CA1228774A - Combination wet and dry feeder for animals - Google Patents

Abstract

"FEEDER FOR ANIMALS"
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

A feeder unit for animals, particularly pigs, comprises a trough and a narrow elongate shelf positioned above and along the length of the trough. A hopper positioned above the shelf directs material continuously onto the shelf to be retained on the shelf by the repose angle. The pig can thus either eat the feed directly from the shelf or can brush the feed into the trough.
An optional water supply duct can be provided to direct water into the trough for drinking and for wetting feed.

Description

"FEEDER FOR ANIMALS"
BACKGROUND OF TIE INVENTION
This invention relates to a feeder for animals which is particularly but not exclusively suitable for pigs.
Pigs are generally fed dry feed in a trough and are separately supplied with water which they can drink. They have a significant amount of intelligence which enables them to actuate water nipples and feed dispensers and such arrangements have been proposed of various different types. In recent years there have been a number of proposals and products on the market for wet feeders in which the water nipples are arranged in a single trough into which the feed is deposited in many cases using levers actuated by the pigs.
The intention is, of course, in an intensive farming situation to organize and supply the pigs so that they eat as much and as quickly as possible so as to reach the required weight and be shipped to market 2Q within the shortest possible time. To this end it is desirable to supply the pigs with feed in whatever condo-lion they desire so they take as much as they can without in any way being inhibited from eating further. Further-more it is best if the feed is taken in a dry condition with the pig drinking as little water as possible since of course the water tends to fill the pig and reduce the amount that it wishes to eat.
Dry feeders generally have a hopper which dispenses directly onto the base of a trough with the deposit of further feed controlled by the repose angle of the feed. Various bars and covers must then be provided to prevent the pig rooting material into the trough which is more than he needs to eat and hence is wasted.
The bars and covers make it difficult to clean and the trough must be wholly dried after washing since the feed cannot dispense into any water.
Wet feeders proposed include various levers and actuation mechanisms operated by the pig to cause feed to be dispensed into a trough and water nipples dispensing water into the trough.
Somali OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is one object of the present invention, to provide an improved feeder for animals and particularly pigs which is manufactured with a minimum number of moving parts so as to be inexpensive in its construction and simple to maintain.
According to the invention, -therefore, there is provided a feeder unit for animals comprising an elongate trough having a base and a sidewall for receiving and containing feed and arranged such that the head of the animal can reach over an upper front edge of the sidewall to the base for eating the feed, and elongate _ 3 _ shelf extending substantially along a full length of the trough and providing a substantially horizontal surface for receiving feed, said horizontal surface of said shelf being arranged at a height above and rear-warmly of said front edge and separate from said trough such that any feed falling therefrom along the full length thereof can fall directly vertically downwardly into the trough and so as -to allow access by the head of the animal to said shelf for direct feeding therefrom, and between said shelf and said front edge to said base, and hopper means for directly and continuously depositing feed onto said shelf, said hopper means including an elongate lowermost edge, means mounting said lowermost edge and said shelf such that the lowermost edge extends substantially wholly along, adjacent to and spaced from said horizontal surface by a vertical distance and spaced from a front edge of the shelf by a horizontal distance such that the angle of repose of -the feed from the lower-most edge to said shelf prevents the feed from falling I over the front edge of the shelf and thus automatically controls deposit o-f further feed onto said shelf, said mounting means including means for manually adjusting the vertical distance from the lowermost edge to the surface and being arranged to maintain said lowermost edge fixed against animal actuated movement, said shelf and trough being arranged such that deposited feed on I
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the shelf remains on said shelf but can be removed to the trough sole by direct contact with the animal.
Preferably the feeder includes a water dispenser arranged to dispense water away from the shelf and into the trough. The dispenser may be arranged directly beneath the shelf and directed downwardly so as to direct the water into the trough in a manner which prevents or is not intended to allow the pig to drink directly from it so the water is deposited into any feed in the trough.
The feeder can however be used without the supply of water to the trough in which case it acts solely as a dry feeder of a unique improved construction.
This unique construction also surprisingly causes the pigs to tend to keep the feeder clean of stale feed materials without generating excess amounts of feed in the trough or leaving them to go stale as can occur on conventional feeders of both wet and dry types.
The above arrangement allows the pig either to choose wet feed or dry feed depending upon its prefer-once so that the pig can eat directly from the shelf taking dry feed or if preferred can deposit the feed into the trough and add water to it and take it in a wet form.
A float can be used to control the level of water in the trough for animals such as poultry which B

