# Cattle/Feedlot Panels vs Field Fence



## MargaretClare (Oct 9, 2018)

Looking for opinions on cattle panels vs field fence for my buck pen. Pros and cons of either? What animals do you keep in them and how do they hold up?

The field fence is cheaper for like twice as much length but I'm worried about the bucks rubbing the fence and stretching or warping it.
On the other hand I feel the cattle panels won't stretch or bow as easily but will the welded wires break from each other easily?

I was planning on spacing Tposts 4 feet apart, whichever fencing I choose.

My bucks are large Boer mixes and while not the worst on fences, they can be pretty hard on them. One more than the other. They're currently in separate pens, the smaller in a chain link dog kennel and the larger one in a pretty strong stud corral which he has broken before. 

I'm hoping that a larger pen away from the does and being housed together will help calm them down some. They will also have lots of toys and we have a large street sweeper brush for them as well.

Grateful for any opinions and insight. Pics also appreciated.


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## Latestarter (Oct 10, 2018)

My Lamancha goats are presently enclosed by cattle panels (T-posts spaced 8' on 16' panels) for their night pen and I use sheep & goat woven wire fencing for pastures (T posts spaced 10'). My buck and wethers are separated from the does night pen by the same cattle panels (50" height) and are strictly retained in their pen. Once the rut/breeding cycle is over, I'll let them back in with the girls full time. I have yearling does that are too young/small to be bred. The buck climbs up on the cattle panels to look over. They take that quite well while woven wire fencing would not. They all do rub on the CPs & pasture fencing, but the woven wire is pretty heavy duty. They bow it out between T-posts a bit (again, spaced at 10') but I don't have an issue with it. I could run a knee height strand of hot wire and put a stop to it, but right now they eat the plant growth down low and they wouldn't do that if they got shocked every time they tried. I prefer them eating it to using poison.

I used the CPs for the night pen because I only needed like 10 or 12. The advantage is if/when I need to dismantle the pen, I cut the tie wires and have CPs I can use again elsewhere. Hard to save woven wire fencing once it's used.

There are pictures of my goats and night pen as well as pasture fencing on my journal https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/latestarters-ramblings-musings-gripes-and-grumbles.33505/

Here you can see one of my huzzy does in heat waving at my buck through the fence. She's actually outside the night pen in the pasture. He's inside his buck pen. They get their chance to make babies in another week or two as I want late March kids.


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## Latestarter (Oct 10, 2018)

Just for additional input... the CPs have 4"x6" openings above the two lowest "rungs"... Field fence has 6"x6" openings. Kids fit through both, so when kidding time comes along, neither fence will keep them contained. I had kids sleeping outside the night pen because they could...  Not a big deal as my LGD stays outside in the pasture overnight. But the sheep & goat woven wire is 2"x4" and the kids can NOT fit through that. Just something to keep in mind.


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## babsbag (Oct 10, 2018)

I use cattle panels in my bucks pen but I run a row of hot wire at about knee height, it keeps them from rubbing and from climbing.  I have one little corner with no hot wire and the panel had been cut to fit the space and it had horizontal wires with no vertical on the end. The bucks destroyed that by standing on it but it was because there was no vertical wire.


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## OneFineAcre (Oct 10, 2018)

If you run a strand of hot wire inside field fence, they won't rub on it and stretch it.


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## farmerjan (Oct 10, 2018)

If you are going to put T-posts 4 ft apart either will work.  As others have stated, a hot wire will stop the rubbing and climbing on the fence. The biggest thing is,  are you planning this to be a permanent pen/area or are you looking at a temp thing?  If a permanent part of your fencing, then go with the field/woven wire type fencing.  If it is something that maybe in a year or two you might be changing, go with the cattle panels as they are moveable. With  T-posts 4 ft  apart, there will be very little breaking of welds.  We will use panels for catch pens for the cattle which can be harder on a fence than any goat and don't have  problems with the welds breaking.  They will take alot of abuse.  The woven wire/ field fencing needs to be stretched TIGHT regardless,  and the best way to keep an animal off it is to use a strand or 2 of electric.


