WO2017058008A1

WO2017058008A1 - Animal drinking station

Info

Publication number: WO2017058008A1
Application number: PCT/NL2016/050655
Authority: WO
Inventors: Paulus Jacobus Maria Van Adrichem; Karel Van Den Berg; Korstiaan Cornelis BLOKLAND
Original assignee: Lely Patent N.V.
Priority date: 2015-10-01
Filing date: 2016-09-22
Publication date: 2017-04-06
Also published as: NL2015540B1; EP3355689A1

Abstract

The invention provides an animal drinking station (1), comprising a drinking trough (2) configured to contain a drinking liquid, a monitoring device (9) to monitor a drinking pattern of an animal drinking from the drinking trough, and a dispensing device (11, 12, 13) to dispense a liquid component, in particular medications and/or nutrients. The monitoring device is configured to detect a gulp or a pattern of gulps of the animal, and the dispensing device is configured to dispense the liquid component in dependence of the detected gulp or pattern of gulps.

Description

Animal drinking station

The present invention relates to an animal drinking station and a method to provide liquid components to an animal.

Traditionally, drinking liquids, in particular drinking water is provided to animals in a relatively large drinking trough from which multiple animals can drink simultaneously. Other liquid components, such as medicaments and/or nutrients, are separately administered by the farmer or veterinarian. To administer the liquid component the farmer or veterinarian has to search the respective animal, hold the animal and inject the liquid component into the mouth of the animal. This method for administering a liquid component is time consuming and requires a considerable effort, in particular when the taste of the liquid component is not appreciated by the animal.

WO 2010/091686 A1 discloses an animal drinking station and method for surveillance of individual animals' liquid intake. In this animal drinking station a suckling unit is provided to provide drinking water to the animal. When it is desirable to administer liquid components to the animal, WO 2010/091686 A1 discloses the use of a mixing unit to mix a liquid component into the drinking water before it is provided to the cow via the suckling unit.

A drawback of the animal drinking station disclosed in WO 2010/091686 A1 is that the liquid component is completely mixed with the drinking water before providing it to the respective animal. Therewith the taste of all the drinking water is changed due to the addition of the liquid component. When the animal would not appreciate the taste it may stop drinking the mix of drinking water and liquid component and, as a result, only drink a part of the liquid component it should take in.

Also, when the liquid component and the drinking water are already mixed and the animal leaves the drinking station before all liquid component is consumed by the animal, a next animal may come to drink drinking water including the liquid component, for instance a medicament that is not intended for this next animal.

It is an aim of the invention to provide an animal drinking station that is capable of providing liquid components, such as medications and/or nutrients to an animal in an efficient manner, or at least to provide an alternative animal drinking station.

The present invention provides an animal drinking station, comprising: - a drinking trough configured to contain a drinking liquid,

- a monitoring device to monitor a drinking pattern of an animal drinking from the drinking trough, and

- a dispensing device to dispense a liquid component, such as medications and/or nutrients,

characterized in that,

the monitoring device is configured to detect a gulp or a pattern of gulps of the animal, and

the dispensing device is configured to dispense the liquid component in dependence of the detected gulp or pattern of gulps.

In accordance with the invention, the monitoring device is configured to detect a gulp or a pattern of gulps. On the basis of the detected gulp or pattern of gulps, the most suitable time for dispensing the liquid component for direct consumption by the animal can be determined and the dispensing device can be configured to dispense a liquid component, such as a medication and/or a nutrient to a animal that needs the liquid component at this most suitable moment.

