GB2080088A - Livestock restraining cage - Google Patents

Abstract

A livestock restraining cage is provided comprising a first frame (2-5) forming an upstanding side wall alongside which an animal can be positioned, and a second frame (7-11) pivoted on the first frame such that it can be swung down and closed against said animal to trap the animal between the frames. Means such as a pawl and ratchet mechanism (13) are provided to prevent the second frame being swung away from the first frame past a position settable on the size of the animal, these means (13) being selectively releasable to set free an animal trapped between the frames. By mounting the cage on fixed supports for pivotal movement about an axis parallel to that of relative pivoting of the first and second frames, the restraining cage can be made into a rollover crate for inverting livestock. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Livestock restraining cage The present invention relates to a livestock restraining cage and, in particular, but not exclusively, to a sheep rollover crate incorporating such a cage.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a livestock restraining cage comprising a first frame arranged to form an upstanding side wall alongside which an animal to be restrained can be placed, a second frame pivoted on said first frame in such a position that it can be swung down and closed against said animal when the latter is positioned alongside said side wall whereby to trap the animal in said cage between the first and second frames, and means for preventing opening of said cage by preventing the second frame being swung away from said first frame past a position selectively settable on the size of said animal, said means being selectively releasable to enable opening of the cage.

Preferably, the first and second frames are spring biased into an open position. Furthermore, the said means preventing opening of the case advantageously comprises a pawl and ratchet mechanism enabling the second cage frame to be pushed down against the spring bias force to take up successive ones of a plurality of positions defined by the interengagement of the pawl and ratchet parts of said mechanism, release of said means being achieved by disengagement of said pawl and ratchet parts.

The frames can be provided with adjustable members the positions of which are present in dependence on the type and breed of animal to be restrained.

Preferably, the second frame has an inverted L-shape with the portion thereof forming the cage side wall opposite the first frame, being formed by a plurality of curved bars the lower ends of which are arranged to curve underneath a restrained animal.

By pivotally mounting the first frame between two fixed supports, the restraining cage can be made into a rollover crate. The axis of pivoting of the cage on said supports should lie parallel to the axis of pivoting of the second frame on the first frame and intermediate this latter axis and ground level; in this manner, once an animal has been restrained in the cage, the effort required to invert the animal is kept to a minimum since the animal will be initially rolled over sideways rather than being bodily lifted.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sheep rollover crate comprising a support structure, a first frame pivoted on said structure about a first horizontal axis and positionable to constitute an upstanding wall alongside which a sheep to be turned over can be positioned, and a second frame pivoted on said first frame about a second horizontal axis located adjacent the end of the first frame which is uppermost when the latter is positioned to form said upstanding wall, said second frame being closable against a sheep positioned alongside the first frame whereby to form a sheep restraining cage together with said first frame, the position of the second frame when closed being selectively settable in dependence on the size of the sheep, said cage being bodily rotatable about said first axis to roll over a sheep sideways.

Advantageously, the second frame is biased into an open position relative to the first frame and the closed position of the second frame is determined by a pawl and ratchet mechanism having cooperating parts mounted on respective ones of said frames.

Preferably the first and second frames carry support elements (for example, lattice elements) arranged to support a sheep along its back when inverted; the sheep thus lies on its back when inverted rather than being held by clamping forces.

The first cage frame can be rotatably mounted in one side wall of a narrow pen the opposite wall of which is coupled to the cage in such a manner that upon the cage being rotated to invert a sheep held therein, the said opposite wall moves away from the cage whereby to avoid contact with the sheep as it is rotated.

Various other novel aspects and features of the invention will become apparent from the following description, given by way of example, of a sheep restraining cage and of a sheep rollover crate, reference being made to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of the sheep restraining cage; Figure 2 is an end view of the restraining cage taken in the direction of arrow A of Fig.

1; Figure 3 is a part cut-away perspective view of the sheep rollover crate; Figures 4A to 4C are end elevations of the crate showing various stages during operation of the crate to invert a sheep; Figure 5 is a diagrammatic perspective view of a side wall fall-away linkage of the rollover crate; Figure 6 is an elevational view of a gate of the rollover crate; and Figure 7 is a top plan view of the Fig. 6 gate.

The sheep restraining cage shown in Fig. 1 comprises a fixed first frame 1 (including uprights 2 and 3, and cross-bars 4 and 5), and a second frame 6 (including main arms 7 and 8, cross-bar 9, and holding arms 10, 11) pivoted on the first frame 1 about a horizontal axis X-X.

The first frame 1 forms an upstanding wall alongside which a sheep to be restrained is positioned during use of the restraining cage.

