RU2098950C1 - Calf group keeping stall - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: agriculture. SUBSTANCE: group stall has feed and manure zone for free movement of calves and boxes for calf watering and rest. Boxes are provided with doors remotely controlled from outside. Boxes are defined by front wall of stall and inner walls to which carrier is mounted. Doors are secured to carriers in box passage way. Carrier and door rotate about vertical axes. One end of door is pivotally connected with tie-rod reciprocating along wall and its other end is free. EFFECT: increased efficiency and improved calf keeping conditions. 2 dwg

Description

 The invention relates to agriculture, in particular to devices for keeping pets, namely, cages (walls) for keeping young cattle.

 Narrow-sized cages of various types are widely used in industrial animal husbandry [1] These include a narrow-sized cage with dimensions 110x45x90 cm for keeping calves from birth to 10 days of age; Evers cage with dimensions 120x100x120 cm and walls OST-50 and OST-F-32 with dimensions 120x90x120 cm for keeping calves from birth to 20-30 days of age.

 A common drawback of these cells is that the calves at an early age are deprived of the opportunity to communicate with each other. This negatively affects the formation of herd behavior reactions. Under constrained conditions, the correct formation of physique and the development of the internal organs of calves, as well as the digestive tract, also suffer. And the subsequent transfer of calves from individual cells to group cells and the calf’s room exposes them to the negative effects of two stress factors at once: stress when moving to a new room and stress when combining calves into a group where all “strangers” are found and ranking relations are clarified.

 Calves in individual cages are deprived of the opportunity for "children's games", which is the reason for the big shortcomings in the formation of conditioned and manifestation of unconditioned reflexes, in the development of resistance to extreme stimuli, useful forms of behavior, and the ability to motor activity.

 The game is not some special form of behavior, but the stage of development of behavior that precedes the adult state of the animal. It is a form of training, the basis of the nervous and muscle development of the body, the practice of performing behavioral acts and a source of information about the environment.

 Known group cage for calves [2] containing adjustable width stalls (boxes), made of sequentially interconnected short and long links, adjacent to them feed platform (area) for the free movement of calves.

 The disadvantage of this cell, adopted by us for the prototype, is that its boxes (stalls) are intended only for the rest of calves without fixing them in them. This is acceptable for older calves (more than 30 days). Younger calves must be fixed in boxing for the time of drinking and rest. In the colostrum period, calves are kept in the boxes around the clock, which ensures that colostrum is fed only to its mother. From 4-5 days of age, calves are fed with mixed milk and then fixation in the box performs the functions of dosed milk consumption (normal), eliminates the crowding out of weak calves with strong ones, and inhibits the sucking reflex.

 The cage described above does not have reliable and easy-to-maintain devices for fixing calves in boxes.

 The purpose of the invention is to improve the conditions of calves while improving serviceability.

 This goal is achieved by the fact that the machine for group maintenance of calves has a feed zone for the free movement of calves and boxes for feeding and resting calves with doors that are controlled outside the machine. The boxes are equipped with the front wall of the machine and internal partitions, on which a leash is installed, bearing a door in the passage of the box. The leash and door rotate around the vertical axes. One end of the door is pivotally connected to a rod moving back and forth along the partition, and the other end is free.

 In FIG. 1 shows a machine, top view; in FIG. 2 door mechanism, top view.

 The machine for group keeping of calves consists of a front 1 (Fig. 1), two side 2 and rear 3 walls, a lattice floor 4, internal partitions 5, which together form a feed platform (zone) 6 and individual boxes 7. Walls, partitions, and a lattice floor rigidly mounted on a solid frame. A wicket 8, a feeder 9 and a drinking bowl are installed on the rear wall 3. Each box has a door 11 (Figs. 1 and 2) installed in the passage of the box 7 on a rigid leash 12 pivotally mounted on the inner partition 5. The leash 12 and the door 11 have vertical axis of rotation 13 and 14. One end of the door 11 is pivotally connected to a rod 15, which has a handle 16 outside the machine and can move in guides 17 reciprocally along the internal partition 5. The other end of the door 11 is free.

 In the extreme positions, the rod 15 is fixed with a locking device (not shown in the drawing), which ensures that the door 11 is locked in two positions: the box is closed when the door is installed across the passage into the box, and the box is open when the door is installed along the partition 5, without obstructing the movement of calves in boxing.

 The front wall 1 of the machine in the area of the boxes has brackets for installing buckets or a nipple for feeding calves with milk feed.

 The machine frame is equipped with racks that provide elevation of the grating floor above the floor of the room.

 The machine is operated as follows. Through the gate 8, newborn calves are placed in individual boxes 7 of the machine and the doors 11 are closed. Here they are kept for 10-12 days on a straw bed, milked through milk through the windows in the front wall 1. As the calves grow older, the doors open and release them on a certain time in the feed zone 6, where they get the opportunity to communicate with each other, join groups, identify rank relations. Here they are gradually accustomed to eating roughage (hay).

 While drinking milk, calves rush into the boxes and so that they do not interfere with each other, the calves in the boxes are closed with doors. They are kept closed and calves are resting, after which the doors are opened.

 The control of the doors 11 is carried out outside the machine, from the front wall 1, which provides ease of maintenance of the machine. When the handle 16 moves the rod 15 inside the machine, the door 11 closes, and outside the machine - the door opens.

 The elevation of the slotted floor of the machine above the floor of the room provides pushing the manure with the feet of the calves through the cracks under the floor of the machine.

 The proposed machine significantly improves the conditions of calves, providing them with early and dosed communication with each other and at the same time a calm atmosphere in boxing during drinking and rest.

 The advantage of the machine is also that the early integration of calves into groups significantly reduces the depth of stress in calves after they are transferred to calves, where they get acquainted with the new premises, other groups of calves, and the identification of rank relationships.

 Sources of information.

 1. Zhuravlev B.I. and others. Complex mechanization of livestock farms in the Non-Chernozem zone, 1978, p. 125-128.

 2. A.S. USSR N 1323056, class A 01 K 1/02 prototype, 1987.

Claims (1)

 A machine for group keeping of calves, comprising a trellised floor, front, side and rear walls and internal partitions, which together form a feed zone and individual boxes, characterized in that a leash with a vertical axis of rotation is mounted on each internal partition, at the end of which a leash is fixed a door rotatable around a vertical axis, one end of which is pivotally connected to a rod fixed in guides on the internal partition with the possibility of reciprocating movement along her and the other end is free.

Images