EP0404811A1 - Improved animal feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

An animal feed distributor (2) comprising a solids feed hopper (6), associated with a demand water trough (40) comprising a water inlet (42) and a water outlet (41 ), a water tank (10) existing for each hopper and the water inlet located inside the hopper. A method of supplying solids and liquids is also described, which consists in preserving the liquid in a water tank (10) intended for a hopper (6) before this liquid enters the water inlet (42 ).

Description

IMPROVED ANIMAL FEEDER

This invention relates to an improved animal feeder, and in particular to an animal feeder comprising a solids feed hopper, together with an associated demand water drinker having a water inlet and a water outlet. The usual demand water drinkers for animal use are nipple or spray drinkers.

Solids feed hoppers are widely used for animal self-feeding, the feed consumed being being replenished automatically from the hopper store, the feed being in a flowable form, typically pelleted. Nipple or spray water drinkers having a water inlet and a water outlet are also widely used, and are designed for self-operation by a pig or calf, the pig using its snout to move for example a spring-biassed button or lever to obtain drinking water on demand from the water outlet; though the pig will sometimes drink directly from the water outlet, more often the water released will be drunk from a drip tray situated below the water outlet. Although for convenience and in conformity with trade usage such a drinker is referred to herein as a water drinker, it will be understood that other liquids than water may be dispensed, (or water with which other liquids are mixed or in which solids are dissolved).

Various proprietary animal feeders are known which comprise a solids feed hopper, together with an associated nipple or spray demand water drinker having a water inlet and a water outlet; these animal feeders are currently available in large sizes, suitable for example for pigs or pens of pigs each of 15 Kg. or more. Once in position, a number of such feeders are designed to be permanently plumbed in to a (low pressure) water supply pipe from a cistern, the cistern being itself connected to a high pressure (usually mains water) conduit and topped up therefrom in known fashion under under the control of a ball-cock; thus the pigs, or pens of pigs, for which such feeders are provided can have an automatic and thus plentiful supply of water which is fresh and clean, but provided only on demand . Since many pigs are supplied by way of the cistern, there is an almost continuous topping up of the cistern from the high pressure conduit, with a daily throughput of many times the cistern volume.

The known animal feeders as above described have however a number of disadvantages. The cistern is connected by pipewor directly to the nipple or spray drinker so that if the. water supply is interrupted, as by a (high pressure system) mains failure or a (low pressure system) burst pipe, the pigs are almost immediately deprived of water. If the low pressure wate system is suspected of being contaminated e.g. by bacterial infection in the cistern, the system can only be cleaned (usuall by being flushed through with suitable bactericide) after the water supply has been cut off from all the drinkers. Cistern are conventionally fitted out of the way, well above head height, so that if it is desired for instance to feed medicartts or die additives to the pigs by way of the water supply {a} it is often physically awkward, particularly if the farmer has a herd of say 3000 pigs and seeks to introduce a precise measured quantity into the cistern, {b} it is necessary temporarily to turn off the high pressure supply or to inactivate the ball cock so that the medicant is not progressively diluted before being finally consumed, to avoid later-drinking pigs receiving a lower concentration, {c} it is both physically demanding and time-consuming to check the cistern to determine if all the medicant-treated water has been consumed so that the mains supply can be re-connected, and {d} it is wasteful as a procedure since not all of the pigs or pens of pigs may need or benefit from the medication, or diet additive, since they are likely to be of different ages, health, weight and stage of growth.

