GB2059238A

GB2059238A - A livestock pen

Info

Publication number: GB2059238A
Application number: GB7934137A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: CRAGGS C G
Current assignee: CRAGGS C G
Priority date: 1979-10-02
Filing date: 1979-10-02
Publication date: 1981-04-23
Also published as: GB2059238B

Abstract

A livestock pen includes a feeding trough built into or forming a wall of the pen and having an access opening 19 through which livestock may feed. A barrier 20 extends across the opening 19 so as normally to obstruct access to the trough. The two ends of the barrier are slidably mounted for movement generally upwardly whereby an animal may feed from the trough by reaching beneath and then lifting the barrier 20. When the animal moves away the barrier 20 falls under gravity to its obstructing position and prevents the animal fouling the foodstuff in the trough should the animal turn round and back towards the trough. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A livestock pen This invention relates to a livestock pen, and in pa rticular to a livestock pen having a feeding trough let into or forming a wall of the pen.

In modern farming methods, it is usual to keep livestock, and especially pigs, in pens for extended periods. To allowthe animals to feed, very often a trough either is arranged to form a wall of the pen or is otherwise built into a wall, so that foodstuff sup plied periodically to the trough can be eaten by livestock within the pen. Because of the restricted amount of space in a pen, it is very common for the livestock accidentally to foul the foodstuff, leading to wastage and possibly also to disease. It is a principal aim of this invention to overcome this problem.

According to this invention, there is provided a livestock pen including a trough built into or forming a wall of the pen and having an access opening through which livestock may feed, which pen is provided with a barrier extending across the opening to the trough so as noramllyto obstruct access thereto, the barrier being slidably mounted for movement generally upwardly whereby an animal may feed from the trough by reaching beneath and then lifting the barrier.

It will be appreciated that by providing a slidable barrier in a livestock pen according to this invention, an animal may feed from the trough in the pen by pushing its head beneath the barrier, causing the barrier to lift upwardly and thereby allowing the animal to move sufficiently close to the trough to feed therefrom. However, should the animal turn round to present its hind quarters towards the trough, the barrier will not lift upwardly should the animal back on to the barrier, so that the barrier prevents the animals hind quarters reaching the trough access opening. Should then the animal urinate or defecate, foodstuff within the trough will not be fouled.

The barrier preferably normally extends parallel to the length of the trough in or forming a wall of the pen, and is slidably mounted at or adjacent its two ends. In order to reduce the likelihood of an animal becoming trapped beneath the barrier when reaching for foodstuff in the trough, it is greatly preferred for the slidable mounting provided at or adjacent one end of the barrier to be arranged so that the one end of the barrier moves away from the trough as the barrier moves upwardly. Conveniently the one end of the barrier is slidably mounted for movement along a line at approximately 300 to the vertical, extending upwardly and away from the trough.

However, other angles may be selected, and those lying within the range of from 20 to 490 to the vertical may be found to be suitable.

The other end of the barrier may also be slidably mounted for movement other than in the strictly vertical sense. Whilst such movement may be along a line parallel to the line of sliding movement of the one end of the barrier-and thus upwardly and away from the trough at an angle of typically 300 to the vertical-it has been found in practice that better results are obtained if the other end of the barrier is slidably mounted for movement upwardly but also towards the trough, again typically at an angle of 30 to the vertical. In this way, provided that the barrier when at its lowermost normal position is parallel to the length of the trough, the barrier will automatically assume a position at an angle to a long edge of the trough when the barrier is lifted, for instance by an animal reaching into the trough underneath the barrier.When the animal wishes to move away from the trough, the animal will tend naturally to move towards the end of the barrier which is furthest from the trough, and thus the likelihood of the animal becoming trapped beneath the barrier is very small.

Though the barrier could for instance be in the form of a gate, the barrier is preferably a single rigid metallic bar for instance of circular cross-section, the bar being slidably mounted at its ends and the bar being of a length not less than the length of the trough built into orforming a wall of the livestock pen. Conveniently, for a pen where the trough extends across and forms an end wall thereof, the bar is of the same width as the pen and is slidably mounted to the side walls to either side of the trough. In the case of a pen for pigs, it has been found that a bar of weight of about 1.5 kg is suitable, and this can be achieved with a hollow steel bar of 25 mm cross-sectional diameter and of 1.25 m length.

By way of example only, one specific embodiment of livestock pen according to this invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure lisa cut-away perspective view of an end of a livestock pen arranged in accordance with this invention; and Figure 2 is a perspective view of a mounting for a barrier of this invention.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown in part a livestock pen 10, including side walls 11 each defined by parallel top and bottom rails 12 and 13 between which extend bars 14. The end wall 15 of the pen is defined by a trough structure, including compartments 16 to which may be supplied foodstuff 17, the compartments being separated by dividers 18. Animals within the pen may gain access to the foodstuff through an opening 19. The trough arrangement includes openings (not shown) allowing the supply of fresh foodstuff to the compartments 16 and the removal of foodstuff therefrom, from outside the pen.

Mounted on the two side walls 11, so as to extend across the opening 19 to the trough, is a barrier 20, the barrier being slidably mounted at its two ends to two support arrangements 21 and 22. Each support arrangement includes a member 23 which has a hollow generally rectangular cross-sectional shape, but with a slot 24 extending lengthwise of the member and disposed centrally along one wide face of the member 23. The lower end of the member 23 is The drawings originally filed were informal and the print here reproduced is taken from a later filed formal copy.

closed by an end wall 25, and a mounting strip 26 is welded to the wide face of the member 22 opposed to the face having the slot 24. The strip 26 has two slots 27 formed in the end portions thereof, for receiving mounting bolts 28, and is welded to member 23 so as to lie at an acute angle to the length of the member 22. The actual angle between the strip 26 and member 23 is not critical, but typically is such that when the strip 26 is horizontal, the slot 24 extends at approximately 30 to the vertical.