A very suitable moment for dispensing the liquid component is the beginning of a gulp of an animal drinking at the drinking trough. Since the monitoring device can preferably detect and/or predict substantially real-time the beginning of a gulp with high reliability, the monitoring device can advantageously be used to control the dispensing of the liquid component by the dispensing device at the beginning of the gulp. Thereto, the animal drinking station preferably comprises a drinking fluid intake detector configured to determine a volume of drinking fluid consumed by an animal. Herein, "volume" is to be interpreted as comprising any parameter value that can be equated with "volume", such as in particular "amount" or "weight". The drinking fluid intake detector thus determines the volume consumed, and preferably it does this during drinking by the animal. The detector is then able to determine a fluid intake as a function of time. On the basis of this information, the monitoring device, that receives this information from the detector, is preferably configured to determine a gulp, preferably a beginning thereof, or a gulp pattern, such as by applying at least one gulp criterion provided in the detector or the monitoring device. An example of such a gulp criterion is an intake speed threshold. For example, an intake only counts as a gulp for a cow if the intake speed is at least 0.1 liter/second. If the intake is below the threshold, it could be that the cow is just idling, or "playing" in the trough or the like, and it is likely that dispensing a liquid component during this activity would likely not succeed. Of course, based on experience, on the type of animal and so on, any other desired threshold may be used. Another example is a threshold volume of liquid drunk. For example, if the detector detects that an animal drinks without interruption at least 0.5 liter, then it is concluded that the animal drinks a (full) gulp. Again, any other threshold value based on experience or literature may be used, in dependence of animal type, weather conditions and so on. Yet another criterion is an uninterrupted drinking time threshold, such as at least 0.2 seconds. In all such cases, the monitoring device or detector decides there is a gulp, and then the dispensing device can be made ready for dispensing the liquid component. Note that it is also possible to combine two or more criteria, such as an intake speed higher than the threshold intake speed during a minimum time, such as during at least 0.2 seconds.

The above criteria relate to individual gulps. It is also possible to detect a pattern of gulps, such as periods of taking in drinking fluid, mostly water, uninterruptedly during say 1 second, alternated by non-drinking time periods of say 0.5 seconds. Based on such detected gulp patterns, it is possible to predict with high reliability a subsequent gulp, and thus a time when it is opportune to dispense the liquid component. It is also possible to make the criteria for detecting a subsequent gulp more reliable. For example, if e.g. three or more gulps have been detected in a certain pattern, then detecting any subsequent liquid intake will very likely be a subsequent gulp, even if for example a time threshold has not yet passed.

It has been found that dispensing the liquid component at the beginning of a gulp of an animal drinking at the drinking trough increases the efficiency of administering a liquid component to the animal, and also substantially decreases the chance that the liquid component will be consumed by another animal than the animal for which the liquid component is dispensed.

The beginning of a gulp may be detected real-time, for instance by measuring a drinking liquid intake from the drinking trough. Since the pattern of gulps of an animal may be specific for an animal or type of animal, a known stored pattern of gulps may also be used to predict a beginning of a gulp and therefore used as a trigger to dispense a liquid component by the dispensing device.

It is remarked that the animal drinking station may also be configured to dispense the liquid component at another desired moment in dependence of the detected gulps or pattern of gulps.

It is further remarked that the animal drinking station of the invention will usually provide drinking water as a drinking liquid. The animal drinking station may however also provide any other drinking liquid, in particular milk.

In an embodiment, the dispensing device is configured to dispense the liquid component towards or near an expected location of a mouth of an animal drinking from the drinking trough. It is desirable that the dispensed liquid component is directly consumed by the animal. In particular, when the liquid component is dispensed at the beginning of a gulp, the liquid component is intended to be consumed in the same gulp. By dispensing the liquid component towards or near an expected location of a mouth of an animal drinking from the drinking trough, the chance that the liquid component is directly taken in by the drinking animal is substantially increased.

Preferably, the dispensing device is configured to dispense, for example inject the liquid component directly into the mouth of the animal drinking at the drinking trough.

In such embodiment, the drinking station may be designed to encourage and/or to force the animal drinking from the drinking trough to position its mouth in the expected location. For example separation devices or other physical barriers may be arranged at opposite sides of the drinking trough or a relevant part thereof to ensure that when the animal is drinking from the drinking trough, it will have its head in the middle between the two separation devices or barriers. In addition, or as an alternative, the drinking trough, or a part thereof, may be designed in such a way that it is only properly accessible for drinking if the mouth of the animal is positioned in a predictable position, i.e. the expected location, preferably, the design of the drinking station is dependent of the animal type.

