GB2118418A - Animal feeder for ruminant animals - Google Patents

Abstract

An animal feeder for ruminant animals, which animal feeder comprises a main frame (1) which defines an upper compartment (50) accessible to cattle for feeding purposes and a lower compartment (16) which is positioned beneath the upper compartment so as to form an extension of the upper compartment and which is accessible for feeding purposes to sheep through spaces in a wall of the lower compartment, the spaces in the wall of the lower compartment being too small for cattle satisfactorily to feed therethrough. A single bale of hay is provided for both compartments. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Animal feeder for ruminant animals This invention relates animal feeders and more especially it relates to using big bale hay or silage animal feeders for ruminant animals such as cows and sheep for example.

When conditions do not permit domestic ruminants to graze naturally, it is essential for animal feed such as hay or silage to be provided. Conventionally, small manageable feed bales are placed in a feed trough or merely left on the ground where the animals are confined. Both of these practices are somewhat less than ideal. In the first case, in order for the bales to be easily managed by hand, they must be relatively small and are therefore soon torn apart and wastefully distributed by the animals.

Moreover known feed troughs suitable for cattle are unsuitable for small animals, such as sheep, whilst sheep feeders are unsuitable for cattle. In the second case, it is quite obviously undesirable for feed bales to be left on the ground where they will rapidly deteriorate and where they will soon be torn apart only to be wastefully distributed and trampled.

It is an aim of the present invention to provide an animal feeder for ruminant animals, which feeder can be used by both large and small ruminant animals such as cattle and sheep, and which feeder can receive large feed bales.

Accordingly, this invention provides an animal feeder for ruminant animals, which animal feeder comprises a main frame which defines an upper compartment accessible to cattle for feeding purposes and a lower compartment which is positioned beneath the upper compartment so as to form an extension of the upper compartment and which is accessible for feeding purposes to sheep through spaces in a wall of the lower compartment, the spaces in the wall of the lower compartment being too small for cattle satisfactorily to feed therethrough.

The upper compartment may comprise bars which form a part of the frame, the upper compartment being accessible to cattle for feeding purposes via spaces between the bars.

By providing an animal feeder which comprises two compartments in mutual communication, one above the other, and enclosed by a common frame, the use of a single large feed bale of, for example hay or silage, is facilitated. The single large feed bale can then rest in the lower compartment and extend into the top compartment. Furthermore, it can be advantageously arranged that the single large feed bale (which may weigh from 8-10 hundredweight for example) can be transported together with the animal feeder by means of a tractor.

The lower compartment may comprise bars which form a part of the frame, the bars being spaced apart to define the spaces through which the sheep feed.

In addition to, or as an alternative to, the bars for the lower compartment, the lower compartment may comprise a mesh member. The mesh member may be a wire mesh member.

The lower compartment may be formed to be square, rectangular, U-shaped or V-shaped in cross section.

The upper compartment may be formed to be square or rectangular in cross section and the lower compartment may be arranged to extend downwardly from the floor of the upper compartment.

The upper compartment may comprise side walls defined by vertical bars.

One side wall may be hinged or provided with a drop side whereby access to the compartments is facilitated.

The main frame may be constructed of steel tube and may be adapted to receive a lifting bracket, for example a forked lifting bracket. The animal feeder can then easily be transported with a single large feed bale by tractor as mentioned above.

The forked lifting bracket may be provided together with the feeder and may comprise a pair of horizontal forks disposed in spaced apart relationship and supported by a framework adapted to be attached to a tractor.

The forked lifting bracket may include between the forks a retaining member which in use is hooked under a horizontal member forming a part of the main frame of the animal feeder so as to steady the animal feeder during transportation and prevent the animal feeder from tilting and falling off of the forks.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described solely by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure lisa side view of an animal feeder; Figure 2 is a plan view of the feeder shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a front end view of the feeder shown in Figure 4 is a rear end view of the feeder shown in Figure 1 and shows a hinged tail gate; Figure 5 shows a first modified lower compartment for the feeder shown in Figure 1; Figure 6shows a second modified lower compart mentforthefeedershown in Figure 1; Figure 7 is a front view of a lifting bracket for attachment to a tractor for lifting animal feeders as shown in Figures 1 to 6; Figure 8 is a side view of the bracket shown in Figure 7; and Figure 9 is a plan view of the bracket shown in Figure 7.

