Building a High Fence?

[elgato]

I have both high fence and low fence property. Some in La. and some in the brush country. I absolutely love the high fence pastures and wish I would have done it earlier. We still grow big deer on the low fence property but not as many as the high fence. Thats the big advantage...you can hold more bucks to older ages plus intensify nutrition being assured the investment you make stays on your property.

100 acres sounds small though if I understood your post. That becomes a personal question for you will surely know every deer you have.

It is also very true as stated above that a fence does not guarantee good mgt. It just gives you the opportunity. Food, water, cover, population control etc. all become much more important once the fence is up.

[az2tx]

100 acres is very small, depending on vegetation you will be spending a bit on feed.

[Cuz]

Depending on what you want it for specifically, if its thick enough and good forage, 100 acres will work fine.

[GTXHUNTER88]

The state put in our first high fence which covered two sides of the ranch for the toll road. Now 2200acres are high fenced and then there is semi-high 6ft fence following the length of a 40,000acre low fenced game preserve. Our high fence is 10ft high two barbed strands under the dirt four barbed strands on top. When we decide to put the fence across the creeks we will install swing gates and keep the fence above the creek. Only issues we have had are illegals cutting them (we put up ladders for them to cross over but I think they are afraid to use them) and one man decided that since his family owned part of the ranch sometime in the 1800s he bulldozed part of the fence one night. He was then arrested and havn't seen the guy again. If I were to do 100 acres I'd have a very limited amount of deer in there preferably put 2-3 protein feeders a 5acre pond and do as much planting for food plots as possible. I'd keep 40acres heavy brush then tall grass and food plot combo then some sparse shrub. You'd want to put a gate on one or two sides throw as much corn as possible get as many deer as you can in there then close the gate. Then you will set up cameras and observation blinds, you need to either shoot what you don't like in there or push what you want to stay up to one corner and push the rest out. Depending on the forage you should only have X of your best bucks and X does. Every season you need to release an X number of bred does, it really depends on the amount of forage but once you take some field surveys the math is simple. We have a very special deer corral which enters the high fence portion of the ranch its a giant L every few years depending on which bucks have been shot or if we have something we like and want to introduce to the high fence herd we lock it into the corral and sure some other deer get in there as well if they are bucks that don't have what we want they are shot or released if young if they are doe we let them into the high fence but how ever many go in with him the same number has to be removed. The ranch as a total would be 3 doe to 1 buck in the high fence portion we have a 1.2 to 1. The good thing about the high fence portion is you can manage it way easier than low fence, you can also do more studies and alter more things whether its forage or just the population of different organisms. There are zero hogs in our high fence area we have seen some try and dig under which is why we have the two strands of barbed under the dirt same with coyotes we killed them all in the zone. The other operation we have in the high fence zone is we have been breeding quail introduce 5000 every two years they are starting to move to the surrounding areas of the ranch and it's great! We do not do any TTT or any outside genetics so we do not need any permits.

[GTXHUNTER88]

Oh and we put in 13ft drill pipe strands they are put 3ft down and cemented usually 3bags per pipe every 10ft with 1 t-post in between. The H are insanely massive I forget the diameter of pipes I'll have to ask but they consider this a 100yr fence so hope it lasts as long as they say it will.

[GTXHUNTER88]

yes it will be pretty expensive to feed year round

100 acres is very small, depending on vegetation you will be spending a bit on feed.

[Mike Murphey]

100 acres can only support a small number of deer. When you look at 1 deer per 10-15 acres you don't have many animals on 100 acres. Any more than that and they will starve without supplmental feed and water.

[DeadEyeB]

100 acres is way too small for high fences

[RogueSamurai]

I gotta go with DeadEyeB here. You will be spending a ton of money on feed, especially in dry/bad years.
There is no permit required etc, but people do fail to realize that high fences need to be supported with a LOT of braces at corners, water crossings etc.
I know of quite a few fences that are less than a decade old that are already leaning badly or have holes in them.

High fences are just one tool in management, they aren't the whole answer.

[BrandonA]

I would think 100 acres would be to small and you would not get a return on your investment/expense.

[BrandonH]

I see that several think 100 acres is too small and I agree for the most part. What do y'all think would he the minimum acreage to high fence and be productive?

[DeadEyeB]

To me the bigger the property the better because the animals can fend for themselves. My buddies ranch that is 800 acres which is very large to me is a big hassle to them being high fenced..

Requires constant feed and the occasional slaughter of 30+ animals because the population just gets out of control. Plus during the drought they had to truck water up there which is no small expense.

Unfortunately it wasn't enough and many deer died off including some 200" bucks that they paid money for.


That's the other thing that boggles the mind people go out and buy all these different exotics that are huge animals and basically what you have is a farm with a bunch of animals you need to feed.

You've got to be real smart with population control and work your butt off to rid your ranch of pigs.


I think any size can be high fenced so long as you are prepared for what is involved. 100 acres is fine if you live on it and feed the animals practically daily and the water source is guaranteed.

[unclefish]

I would ask what is the goal of fencing in 100 acres when you have thousands of low fence acres?

Are you going to raise bucks to maturity on the high fence place and then release them? How would that work?

Are you going to hunt them in a 100 acre pen?

My neighbor high fenced a very small section (less than 70 acres) and put all kinds of exotics and bought some deer at an auction. He's got alot of animals and feeds the crap out of them and they all look healthy. But I think he regrets fencing that small of a place. Its basically a zoo that they hunt in. When he feeds...literally every deer on the place comes running.

[az2tx]

I see that several think 100 acres is too small and I agree for the most part. What do y'all think would he the minimum acreage to high fence and be productive?

That would depend on the terrain, vegetation, natural water source.
If it is Hill county with grass, cedars and oak, there is really not much of a good food source. Thick south Tx brush is a different story

[JeffJ]

To me the bigger the property the better because the animals can fend for themselves. My buddies ranch that is 800 acres which is very large to me is a big hassle to them being high fenced..

Requires constant feed and the occasional slaughter of 30+ animals because the population just gets out of control. Plus during the drought they had to truck water up there which is no small expense.

Unfortunately it wasn't enough and many deer died off including some 200" bucks that they paid money for.

This is a PRIME example of cart before the horse. Your buddy went out and spent a ton of money on a ranch, fence and stocked deer...yet didnt ensure that they had adequate water?

Too many folks think a high fence is some sort of magic wand. Its only one part of a bigger picture that requires a ton of time, money, energy and patience.