I ~2~3~7~4 cannot actuate a nipple.
The feed material is deposited directly onto the shelf from a hopper with the control of the amount of the feed material being obtained by the positioning of a lowermost edge of the hopper or a chute from that hopper 3.2~

relative to the shelf so that the repose angle of the feed itself causes the deposit of feed to halt when the shelf is filled. In order to accommodate different flow characteristics of different feed materials, the height of the lower edge of the hopper or the hopper duct relay live to the shelf can be adjustable to achieve the proper repose angle which provides a slope of the feed material which terminates just short of the edge of the shelf.
The shelf can be foxed from a sheet material which is a slight lip along an edge adjacent the edge of the trough to assist in retaining the feed on the shelf and also a downturn flange forming a V-shaped edge which the pig can grasp with its mouth while scooping material from the top of the shelf.
With the foregoing in view, and other ad van-taxes as will become apparent to those swilled in the art to which this invention relates as this specification proceeds, the invention is herein described by reference to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, which includes a description of the best mode known to the applicant and of the preferred typical embodiment of the principles of the present invention, in which:
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRUNKS
Figure 1 is an isometric view of a feeder unit I

according to the invention.
Figure 2 is a cross sectional view of the feeder unit of Figure 1.
inure 3 is a cross sectional view of a mod-fled feeder unit according to the invention.
In the drawings like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different figures.
DETAILED DESC~IP~TON
Turning firstly to Figures 1 and 2, the feeder unit comprises a trough lo which has a base 11 for rest-in on the floor of an animal pen and a pair of sidewalls 12, 13 which are inclined upwardly and outwardly so that the trough defines a receptacle for water and feed. An upper edge 14 of the sidewalls 12, 13 is turned over so as to avoid the presentation of a raw edge to the animal and also to provide strength so the walls 12 and 13 are more difficult to deform he trough carries a pair of end panels 15, 16 which close the ends of the trough and also extend up-warmly and inwardly to a rectangular end panel Saxon, 18 defining the ends of a hopper 19. In between the end panels 15 and 16 is an open area on either side of the trough through which the pig can reach for taking feed and water from the base 11 of the trough as shown in Figure 2.
The hopper 19 comprises the end walls 17 and 18 together with parallel sidewalls 20 and 21 which are connected to the end walls to form a rectangular hopper.
A base of the hopper is wormed by downwardly and inwardly converging base walls 22, 23 defining an elongate opening 24 longitudinally of the hopper lg. A chute 25 depends downwardly from the opening 24 and is defined by side-walls 26 and 27 which terminate at longitudinal edges 28, 29 along the full length of the hopper. The sidewalls 26, 27 of the chute can be deformed as indicated at 30 to provide resistance against bending out of the parallel.
The ends of the walls 22, 23, 26, 27 are welded to the end plates 15 and 16 so as to close the hopper and hopper base and ensure that all material fed into the hopper falls gradually through the lower end of the chute 25.
A shelf 31 is mounted beneath the chute 25 and comprises a substantially flat horizontal plate 32 with parallel edges 33, 34 extending longitudinally thereof and spaced outwardly of the chute 25. At each of the edges, the plate 32 is turned slightly upwardly at 35 to form a slight dish structure and then a flange 36 is formed by turning the edge of the plate 32 downwardly to form a V-shape inverted to present the base of the V

forwardly at the eye of the shelf 31.
The shelf is attached at each end to a strap 37, 38 by way of right angle bracket portion 39. The straps 37, 38 are freely slide able at the end plates 17, 18 upwardly and downwardly under control of respective screws 40, 41 which co-operate with right angle brackets 42 rigidly attached Jo the respective end plate 17, 18.
Thus, actuation of the screws 40, 41 causes vertical movement of the shelf 31 to adjust the spacing between the lowermost edge 28, 29 of the chute 25 and the plate 32.
A water supply duct 43 passes through a circus far opening 44 in one of the end plates 17 and extends longitudinally of the shelf a short distance beneath the shelf. The supply duct 43 receives water from a supply schematically indicated at 45 through a timer valve Skye magically indicated at 46 which controls the supply of water to the duct 43. The duct carries a plurality of valves 47 each of which includes an actuation rod 48 which projects downwardly prom an open end of a "T" fit-tying 49. The actuation rod 48 is coupled to a flat valve within the "T" fitting which is spring biased into a closed position but can be opened by pushing the valve rod 48 to one side so that water escapes from the "T"