By encouraging/forcing the animal to hold its head in this predictable position, the dispensing of the liquid component towards, near or into the mouth of the animal drinking can be done with a higher reliability.

In an embodiment, the drinking trough comprises a drinking dish configured to contain a volume of drinking liquid, wherein the drinking station is configured to allow only one animal to drink out of the drinking dish at the same time. By providing an individual drinking dish for an animal, the position of the animal with respect to the drinking dish can be more reliably predicted. Furthermore, the chance that any liquid component dispensed into the drinking dish and not directly consumed by the animal, will still be consumed by the animal can be considerably increased by such individual drinking dish.

The volume of the drinking dish can be adapted to the type of animal for which the drinking dish is designed. The volume is selected such that the volume will be less than the volume of drinking fluid that normally will be consumed by an animal when drinking from the drinking dish. The drinking dish may, for example for cows, be configured to contain a volume of maximally 5 liters, preferably 1 -3 liters of drinking liquid. Such volume can easily be consumed by a cow, such that it is very likely that any feed rests or liquid component spilled into the drinking dish will be consumed by the same cow.

In an embodiment, the drinking trough comprises a drinking liquid buffer compartment configured to contain a buffer volume of drinking liquid, and wherein the drinking dish comprises a drinking liquid inlet connecting the drinking liquid buffer compartment with the drinking dish.

As explained above, it may be advantageous that the drinking dish comprises a relatively small volume to ensure that normally all drinking liquid in the drinking dish, including contaminations such as feed spill and liquid component in the drinking liquid is consumed by the same animal. However, at the same time, it is desirable that the drinking dish is quickly filled with drinking fluid to allow the animal to drink as much drinking liquid as the animal desires without long waiting times for refilling of the drinking dish. By connecting the drinking dish with a relatively large buffer of drinking liquid, the drinking dish can directly be replenished from the buffer of drinking liquid when drinking liquid is consumed from the buffer of drinking liquid.

The fluid connection can be a drinking liquid inlet opening in the drinking dish. The inlet opening may be connected to the buffer of drinking fluid by a liquid conduit.

In an embodiment, the drinking dish is configured to at least partly float on drinking liquid present in the buffer of drinking liquid. By making the drinking dish float on the buffer of drinking liquid, for example by mounting the drinking dish on float elements, while the buffer of drinking liquid and the drinking dish are in fluid communication, the drinking liquid levels in the drinking dish and the buffer of drinking liquid will tend to be the same. Thus, when drinking liquid is consumed out of the drinking dish, water from the buffer of drinking liquid will automatically flow into the drinking dish to replace the water taken out of the drinking dish.

In an embodiment, the drinking dish is configured to contain liquid having a maximum drinking liquid depth of 4-9 cm, preferably 5-7 cm. It is desirable that the contamination of the drinking liquid in the drinking dish, or more generally the drinking trough, is low. By selecting the maximum drinking liquid depth of the drinking dish such that an animal, in particular a cow, can touch the bottom of the drinking dish, it is very likely that the animal the cow will drink any impurities within the drinking fluid, for example feed that is spilled by the animal into the drinking dish. For a cow or similar animal, a drinking liquid depth of 4-9 cm, preferably 5-7 cm is suitable. Other values may apply for other animals.

In an embodiment, the dispensing device is configured to dispense the liquid component into the drinking liquid. In some embodiments it may be advantageous that the liquid component is dispensed into the drinking liquid. In that case the liquid component is consumed together with the drinking liquid in one or more subsequent gulps.

In an embodiment, the drinking station comprises a drinking fluid intake detector configured to determine a volume of drinking fluid consumed by an animal. In order to enable the determination of a gulp of an animal or a pattern of gulps, a drinking fluid intake detector may be provided. The drinking fluid intake detector may determine a volume of drinking fluid consumed by an animal, for example a volume of drinking fluid required to refill the drinking dish.

