Animal husbandry – Animal controlling or handling – Animal relocating – loading or unloading
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-10
2001-08-28
Price, Thomas (Department: 3643)
Animal husbandry
Animal controlling or handling
Animal relocating, loading or unloading
Reexamination Certificate
active
06279512
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to animal husbandry and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for sorting livestock animals.
At various stages in their life cycle and development, livestock animals such as pigs, cattle, sheep, and poultry are housed in discrete locations for feeding, breeding, processing and transport.
In the hog industry, for example, newborn piglets may initially be contained in a gestation area and thereafter routed to a nursery area for further development. At a later stage, certain hogs may be culled from the population based on specific characteristics and routed to other processing areas. Eventually, the mature hogs will be routed for loading onto transportation vehicles.
The relocation of livestock animals causes numerous problems for the animals as well as for the industry workers. Livestock animals under such conditions are stressed by many factors including changes in their environment, feed, and weather conditions. However, stress involved in physically relocating the livestock animals is regarded as the most detrimental. Moreover, the physical exertion, fatigue, and frustration associated with relocating livestock makes it one of the least desirable tasks for workers in the industry.
Traditionally, in the hog industry the worker has utilized a handheld barrier or panel to herd the animals in the desired direction and block their movement to an unwanted area. Such handheld barriers were often made of iron or steel and were extremely heavy and inconvenient for this purpose. Because pigs are resistive and become agitated and stressed in response to this forced movement, they tend to avoid the handheld barriers and the process becomes tedious and frustrating. Moreover, this blocking technique must be directed at only one animal at a time.
Under these conditions the animal often impacts the barrier causing in injury to both the animal and the worker resulting in obvious economic losses.
Thus, the present invention has been developed to provide a method and apparatus for solving these problems and other shortcomings of the prior art.
DESCRIPTION OF RELATED PRIOR ART
U.S. Pat. No. 2,835,223 to L. A. Erickson discloses an enclosure assembly for livestock wherein a plurality of hingedly interconnected, chain linked panels are adapted for adjustable connection with a permanently installed fence frame to permit the temporary setup of an animal enclosure of a desired configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,136,641 to Herbert F. Hoffinan discloses a livestock sorting gate having a chute forming a path for guiding animals toward a pair of pens disposed in opposite relation to another laterally of the path for receiving animals being guided down the chute.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,552,096 to William J. Forrest discloses a sorting gate assembly adapted for use in cooperation with a holding pen including a sorting and a gate support assembly. The sorting gate is moveably supported on the gate support assembly for movement within the holding pen to sort a selective animal and to move the sorted animal to an exit area portion of the holding pen.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,092 to Wayne N. Pederson discloses a cow and calf catcher and hauler assembly including an outer catcher pen, an inner platform and a cow chute and a calf pen. The outer catcher pen has a pair of opposite side walls and an end wall extending between and connected at opposite ends to the side walls for defining an openable and closeable enclosed area. One of the side walls of the outer side wall catcher pen is pivotally connected to one end of the end walls so as to function as an outside swingable gate adapted to undergo swinging movement between open and closed positions relative to the other of the opposite side walls thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,685 to Donald L. Hopkins discloses an apparatus for the handling of sheep which includes a circular pen having two barricades each radially aligned within the pen and being supported and aligned relative to an inlet and an outlet and with drive means connected to one of the movable barricades so that sheep can be urged through an outlet while another portion of the pen behind the moving barricade can be filled with sheep.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,381,797 to Herman D. Caspers discloses a stock separator for separating hogs of different sizes and ages. This invention includes a rectangular frame wherein a pair of opposed doors including pivoting rollers are mounted. The rollers are adjustable to permit hogs of certain sizes only to pass through a gate to obtain access to feed troughs.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,050,527 to Christian Grabe discloses an animal chute for separating animals having a given characteristic from a common flock. This invention includes a portable fence having a plurality of hinged sections which is attached at one end thereof to a lane construction wherethrough animals such as a flock of sheep are driven. The portable fence is swingable between the walls defining the lane to divert specific animals such as lambs to a separate enclosure for processing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,072,099 to Glenn M. Stevens discloses a so-called cutting gate for sheep, hogs and the like which may be used to block off animals in a chute and which will accommodate chutes of different widths.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
After much study of the above described problems, the present invention has been developed to provide a method and apparatus for sorting livestock within an enclosure and moving the sorted animals to an exit area portion of the enclosure. As shown in the accompanying drawings, the present invention includes an elongated, flexible barrier which is removeably attached at one end thereof adjacent the exit opening in a perimeter wall enclosure. Initially, the barrier is folded or rolled up for convenient handling being gripped at the upper portions thereof by a worker. After being attached adjacent the exit area by suitable attaching hardware the barrier is unfolded as the worker moves to a remote position within the enclosure so as to separate and sort the animals within the confines of the barrier and the exit containing wall.
After the animals are separated, the worker moves the barrier along the perimeter wall and refolds the barrier as its effective length is shortened thereby decreasing the enclosed the area and moving the animals toward the exit.
Once the animals have exited the enclosure, the barrier is completely refolded for storage or it may be conveniently transported to other locations for reuse.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for sorting and moving livestock animals within an enclosure to an exit portion of the enclosure.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a lightweight, flexible barrier which may be deployed by a single worker to sort animals within an enclosure and which is foldable as the barrier is moved about the enclosed area reducing its effective length and the confined area of the enclosure within the barrier.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a flexible barrier for use within a livestock enclosure to which the animals are not resistive resulting in reduced agitation and stress to the animals.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a flexible barrier for use in sorting animals within a livestock enclosure that will not cause physical injury to the animals upon contact therewith.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent and obvious from a study of the following description and the accompanying drawings which are merely illustrative of such invention.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1182018 (1916-05-01), Koenig
patent: 3921586 (1975-11-01), Sweeney et al.
patent: 4006714 (1977-02-01), Goossen
patent: 4997127 (1991-03-01), McEwen
Mills Law Firm PLLC
Price Thomas
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