Guide structure for stalling animals such as cattle

Abstract

A front element for stalling an animal in a free stall, that is better suited than earlier devices to the morphology and movements of the animal to be contained, helping guide the animal when it is positioning itself, standing up and/or lying down in its free stall. Such a front element can be implemented in a pair in a front structure, in order to delimit the internal space I of said free stall.

Claims

1. A front element; for stalling an animal in a stall, the stall having a vertical axis of symmetry B and having a front limit represented symbolically by a vertical plane P.sub.1, said plane P.sub.1 serving as a boundary between an internal space I of the stall and an external space E of the stall, the front element comprising: at least one means of restraining the animal, the restraining means including: a top rim, and an inner rim coupled to the top rim and extending along a plane P.sub.2 inclined by an acute angle α in relation to the plane P.sub.1, so that a lower portion of plane P.sub.2 is directed towards the external space E, the intersection between said plane P.sub.1 and said plane P.sub.2 defining a horizontal axis A; wherein the restraining means is: able to passively guide the movements of the animal when in a movement of getting up or in a movement of lying down, able to hinder at any time the forward movement of said animal towards the external space E, by forcing the animal at all times to keep its shoulders in the internal space I, and able to receive the head of the animal above said top rim of said restraining means when the animal is standing, and below said top rim of said restraining means when the animal is in the movement of lying down, such that, when the animal is in the movement of lying down, the shoulders of the animal cannot pass said vertical plane P.sub.1 and are oriented along the plane P.sub.2.

2. The front element according to claim 1, further comprising at least one anchoring means connected to said restraining means, intended to allow the fixing of said front element to a carrying element.

3. The front element according to claim 1, further comprising at least one deformable means able to attenuate any mechanical force caused by the animal.

4. The front element according to claim 1, further comprising at least one means for adjusting the dimensions of the front element.

5. A front structure for stalling an animal, comprising: at least two front elements according to claim 1, disposed in a relationship of chiral symmetry in relation to a plane P.sub.3 parallel to the plane P.sub.1 and passing through the centres of said restraining means, and a vertical axis C belonging to the plane P.sub.3 and belonging to a plane perpendicular to the plane P.sub.1 containing the axis of symmetry B; the two front elements being associated with each other by means of at least one connecting element; and at least one anchoring means for fixing said front structure to a carrying element; said front elements having between them a minimum horizontal separation D that is both greater than a neck measurement of the animal and less than a breadth of the animal.

6. A stall for stalling an animal, comprising: at least one front element according to claim 1, at least one top façade element, and at least one side element.

7. The stall according to claim 6, further comprising at least one bottom façade element.

8. The stall according to claim 7, further comprising at least one anti-crawl element as the bottom façade element, disposed in a plane P.sub.3 and projecting towards the internal space I of said stall.

9. The stall according to claim 6, further comprising at least one pair of anti-crawl elements disposed symmetrically on either side of said stall, the respective inner ends of said anti-crawl elements being separated by a horizontal separation D′ between 20 cm and 60 cm, and each anti-crawl element being fixed to a side element, and disposed at a height H from the ground between 20 cm and 40 cm, and having a vertical separation H′ of between 40 cm and 70 cm with the top façade element disposed above said each anti-crawl element.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Other advantages and features will emerge more clearly from the description of the front elements and of the front structure with reference to the drawings, in which

(2) FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a variant of a stall according to the invention,

(3) FIGS. 2 and 3 are respectively a side view of the main movements of the animal and a side view of the main positions of the animal in relation to a stall according to the invention,

(4) FIG. 4 is a front view of a stall according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(5) In the remainder of the text, in each reference pair X-Y, the reference X corresponds to the left-hand element while the reference Y corresponds to the right-hand element.

(6) The minimum geometric reference frame is formed by the vertical plane P.sub.1 defining the front of said stall 1, the plane P.sub.2 inclined by an angle α relative to the plane P.sub.1 and intersecting it on a horizontal axis A and a vertical axis B belonging to P.sub.1. Said axis B is an axis passing visually in the middle of the two front elements 10-11 when looking at the front of the stall 1. Optionally, the reference frame may be extended and comprise: a vertical plane P.sub.3 parallel to the plane P.sub.1 and passing through the centre of the restraining means, and a vertical axis C belonging simultaneously to the plane P.sub.3 and to the plane perpendicular to the plane P.sub.1 that contains the axis B.

(7) In each of FIGS. 1 to 4, only the elements of the reference frame most appropriate to good understanding thereof are depicted.

(8) Advantageously, as presented in FIG. 1, a stall 1 consists of an internal space I and comprises stall separators 5-6 and front elements 10-11, tubular in this variant. The external space E is situated beyond the stall 1, to the front of the animal. Thus the vertical plane P.sub.1 delimits the internal space I with respect to the external space E at the front of the stall.

(9) The front elements 10-11 each comprise a means 12-13 for restraining the animal and depicted in grey tint and at least one anchoring means 14-15. Said restraining means 12-13 itself comprises a top rim 16-17 and an inner rim 18-19.

(10) FIG. 2 is a side view of the main movements of the animal in relation to said stall 1: an animal wishing to stand up, in accordance with FIG. 2, stretches its head forwards and downwards in a movement M1 in order to raise its hindquarters, and then makes a retraction movement M2 both towards the rear and upwards in the course of which its neck is guided by the inner rims 18-19 (the only moment when the inner rims 18-19 are fully opposite the neck of the animal), in order finally to raise itself completely in a vertical movement M3.

(11) The animal standing (shown in fine solid lines), in the process of lying down (shown in thick lines) and lying down (shown in broken lines) is illustrated in FIG. 3.

(12) When the animal is standing in the stall 1, its head passes freely above the front element 10-11, and more particularly above said top rim 16-17 of said restraining means 12-13, and its shoulders come into abutment with said restraining means 12-13, preferentially at the highest point of said restraining means 12-13.

(13) When the animal is lying in the stall 1, its head may be either below (the case depicted) or above said restraining means 12-13, but whatever the position of its head, the animal cannot pass its shoulders beyond the plane P.sub.1 because of the positioning of said restraining means 10-13. Moreover, the anti-crawl elements 30-31 depicted are in the plane P.sub.3.

(14) Finally, FIG. 4 is a front view of said stall 1 and of a part of the associated geometric reference frame. In this figure, the various typical dimensions of said stall 1 are depicted, namely: minimum separation D between said front elements 10-11, horizontal separation D′ between the anti-crawl elements 30-31 (the axis C passing visually at the middle of said horizontal separation D′ when looking at the front of the stall 1), height H between the ground and the lowest point of said anti-crawl element, vertical separation H′ between top and bottom façade element or elements.

(15) In this variant of a stall 1 where said restraining means is rectangular (and with rounded corners), the inner rims 18-19 are parallel, and have a constant minimum separation D.

(16) Nevertheless, in a variant that is not shown, said restraining means 12-13 could for example be triangular, with a separation D between the inner rims 18-19 and decreasing from the highest point of said restraining means towards the lowest point. The minimum separation D would then be measured between the highest points of said restraining means 12-13.

POSSIBILITY OF INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION

(17) It will be understood clearly that the front elements 10-11 and the front structure according to the invention apply to the stalling of animals, and more particularly to bovines, in order firstly to limit the advancement of the animal in its stall 1 and secondly to guide its standing-up and/or lying-down movements, without causing injuries.

(18) Finally, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited solely to the embodiments described; on the contrary it embraces all variant embodiments and applications complying with the same principle.