I

fitting 49 over the valve rod 48 into the trough 10. The valve rod 48 can be simply actuated by a pigs snout but the water is intended not to be drunk as it descends from the supply but to fall directly into the trough for drinking from the trough. The supply duct 43 is mounted within an inverted U channel 50 for protection and car-ryes a plurality ox the "T" fittings 49 each of which is screw threaded for attachment by an nut 51 to a plate 52 welded across the open end of the channel 50 at spaced locations. The details of the valve 47 are well known in the art and commercially available.
As best illustrated in Figure 2, in operation, feed is deposited into the hopper and indicated at 53.
The feed falls continuously and unencumbered onto the shelf 31 and particularly the plate 32 to flow outwardly toward the edge of the shelf 31 as indicated at 54. The distance between the edges 28, 29 and the plate 32 is chosen such that the repose angle of the feed causes the outflow to terminate at a position adjacent the edge of the shelf without flowing directly over the edge of the shelf into the trough lo Thus the feed will continuous-lye and automatically take up a position shown in Figure 2 and any feed removed from the shelf will cause further feed to fall onto the shelf and take up the repose angle jig indicated at So.
The distance between the edges 28, 29 and the shelf can be adjusted by operation of the screws 40, 41 to accommodate different flow characteristics of differ-en feeds.
When the feed is positioned on the shelf, it can be taken directly by a pig as indicated at 55 by the pig opening its mouth and placing its top jaw onto the top of the shelf 31 and its lower jaw against the flange 36 thus withdrawing dry feed directly into the mouth of the pig.
If the pig prefers it can use its snout to brush feed from the shell over the edge 33 into the trough 10 for eating from the trough as shown at 56.
Water will normally be present in the trough 10 for drinking and thus the fled in the trough 10 will general-lye be in a wet condition. The pig can add to the water for drinking or for applying water to the feed by actual tying the rod 48 as indicated at 57. The water dispenser, as previously explained, is arranged so that the pig cannot drink water directly and hence the pig will normally be taking feed with water from the trough.
The valve 46 can be actuated periodically to shut off the water supply so that thirsty pigs clean out Jo I I

the trough lo to avoid collection of stale material in the corners and over the base. The shelf 31 remains cleaned by the continuous supply of dry feed and is not contaminated with wet feed which tends to stick to the surfaces. Thus, the feeder can be maintained in a clean condition without attention merely by managing the pigs so that they properly clean up all areas.
It will be noted that the spacing between the edge 33 of the shelf and the edge 14 of the sidewall is lo such that the pig can reach into the area beneath the shelf and within the trough for withdrawing feed material from the trough. At the same time the pig can lift its head and feed directly from the shelf. In one example the width of the trough across the edges 14 can be of the - order of twenty-four inches with the width of the shelf being of the order of six inches and the width of the chute 25 being of the order of three inches. This gives sufficient area for the pigs to reach into the trough and provide a sufficient area of shelf to retain feed while allowing the pig to simply remove feed by grasping the Vapid shelf as shown.
In alternative arrangements (not shown) the feeder unit can be a single sided unit which is only accessible by pigs from one side so the shelf effectively I? 113 7 only has one edge 33 and the trough effectively only has one sidewall over which the pigs can reach. In a further alternative, the feeder unit can be circular with a con-centric circular shelf and a circular outer sidewall 14 for positioning centrally within a pig pen. Thus, pigs can access the feeder around the full circumference of the circular feeder as opposed to the two sides of the feeder as shown in Figures 1 and 2. In the alternative relating to the circular feeding unit, the water supply can be provided by a duct which extends along the axis of the feeding unit downwardly through the shelf to supply a ring of valves underneath the shelf. In this case the shelf can in fact be attached to the duct for upward and downward movement with the duct to provide the adjustment as previously explained.
Turning now to Figure 3, there is shown in cross section a modified arrangement which includes a hopper 19 as previously described and a trough 10 loge-then with a shelf 31. In this arrangement, however, the trough 10 is modified by the provision of an inverted V-shaped ridge 101 longitudinal of the trough and divide in it into two trough portions 102, 103. The ridge 101 is suitable to receive a base stringer of a penning fence so that the feeder can be positioned over the base Jo Z2~7~