The measurement data obtained by the drinking fluid intake detector may be sent to the monitoring device. The monitoring device will use this measurement data to detect a gulp in order to determine a suitable moment for injection of liquid component into the drinking liquid and/or directly into the mouth of the animal drinking at the drinking trough. Some embodiments relating to this have already been discussed hereinabove.

In an embodiment, the drinking fluid intake detector comprises a flow meter configured to measure a flow of drinking liquid, in particular a flow of drinking liquid into the drinking trough or drinking dish to replenish drinking fluid consumed by animal from the drinking trough or drinking dish, respectively. The flow meter is for example an inductive flow meter.

In an alternative embodiment a camera may be provided in order to allow the monitoring device to detect, on the basis of images or videos, a gulp or pattern of gulps in order to determine a proper moment for the dispensing of a liquid component to be consumed by an animal.

In an embodiment, the animal drinking station comprises an animal identification system to identify an animal at the drinking trough, and wherein the dispensing device is configured to dispense a liquid component in dependence of the identified animal.

To determine whether it is desirable to dispense a liquid component for an animal or to determine which quantity of liquid component to dispense, the identity of the animal has to be determined. The animal identification system for example comprises an identification device in the animal drinking station that is configured to determine the identity of an animal by reading an identification unit, e.g. a transponder, carried by the animal. When the identity of the animal is known, the monitoring device may determine an amount of liquid component to be dispensed for that specific animal, if any.

The monitoring device may comprise a storage to store data relevant for the determination and/or prediction of the beginning of a gulp and/or data relevant for dispensing a specific quantity of liquid component for a specific animal.

The invention further provides a method to provide a liquid component, in particular medications and/or nutrients to an animal, comprising the steps of:

- providing an animal drinking system as claimed in any of the preceding claims,

- allowing an animal to drink from the drinking trough,

- detecting a gulp or a pattern of gulps of an drinking from the drinking trough,

- dispensing the liquid component in dependence of the predicted gulp or pattern of gulps.

In an embodiment of the method, dispensing of the liquid component comprises dispensing the liquid component towards or near an expected location of a mouth of an animal drinking from the drinking trough.

In an embodiment of the method, detecting a gulp or pattern of gulps comprises measuring with a drinking fluid intake detector a flow representative for a quantity of drinking liquid consumed by an animal.

In an embodiment of the method, the animal drinking station comprises an animal identification system to identify an animal at the drinking trough, wherein the method comprises identifying an animal drinking from the drinking trough, and wherein the step of dispensing the liquid component comprises dispensing the liquid component in dependence of the identified animal.

Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will now be elucidated by a description of an embodiment of the invention, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

- Figure 1 shows a cross-section of an embodiment of an animal drinking station according to the invention ;

- Figure 2 show a top view of a drinking dish of the embodiment of Figure 1 ;

- Figure 3 shows a top view of the drinking station of Figure 1 ; and

- Figure 4 shows a side view of the embodiment of the animal drinking station of Figure 1 .

Figure 1 shows a cross-section of an animal drinking station, generally denoted by reference numeral 1 . Figure 2 shows a side view of a part of the drinking station 1 .

The drinking station 1 comprises a drinking trough 2 containing a buffer of drinking water 3. The drinking trough 1 is supported on a number of supporting feet 4.

In the drinking trough 2, a drinking dish 5 is provided. The drinking dish 5 is used to provide drinking water to an animal, for example a cow 50. The drinking dish 5 floats on the water in the buffer of drinking water 3 due to float elements 6 mounted at opposite sides of the drinking dish 5. The float elements 6 may for example be two airtight tubes containing a quantity of air.

To ensure generally that the position of the floating drinking dish 5 within the drinking trough 2 remains substantially the same, the drinking dish 5 may be connected to the drinking trough 2. The drinking dish 2 may for example be rotatably mounted on the inner wall of the drinking trough 2. The position may also be restrained by fixed elements, for example an inner wall of the drinking trough 2 without a mechanical connection between the drinking dish 5 and the inner walls of the drinking trough 2.