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## MargaretClare (Oct 10, 2018)

Latestarter said:


> My Lamancha goats are presently enclosed by cattle panels (T-posts spaced 8' on 16' panels) for their night pen and I use sheep & goat woven wire fencing for pastures (T posts spaced 10'). My buck and wethers are separated from the does night pen by the same cattle panels (50" height) and are strictly retained in their pen. Once the rut/breeding cycle is over, I'll let them back in with the girls full time. I have yearling does that are too young/small to be bred. The buck climbs up on the cattle panels to look over. They take that quite well while woven wire fencing would not. They all do rub on the CPs & pasture fencing, but the woven wire is pretty heavy duty. They bow it out between T-posts a bit (again, spaced at 10') but I don't have an issue with it. I could run a knee height strand of hot wire and put a stop to it, but right now they eat the plant growth down low and they wouldn't do that if they got shocked every time they tried. I prefer them eating it to using poison.
> 
> I used the CPs for the night pen because I only needed like 10 or 12. The advantage is if/when I need to dismantle the pen, I cut the tie wires and have CPs I can use again elsewhere. Hard to save woven wire fencing once it's used.
> 
> ...



The reason I wanted 4 foot spacing for the Ts is I'm hoping to avoid electric and hotwire fences. I seem to always accidentally hit them and I'm also kinda worried my bucks would tear it down with their horns all the time. I do understand that there may be a need for them though. My larger buck doesn't exactly intentionally damage the fence to escape but if he notices an easy weak point from continuous rubbing he'll take swift advantage.

I'm not worried about kids getting through. I have my does in a large pen with the worst kind of fencing for goats I could have and they do fine. That super cheap 2"x4" welded wire temporary fence. Tposts are 4' apart there and I just patch a hole when I see one starting.

Unrelated, I love that feeder in your pic. Do you have any better pics of it? I need to build something my boys can't tip easily.


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## MargaretClare (Oct 10, 2018)

farmerjan said:


> If you are going to put T-posts 4 ft apart either will work.  As others have stated, a hot wire will stop the rubbing and climbing on the fence. The biggest thing is,  are you planning this to be a permanent pen/area or are you looking at a temp thing?  If a permanent part of your fencing, then go with the field/woven wire type fencing.  If it is something that maybe in a year or two you might be changing, go with the cattle panels as they are moveable. With  T-posts 4 ft  apart, there will be very little breaking of welds.  We will use panels for catch pens for the cattle which can be harder on a fence than any goat and don't have  problems with the welds breaking.  They will take alot of abuse.  The woven wire/ field fencing needs to be stretched TIGHT regardless,  and the best way to keep an animal off it is to use a strand or 2 of electric.



When standing cattle panels is it preferred to have the horizontal bars on the inside or the vertical bars? Does that question even make sense because I'm not sure how to word it? I'm pretty sure I'd need to run an additional strand of electric/hotwire along the top to stop the boys from standing on the fence unfortunately. The one is almost 6' tall standing.

Another thing I think I'm liking about the cattle panels is if he does break one I don't have to mess with the whole fence, I can just replace a panel. I was planning on a 32'x48' pen for them because that would be 10 cattle panels and I also want to be able to get a tractor in there.


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## farmerjan (Oct 10, 2018)

Put the horizontal wire on the side of the animal you want to fence in. They are going to rub against it, they will "slide " along it rather than hit all the bumps of the verticals.  Less likely to "catch" the horns with the horizontals on their side. They will be less likely to catch the verticals to break the welds either. 
They make a much more expensive panel that will hold sheep and goats.  Try TSC.  I got one once that had been damaged at TSC and it was maybe 6 or 8 ft tall.  Welded like the cattle panels but much smaller openings.  If it was handy I would measure it for you and if I think of it I will try to see where it is and do so.  May have only been a one time thing but our local TSC had them in stock.  Been a couple of years.  They were heavy as all get out and kinda awkward, but sounds like they would be exactly what you want.  You might try contacting them.


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## farmerjan (Oct 10, 2018)

The panel that I got as damaged at TSC I do remember was a fair amount more than the regular cattle panel, and I am thinking  maybe it was only 4 ft high as I did bring them home on the trailer.  It had openings that were either 2x4 or 4x4 I think.  Not much would be going through it and I remember it was very heavy too.


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## MargaretClare (Oct 10, 2018)

farmerjan said:


> The panel that I got as damaged at TSC I do remember was a fair amount more than the regular cattle panel, and I am thinking  maybe it was only 4 ft high as I did bring them home on the trailer.  It had openings that were either 2x4 or 4x4 I think.  Not much would be going through it and I remember it was very heavy too.