To meet the need for the farmer to be able to supply medicants individually to a pig or pen of pigs as and when required, for example if one (or more) piglets in a pen starts to scour, there is in widespread use a unit comprising a water tray separated from a water reservoir by a divider wall, the reservoir being filled through the water tray whilst the unit is tilted backwards, water thereafter flowing back into the water tray from the reservoir only when the water level in the water tray is below the lower level of the divider wall i.e as the water is drunk. This known unit has a number of disadvantages in that {a} a unit needs to be stationed in each pen in which a pig or piglet requires treatment, in addition to the solids feeder {b} the reservoir necessarily has to be kept air-tight when in use to prevent loss of water, and thus it can prove difficult for the farmer to check the level of medicated water remaining in the reservoir, {c} this water feeder is an extra free-standing item to be provided and cleaned and stored, and requires a relatively large floor space which can be better used by the growing piglets, {d} not being a unit which the pigs recognise as providing their normal drinking water, they may foul the water tray from which the water is to be drunk and/or the unit may become a plaything, {e} the younger or smaller piglets may not have learned to drink from a water tray, so that the piglets most in need of medicant may take up the least, and {f} being a substantially closed container, the unit is difficult to clean, and sterilise.

It is an object of our invention to to provide an animal feeder which avoids or minimises the above disadvantages.

Thus according to one feature of our invention, we provide an animal feeder comprising a solids feed hopper, together with an associated demand water drinker having a water inlet and a water outlet characterised by a water reservoir for each feed hopper, and by the said water inlet of the drinker being within the reservoir. Preferably the water reservoir is attached to the solids feed hopper, and in a particularly valuable embodiment the water reservoir is formed integrally with the solids feed hopper. According to a further feature of our invention, we provide a method of feeding solids and liquids by way of an animal feeder comprising a solids feed hopper, together with an associated demand water drinker having a water inlet and a water outlet, which includes the step of holding the liquid in a water reservoir dedicated to that hopper, prior to the liquid entering the water inlet.

In a preferred embodiment the solids feed hopper and water reservoir are back to back with a common (dividing) wall. In one arrangement, an extension of the dividing section of the wall has a tapped aperture into which the nipple or spray drinker is threaded (with the water inlet to one side of the dividing wall and the water outlet to the other side of the dividing wall); in an alternative but equally-preferred arrangement, there is a hole punched through the dividing wall, and the water drinker is held by securement nuts located to either side of the wall and is sealed within the hole as by polytetrafluoroethylene tape. These preferred embodiments will include a feed tray and a trough, whereby to form an integral self-contained unit; though I do not exclude that the (dedicated) reservoir for each feeder may be kept topped up from a plumbed-in (piped) water supply.

Although piglets soon learn to operate the nipple or spray water drinker, it is important that they be encouraged to consume solids (such as that known as meal, which is a feed mix in particulate, free-flowing form) so that they can successfully be weaned from the sow. Thus the nipple or spray water drinker is positioned at a level which in use is below that of the solids feed tray (or its rim). In operating or playing with the drinker a piglet will usually also nuzzle into the meal on the feed tray, and they can then lick the meal off their snout with their (wettened) tongue, and ingest; alternatively, water released from the drinker can drip into the trough to wetten meal which has dropped from the solids feed tray, and make that meal easier to ^"eat. Because the nipple or spray water drinker is below the feed tray, meal adjacent the mouth of the hopper is unlikely to become wetted so that the danger of wetted meal bridging the hopper mouth to restrict the flow of replenishment meal is minimised.

The water reservoir can have a top opening (perhaps with a removable lid and/or filter) so that it can be filled or refilled by hand, either {a} as a matter of course (for self contained feeders best suited to smaller pigs) or {b} when the normal water supply is interrupted (for feeders for which the reservoir is normally kept filled by water from a low pressure supply controlled by a stop cock); so that selected medicants and/or feed additives (in liquid form or water soluble) can be added, but only to the feeders for the pigs or pens for which they are needed; and so that the extent of the take up of drinking water and/or of medicated water can be monitored.

For the embodiment in which each dedicated water reservoir is to be regularly topped up under the control of its own ball cock, acting to control the inflow of water .from a central supply (e.g. a cistern feeding a number of animal feeders constructed and operable according to the invention) , preferably for each feeder there will be means such as a manually operable valve which can selectively and temporarily be closed, to stop the inflow of water into the dedicated reservoir (and consequent dilution of e.g. the medicant solution). Closure of the valve will also allow individual feeders to be disconnected and removed e.g. for cleaning and sterilising between successive batches of pigs.

