Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
  • A01K—ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; AVICULTURE; APICULTURE; PISCICULTURE; FISHING; REARING OR BREEDING ANIMALS, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; NEW BREEDS OF ANIMALS
  • A01K7/00—Watering equipment for stock or game
  • A01K7/02—Automatic devices

Definitions

• the present invention relates to an animal drinking station and a method to provide liquid components to an animal.
• 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.
• a suckling unit is provided to provide drinking water 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.
• 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.
• 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
• a dispensing device to dispense a liquid component, such as medications and/or nutrients
• the monitoring device is configured to detect a gulp or a pattern of gulps of the animal
• the dispensing device is configured to dispense the liquid component in dependence of the detected gulp or pattern of gulps.
• 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 liquid component such as a medication and/or a nutrient
• the animal drinking station preferably comprises a drinking fluid intake detector configured to determine a volume of drinking fluid consumed by an animal.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• any other desired threshold may be used.
• 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.
• any other threshold value based on experience or literature may be used, in dependence of animal type, weather conditions and so on.
• an uninterrupted drinking time threshold such as at least 0.2 seconds.
• the monitoring device or detector decides there is a gulp, and then the dispensing device can be made ready for dispensing the liquid component.
• the dispensing device can be made ready for dispensing the liquid component.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• the dispensing of the liquid component towards, near or into the mouth of the animal drinking can be done with a higher reliability.
• 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.
• 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.
• the drinking trough comprises a drinking liquid buffer compartment configured to contain a buffer volume of drinking liquid
• the drinking dish comprises a drinking liquid inlet connecting the drinking liquid buffer compartment with the drinking dish.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• the drinking dish is configured to at least partly float on drinking liquid present in the buffer of drinking liquid.
• the drinking dish 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.
• water from the buffer of drinking liquid will automatically flow into the drinking dish to replace the water taken out of the drinking dish.
• 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.
• 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.
• a drinking liquid depth of 4-9 cm, preferably 5-7 cm is suitable. Other values may apply for other animals.
• 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.
• the drinking station comprises a drinking fluid intake detector configured to determine a volume of drinking fluid consumed by an animal.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• an identification unit e.g. a transponder
• 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:
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• FIG. 1 shows a cross-section of an embodiment of an animal drinking station according to the invention
• FIG. 1 show a top view of a drinking dish of the embodiment of Figure 1 ;
• FIG. 3 shows a top view of the drinking station of Figure 1 ;
• FIG. 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.
• a drinking dish 5 is provided 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 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.
• these feed spills may fall into the drinking water of the drinking dish 5.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 .
• 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.
• 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.
• the liquid component can be introduced into the drinking liquid at a suitable time for direct consumption by the cow.
• 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.
• the cow will be less distracted during the intake of the liquid component.
• the liquid component may fall into the drinking water in the drinking dish 5.
• 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.
• the flow rate through the flow sensor 10 will increase resulting in a larger number of pulses being received by the monitoring device 9.
• a gulp or a pattern of gulps may be distinguished by the monitoring device 9.
• every second is divided in a certain number of time intervals, for example 50 time intervals of each 20 ms.
• a pulse is received by the monitoring device 9
• the time interval is given the value 1 .
• the time interval is given the value 0.
• a relatively large number of time intervals are present with a value 1 it can be determined that the cow is drinking.
• a gulp and pattern of gulps can be detected by the monitoring device 1 .
• 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 .
• the beginning of a gulp will be detected when within four subsequent time intervals two pulses are received by the monitoring device 9.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• the monitoring device 9 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.
• the monitoring device 9 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• the drinking dishes 5 are each configured to allow only one cow 50 to drink from at the same time.
• 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.
• the animal drinking station according to the invention may be advantageous to provide 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.

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• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Environmental Sciences (AREA)
• Animal Husbandry (AREA)
• Biodiversity & Conservation Biology (AREA)
• Feeding And Watering For Cattle Raising And Animal Husbandry (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

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• 2015
  • 2015-10-01 NL NL2015540A patent/NL2015540B1/en not_active IP Right Cessation
• 2016
  • 2016-09-22 WO PCT/NL2016/050655 patent/WO2017058008A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2016-09-22 EP EP16782309.5A patent/EP3355689A1/de not_active Withdrawn

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