Referring now to Figures 1 to 4, an animal feeder comprises a main frame 1 fabricated of steel tubing and including vertical bars 2 which are evenly spaced and secured to horizontal bars 3 to define one side of an upper compartment 50. The upper compartment 50 comprises another similar side which is opposite to the side shown in Figure 1 and a front end comprising vertical bars 4 and horizontal bars 5 as shown in Figure 3. The rear end of the upper compartment 50 is shown in Figure 4 and comprises vertical bars 6 to which are secured a tail gate comprising vertical bars 7 and horizontal bars 8 and 9. The horizontal bar 8 is provided with end pieces 10 which are each apertured to receive a stub member 11 which projects outwardly from the vertical bars 6.Once the end pieces 10 are positioned overthe stub members 11, the end pieces 10 can be retained in position by locking pins 12 passing through apertures in the stub members 11. Thus the tail gate is locked to the vertical bars 6. The horizontal bar 9 of the tail gate is hinged by means of hinges 13 and 14 to a horizontal bar 15 which forms a part of the main frame 1.

Beneath the upper compartment 50 there is pro vided a lower compartment 16, which is generally rectangular in cross section as shown in Figures 1 to 4 and which is enclosed by a wire mesh grill 17. The wire mesh grill 17 is supported at its rear end by tubular members 18 (see Figure 4) and at its front end by similar tubular members 19 (see Figure 3). At the base of the lower compartment 16 and linking the tubular members 18 and 19 is a horizontal supporting tube 20. The horizontal tube 20 is secured at its rear end 21 to an orthogonally disposed frame member 22 which is welded at a point 23 to an upright frame member 24. In a similar manner, the horizontal tube 20 is welded at its front end 25 to a vertical frame member 26 as shown most clearly in Figure 1. The sides of the lower compartment 16 are defined by vertically extending bars 27.

The lower compartment 16 may alternatively be formed as shown in Figure 5 but with more bars 27A than there are bars 27. There will thus be more bars 27A than there are bars 2. In other words, the spacing between the bars 27A will be less than the bars 2. Thus the spacing between the bars 27A is only suitable for letting sheep gain access to the lower compartment 16 and the spacing is too small for cattle. By way of example it is mentioned that the bars 27A may be spaced apart such that the distance between their centres is 61/4 inches. This type of lower compartment 16 is suitable for high density big feed bales which contain approximately 20% more silage than lower density big bales but which are nevertheless the same size.

For use with the lower density big bales, a lower compartment 16 as shown in Figure 1-4 may be used. Alternatively, a metal mesh trough may be dropped into the lower compartment 16 of Figure 5 to provide, as shown in Figure 6, more restricted openings through which the sheep can gain access to the less densely packed silage.

The feeder is arranged to be opened from the rear end shown in Figure 4 and lifted from the front end shown in Figure 3. Accordingly, the front end shown in Figure 3 is provided with a horizontal frame member 28 which is secured by means of two curved strengthening members 30 and 31 to the lower of the horizontal members 5. In order to provide additional strength at the lifting end, shown in Figure 3, the vertical frame member 26 is secured at its upper end to the uppermost of the horizontal members 5, as shown in Figure 3, and is bent at its lowermost end to form a curved part 33 as shown in Figure 1 and returned to a point 34 at which it is welded to the horizontal member 20.In order to provide further structural strength at the lifting end, a a tubular frame member 35 is provided which, as shown in Figure 1, is welded at a point 36 to the main frame and at a point 37 to the lower part of the frame member 26 between its curved part 33 and the point 34.

In use of the feeders shown in Figure 1 to 6, a large feed bale is placed in the lower compartment 16 so as to extend into the upper compartment 50 defined between the bars 2,4 and 7. Thus the feed bale is accessible to cattle between the bars 2, the bars 4 and the bars 7, and the feed bale is also accessible to smaller animals such as sheep between the spaces, for example in the grill 17, of the lower compartment 16.

