JPH0614672A - System for automatic feeding of roughage - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To save the labor for the control of cattle breeding, improve the feed efficiency and enable the breeding of multiple heads of cattle by automating the feeding of roughage. CONSTITUTION:A hopper 10 of an automatic feeding machine 1 and a storage tank 2 for storing roughage to be supplied to the automatic feeding machine 1 have cylindrical forms expanding downward to prevent the formation of a bridge of the roughage and the blocking of the discharging ports of the hopper 10 and the storage tank 2. This process enables the treatment of roughage with the automatic feeding machine 1 and the automatic replenishment of the roughage to the automatic feeding machine 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic feeding system for roughage or a compounded feed mainly consisting of roughage (hereinafter, simply referred to as "roughage"). The present invention relates to an automatic feeding system for roughages for automatic feeding to animals.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, ruminants such as cows and goats, for example, in addition to so-called concentrated feeds mainly composed of grains such as corn or compounded feeds mainly composed thereof, hay, corn or sorghum It is physiologically preferable to feed together with so-called roughage such as stems, leaves, ears and silage thereof.

However, it has been generally practiced in the past to automatically feed a concentrated feed by a fixed amount by an automatic feeder, but normally, the hopper b of this automatic feeder a is used.
As shown in FIG. 3, the cross-sectional area is reduced toward the lower discharge port c, and since the bulk specific gravity of the roughage is small, this roughage is automatically fed using the automatic feeding machine a. In such a case, the roughage in the hopper b forms a so-called bridge and blocks the outlet c,
For this reason, it was very difficult to automatically feed roughage by the automatic feeder a. For this reason, in the past, it was the current situation that the feeding of roughage had to be done manually.

[0004]

As described above, in the past, humans had to rely on humans to feed roughages, so it was necessary to secure an operator for the feeding, and the efficiency was poor because of manual labor. Furthermore, it is preferable to feed the roughage by measuring a fixed amount, but this is troublesome because it is done manually, and therefore accurate quantitative feeding is difficult,
I couldn't correctly grasp the feeding amount.

The present invention has been made in view of these conventional problems. By solving the problem that the roughage forms a bridge in the hopper, the automatic feeding of the roughage is enabled and the feeding from the storage tank to the feeding tank is completed. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic feed system for roughage that can solve the conventional problems all at once by unmanning a series of operations.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems As a means therefor, the present invention provides an automatic feeding system for roughages, comprising: a storage tank having a downwardly expanding cylindrical shape; and a certain amount of roughages discharged from the storage tank. A discharging device, a conveying device for conveying the roughage discharged by the discharging device, a hopper forming a downwardly expanding cylindrical body, a weight sensor for detecting the weight of the roughage in the hopper, and the inside of the hopper An automatic feeding machine having a feeding device for feeding the roughage in fixed amounts, and the automatic feeding to feed a constant amount of the roughage into the feeding tank based on the change in the weight of the roughage in the hopper detected by the weight sensor. The operation of the feeder is controlled, and the discharge device and the discharge device are provided to replenish the forage in the storage tank when the residual amount of the forage in the hopper becomes below a certain level. Characterized by being configured to include a control device for controlling the operation of the fine the conveying device.

[0007]

According to the above construction, since the storage tank and the hopper in the automatic feeding machine are formed in the downwardly expanding cylindrical body, a so-called bridge is formed even when the roughage having a small bulk specific gravity is taken. However, a certain amount is reliably discharged or fed by the discharging device or the supplying device, respectively.

By constructing an automatic feeding system using this storage tank and hopper, it is not necessary for an operator to manually feed the roughage as in the conventional case, and an automatic feeding machine ensures a certain amount of roughage. When the food is fed and the amount of forage remaining in the hopper is low, an appropriate amount of forage is automatically replenished from the storage tank.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In the following description, "feed" means "rough feed, etc." Now, this automatic feeding system is mainly composed of an automatic feeding machine 1, a storage tank 2, a discharging device 3, a transporting conveyor 4 as a transporting device, and a control device 5 for controlling these, as schematically shown in FIG. Is configured as.

The automatic feeding machine 1 moves along a rail 21 laid near the ceiling of a cowshed 20 and feeds the tanks 22 to 22.
In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, it is provided with a hopper 10 and a supply device 11 capable of supplying a fixed amount of the feed contained in the hopper 10.