Each end of the barrier 20 has a portion 29 of reduced diameter, there being a disc 30 welded to the free end of the reduced diameter portion. The portion 29 is of such a diameter that it may slide freely along the length of the slot 24, but movement of the barrier parallel to its axis is constrained by the disc 30 and the shoulder formed between portion 28 and the barrier proper 20. When installed, the end wall 25 prevents the barrier leaving the member 23 from the lower one end thereof, and a pin 31 may be passed through two holes 32 formed in the member 23, so as to restrain portion 29 of the barrier within the slot 24.The pin 31 is permanently secured to the member 23 by means of a chain 33 welded at its two ends respectively to the pin 31 and the member 23, and a locking clip 34 may be passed through a bore 35 adjacent the end of the pin 30 remote from the chain once the pin has been passed through the holes 32, so as to prevent the pin 31 accidentally leaving the holes 31.

The two channel members 23 are secured to the two side walls 11 of the livestock pen 10 by means of a clamping arrangement, including the two bolts 28 with associated nuts and a further strip 36, similar to strip 26. As can be seen from Figure 1, two parallel bars 14 of a side wall 11 are clamped between the strips 26 and 36, by means of the nuts and bolts 28.

The precise angle at which the slot 24 lies to the vertical can be adjusted, by slackening the nuts and bolts 28 and performing whatever adjustment is required. Also as can be seen from Figure 1, the arrangement is such that the left-hand end (in the Figure) of the barrier 20 is arranged to slide nearer the trough as the barrier rises, whereas the righthand end of the barrier 20 is arranged so that that end moves away from the trough as the barrier rises.

As will be appreciated from the foregoing description, when a pen is provided with a barrier 20 according to this invention, access to the opening 19 of the trough normally is restricted by the barrier. An animal may however gain access to foodstuff in the trough by lifting the barrier 20, by reaching under the barrier and moving forwardly towards the foodstuff. This causes the barrier to rise, one end of the barrier moving nearerthe trough and the other end moving away from it The animal, when wishing to move away from the trough, simply walks backwards away from the barrier 20-but this action is assisted by virtue of the fact that the barrier, when moved upwardly from its normal position, no longer lies parallel to the length of the opening 16.An animal is thus encouraged to move towards the end of the barrier which lies furthest from the opening 16, by virtue of the differential movement of the two ends of the barrier. Once the animal has moved away from the opening 16, the barrier returns under gravity to its normal position as shown in Figure 1, and then, should the animal turn round and back towards the opening 16, the barrier prevents the animal moving sufficiently closely to the trough, so as to prevent the fouling of any foodstuff therein.

In a practical embodiment of barrier of this inven tionfora pig pen, the weight of the barrier 20 is about 1.5 kg, and this conveniently can be made of a hollow round bar of steel of 25 mm diameter and 1.25 m length-this latter figure being a typical width of a pig pen. Moreover, the barrier is found particularly advantageous for a pig pen because a pig is somewhat wedge-shaped, and consequently to reach the food a pig simply walks towards the trough, the barrierthen riding up the pig's head and neck, on to the pig's back. On the other hand, when the pig turns round, the pig's hind quarters will press on, ratherthan under, the barrier, and thus the pig cannot move rearwards sufficiently far to foul foods tuff in the trough.

Claims

1. A livestock pen including a trough built into or forming a wall of the pen and having an access opening through which livestock may feed, which pen is provided with a barrier extending across the opening to the trough so as normally to obstruct access thereto, the barrier being slidably mounted for movement generally upwardly whereby an animal may feed from the trough by reaching beneath and then lifting the barrier.

2. A livestock pen as claimed in claim 1,wherein the barrier normally extends parallel to the length of the trough in or forming a wall of the pen, the barrier being slidably mounted at or adjacent its two ends.

3. A livestock pen as claimed in claim 2, wherein the two ends of the barrier are slidably mounted for movement along respective lines lying within the range of from 20 to 40 to the vertical.

4. A livestock pen as claimed in claim 2 or claim 3, wherein the slidable mounting provided at or adj acetone end of the barrier is arranged so that the one end of the barrier moves away from the trough as the barrier moves upwardly.

5. A livestock pen as claimed in claim 4, wherein the one end of the barrier is slidably mounted for movement along a line at substantially 30" to the vertical, extending upwardly and away from the trough.

6. A livestock pen as claimed in any of claims 2 to 5, wherein the slidable mounting provided at or adjacent the other end of the barrier is arranged so that the other end of the barrier moves towards the trough as the barrier moves upwardly.

7. A livestock pen as claimed in claim 6, wherein the other end of the barrier is slidably mounted for movement along a line at substantially 30"to the vertical, extending upwardly and towards the trough.

8. A livestock pen as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the trough extends across and forms an end wall of the pen, and the barrier is of the same width as the pen and is slidably mounted to the side walls to either side of the trough.

9. A livestock pen as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein the barrier is a single rigid metallic bar slidably mounted at its ends, and the bar is of a length not less than the length of the trough built into or forming a wall of the livestock pen.

10. A livestock pen as claimed in claim 9, wherein the barrier has a weight of about 1.5 kg and has a circular cross-section of substantially 25 mm.

11. A livestock pen as claimed in claim 1 and substantially as hereinbefore described, with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.