DE102012107118A1 - Method for feeding e.g. calves with milk, involves providing unlimited amount of feedstuffs to animal for predetermined time, and detecting and displaying retrieved amount to user for evaluation purpose, where amount per session is limited - Google Patents

Abstract

The method involves providing an unlimited amount of feedstuff to an animal for a predetermined time. The retrieved amount is detected and displayed to a user for an evaluation purpose, where the amount of feedstuff per session of an animal is limited. A blocking time in which the feedstuff is not available, is set. An alarm is triggered when the retrieved amount of the feedstuff is smaller than that of an expected amount according to age of the animal and that of average amount of a previous predetermined period of the same animal and when a defined amount is not retrieved to a defined time.

Description

The invention relates to a method for feeding animals, in particular young animals, with a feed, in particular with milk.

State of the art

Animals, especially young animals in the breeding, must be regularly supplied with food. Feeders for animals are known in many forms and designs. They are used for precisely controlled feed delivery, but also for monitoring the individual animals for their feed intake habits. Even the delivery of medical products related to the feed can be done by the vending machine. For this purpose, for example, automatic feeders are known to mix the milk for young animals, such as calves or piglets, as needed and provide the animal available. There are a lot of pamphlets about this, only for example is the DE 10 2009 013 226 A1 mentioned.

Furthermore, the shows DE 10 2008 047 754 B3 an apparatus and method for providing food to animals requiring a mixing container communicating with a sampling device. The mixing container is connected via a dispenser with other sampling devices in connection. This provides food for various groups of animals.

Further, for example, shows the DE 10 2006 037 082 a method of operating a mixing machine for preparing liquid food for animals, wherein a presettable amount of liquid food is mixed in the mixing machine.

task

Object of the present invention is to provide a method of o. To develop a species that is even better tailored to the animals to be fed, especially to young animals.

Solution of the task

In order to solve the problem, an unlimited amount of animal feed is made available to the animal for a given time.

It is known that some breeding animals can only consume milk as the only food for a certain period after birth. For example, a cow has four stomachs: rumen, reticulum, leafy stomach, abomasum. After birth, the rumen, which is the first of the four stomachs, is not yet fully developed. Since the rumen is the fermentation chamber, which allows the cattle to digest hay or grass, a very young calf must be raised with milk and later switched to other food.

The feeding of large quantities of milk in the first few weeks of life, in turn, an increased udder cells result, so that a proper calf nutrition by appropriate calf management before drowning has a four- to eight-fold higher effect on milk production per lactation, as genetic selection.

According to the present invention, the calves are allowed to take up an unlimited amount of animal feed, in particular of milk, per day.

The farmer can determine the ad libitum period himself, as he usually has experience when a calf needs to be switched to another feed. Furthermore, the farmer can determine the amount of the expected daily amount itself.

However, so that the calf does not overflow, the amount of feed per visit is limited. That is, for each visit that lasts a certain amount of time, the animal can only take potions up to a specified maximum amount.

The animals are identified via RFID antennas or the like, and their respective consumption is recorded and displayed.

The same is intended to set a blocking time per visit, which can be set between 00:30 h and 02:30 h. Thus, a controllable ad libitum feeding is possible.

After the end of this ad libitum period according to the invention, the calves are rationed further with milk or drinking water, in order to enable a gradual conversion to roughage.

• – Mengenalarm, wenn die abgerufene Menge an Futtermittel des vergangenen Tages geringer ist, als diejenige entsprechend der Erwartung des Landwirts für ein Tier in einem bestimmten Alter als Minimum pro Tag bzw. als eine definierte Tagesmindestmenge abzüglich frei definierbarem Alarmpegel;
• – Frühalarm, wenn bis zu einer bestimmten Uhrzeit ein frei wählbarer Anteil der Tagesmindestmenge nicht erreicht wird (hier: 12:00 h und 30%);
• – Durchschnittsalarm, wenn der Abruf des Vortages abzüglich eines frei definierbaren Alarmpegels geringer ist als der Durchschnitt des Abrufs der letzten drei Tage.

However, the ad libitum period is preferably relatively closely monitored by the farmer. For this purpose, the corresponding feeding machine can give three different alarms to which a graphic is enclosed as an example:

• - Quantity alarm if the retrieved amount of feed of the past day is less than that corresponding to the farmer's expectation for an animal of a certain age as a minimum per day or as a defined minimum daily amount minus a freely definable alarm level;
• - early-morning alarm, if up to a certain time a freely selectable portion of the minimum daily amount is not reached (here: 12:00 h and 30%);
• - Average alarm, if the demand of the previous day minus a freely definable alarm level is lower than the average of the call of the last three days.

Since the transition from ad libitum feeding to the rationed phase may be very drastic from one day to the next, a smooth transition from, for example, 15 liters to the target amount of 8 liters in 7 days is envisaged.

QUOTES INCLUDE IN THE DESCRIPTION

This list of the documents listed by the applicant has been generated automatically and is included solely for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA assumes no liability for any errors or omissions.

Cited patent literature

• DE 102009013226 A1 [0002]
• DE 102008047754 B3 [0003]
• DE 102006037082 [0004]

Claims (9)

Method for feeding animals, in particular young animals, with a feed, in particular with milk, characterized in that an unlimited amount of feed is provided to the animal for a predetermined time. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the recorded amount is detected and displayed to the user for assessment. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the amount of feed per visit of the animal is limited. Method according to at least one of claims 1-3, characterized in that at least one blocking period is set in which no feed is provided. A method according to at least one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that an alarm is triggered when a retrieved amount of feed is less than that which would be expected according to the age of the animal. A method according to at least one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that an alarm is triggered when a retrieved amount of feed is less than the average amount of a previous predetermined period of the same animal. Method according to at least one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that an alarm is triggered when a defined amount is not retrieved until a defined time. Method according to at least one of claims 1-7, characterized in that a sliding transition from the ad libitum period to a rationed feeding is programmable. A method according to any one of claims 1-8, characterized in that the recorded amounts are registered during the rearing phase.

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