The invention will be further described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:-•

Fig.1 is a perspective view of one embodiment of animal feeder according to the invention; Fig.2 is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment;

Fig.3 is a side sectional view of the embodiment of Fig.2 but prior to connecting to a side wall;

Fig.4 is a front view of a solids feed hopper body;

Fig.5 is a side (sectional) view of another embodiment of animal feeder;

Fig.6 is a side (sectional) view of another feed hopper;

Fig.7 is a side (sectional) view of yet another feed hopper;

Fig.8 is a side (sectional) view of a further feed hopper;

Fig.9 is a plan view of a modified feed hopper; and Figs.10/11 are elevations of alternative front trough walls. The improved animal feeder 2 includes a flat solids feed tray 4, a solids feed hopper 6, a trough 8 and a water reservoir 10.

Solids feed tray 4 has a front edge 5 defined by its junction with downwardly and rearwardly sloping wall 12, and a rear edge defined by its junction with upwardly extending opposed wall 22.

The solids feed hopper 6 has a front wall 20, and a rear wall formed by the opposed wall 22. Side walls 24 define the two ends of the hopper 6. In this embodiment, the front wall 20 slopes rearwardly, as does the opposed wall 22 but at a lesser angle, whereby the cross section of the hopper gradually reduces towards the hopper mouth 26 ( which is located above solids feed tray 4). In use, solids hopper 6 will be filled or nearly so with a feed able to flow more or less freely e.g. pellets or meal, so that solids feed tray 4 is automatically replenished in known fashion as food is consumed from tray 4. The rate of replenishment through mouth 26 can be controlled by adjustable slide-plate 27.

The trough 8 is generally of "ϋ" section, with a rearwardly sloping front trough wall 30 and a forwardly sloping rear trough wall 32, the trough walls 30,32 being connected by a flat trough base 34. Front trough wall 30 has a rearwardly extending lip 31 to limit unwanted removal and wastage of meal. In the normal position of use of the feeder, the rear edge of lip 31 is located in front of the front edge 5 of tray 4, so that meal spilling from edge 5 will be caught in trough 8. In the alternative embodiment of Fig.2 and Fig.3 , tray 4 has its front edge 5 extended upwardly by a lip 5a, to reduce the spillage off the front edge of the tray.

Water reservoir 10 is generally of L-shape, with the lower limb of the "L" having its upper surface contoured to form solids feed tray 4, and its lower surface 25 providing the water reservoir base. The water reservoir has a rear wall 23; the reservoir front wall provided by opposed wall 22, the base 25 and the rear wall 23 all sealingly engage the side walls 24. Opposed wall 22 provides one wall of water reservoir 10, and is thus a dividing wall between reservoir 10 and solids feed hopper 6.

Screwed into a drilled and tapped hole in rearwardly inclined sloping wall 12 is a nipple demand water drinker 40; in an alternative embodiment, this is replaced by a spray demand water drinker. Water released from the drinker is fresh in that it has not for instance previously been contacted by another pig.

It will be understood that this embodiment of my improved animal feeder is designed to be have few parts and to be easy to manufacture. A first plate is shaped to form opposed wall 22, feed tray 4, rearwardly inclined sloping wall 12, reservoir base 25 and the reservoir rear wall 23. A second plate is shaped to form the "U" shaped trough 8 i.e. the trough walls 30,32 and trough base 34. A pair of rectangular side plates 24 define the ends of the water reservoir, feed hopper, solids feed tray, and trough. In one embodiment the first and second plates are welded to one side plate, then welded together and thereafter welded to the other side plate; in another embodiment (Fig.3) the first and second plates are first welded together, and then this sub-assembly is welded to the two side plates. Conveniently the plates are of metal e.g. galvanised iron or stainless steel, though they can be of plastics and heat welded. In one embodiment, suitable for piglets from 10 days old to 30 days old, the side plates 24 have a depth of 20cm, a height of 30cm, and are separated by 10cm.