The drinking dish 5 is configured to contain a volume of drinking liquid that can be consumed by the cow 50. For the remainder, the drinking liquid will mostly be water, although other liquids, such as in particular milk, are not excluded. The volume of drinking water is relatively small, e.g. substantially less than the volume of drinking water normally consumed by a cow during drinking. The volume of drinking water in the drinking dish 5 is for example maximally 5 liters, in particular 1 -3 liters of drinking liquid.

The drinking dish 5 and the buffer of drinking water 3 are connected to each other via a connection tube 7 and an inlet opening 8 in the drinking dish 5. The inlet opening 8 is provided e.g. in the middle of the connection tube 7. One or preferably both ends of the connection tube 7 are open and are arranged in the buffer of drinking water 3. Thus, when water is consumed by cow 50, water from the buffer of drinking water 3 may enter both ends of the connection tube 7 and flow via inlet opening 8 into the drinking dish 5. As a result, the water level 9 in the drinking dish 5 will become the same again as the water level in the buffer of drinking water 3.

The maximum drinking water depth of the drinking water in the drinking dish 5 depth of 4-9 cm, preferably 5-7 cm. The maximum depth of the drinking dish is selected such the cow 50 can touch the bottom of the drinking dish 5, and the cow will drink any impurities within the drinking water, for example feed that is spilled by the cow 50 into the drinking dish 5. When a cow 50 has some feed spills on her nose, these feed spills may fall into the drinking water of the drinking dish 5. But since the volume within the drinking dish is relatively small and the drinking water depth of the drinking dish is relatively small, it is likely that the cow 50 will drink its own feed spills. This results in less contamination of the drinking water in the drinking trough 2.

The drinking dish 5 is designed to allow only one cow to drink from the drinking dish 5 at the same time. The drinking dish 5 may for example have a length including float element 6 of 30 - 50 cm and a width of 15 - 35 cm, wherein the part where the cow actually drinks preferably has a width of 15-25 cm.

The drinking station 1 comprises a monitoring device 9 to monitor a drinking pattern of an animal drinking from the drinking trough 2, in particular its drinking dish 2. The monitoring device 9 is configured to detect gulps or patterns of gulps of an animal drinking from the drinking dish.

The drinking station 1 further comprises a flow sensor 10 arranged in the connection tube 7. The flow sensor 10 is arranged to measure a flow of drinking water that flows through the connection tube 7 in order to replenish drinking water that is consumed by a cow 50 from the drinking dish 5. When a cow 50 drinks drinking water from the drinking dish 5, the water level in the drinking dish 5 will become lower. Since there is a free fluid communication between the buffer of drinking water 3 and the drinking dish 5, drinking water will automatically flow from the buffer of drinking water 3 through the connection tube 7 and the inlet opening 8 into the drinking dish 5.

Since the flow sensor 10 is arranged between one of the open ends of the connection tube 7 and the inlet opening 8, at least a part of this drinking water passes the flow sensor 10, such that the amount of drinking water towards the drinking dish 5 can be measured.

It is remarked that in the shown embodiment, the connection tube 7 comprises two open ends in fluid communication with the inlet opening 8 such that the drinking water from the buffer of drinking water 3 can flow quickly towards the drinking dish 5. Since in this embodiment, the flow sensor 10 is only arranged at one side of the inlet opening 8, the flow sensor 10 can only measure a part of the flow of drinking water towards the drinking dish 5. However, since the flow rate of drinking water through the flow sensor 10 is representative for the total flow rate towards the drinking dish 5, the total flow rate towards the drinking dish 5 can be determined, if needed, on the basis of the measurement of the flow sensor 10. In an alternative embodiment, there also may be a single fluid passage between the buffer of drinking water 3 and the drinking dish 5 in which a flow sensor 10 is arranged. Any other device to determine the flow rate of drinking fluid flowing from the buffer of drinking water 3 towards the drinking dish 5 may also be used.