I do know which panels you are talking about. There's the 4"x4" hole sheep and goat panels and there's the 2"x4" no climb panels (del mar I think). I don't know about the sheep and goat but the 2"x4" panels are somewhere around $64 each. I would probably rather do electric. I was also considering reinforcing field fence with wood fence rails. 

I'm just kicking around ideas right now but I may end up going with the no climb panels. That's what the big one's stud corral is fenced with in addition to the corral panel and he managed to shoot his head through trying to get to another buck and it took forever to get him unstuck from the fence hole though. 

This buck seems stupidly accident prone. He stepped in a foothold trap once.


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## Latestarter (Oct 10, 2018)

Ouch... can't imagine trying to get a foot hold trap off the hoof of a 200#+ buck goat with horns... That had to be worthy of a video. As for the hay feeder, That is on my journal as well. It's not all that and a cup of coffee... My buck RJ has scurs and he loves to push against it and repeatedly knocked it over. I ended up having to pound in a T-post and wire the center of the top horizontal to it to keep that from happening. He also (as does the wethers) likes to climb up the sides and press against the poly corrugated roofing and has pushed the roofing screw heads through the material on both sides at the ends. I go by and push the roofing back down so the screw heads go back through to where they belong.

Since I only had the one hay feeder built when it came time to separate the boys, I gave it to them. I started pulling apart flakes of hay into the girl's pellet bowls after they finish their pellets and giving them their hay twice a day that way. I have to stand there at the bowls to keep the biggest strongest girls from "merry go-rounding" the bowls and preventing the others from eating. It works out to ~3 adults to each bowl and 4-5 yearlings at theirs. I give them enough hay to "fill them up" for that meal and they have pasture during the day. I have a LOT less waste and they basically finish everything I put in the bowls rather than pulling out and eating all the "choice bits" and dropping the rest on the ground to pee and poop on. They still push the less favorable stems and such out of the bowl to get to what they want, but since that's all they get, they then go back and clean up the less appetizing pieces they've pushed out. I also move the bowls and don't always put them in the same spot, so waste doesn't pile up around the bowls or kill the grass underneath them.

ETA, the boys are once again wasting a LOT of hay


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## MargaretClare (Oct 10, 2018)

Latestarter said:


> Ouch... can't imagine trying to get a foot hold trap off the hoof of a 200#+ buck goat with horns... That had to be worthy of a video. As for the hay feeder, That is on my journal as well. It's not all that and a cup of coffee... My buck RJ has scurs and he loves to push against it and repeatedly knocked it over. I ended up having to pound in a T-post and wire the center of the top horizontal to it to keep that from happening. He also (as does the wethers) likes to climb up the sides and press against the poly corrugated roofing and has pushed the roofing screw heads through the material on both sides at the ends. I go by and push the roofing back down so the screw heads go back through to where they belong.
> 
> Since I only had the one hay feeder built when it came time to separate the boys, I gave it to them. I started pulling apart flakes of hay into the girl's pellet bowls after they finish their pellets and giving them their hay twice a day that way. I have to stand there at the bowls to keep the biggest strongest girls from "merry go-rounding" the bowls and preventing the others from eating. It works out to ~3 adults to each bowl and 4-5 yearlings at theirs. I give them enough hay to "fill them up" for that meal and they have pasture during the day. I have a LOT less waste and they basically finish everything I put in the bowls rather than pulling out and eating all the "choice bits" and dropping the rest on the ground to pee and poop on. They still push the less favorable stems and such out of the bowl to get to what they want, but since that's all they get, they then go back and clean up the less appetizing pieces they've pushed out. I also move the bowls and don't always put them in the same spot, so waste doesn't pile up around the bowls or kill the grass underneath them.
> 
> ETA, the boys are once again wasting a LOT of hay



It actually wasn't that big of a deal. He was a big baby about it. He ran over to me on three legs and hid his face against my chest with his eyes closed and holding his front leg up with the trap on it while my uncle got it off his foot. It was a smooth coyote trap so no damage at all. If you've ever seen a dog or cat in a sweater just stop moving that's basically what he did. He was shaking the whole time though.

I wish I had pasture out here. We get grass in February and March but only if we have a wet winter. Otherwise we'd have to haul in water and self irrigate it. I feed free choice Bermuda in raised feeders that make it hard to throw hay out. But when I move the bucks I'm gonna need to build a new one.


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## kdogg331 (Oct 13, 2018)

Following this cause I had a similar question


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