Swine activated feeder with actuation sensor
OwnerDave Klockeinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sensor assembly on a swine-activated self-feeder allows monitoring or tracking of individual animal feeding activity, thereby allowing corrective action to be taken in instances of under-feeding or over-feeding by an animal. The sensor assembly includes a sensor on the feed dispenser and, with a printed circuit board to generate a signal corresponding to activation of the dispenser by an animal. The signal can be sent to a computer or website which generates reports on the individual animal's feeding activity.
Claims18
A method of tracking feeding activity of swine, comprising:
- providing feed on demand from a self-feeder wherein the swine actuates discharge of feed from the self-feeder by rotating a dispenser in a lower end of a feed tube;
- sensing swine actuation of the self-feeder;
- generating data corresponding to the sensed swine actuation of the feeder;
- and
- evaluating the data to track the swine feeding activity.
A method of tracking feeding activity of each individual swine in a herd of swine, comprising:
- marking each swine in the herd with a unique identifier;
- providing an ad lib self-feeding station that allows only one swine to feed at a time from the station, wherein the one swine actuates a dispenser to drop feed into the station by rotating an actuator on the self-feeding station with its nose;
- identifying each of the swine who actuates the dispenser;
- generating a signal each time the dispenser is actuated;
- creating a database of the signals;
- evaluating the signals to track the feeding activity of each identified swine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.