The animal drinking station 1 further comprises a dispensing device to dispense a liquid component in dependence of a gulp or pattern of gulps detected by the monitoring device 9. The dispensing device comprises a pump device 1 1 , an injection conduit 12 and an injection nozzle 13. The injection nozzle 13 which can be the open end of the injection conduit 12 and is arranged in the inlet opening 8.

The pump device 1 1 is connected to a liquid component container 14. The liquid component container 14 may be replaceable in order to easily replace the liquid component container 14 when depleted or to provide, when desired, different liquid components to the pump device 1 1 . In an alternative embodiment, the liquid component container 14 may be refillable with the same or different liquid components.

The pump device 1 1 may also be connected to multiple liquid component containers, wherein each container may contain a different liquid component and wherein the pump device 14 may selectively, for instance using a suitable valve system, pump a desired liquid component or combination thereof from one or more of the liquid component containers 14.

The pump device 1 1 is configured to pump, when activated by the monitoring device 9, a liquid component into the injection conduit 12 to eject the liquid component at the injection nozzle 13. The injection nozzle 13 is arranged and configured to dispense the liquid component towards or near an expected location of a mouth of an animal drinking from the drinking dish 5.

To optimize the intake of the liquid component, the liquid component is dispensed by the dispensing device in dependence of a detected gulp or pattern of gulps of a cow drinking from the drinking dish 5.

By ejection of the liquid component in dependence of a detected gulp or detected pattern of gulps, the liquid component can be introduced into the drinking liquid at a suitable time for direct consumption by the cow. Preferably, the liquid component is ejected at the beginning of a gulp so that the liquid component is taken in by the cow during the same gulp. This has the advantage that the cow will only taste the liquid component once the liquid component is almost completely taken in by the cow. A next gulp will not have the taste of the liquid component, since it will contain mainly or only drinking liquid. As a result of the injection at the beginning of a gulp, the cow will be less distracted during the intake of the liquid component.

It is remarked that in the event that the liquid component is not completely taken in by the cow in the intended gulp, the liquid component may fall into the drinking water in the drinking dish 5. In one or more following gulps, the cow 50 may still drink the liquid component together with the drinking water.

The gulp or pattern of gulps can be detected by the monitoring device 9 on the basis of e.g. the flow rate measured by the flow sensor 10. The flow sensor 10 is configured to send a pulse to the monitoring device 9 for each time a relatively small quantity of drinking water passes the flow sensor. Such small quantity of drinking water may be 1 - 5 ml, for example 2.5 ml.

When the cow takes a gulp out of the drinking dish 5, the flow rate through the flow sensor 10 will increase resulting in a larger number of pulses being received by the monitoring device 9. On the basis of the pulses a gulp or a pattern of gulps may be distinguished by the monitoring device 9.

For example, every second is divided in a certain number of time intervals, for example 50 time intervals of each 20 ms. When in such time interval a pulse is received by the monitoring device 9, the time interval is given the value 1 . When there is no pulse received during the time interval, the time interval is given the value 0. When in a series of subsequent time intervals a relatively large number of time intervals are present with a value 1 it can be determined that the cow is drinking. By analysis of the values, a gulp and pattern of gulps can be detected by the monitoring device 1 .

On the basis of this analysis, the monitoring device 9 can be configured to recognize the beginning of a gulp. In an example, it was determined that a gulp was taken in by a cow when in four subsequent time intervals at least two pulses are received by the monitoring device 9, i.e. at least two time intervals of the four subsequent time intervals are assigned a value 1 .

Thus, the first time, after a certain period in which less than two pulses were received in four subsequent time intervals, the beginning of a gulp will be detected when within four subsequent time intervals two pulses are received by the monitoring device 9.

Thereafter, during the gulp, further sequences of four time intervals having at least two time intervals with value 1 may be expected. Therefore, when these further sequences are within a time period of for example 30 time intervals after the first one, these sequences are not regarded to be a beginning of a gulp, but a middle or end of a gulp.