In the embodiments of Fig.1 and of Fig.2, the front edge of trough wall 30 is below (as seen in these Figures) the front edge of front wall 20; in the embodiment of Fig.3, trough wall 30 is forward of the front edge of front wall 20, making it less likely that larger pigs will butt and damage front wall 20.

The nipple water drinker 40 has a water outlet 41 , at a level below that of solids feed tray 4. Outlet 41 is directly above trough 8, so that trough 8 and particularly base 34 can therefore catch any spilled water (as well as spilled feed). The nipple water feeder 40 has at its opposite end (and within water reservoir 10) a water inlet 42. Preferably the nipple water feeder 40 is of a proven construction and may be a proprietary component and is positioned above base 25 to provide a sump area therebelow. In use, water intended for drinking through nipple water feeder 40 is first held in water reservoir 10. Whilst in the water reservoir 10 it can be warmed, as by an installed or portable immersion heater, to a temperature approaching that of sow's milk; it can be mixed with diet additives which are water soluble or already in the liquid phase; it can have a medicant added thereto. Thus the buffer storage provided by the reservoir, for water intended for early consumption, provides a valuable extra tool to aid the farmer in good stockmanship.

In the alternative embodiment of Fig.2, the plate providing opposed wall 22 has an upward extension 22a with a rearward lip 22b; the extension and lip are shaped to form a carrier handle and to help protect the meal from being wetted when water is "hand fed" into water reservoir 10. In this embodiment the handle is secured to opposed wall 22 by rivets 29, but in an alternative embodiment the handle is formed integrally with opposed wall 22.

As also seen in Fig.2 and Fig.3, there is a waste tray 28 secured to the front of the feeder, which catches meal carried away from the trough 8 by a pig, and which could otherwise be wasted, as by dropping through a slatted floor of the pen.

The solids feed hopper can be formed as a hollow mould, of plastics material such as high density polyethylene. In the embodiment of Fig.4/5 the front wall 120 is formed as a pivoted flap by vertical cuts 121a,121b and a horizontal cut 123; the front wall is angled rearwardly and is secured at its (cut) side edges to hopper side walls 125a,125b, in one embodiment by heat welding, and in another embodiment by being bolted using two pieces of angled metal bolted to the respective side edges and to the adjacent side wall.

Feed tray 104 is angled downwardly, and forms part of a sub-assembly 100 which is fed through the opening obtained when hopper front wall 120 is formed, and is then secured to the hopper rear wall 122a. When so secured and assembled, feed tray 104 is spaced from the front wall 120 (to provide a hopper mouth 126) and above a circular hole 127 in hopper rear wall 122a; into this circular hole 127 fits snout 129 of water reservoir 110, the snout carrying a nipple water drinker 40. In an alternative embodiment the hole 127 is acircular to help locate the snout 129 and thus the water reservoir 110 against turning. In addition to the fitting of snout 129 in hole 127, the water reservoir 110 can be located against the solid feed hopper by any convenient means, such as a releasable strap passing round both hollow units. In this embodiment the solids feed hopper and water reservoir are covered respectively by lids 131,133; but in an alternative embodiment the covers can be screw-threaded caps.

Usefully at least one of the hopper and the water reservoir are translucent so that the contents level is visible through the container wall; and the water reservoir can be in one of a number of self-coloured materials so that the contents e.g. medicated water are readily ascertained.

In the embodiment of Fig.6 the hole 127 is protected by a grom et 135. The feed tray is formed as part of a moulding which also defines a trough 108; and the rearwardly sloping wall 112 has an opening 137 aligned with hole 127, to receive snout 129. The moulding is secured to the hopper side walls 125a, 125b. An alternative moulding embodiment is seen in Fig.7, providing both a feed tray lip 105a and a strengthening limb 139; in this embodiment the aligned hole 127 and opening 137 are cut after the moulding has been secured to the hopper body.