As shown in the figure, the hopper 10 is in the form of a downwardly expanding cylinder whose cross-sectional area gradually increases from the upper collecting port 10a to the lower discharging port 10b. Are formed so as not to form a bridge. This hopper 10 has a weight sensor 12
Drive unit 1 capable of self-propelled on the rail 21 via
3, the weight sensors 12 to 12 are relay-connected to the control device 5 so that the weight change of the feed contained in the hopper 10 can be detected. The feed to be fed is managed based on this change in weight.

Further, level meters 6 and 7 are attached near the upper intake port and the lower exhaust port of the hopper 10, and both level meters 6 and 7 are relay-connected to the controller 5. . Both the level meters 6 and 7 detect when the amount of feed in the hopper 10 is full and when it is below a certain amount, and based on this, the transport device 3 or the discharging device 4 described later is activated. Thus, an appropriate amount of feed is replenished from the storage tank 2 into the hopper 10.

The drive unit 13 is constructed so that a drive motor (not shown) is operated by the control device 5 to move the hopper 10 and the supply device 11 by a predetermined distance.
It does not require any particular change as compared with the conventional one.

A supply device 11 is attached to the discharge port 10b of the hopper 10 thus constructed. As the supply device 11, in the present example, a plurality of screws 11b to 11 arranged on the same surface in parallel with each other at a constant interval.
The screw feeder 11 provided with b is illustrated, and this screw feeder 11 is the discharge port 10 of the hopper 10.
It is attached so as to receive b from below. Then, when the drive motor 11a is started, the plurality of screws 11b to 11b are rotated in the same direction, whereby the feed discharged from the discharge port 10b is moved horizontally to discharge the feed from the shooter 11c. ing.
The drive motor 11a is controlled to be started and stopped by the control device 5, whereby a certain amount of feed is fed from the shooter 11c into the feeding tubs 22 to 22.

The automatic feeder 1 thus constructed is automatically operated when the feeding time set in advance by the timer built in the control device 5 is reached, and moves above the feeding tubs 22 to 22 at a constant rate. A certain amount of feed is put into each feed tank 22 to feed livestock.

Next, the storage tank 2 is a large tank capable of storing a large amount of feed, and like the hopper 10 in the above-mentioned automatic feeder 1, the storage tank 2 has a cylindrical shape that opens downward. The feed is formed into a shape that does not form a bridge. Level gauges 8 and 9 are installed in the vicinity of the upper intake port and the lower discharge port of the storage tank 2, and both level meters 8 and 9 are relay-connected to the control device 5 to connect the storage tank 2 to the storage tank 2. An alarm is issued to notify the operator when the amount of storage inside is full and when it is below a certain amount.

A discharge device 4 is mounted below the storage tank 2. The discharging device 4 has the same structure as the supplying device 11 in the automatic feeding machine 1, and a larger screw feeder corresponding to the size of the storage tank 2 is attached, whereby the storage tank 2 stores It is possible to reliably discharge the produced feed from the discharge port 4a in a fixed amount.

The feed discharged from the discharge port 4a is replenished in the hopper 10 of the automatic feeding machine 1 by the conveying device 3. In this example, a normal screw conveyor is used as the carrying device 3, and the control device 5 starts and stops the screw conveyor. The leading end of the conveying device 3 is located above the standby position (the position shown in the figure) of the automatic feeding machine 1 and is activated only when the automatic feeding machine 1 is in the standby position. In addition, the transport device 3 is not limited to the exemplified screw conveyor,
For example, it may be a chain conveyor or a belt conveyor.

The control device 5 is mainly composed of a programmable controller (sequencer), and includes a drive motor of the automatic feeding machine 1, a drive motor 11a of a screw feeder as the supply device 11, weight sensors 12 to 12, and a transfer device. A drive motor, a drive motor of a screw feeder as a discharging device, and level meters 6 to 9 are relay-connected, so that these various devices are sequentially controlled.

Next, the operation of this automatic feeding system will be described. First, a large amount of roughage is stored in the storage tank 2. The amount of the feed in the storage tank 2 is detected by the level meters 8 and 9, and the operator can confirm that the storage tank 2 is full by the alarm from the level meter 8 near the expropriation port and the level near the discharge port. It can be known from the total 9 that the feed in the storage tank 2 is running low.

Next, the discharging device 4 and the conveying device 3 are operated to replenish the hopper 10 of the automatic feeder 1 with a predetermined amount of feed. At this time, the automatic feeding machine 1 is stopped at the illustrated standby position. When an alarm is generated by the level meter 6 and the hopper 10 becomes full, the discharging device 4 and the conveying device 3 are automatically stopped, and the supplement of the feed is stopped.