The second frame 6 is arranged to be swung down around a sheep to trap it in position between the first and second frames 1 and 6, the holding arms 10 and 11 being shaped to curve under the sheep.

A tension spring 1 2 connected between the frames 1 and 6 serves to bias the second frame 6 into an open position relative to the first frame 1. A pawl and ratchet mechanism 1 3 (Fig. 2) is provided to enable the second frame 6 to be releasably set into any one of a plurality of predetermined positions and held there against the force of the spring 1 2. The mechanism 1 3 comprises a ratchet plate 1 4 rigidly connected to the upper end of the upright 2, a pawl 1 5 rigid with a pivot pin 1 6 rotatably mounted in the arm 7 of the second frame 6, an operating crank 1 7 rigid with the pivot pin 1 6 on the opposite side of the arm 7 to the pawl 15, and a spring 1 8 connected between the crank 17 and the arm 7. The spring 1 8 serves to urge the pawl 1 5 in an anticlockwise sense (as viewed in Fig. 2) into an orientation in which the operative end of the pawl 1 5 is arranged to engage the teeth of the ratchet plate 14. Upon the second frame 6 being swung down from an open position against the force of the spring 12, the pawl 1 5 will engage successive ones of the ratchet plate teeth until the desired position of the second frame 6 is reached. The engagement of the pawl 1 5 with the ratchet plate 14 will then maintain the frame 6 in this desired position and prevent it from swinging open under the effect of the spring 1 2.

By manually operating the crank 1 7 against the force of the spring 18, the pawl 1 5 can be so orientated that its operative end disengages the ratchet plate 14 whereby to permit the frame 6 to swing up under the effect of the spring 1 2.

The two frames 1 and 6 are provided with various adjustable members enabling the cage to be adapted to different sizes of sheep. Thus the first frame 1 carries a neck bar 1 9 laterally adjustable by the alignment of holes 20 provided in side arms 21 of the bar 19 9 and in hollow supports 22 of the frame 1, followed by the insertion of a locating pin 23 through the aligned holes 20. The first frame 1 also carries an adjustable back bar 24 which is pivoted about a vertical axis between the cross-bars 4 and 5; the position of the bar 24 is set by a pin and hole arrangement not shown. The cross-bar 9 of the second frame 6 can be adjusted in length by means of an extension bar 25 which is slidable in the bar 9 and can be fixed in position by a pin 26 engaging aligned holes in the bars 9 and 25.

To use the restraining cage, the various adjustable members of the frames 1 and 6 are first set as required and the second frame 6 opened to its raised position. A sheep to be restrained is then positioned alongside the first frame 1 and the second frame 6 is swung down around the sheep, trapping it in position. The pawl and ratchet mechanism 1 3 operates to prevent the frame 6 from springing open from its selected closed position.

Once trapped, the sheep can then be worked on (for example, docked) without difficulty.

To release the sheep, the crank 1 7 is oper- ated to disengage the pawl 1 5 from the ratchet plate 14 and allow the frame 6 to swing upwards into its open position.

The sheep rollover crate shown in Fig. 3 to 5 comprises a narrow pen 30 and a rotatably mounted sheep restraining cage 31 of the same basic form as that described above with reference to Figs. 1 and 2.

The pen 1 is formed by two opposite end gates 32, 33 and two side walls 33, 34. The end gated 32, 33 are openable and closable to control access to the pen from sheep races (not shown). Each of the gates 32, 33 is composed of a pin-jointed structure which - when raised by its handle 35 folds up to one side; the form of this pin-jointed structure will be described in more detail hereinafter.

The cage 31 is rotatably supported between two uprights 37 and 38 of the pen side wall 33. The cage 31, like the cage of Fig. 1, comprises two relatively rotatable frames, namely a first frame composed of bars 39, 40 joined by cross-bars 41, 42; and a second frame composed of bars 43, 44, 45, 46, cross-bar 47, and holding arms 48. The first frame is rotatably mounted about a horizontal axis by pivoting of the bars 39 and 40 on respective ones of the uprights 37 and 38; the points of pivoting of the bars 39 and 40 are made adjustable to enable the height of the cage 31 from the ground to be varied.

The second frame of the cage 31 is pivoted on the first frame by the pivoting of the bars 43, 44 on the upper ends of the bars 39, 40 (as viewed in Fig. 3 which shows the first frame of the cage 31 in a rest position prior to inversion of a sheep).

A tension spring 49 extends between a plate 50 attached to the bar 43 and a plate 51 carried by the bar 39. The spring 49 thus urges the second cage frame to rotate in an anti-clockwise sense about its axis of pivoting on the first cage frame; such an anti-clockwise rotation corresponds to opening of the cage 31 since the holding arms 48 (which are carried by the cross-bar 47 and constitute one side wall of the cage 31) are thereby moved away from the cross-bars 41, 42 which delimit the opposite side wall of the cage 31.