When after 30 time intervals again within four subsequent time intervals two pulses are received by the monitoring device 9, it is again concluded that the beginning of a new gulp has been detected. With this method, a high accuracy in the determination of the beginning of a gulp of an animal drinking at the drinking dish may be determined. And thus a suitable moment in time can be determined real time in order to dispense a liquid component for the cow drinking from the drinking dish.

Normally, it is not desired to administer the same liquid components and/or the same quantity of liquid components to all cows drinking from the drinking trough 2. Therefore, it is desirable to individually adapt the dosage of liquid component to a cow 50.

To allow the animal drinking station to individually adapt the dosage of liquid component to a specific cow 50, the animal drinking station 1 is provided with an identification device 15 configured to determine the identity of the cow 50 by reading the identification unit 51 , e.g. a transponder, carried by the cow 50.

When a new cow 50 comes to drink at the drinking trough 2, the following steps are taken by the animal drinking station 1 .

In a first step the identity of the cow 50 is determined by reading with the identification device 15 the identification unit 51 of the cow 50 and sending the identity to the monitoring device 9.

When the monitoring device 9 determines that the cow 5 does not need any liquid components in addition to the drinking water, the cow 50 may drink from the drinking dish 5 until she has consumed the desired quantity of drinking water. The monitoring device 9 may monitor the gulps or pattern of gulps of the cow, and for example store these data for future use, but it will not use these data to dispense liquid components at that moment.

When the monitoring device 9 determines, on the basis of the detected identity of the cow 50, that the cow 50 should receive an additional liquid component from the liquid component container 14, the monitoring device 9 will monitor the gulps or the pattern of gulps to determine the beginning of a gulp.

When the beginning of the gulp is detected, the monitoring device 9 immediately actuates the pump device 1 1 to pump a desired quantity of liquid component from the liquid component container 14 through the injection conduit 12 to the injection nozzle 13. The injection nozzle 13 injects the liquid component near or towards the mouth of the drinking cow 50, such that the liquid component will directly enter the mouth of the cow with the gulp taken in by the cow 50.

Since the liquid component is injected in the gulp, the ejected volume of liquid component is preferably not too large. A suitable volume of ejected liquid component is for example 0.1 - 5 ml, preferably about 1 ml to about 2 ml.

When the total volume of liquid component to be consumed by the cow drinking from the drinking dish 2 is larger than the volume of injected liquid component, the monitoring device 9 may be configured to again detect a beginning of a gulp and again actuate the pump device 1 1 to pump an addition quantity of liquid component from the liquid component container 14 to the injection nozzle 13. These steps may be repeated until the cow 50 has drunk the desired quantity of liquid component. In case the cow 50 would stop drinking before the whole desired quantity of liquid component has been administered to the cow 50, the monitoring device 9 may store that the animal still needs to receive a quantity of liquid component. If the cow 5 drinks too little over a longer period of time to administer the desired quantity of liquid component, the monitoring device 9 may be configured to send a warning signal to the farmer to indicate that the respective cow 50 does not drink sufficiently to administer a desired quantity of liquid component.

Figure 3 and 4 show a top view and side view of a complete animal drinking station 1 .

Figure 3 shows that three drinking dishes 5 are arranged in a single drinking trough 2 containing a relatively large buffer of drinking water 3. The drinking trough 2 containing the buffer of drinking water 3 may be a conventional drinking trough 2 that is configured to allow multiple cows to drink simultaneously. This has the advantage that no separate drinking trough has to be supplied to the farmer, but that the animal drinking station 1 can be built on a conventional drinking trough 2. After mounting the drinking dishes 5 on the drinking trough 2, the drinking dishes 5 are each configured to allow only one cow 50 to drink from at the same time.

