Fencing Food Plots?

[huntncoach]

Read an article in Field and Stream (November, 2016) about fencing part of your food plot for late season deer. I am considering this, but do not want to spend a ton of money and I don't think electric fence is not an option (no power source). My plan is to use a simple garden fence to keep a small section of the plot from being browsed until later in the season. Not too worried about a little browsing, but want to protect the plants from being all eaten until I want to hunt over that section. My question: would a 4-foot fence work well enough to keep most of the deer out? I know they can jump it easily, but the area will be only a very small portion (10 x 10 x 10 yard triangle shape) and the plots are all only about 40 x 30 yards each.

 

[diamond hunter]

Elec fences aren't expensive,just use a solar charger

 

[TNCharlie]

This is more of a question than a comment because I don't know. I've seen cattle shy away from an area where an electric fence had been removed. Once shocked they stayed away even if the fence was gone. And they certainly would not touch any kind of wire around that spot. But I don't know how long that lasted. Would an electric fence have the same effect on deer so that they would not go around the area where they were shocked even if the fence was off or even gone?

 

[Mike Belt]

Where I hunt there are tree farms with 8' electric fences around them and the wires are less than 1' apart. I've seen the deer go through those wires and sometimes bed in the centers of these farms... both with the fence on and off. I doubt getting shocked would keep them away from food once that fence was down, especially if there was a shortage of food around there. I had to put up an electric fence around my garden and it was 5' high. It worked.

 

[GKG]

I tried this last year and I am going to try it again this year. I have a 1/2 plot that is on a ridge, that gets heavy browsing and also has a leaf problem. Late in the season, when the leaves start to come down, what remains of the plot gets smothered with leaves.

Last year, I put up some three foot high chicken wire in roughly a 30 x 10 rectangle, supported with four foot t-posts on the corners and every 10 feet. I then put deer netting over the top. This allowed the plot to go un-touched from deer / turkey and it grew very well and was still lush into the season, when the rest of the plot of was gone from browsing and leaves. I pulled down all the wire/posts/wire two days before Thanksgiving last year, and had multiple sits over that late season plot. I definitely had some doe in that part of the plot in shooting hours, and a four point walked through trailing one of the does who was hot. That plot was gone the next weekend after Thanksgiving - small area so did not last long.

I think I am going to try it again this fall ... maybe a bit larger. I am still thinking through what I am going to plant. Middle TN ridge, with not very good soil and limited moisture, so open to suggestions.

 

[double browtine]

I have heard you can put up two fences 4 foot apart. And the deer won't jump over both.

 

[diamond hunter]

I currently have an electric chestnut tree enclosure,so I don't have to individually fence around chestnut trees. It has three strands inside and two to three feet back it has 2 strands. The strands are all at different heights,this messes up the depth perception of deer and they wont jump over it.The elec part is just a bonus that helps get their attention.Its not at all that the deer cant jump over it,its that they are scared cause they cant tell the distance between the two fences.I fenced in 2 acres of beans a few years ago and it was 100 percent effective.

 

[DMD]

I have found, if you are only fencing part of your foodplot, you can get the ribbon type stuff and some scented spray to apply to it, it does pretty good at keeping deer out. You can even make your own spray if you want. I did this a year or 2 and it worked well.

Sent from my SM-S902L using Tapatalk

 

[Hunter 257W]

Has anybody ever used cheap perfume to put on one of the ribbon fences once the deer repellent that comes with the fence runs out? Maybe that's what you were talking about Pastorbmp? I've thought of doing that myself but never have.

 

[huntncoach]

I found some light fencing (7 ft.) at Lowe's that I am going to try. Pretty good reviews and not very expensive. Will let you guys know how it works.