Looking at building some fencing around my protein and corn feeders but struggling to find the right material to make the fence. All hog paneling seems to come in 34 inch, which Agrilife says is too tall for fawns. So I was looking at doing 24 inch mesh wire, but it's only 14 gauge. Do you think 14 gauge wire will be strong enough to keep hogs out? Maybe if I double it up?

You can always buy 34" panels and cut it from the top to the exact height you want with bolt cutters.

I thought about doing that, just really didn't want to cut that much since I have to build 4 pens. Just trying to reduce the amount of work I have to do since I'm doing it by myself, including tpost install.

sucks being deboss, dont it

Hog panels at 34" is to keep hogs out. If the does are getting protein the fawns will benefit. The recommended height of protein feeders is 42" or higher to keep coons from jumping to dispensing neck. Fawns cannot reach that high. I spread pellets on outside of pen for the fawns to discover the pellets. If you have cattle or sheep on the range. 24" fence will not stop them. The only recommendation would be to hang the pellet feeder with a large enough pen of barbed wire, making sure that hogs can't influence or shake the pellets out to the ground. But when the does are feeding some pellets will hit the ground for the fawns.

Also make the pens round & large enough that there plenty of distance &/or space. A round pen uses less T-post. And makes it harder for hogs or cattle to push in.

Yes, yes it does.

I'm going to make as big as possible given where they are. One may only be 40 ft round but hoping the others can be larger.

Also, how are yall making one of the panels into a "gate"? Definitely want to be able to back up to refill or pull something out.

DeBoss said:

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Also, how are yall making one of the panels into a "gate"? Definitely want to be able to back up to refill or pull something out.

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All of my gates are just a removable 16' panel. All you need to do is drive 10-12" piece of pvc pipe in the ground where the middle t-post would be, knock off the anchor plate on the bottom of the t-post so it'll fit in the pipe, and that's your gate. Here are some I just built, my friend is standing in the gate opening. The first three show the side where the gate is, the middle section is the gate.

daryl gersch said:

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Hog panels at 34" is to keep hogs out. If the does are getting protein the fawns will benefit. The recommended height of protein feeders is 42" or higher to keep coons from jumping to dispensing neck. Fawns cannot reach that high. I spread pellets on outside of pen for the fawns to discover the pellets. If you have cattle or sheep on the range. 24" fence will not stop them. The only recommendation would be to hang the pellet feeder with a large enough pen of barbed wire, making sure that hogs can't influence or shake the pellets out to the ground. But when the does are feeding some pellets will hit the ground for the fawns.

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This guy knows what he is talking about!

The fawns usually start jumping in right before bow season in Uvalde County. If momma is getting protein right now, I wouldn't worry about access for fawns. Especially not at the cost of having pigs getting in the pen.

A 34" hog panel and one string of barb wire is our go-to to keep hogs and cows out. Although, I have pig that has been jumping over that for about 3 years now... but he is the exception.

Do not throw out the protein outside of the pen if you have sheep. The copper in the feed is bad news for sheep.

Thanks for the advice. At this point, this is just a hunting property with no livestock. I haven't seen too much hog activity but want to fence off protein no matter what, it's just too expensive. I think I'm going to do similar to the picture above, but round if possible. 8 hog panels with 1 being hooked on with some kind of clip that I can easily remove.

We have big boars climb and jump our 36' panels pretty often. I would stick with the 34 inchers.

My problem is with damn cows. We actually upgraded to 40" tall heavy duty panels, but as soon as I put protein out, the cows smell it and jump in the pen and clean me out. Haven't came up with a good solution to keep both hogs and cattle out at the same time. Sadly, I haven't been able to feed protein in over 4 years...

couldnt you just cut 1 or 2 sections the height you want.........dont think you need the whole thing cut down to size do you?

my feed pen is about 30ish inches with a barbed wire around the top and then we just push the wire down in 1 or 2 spots to make it easier for the deer to jump in. Typically by the start of season all of the fawn have figured out how to get in.

That's a good point. I was just looking at the AgriLife study that said ideal height was 28 inches, so I wasn't sure the best approach. I think I can definitely cut a few sections lower if I really need to after watching the cams a few weeks.

DeBoss said:

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I thought about doing that, just really didn't want to cut that much since I have to build 4 pens. Just trying to reduce the amount of work I have to do since I'm doing it by myself, including tpost install.

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Just cut about 4 spots out for the fawns the cross over on each pen -- I'm building 3 here shortly and will cut 4 cuts at 28" on each