In order to facilitate lifting of the feeder, together with a bale when placed in position in the lower compartment 16, a forked lifting bracket is provided as shown in Figures 7,8 and 9. The forked lifting bracket is provided with two forks 38 and 39. The forks 38, 39 are secured to a bracket 40 which is of an inverted T-shape and lower parts of which are connected to struts 41 and 42. The struts 41,42 are provided with apertures 43,44 respectively. The apertures 43,44 are for receiving locking pin arrangements for enabling a connection to be made to the lifting gear (not shown) of a tractor. The upper part of the inverted T-shape member 40 is fitted with a pair of shackle forks 45,46, which are provided with aligned holes 47 and 48 respectively to receive a locking pin for retaining the coupling bar of a tractor.

In use of the lifting bracket, the forks 38 and 39 are placed underthe horizontal frame member 28, and in order to prevent the feeder from tilting and falling from the forks 38,39 during a lifting movement, a forked retaining member 49 is provided, see Figure 7 to 9, which hooks beneath the lower of the horizontal bars 5 shown in Figure 3.

It will be appreciated that by providing animal feeders as just before described, large feed bales of different densities may be used. The feed bales may be loaded into the feeder via the tail gate shown in Figure 4 and transported in the feeder by means of a tractor utilising a bracket as shown in Figures 7 to 9.

Moreover once the feeder is positioned in a field or in some other live stock enclosure, a large feed bale in the feeder is accessible via the upper compartment 50 to cattle and via the lower compartment 16 to smaller animals such as sheep. In order to minimise loss of feed from the upper compartment 50 through spaces in the frame, timber boards 51 as shown in Figure 2 may be fitted to form an edge floor along the sides of the upper compartment 50.

It is to be appreciated that the embodiments of the invention described above with reference to the drawings have been given by way of example only and that modifications may be effected. Thus, for example, the lower compartment 16 can be Vshaped and horizontal bars like the bars 27 can be employed.

Claims (14)

1. An animal feeder for ruminant animals, which animal feeder comprises a main frame which defines an upper compartment accessible to cattle for feeding purposes and a lower compartment which is positioned beneath the upper compartment so as to form an extension of the upper compartment and which is accessible for feeding purposes to sheep through spaces in a wall of the lower compartment, the spaces in the wall of the lower compartment being too small for cattle satisfactorily to feed therethrough.

2. An animal feeder according to claim 1 in which the upper compartment comprises bars which form a part of the frame, the upper compartment being accessible to cattle for feeding purposes via spaces between the bars.

3. An animal feeder according to claim 1 or claim 2 in which the lower compartment comprises bars which form a part of the frame, the bars being spaced apart to define the spaces through which the sheep feed.

4. An animal feeder according to any one of the preceding claims in which the lower compartment comprises a mesh member.

5. An animal feeder according to claim 4 in which the mesh member is a wire mesh member.

6. An animal feeder according to any one of the preceding claims in which the lower compartment is formed to be square, rectangular, U-shaped or V-shaped in cross section.

7. An animal feeder according to any one of the preceding claims in which the upper compartment is formed to be square or rectangular in cross section.

8. An animal feeder according to any one of the preceding claims in which the upper compartment comprises side walls defined by vertical bars.

9. An animal feeder according to any one of the preceding claims in which one side wall of the upper compartment is arranged to be hinged or provided with a drop side whereby access to the upper and lower compartments is facilitated.

10. An animal feeder according to any one of the preceding claims in which the main frame is adapted to receive a lifting bracket.

11. An animal feeder according to claim 10 in which the lifting bracket is a forked lifting bracket.

12. An animal feeder according to claim 11 in which the forked lifting bracket comprises a pair of horizontal forks disposed in spaced apart relationship and supported by a framework adapted to be attached to a tractor.

13. An animal feeder according to claim 11 or claim 12 in which the forked lifting bracket includes between the forks a retaining member which in use is hooked under a horizontal member forming a part of the main frame of the animal feeder so as to steady the animal feeder during transportation and prevent the animal feeder from tilting and falling off of the forks.

14. An animal feeder substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.