In this way, the automatic feeding machine 1 is made to stand by with a certain amount of feed being replenished in the hopper 10. Then, at the time of feeding, the automatic feeding machine 1 is automatically operated by the timer built in the control device 5 to feed the livestock unmanned. That is, the hopper 10 moves above the feeding tanks 22 to 22, and the screw feeder 11 as a supply device operates to move the feeding tanks 22 to 22.
A certain amount of feed is thrown in. Since the amount of feed to be fed to each feed tank 22 is determined based on the change in weight of the feed in the hopper 10 detected by the weight sensors 12 to 12, a certain amount of feed is ensured in each feed tank 22. It is thrown in.

When the feeding by the automatic feeder 1 is repeated, the amount of feed in the hopper 10 decreases, and finally an alarm is issued by the level meter 7 to inform the operator of the shortage of the remaining amount and the automatic feeder 1 Stop feeding and return to the waiting position. Then, similarly to the above, a predetermined amount of feed is replenished from the storage tank 2 into the hopper 10. When the hopper 10 is full, the automatic feeding machine 1 moves to the position where it was interrupted, and the feeding is restarted from this position. When a predetermined amount of feed has been fed into all the feeding tanks 22 to 22, the automatic feeding machine 1 returns to the standby position and is stopped until the next feeding time.

It should be noted that, as described above, when the feed in the hopper 10 becomes low during the automatic operation, the feed is automatically replenished.
Is switched to a manual operation and the discharging device 4 and the transporting device 3 are operated to replenish the hopper 10 with feed.

This example is constructed as described above,
This has the following effects. That is, since the hopper 10 in the automatic feeding machine 1 is formed in a downward widening shape, the roughage does not form a bridge in the hopper 10 to block the outlet 10b,
The screw feeder 11 ensures that a certain amount of feed is fed. From this, it is possible to perform automatic feeding using the automatic feeding device 1 even for roughage having a small bulk specific gravity, and it is possible to eliminate the work that conventionally relies on manpower.

Further, when the feeding amount is regulated by the operating time of the screw feeder 11, the variation of the feeding amount has been a problem such that the hopper is clogged and the hopper moves without feeding at all. However, in this example, the amount of feed fed to each feed tank 22 is
Since it is performed based on the weight change by the weight sensors 12 to 12, also in this respect, it is possible to reliably perform feeding with a constant weight.

Further, in this embodiment, the storage tank 2 is also formed in a downwardly expanded shape so that the blockage thereof is surely prevented, so that the discharge device 4 ensures the discharge of a certain amount of the feed, and the automatic feeder 1 The feed of the hopper 10 is replenished unattended.

As described above, according to the automatic feeding system of this embodiment, since the feeding of the roughage by the automatic feeder 1 and the supplementation of the roughage to the automatic feeder 1 are performed unattended, the conventional manual work is eliminated. Labor saving of cattle raising management can be achieved, feed efficiency can be improved, and breeding of multiple heads can be facilitated.

[0029]

Industrial Applicability According to the present invention, since the hopper and the storage tank in the automatic feeding machine are formed so as to be opened downward so that the roughage does not form a bridge in the hopper or the storage tank, the roughage by the automatic feeding machine is It is possible to automatically perform the automatic feeding and the supplementation of the roughage to the automatic feeding machine. From this, it is possible to eliminate the work that conventionally relied on human labor, save labor in cattle feed management or improve feed efficiency, and further facilitate multi-breeding. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram of an entire system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the automatic feeding machine.

FIG. 3 is a side view of an automatic feeder having a conventional hopper.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Automatic feeding machine 2 ... Storage tank 3 ... Conveying device 4 ... Ejection device 5 ... Control device 6-9 ... Level meter 10 ... Hopper, 10a ... Collection port, 10b ... Discharge port 11 ... Screw feeder (supply device) 12 ... Weight sensor 13 ... Driving unit 20 ... Stall, 21 ... Rail, 22 ... Feeding tank

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A storage tank having a downwardly expanded cylindrical body,
A discharging device for discharging a certain amount of roughage from the storage tank, a transporting device for transporting the roughage discharged by the discharging device, a hopper forming a downwardly expanding cylindrical body, and a roughage in the hopper. Based on the change in weight of the forage in the hopper detected by the weight sensor, and an automatic feeding machine having a weight sensor for detecting the weight of the forage and a feeding device for feeding the forage in the hopper in constant amounts The operation of the automatic feeder is controlled so as to feed a certain amount of the forage into the feeding tank, and when the residual amount of the forage in the hopper becomes below a certain level, the forage in the storage tank is replenished in the hopper. An automatic feeding system for roughage, comprising: a control device for controlling the operation of the discharging device and the conveying device.