stringer. In addition, the ridge 101 divides the trough into the two portions so that the feeder unit can be used from only one side if this is required any time without feed material and water collecting in the far side of the trough in a position which is inaccessible to the pigs.
In this case the water supply duct 43 is mod-fled to provide two separate ducts 431, 432 each of which is operable to supply water into respective one of the portions 102, 103 to prevent water collecting in the other trough area when only one side is being used.
In a further modification the shelf 31 also includes a V-shaped ridge 311 which projects symmetrical-lye into the chute 25 so the feed material can be deposit ted on either side of the ridge 311 and onto the shelf at either side. In case feed material becomes lodged be-tweet the lower edge 29 of the chute 25 and the plate 32, a plurality of rods Jan be arranged along the length of the shelf 31. The rods indicated at 312 can be pivoted at 313 about an axis at right angles Jo the shelf. The rods then follow the contour of the shelf and depend downwardly from the ridge 311 through the space between tune edge 29 and the plate 32 and provide an upstanding portion 314 which can be grasped and actuated by the pig to work feed through the gap and onto the shelf.

The water supply duct I is also modified in that it can be formed from a rigid material such as stainless steel which is self supporting and self protecting and thus the channel 50 can be omitted as shown in Figure 3.
In a yet further modification, the water nipples are omitted and the water supply controlled by a float valve having a float in the trough for keeping the water level at a desired height in the trough. Such a device can be used for animals such as poultry which are incapable of actuating a water nipple.
In a still further modification, the water supply is removed, omitted or rendered inoperative so that the feed is taken from both the shelf and the trough in a dry state.
Since various modifications can be made in my invention as hereinabove described, and many apparently widely different embodiments of same made within the spirit and scope of the claims without departing from such spirit and scope, it is intended -that all matter contained in the accompanying specification shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense.

Claims

(1) A feeder unit for animals comprising an elongate trough having a base and a sidewall for receiv-ing and containing feed and arranged such that the head of the animal can reach over an upper front edged of the sidewall to the base for eating the feed, and elongate shelf extending substantially along a full length of the trough and providing a substantially horizontal surface for receiving feed, said horizontal surface of said shelf being arranged at a height above and rearwardly of said front edge and separate from said trough such that any feed falling therefrom along the full length thereof can fall directly vertically downwardly into the trough and so as to allow access by the head of the animal to said shelf for direct feeding therefrom, and between said shelf and said front edge to said base, and hopper means for directly and continuously depositing feed onto said shelf, said hopper means including an elongate lowermost edge, means mounting said lowermost edge and said shelf such that the lowermost edge extends substantially wholly along, adjacent to and spaced from said horizontal sur-face by a vertical distance and spaced from a front edge of the shelf by a horizontal distance such that the angle of repose of the feed from the lowermost edge to said shelf prevents the feed from falling over the front edge of the shelf and thus automatically controls deposit of further feed onto said shelf, said mounting means includ-ing means for manually adjusting the vertical distance from the lowermost edge to the surface and being arranged to maintain said lowermost edge fixed against animal actuated movement, said shelf and trough being arranged such that deposited feed on the shelf remains on said shelf but can be removed to the trough solely by direct contact with the animal.
(2) The invention according to Claim 1 including means for dispensing water into the trough arranged such that it avoids dispensing water onto the shelf.
(3) The invention according to Claim 2 including means actable by the animal for controlling the dispensing.
(4) The invention according to Claim 2 or 3 wherein the dispensing means is arranged beneath the shelf and arranged to direct water downwardly therefrom into the trough.
(5) The invention according to Claim 2 or 3 wherein the dispensing means is arranged such that the animal is not intended to drink directly from it.

(6) The invention according to Claim 2 or 3 including timer means for periodically shutting off water supply to said dispensing means.
(7) The invention according to Claim 2 or 3 wherein the dispensing means includes a float valve for controlling the level of water in the trough.