The first and second cage frames can be set into any one of a plurality of predetermined relative positions (and held there against the force of the spring 49) by virtue of a pawl and ratchet mechanism 52 constituted by a ratchet plate 53 rigid with the bar 39 and a spring-biased pawl 54 fixed to a pivot pin rotatably mounted in the bar 45. The operation of the mechanism 52 is similar to that of the mechanism 1 3 previously described, with release of the pawl 54 from the plate 53 being effected by operation of a crank 55.

The cage 6 further includes a lattice support structure 56, an adjustable body support 57 carried by the cross-bar 42, and a head rest 58 carried by the bar 44. The holding arms 48 are adjustable in position along the crossbar 47.

The pen side wall 34 is pivoted at its lower end so as to be capable of falling away outwards from the pen 30 upon the cage 31 being rotated to invert a sheep. To effect this falling away automatically a linkage is used to couple the side wall 34 to the cage 31. This linkage is shown in Fig. 5 which is a view towards the top corner of the pen 30 as shown in Fig. 3, the gate 33 being omitted for clarity.The linkage comprises a first link element 60 pivotally connected to the top of the side wall 34, a second link element 61 pivotally connected at its upper end to the end of the link element 60 remote from the side wall 34, a shaft 62 rotatably mounted between the lower end of the upright 38 and the corner upright 59, the end of the shaft 62 adjacent the upright 59 being rigidly connected to the lower end of the link element 61, and a lever 63 rigid with the end of the shaft 62 adjacent the upright 38. The upper end of the lever 63 is arranged to rest against the outwardly-directed face of the bar 40 of the first cage frame when the latter is in its rest position; in this position of the lever 63, the linkage is so configured that the side wall 34 is nearly vertical (solid lines in Fig. 5).

Upon rotation of the cage 31 in an anticlockwise sense, the lever 63 is free to turn clockwise which it does under the weight of the side wall 34; as the side wall 34 falls away outwardly the linkage is moved into the configuration shown dashed in Fig. 5. When the cage 31 is rotated back to its rest position, the bar 40 engages the lever 63 and moves it back to its starting position thereby returning the side wall 34 to its near vertical position.

In use, the rollover crate is initially set so that the first cage frame is in its rest position (see Fig. 3), and the second cage frame is fully open with the pawl 54 disengaged from the ratchet plate 53. The gates 32 and 33 are respectively open and closed.

A sheep is now allowed to enter the crate and the gate 32 is closed. The second cage frame is then brought down to restrain the sheep in the cage 31 (see Fig. 4A); during this operation the pawl 54 engages the ratchet plate 53 and enables the holding arms 48 to be set into any one of a plurality of possible restraining positions. Next the cage 31 is rotated in an anticlockwise sense and during the initial stage of this rotation the side wall 34 falls away to give plenty of room for passage of the sheep's legs (see Fig. 4B). The fully inverted sheep is shown in Fig. 4C and in this position the sheep rests with its back on the lattice support structure 56. With the cage 31 in the position shown in Fig. 4B, the sheep can be worked on from both sides (the falling away of the side wall 34 enables a worker to step into the pen 30).To return the sheep to normality, the cage is rotated clockwise until the sheep is the right way up; the crank 55 is then operated to release the pawl 54 and allow the holding arms 48 to move away from the sheep. The gate 33 is then opened to allow the sheep to exit.

The structure of the drop gate 33 will now be described with reference to Figs. 6 and 7, the drop gate 32 being of similar construction. The gate 32 comprises two arms 70 and 71 pivoted on the corner upright 59 with the axis of pivoting of the lower arm 71 being offset to the left of that of the upper arm 70 (as viewed in Fig. 6). The vertical spacing of the pivot axes of the arms 70 and 71 is less than the length of the arm 71 projecting to the right of its pivot axis as viewed in Fig. 6.

The ends of the arms 70 and 71 remote from their axes of pivoting are arranged to seat on stops 72 and 73 carried by the pen corner upright 74 adjacent the upright 59. Two plates 75 and 76 are pin jointed to the arms 70 and 71 to form a structure capable of lozengng between a lowered position (corresponding to closure of the gate 33) in which the arms 70, 71 seat on the stops 72 and 73, and a raised position (corresponding to the open position of the gate 33 and defined by a stop bracket 78 rigid with the upright 59) in which the arms 70, 71 and the plates 75 and 76 are closed together and extend substantially vertically upwards adjacent the upright 59.Since, for each plate 75, 76 the distance from the point of connection with the arm 70, to the pivot axis of this arm is less than the corresponding distance from the arm 71, it is necessary to make one of the connections of the plates 75, 76 and arms 70, 71 a sliding one; in Fig. 6, the connection of the plate 75 to the arm 71 is in the form of a pin 80 sliding in a slot 81.