For larger pigs the feeds hopper of Fig.8 can be used. The rearwardly sloping wall is formed as in the embodiment of Figs 4/5, but the sub-assembly 100 now includes a modified nipple water drinker 140. As seen in Fig.8 the water drinker 140 has one (inlet) end outside the moulded solids feed hopper and this end includes a connector 141 (defining the water inlet) which is adapted to be directly and releasably coupled to a low pressure supply pipe, so that this solids feed hopper can if desired be used as a direct replacement for a solids feed hopper in an existing (prior art) system; it will be understood that in an alternative embodiment, the inlet end can sealingly fit into an orifice in an associated water reservoir, and it will be further understood that this water drinker 140 can if desired be used in the embodiment of Fig 6 and the embodiment of Fig.7. The vertical (as seen in Fig. 8) height of this Fig.8 embodiment is 1.2m, and to ease storage and transportation the upwardly extending sides also taper gently outwards so that the units can be stacked one within another, either when assembled as shown or prior to forming wall 120 and the fitting of sub-assembly 100. The front face of the hopper from which front wall 120 is formed can be made thicker than the other walls, to better withstand wear in use, such as during feeding.

In the embodiment of Fig. the solids feed hopper has a pair of integral, rearwardly extending fingers 150 which can resiliently separate to admit, and then re-approach to grip, the water reservoir.

For feeding more than one pig at a time, I am also proposing a wider feeder, with the individual feeder places each having a drinker; preferably, the places will be separated by upstanding divider plates welded to the trough 8 and to wall 12.

In a further alternative embodiment, dedicated water reservoir 10 is automatically kept topped up with water through piping connected to a cistern, the water flow into the dedicated reservoir being controlled by a ball cock in the water reservoir; the reservoir 10 could additionally or alternatively be connected to a remote feed reservoir e.g. for skimmed milk or whey, which could be mixed in water reservoir 10 to the prescribed concentration. In preliminary trials, I have found that the volume of the water reservoir should preferably be at least equal to that of the effective volume of the solids feed hopper; more satisfactory for self-contained feeders without a plumbed in water connection to the reservoir (since it reguires fewer manual water top-ups) is to use a water reservoir with a volume up to five times that of the effective volume of the feed hopper. My animal feeder encouraged piglets towards early consumption of solid foods, since whilst exploring the water nipple feeder they often took some meal; I assisted this food take-up by using sweetened water in the reservoir, warmed when necessary. For larger pigs, I controlled the diet additives, and conversely was able for each pig or pen of pigs to time the withdrawal of proscribed "additives" e.g. for two weeks before slaughter; and since the time of slaughter in part depends on age and so cannot be the same for all the litters, I avoided the need to duplicate my storage requirements and facilities. The water in the buffer reservoir was quickly inspected, and/or sampled, and removed if an incorrect (and colour coded) drug for instance had inadvertently been given to a particular pen by a helper. Various feeders were made in a range of sizes to suit different sizes of pig and their different (daily) consumption, permitting a suitable unit to be used for unusual circumstances e.g. for a remote isolation unit. For the larger feeders with a plumbed in water supply, if that automatic water supply was interrupted, the reservoir provided a back-up facility allowing time for the fault to be corrected and/or the individual reservoirs to be hand filled. The animal feeders were individually cleaned and disinfected between batches of pigs i.e. before the next litter needed to occupy the pen, and this was done without cutting off the supply to the other pens, in particular by turning off the respective inlet valve for those feeders with a plumbed in water supply. Because the drinker is below the level of feed tray 4, at a convenient pig head height, cleaning of the feed tray was simple; because the drinker is above the base of the reservoir, any non-soluble food etc inadvertently in the water reservoir fell to the reservoir sump area below the drinker.

