Animal husbandry – Bed or rest
Patent
1998-11-04
2000-11-28
Swiatek, Robert P.
Animal husbandry
Bed or rest
119526, 56555, A01K 1015
Patent
active
061520772
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to bedding for livestock such as cattle and horses.
Ever since animal husbandry began in prehistoric times, farmers have recognized the importance of shelter and bedding in the comfort and well-being of their livestock. The predominant form of bedding has always been straw, largely in view of its ready availability to farmers who have historically obtained straw from their own land. It is, of course, also entirely possible to bring in straw from elsewhere; this option is becoming increasingly common.
In modern farming, straw bedding is typically spread in a thick layer upon a solid floor of concrete or stone in a suitable shelter. The shelter may, for example, house a covered straw yard, within which animals can congregate and move relatively freely, or rows of cubicles, within which animals are segregated side-by-side. The straw cushions the floor, affording warmth, support and hence comfort to a recumbent animal through the creation of an ergonomic shape corresponding to the shape and weight distribution of the animal. The straw also absorbs the animal's excreta in the form of feces and urine and so, for reasons of hygiene, it must be removed and replaced with fresh straw after the animal has used the bedding for a few days.
Straw is a renewable natural resource that can be recycled after use by being spread onto and ploughed into fields, for example in addition to slurry including processed animal excreta washed from the animal shelter when the soiled straw is removed. However, renewing and recycling straw is expensive in view of the sheer volume of straw that is required to run a large farm. By way of illustration, the Inventor's herd of between three and four hundred cows incurs straw costs currently in excess of .English Pound.40,000 per annum: well over .English Pound.100 per cow per year.
The cost of the straw itself is not the only cost associated with the use of straw; the labor costs involved in handling straw before and after use, together with storage and transport costs before use and recycling costs after use, all militate against the use of straw.
In recent years, recycled rubber material has been used in the form of flexible matting as a component of animal bedding but this still requires the use of straw for cushioning purposes.
In view of these drawbacks, the Inventor has investigated other forms of animal bedding with the aim of finding bedding that does not employ straw and that has a fifteen- to twenty-year service life, and has alighted upon fluid-filled beds as an alternative to straw. His investigations have revealed that a fluid-filled bed has already been proposed specifically for the care of piglets, but that this prior proposal is deficient in several respects.
Specifically, a water bed for piglets is disclosed in a French patent application published in 1992 under the serial number 2,672,966 in the name of Galvelpor S. A. In Galvelpor's patent application, the water bed comprises a labyrinthine channel of resilient tubes through which heated water flows, the purpose of the labyrinth being to equalize temperature across the bed. The tubes lie upon a rigid insulating base in side-by-side disposition connected at their ends, and may be covered by a metal plate, for example of aluminum, so that the tubes will not be flattened (which would restrict the flow of water) or damaged if the bed is used for older and thus heavier animals.
Galvelpor's water bed would be quite unsuitable for use as bedding for livestock as a substitute for straw, even if it was scaled up in size. For instance, as the metal plate must be substantially rigid, the emphasis of Galvelpor's water bed is clearly upon heating rather than comfort. If the metal plate of Galvelpor's water bed is removed to expose the resilient upper surface defined by the tubes, it will be noted that the upper surface undulates in a series of valleys which would retain excreta to the detriment of comfort, cleaning and hygiene. Furthermore, as noted above, a heavy animal lying on the bed would flatten the tubes a
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