When the pin-jointed structure of the gate 33 is in its raised position, the arm 70 is just past its vertical position on the side thereof which results in the gate remaining open under its own weight. In this position, the plates 75 and 76 overlap each other and this is made possible by arranging for the plate 75 to be spaced from the arms 70 and 71 by spacers 77 thereby allowing the plate 76 to move at least partially behind the plate 75 (see Fig. 7). It will be noted that by arranging for the pivot axis of the amr 71 to lie to the left of the pivot axis of the arm 70, the plates 75 and 76 only partially overlap in the raised position of the pin-jointed structure.

Remote operation of the gate 33 can be achieved by effecting the pivoting of one of the arms 70, 71 on the upright 59 using an elongate shaft (not shown) which is rotatably mounted in the upright 59 and is rigidly connected to the corresponding arm 70 or 71. The provision of a lever rigid with the shaft enables the latter to be turned whereby to cause the gate to lozenge from a closed to an open position and vice versa.

Various modifications to the described restraining cage and rollover crate are, of course, possible. Thus, for example, instead of the described bar lattice structure used for the first cage frame, a metal sheet structure can be used, it being appreciated that the latter is the structural equivalent of the formed

Claims (11)

1. A livestock restraining cage comprising a first frame arranged to form an upstanding side wall alongside which an animal to be restrained can be placed, a second frame pivoted on said first frame in such a position that it can be swung down and closed against said animal when the latter is positioned alongside said side wall whereby to trap the animal in said cage between the first and second frames, and means for preventing opening of said cage by preventing the second frame being swung away from said first frame past a position selectively settable on the size of said animal, said means being selectively releasable to enable opening of the cage.

2. A livestock restraining cage according to Claim 1, wherein the first and second frames are spring biased into an open position.

3. A livestock restraining cage according to Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the said means preventing opening of the cage comprises a pawl and ratchet mechanism arranged to enable the second cage frame to be pushed down to take up successive ones of a plurality of positions defined by the inter-engagement of the pawl and ratchet parts of said mechanism, release of said means being achieved by disengagement of said pawl and ratchet parts.

4. A livestock restraining cage according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein at least one of said frames is provided with one or more adjustable members the positions of which can be preset in dependence on the type and breed of animal to be restrained.

5. A livestock restraining cage according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the second frame has an inverted L-shape with the portion thereof forming the cage side wall opposite the first frame, being formed by a plurality of curved bars the lower ends of which are arranged to curve underneath a restrained animal.

6. A livestock rollover crate comprising a restraining cage according to any one of the preceding claims, and two fixed supports pivotally mounting the restraining cage by its first frame such that the axis of pivoting of the cage on said supports lies parallel to the axis of pivoting of the second frame on the first frame and intermediate this latter axis and ground level.

7. A sheep rollover crate comprising a support structure, a first frame pivoted on said structure about a first horizontal axis and positionable to constitute an upstanding wall alongside which a sheep to be turned over can be positioned, and a second frame pivoted on said first frame about a second horizontal axis located adjacent the end of the first frame which is uppermost when the latter is positioned to form said upstanding wall, said second frame being closable against a sheep positioned alongside the first frame whereby to form a sheep restraining cage together with said first frame, the position of the second frame when closed being selectively settable in dependence on the size of the sheep, said cage being bodily rotatable about said first axis to roll over a sheep sideways.

8. A sheep rollover crate according to Claim 7, wherein the second frame is biased into an open position relative to the first frame, and the closed position of the second frame is determined by a pawl and ratchet mechanism having cooperating parts mounted on respective ones of said frames.

9. A sheep rollover crate according to Claim 7 or Claim 8, wherein the first and second frames carry support elements arranged to support a sheep along its back when inverted whereby the sheep when inverted lies on its back rather than being held by clamping forces.

10. A sheep rollover crate according to any one of Claims 7 to 9, wherein the first cage frame is rotatably mounted in one side wall of a narrow pen the opposite wall of which is coupled to the cage in such a manner than upon the cage being rotated to invert a sheep held therein, the said opposite walls moves away from the cage whereby to avoid contact with the sheep as it is rotated.

11. A livestock restraining cage substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2 of the accompanying draw ings.

1 2. A sheep rollover crate substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figs.

3 to 5 of the accompanying drawings.