A modified front trough wall 30a is shown in Fig.10. The wall has an upper surface 33 at a height convenient for a range of pig sizes and weights, and two side wings 35. The side wings 35 inhibit "nosing out" of food, which is known to occur when a pig or piglet uses its snout at a corner formed by the front wall 30 and side wall 24 to lift out food from the trough 8, with significant wastage; the side wings increase the chance that the food will drop back into the trough 8. In the alternative embodiment of Fig. 11 the front wall 30b has a curved upper surface, which will usually be symmetrical, but may be asymmetric as shown. The height of surface 33 is 125mm, and that of the side wings 35 is 225mm, with the surface 33 having a length of 100mm (so that a pig can cradle his neck with surfaces 33,35 whilst feeding), and the base a length of 300mm. Thus I have proposed an ad lib food and water feeder, suitable for all sizes of pigs, and for other animals; thus for calves I would use a spray drinker, typically operated when the calf depressed a resiliently biassed button, with the calf left to play with the drinker in an individual stall for 30 minutes or so, the reservoir including warmed milk to encourage the calf to drink and thereby stimulate the uptake of solids to prepare the calf to be more self reliant when feeding after weaning. For calves also, the individual feeder I now propose with its associated "buffer" reservoir, with one feeder for each stall, permits individual feeding and attention. Medicants can be given even to piglets, through the water rather than the feed. Because the water reservoir is adjacent the pigs, it is less likely to freeze in colder environments than the cistern. My feeder will preferably be the sole supply of liquids to the pigs when pellets are fed, to limit waste from uneaten pellets dropped on the way to any supplementary drinker; if mash is fed, some farmers may wish to provide an additional drinker, but I have found that the dryness of the mash encourages immediate drinking from the associated water drinker.

Claims

1. An animal feeder (2) comprising a solids feed hopper (6) together with an associated demand water drinker (40) having a water inlet (42) and a water outlet (41) characterised by a water reservoir (10) for each feed hopper, and by the water inlet of the water drinker being within the reservoir.

2. An animal feeder according to Claim 1 characterised in that the water reservoir (10) is separate from but connected to the solids feed hopper (6).

3. An animal feeder according to Claim 1 characterised in that the water reservoir (10) shares a common dividing wall (24) with the solids feed hopper, the water reservoir being integral with the solids feed hopper.

4. An animal feeder according to Claim 1 characterised in that the demand water drinker (40) is carried by the water reservoir (10), and in that the demand water drinker projects through a hole (127) in a wall of the solids feed hopper, with the water outlet being located within the solids feed hopper.

5. An animal feeder according to Claim 1 characterised in that the demand water drinker is selected from a nipple drinker _ 1 Q _

and a spray drinker.

6. An animal feeder according to Claim 1 characterised in that at least one of the solids feed hopper and the water reservoir is a hollow plastics moulding.

7. An animal feeder according to Claim 1 characterised in that the solids feed hopper includes a rearwardly inclined flap (120) and a solids feed tray (104), the flap and tray being spaced apart to define a hopper mouth (126), the tray being downstream of the flow of solids through the hopper mouth in the feed direction, the tray being part of a sub-assembly (100) secured to the hopper. • -

8. An animal feeder according to Claim 1 characterised in that the solids feed hopper is of moulded polyethylene, and in that the water drinker is located in a sub-assembly (100) carried internally of the hopper, the sub-assembly also defining a feed tray, the water drinker having at least the water outlet below the feed tray in the normal position of use, the said water outlet being above the base of the hopper.

9. A method of feeding solids and liquids by way of an animal feeder comprising a solids feed hopper, together with an associated demand water drinker having a water inlet and a water outlet characterised by including the step of holding the liquid in a water reservoir (10) dedicated to that hopper (6), prior to the liquid entering the water inlet (42).

10. A method of feeding solids and liquids by way of an animal feeder according to Claim 9 characterised by cutting a flap (120) from the hopper to provide a rearwardly angled wall internally of the hopper, and by securing the flap at the desired angle to at least two internal hopper surfaces (24).