GB1240108A - Improvements relating to apparatus for dispensing food to cattle - Google Patents

Abstract

1,240,108. Feeding animals. GASCOIGNES (RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT) Ltd. 10 Feb., 1969 [9 Nov., 1967], No. 51057/67. Heading A1M. [Also in Division H3] Apparatus for feeding a cow during milking consists of a milk collecting vessel 2 suspended from a control unit 4 sensitive to the amount of milk delivered which unit, on each successive predetermined increment of the amount of milk delivered to the vessel 2, sends a signal to an electrical circuit which starts a motor 9 which operates a screw conveyer 13 so that a predetermined amount of feed is delivered to the feed trough 7. The control unit, Fig. 4, supports the milk vessel at the eye 3 which moves downwardly due to the increased amount of milk in the vessel and rotates, through a rack and pinion 23, 24, an opaque plate 22 having a plurality of holes 25. A light-source 27 and a photoelectric cell 28 are disposed on opposite sides of the plate 22 such that when due to rotation of the plate a hole 25 comes in line with the light 27 and the cell 28, the cell activates and sends electrical signal through an electric circuit (Fig. 5, not shown), to start the motor 9. In other alternatives: the volume or flow of the milk instead of its weight, a rotating drum or a linearly moving plate instead of the rotating plate, and a row of contact studs instead of the photo-cell and the light may be used. The food conveyer may also be of any other suitable design; and instead of one food station 5, there may be two of them (the other being shown as 51 in Fig. 1).