In order to avoid that multiple cows 50 drink from the same drinking dish 3 at the same time, or that another cow 50 drinks from the drinking dish than identified by the identification device 15, separation devices 16 are provided at the sides of the drinking dishes 5. The presence of these separation devices 16 ensures that only one cow 50 can drink from a single drinking dish 5 at the same time, and that this cow 50 is correctly identified by the identification device 15. In this way, it is also avoided that the liquid component is provided to the wrong cow 50.

The separation devices 16 are designed such that they encourage and/or force the cow 50 drinking from the drinking dish 5 to position its mouth in the expected location, i.e. the location to which the injection nozzle 13 is directed to dispense a liquid component for direct consumption by the animal.

It is remarked that the additional equipment required to provide an animal drinking station 1 as described above, when compared with a traditional drinking arrangement, is substantial. Since a stable may have a large number of drinking stations, it may be a substantial investment to substitute all drinking arrangements in animal drinking stations according to the invention.

It may be advantageous to provide the animal drinking station according to the invention only on a limited number of locations. It may in particular be advantageous to provide an animal drinking station in a separation space for sick cows, since these cows typically require additional liquid components, such as medicaments and nutrients. This drinking station may be exclusively for the sick cows, therewith also reducing the risk of contamination of healthy animals.

Claims

1 . An animal drinking station, comprising:

- a drinking trough configured to contain a drinking liquid,

- a dispensing device to dispense a liquid component, in particular medications and/or nutrients,

characterized in that ,

2. The animal drinking station of claim 1 , wherein the dispensing device is configured to dispense the liquid component towards or near an expected location of a mouth of an animal drinking from the drinking trough.

3. The animal drinking station of claim 2, wherein the drinking trough is designed to encourage and/or to force the animal drinking from the drinking trough to position its mouth in the expected location .

4. The animal drinking station of any of the preceding claims, wherein the drinking trough comprises a drinking dish configured to contain a volume of drinking liquid, wherein the drinking dish is configured to allow only one animal to drink out of the drinking dish at the same time.

5. The animal drinking station of claim 4, wherein the drinking trough comprises a drinking liquid buffer compartment configured to contain a buffer volume of drinking liquid, and wherein the drinking dish comprises a drinking liquid inlet connecting the drinking liquid buffer compartment with the drinking dish.

6. The animal drinking station of claim 4 or 5, wherein the drinking dish is configured to at least partly float on drinking liquid present in the liquid buffer compartment.

7. The animal drinking station of any of the claims 4-6, wherein the drinking dish is configured to contain a volume of maximally 5 liters, preferably 1 -3 liters of drinking liquid.

8. The animal drinking station of any of the claims 4-7, wherein the drinking dish is configured to contain liquid having a maximum drinking liquid depth of 4-9 cm, preferably 5-7 cm.

9. The animal drinking station of any of the preceding claims, wherein the dispensing device is configured to dispense the liquid component into the drinking liquid.

10. The animal drinking station of any of the preceding claims, wherein the animal drinking station comprises a drinking fluid intake detector configured to determine a volume of drinking fluid consumed by an animal.

1 1 . The animal drinking station of any of the preceding claims, wherein the animal drinking station comprises an animal identification system to identify an animal at the drinking trough, and wherein the dispensing device is configured to dispense a liquid component in dependence of the identified animal.

12. A method to provide a liquid component, in particular medications and/or nutrients to an animal, comprising the steps of:

- allowing an animal to drink from the drinking trough,

13. The method of claim 12, wherein dispensing the liquid component comprises dispensing the liquid component towards or near an expected location of a mouth of an animal drinking from the drinking trough.

14. The method of claim 1 1 or 12, wherein detecting a gulp or pattern of gulps comprises measuring with a drinking fluid intake detector a flow representative for a quantity of drinking liquid consumed by an animal.

15. The method of any of the claims 12-14, wherein the animal drinking station comprises an animal identification system to identify an animal at the drinking trough, wherein the method comprises identifying an animal drinking from the drinking trough, and wherein the step of dispensing the liquid component comprises dispensing the liquid component in dependence of the identified animal.