ES2924846A1 - Straw hopper for fattening pigs and piglets (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding) - Google Patents

Abstract

Straw hopper for fattening pigs and piglets. All the hopper materials have been chosen to be resistant to wear and abrasion produced by the gases emitted by the slurry pits, such as carbon dioxide and ammonia. At the same time they are resistant to bites, blows, kicks that animals can produce. The design of the hopper has been carefully chosen so that the animals housed in the stables that have access to the hopper do not create any injuries and can manipulate it as they please. All the materials of the hopper are welded to avoid vibrations or movements that could disfigure or damage it, thus causing it to malfunction. This invention allows you to place it in the stables where caudofagia appears or symptoms of aggressive animals are seen, since the animals try to extract the straw that is introduced into the hopper, for their ingestion while serving as a distraction with each other. others. It is easy to handle and transport, while its cleaning is simple. (Machine-translation by Google Translate, not legally binding)

Description

DESCRIPTION

Straw hopper for fattening pigs and piglets

Technical sector

Livestock sector.

Explanation of the invention

It consists of a rectangular hopper formed by a grid of triangular rods, which make the structure is closed by the two lateral parts and the front part (door), leaving the rear part uncovered. The rear part is attached to the wall of the animal stable, anchored with hooks and plates, thus remaining closed on all sides, to later fill it with straw.

There are also some reinforcements formed by elongated rectangular plates, whose function is to hold said structure.

In the upper lateral part it has some hinges, which serve as a fastening for the front part, likewise this front part has a rod to hold on to the hinge; this allows the front part to exert a rocking effect, when the animal tries to catch the straw inserted in the hopper with its snout.

Finally, it has a base also made up of a lattice of rods, and a front plate that holds and stops.

The hopper has been created to eliminate the stress of the animals, comply with animal welfare regulations and avoid the problem of caudofagia and thus not have to resort to tail docking, which consists of a practice based on the systematic cutting of the tail of the piglets. Likewise, when the hopper runs out of straw, it serves as a toy due to the movement of the front part with a rocking effect.

Brief description of the drawings

Composition and Measurements: Drawing 1

- 60 rods (a) total of triangular iron, round galvanized or round tube stainless steel with 1 mm thickness each rod, of which 46 rods measure 1.05 m in length and 14 measure 32 cm in length.

- 13 total plates (b) of galvanized iron or stainless steel 4 cm wide by 4 mm thick, of which 8 plates are 32 cm long, 4 plates are 27 cm long and 1 plate is 32.5 cm of length.

- 5 reinforcements (c) of iron or stainless steel rod 1 mm thick and 32 cm long. - 2 hinges (d) in galvanized iron or stainless steel, 2 cm wide with an internal opening of 11 mm.

- 1 round rod of galvanized iron (e) or stainless steel 32 cm long and 10 mm thick.

- 3 hooks 12 cm long with thread, 1 cm thick, with 3 cm flying washers with their three nuts.

Structure Formation: Drawing 2

Figure 1.

The sides are made up of 16 rods welded to the plates, leaving one plate in the upper part, another plate in the lower part and two plates in the central part, whose separation between them is 34.5 cm, leaving the rods with a separation of 1 cm from each other. Each side has a hinge welded to the plate at the top, glued to the door or front.

The plate located in the upper central part, has a 5 cm cut in the two sides and the one located in the lower central part, has a 12 cm cut in the two sides, acting as a stop for the central part or swinging door, not letting it reach the end and preventing the animals from getting stuck with their heads.

Figures 2 and 3.

The door or front part is made up of 14 rods welded to the plates, in the same way as the previous description, we place a plate in the upper part, another plate in the lower part and two plates in the central part, whose separation between them is of 34.5 cm, leaving the rods with a separation of 1 cm from each other. In the upper internal part of the door plate or front part, there is a 10 mm thick and 32 cm long rod welded, whose function is to fit into the hinges.

See in figure 2.

The base is made up of 14 rods with a separation of 1 cm, welded to a plate, this plate remaining in front of the door or front part; serving this base to be able to weld the sides on top of it.

The reinforcements are welded to the side plates, securing the structure, leaving two reinforcements in the upper part of the ends and two in the central part.

Claims (7)

1. The design of the hopper has been chosen in rectangular wood with a height of 1.06 m and a width of 0.33 m, in order to take up as little space as possible in the stable and prevent any animal from trying to get inside . 2. The material used is galvanized iron or stainless steel, to prevent breakage and durability. 3. A separation between rods of 1cm has been chosen to prevent excess straw from escaping. 4. All material is smooth to prevent injury to animals. 5. This hopper is designed to be filled with straw so that the animals can see, smell and extract the straw from both the sides and the front. In order for the animal to proceed with its extraction, there must be an animal pushing the front part, so that the straw moves and can come out both from the front and from the side, pieces of straw sticks, thus preventing them from removing large amounts of straw, preventing it from being thrown into the pit and eventually blocking it. 6. This hopper is designed to avoid a state of stress in the animals, creating a daily distraction, complying with animal welfare regulations and avoiding tail biting, likewise the intake of straw makes the animal less anxious when lunchtime, if they had to wait their turn because of the formation of hierarchies that occurs between them. 7. This hopper has been tested on my farm with stables that had lesions on the tails and once the hopper was introduced, the lesions disappeared. The animals that entered the stables at the beginning of the feedlot, with the hoppers mounted, did not show any signs of stress, anxiety or nervousness until their sacrifice. NOTE: This hopper can be placed on any type of wall, be it plastic or concrete, making 10 cm holes for the hooks and attaching it to the hopper reinforcements. It is advisable to mount the hopper blinding a meter around it so that possible sticks of straw that may be thrown on the ground never reach the pit. The hopper does not need maintenance, and it does not take time away from the farmer's daily work, since he only needs a daily view of the amount of straw in the hopper and remove it if necessary.