenty of cows come by and look but never had cows try to get through it.

[Lentz]

T post every 8 or 10 feet.
4 strands of barbed wire.
2 fence stays between each t-post.

The fence stays are what will make it work.

[Big pig]

Peter,

3 strands in a square pulled tight and some spacers in between for corn feeder.
Protein feeders are different.
Sent you an email.

Clay

[Puncher51]

Most important thing is to have really good corner posts so that way you can keep the wire extremely tight. In between the corner posts put t-posts as close as economically feasible. I'd go less than 10 foot if possible. Also, I'd recommend at least 3 wires. It's all going to depend on range conditions and just how hungry the cattle are.

[big_smith]

Cattle are only good on plates. I hate dealing with them especially during a drought. We built 1 acre feed pens that also had food plots. Real corner posts and 5 strands of barbed wire. They crushed it or snapped the wire repeatedly. We rebuilt and added electric fence on stand offs of the T posts, cows in the pens within 10 minutes of us leaving as was evidenced by pics on the trail cams. We finally removed all the feed for a few weeks, then just went back with corn slingers. They left it alone. Protein, cotton seed, or alfalfa and they would destroy the fence. You might not have any issues this year because everything is green and they are fat and happy. If they are starving I don't think you can keep them out.

[Daniel32]

barb wire

I've also bought cattle panels and cut them in half in order to double them, then ran a strand of barb wire to make up for the lost height.