Withers bar for cattle stall

Abstract

The invention relates to a curved withers bar allowing for width adjustment of cattle stalls. Figure for the abstract: Figure 1

Description

Title of the invention: Withers bar for cattle stalls

[0001] The invention relates to a curved withers bar allowing width adjustment of cattle stalls.

[0002] Conventionally, the withers bars which are used to prevent the animal from moving too far into a cubicle when it comes to settle there, are made of straight tubes.

[0003] In recent years, alternative versions to these straight bars have appeared: production in materials other than steel (flexible cable, plastic, movable bars with vertical movement); and the appearance of new shapes such as curved bars.

[0004] All these solutions are intended to improve the comfort of cattle when they arrive in the stalls and especially when they get up. Indeed, it is common for wither bars that are poorly positioned: too low, or too far back, to be hit by the cattle when it gets up. Conversely, a wither bar that is too far forward will allow the animal to lie down too far forward in the stall and its excrement risks falling back into the stall instead of into the scraper gutter generally extending to the rear of these stalls.

[0005] The withers bar must therefore serve as a limiter of progress in the cubicle, but must not hinder the movements of the cow when it gets up.

[0006] Curved wither bars, thanks to their inverted U shape, allow the animal more room to move and therefore more comfort. The shape can vary from an inverted "V" to a more "U" shape, but the principle remains the same.

[0007] Today, practically all stall manufacturers offer curved wither bars, with a few special features.

[0008] Most French manufacturers offer curved bars designed to fit two cubicles, as shown below:

[0009] For manufacturers offering curved tourniquet bars made up of a series of 2 bends, the interest is to make installation easier and faster (less adjustment during installation) as well as more economical manufacturing (a single bending machine cycle to manufacture 2 places). On the other hand, with curved bars made in multiples of places, it is impossible to adjust the individual width of each place.

[0010] However, a breeder may have to modify the width of his stalls during his career. Indeed, even if breeders generally predetermine a certain width for their stalls (adapted to the size of his animals, their age, etc.), it may happen that for reasons of improving animal comfort or changing the size of the animals housed in the building (change of breed, change of age, etc.) the breeder may need to modify the width of his cubicles.

[0011] With straight tourniquet bars, this is not a problem: simply loosen the fasteners that connect the sidewalls to the tourniquet bar; reposition these sidewalls to give the cubicles the desired width by sliding the tourniquet bar, then tighten the fasteners.

[0012] On the other hand, with the curved withers bars currently found on the market (whose dimension is fixed and determined so that the curved portion is in the center), it is impossible to reduce or widen the width of the cubicle: at a pinch, for the first cubicle in a series of juxtaposed cubicles, this will slightly offset the withers bar, but in the following cubicles this offset will very quickly become more pronounced. The breeder will then have no other choice than to buy new curved withers bars with a center distance corresponding to the new width chosen for his cubicles.

[0013] Moreover, there are so-called "floating" cubicles, specially designed to be adjustable in width (each sidewall is then not fixed individually to a post, but mounted on horizontal bars (which are themselves fixed to the posts). To increase or reduce the width of the cubicle, it is sufficient to loosen the fixings and slide the sidewalls along the horizontal bars. Curved withers bars of fixed width cannot be fitted to this type of floating cubicle since, in fact, the withers bars would have to be changed whenever the breeder wants to change the width of his cubicles.

[0014] To continue with the design differences between manufacturers, some propose as a method of joining portions of the tubes, a male-female type fitting, as visible in [Fig.2], by making a constriction on one of the ends of the curved bar.

[0015] The others, as shown in Figures 1 and 3, use a sleeve in the form of a clamping flange, with a diameter greater than that of the tube of the tourniquet bar, in which the ends are housed, as visible in the following figures:

[0016] Furthermore, the fitting between two withers bars is carried out in most cases directly above the sidewall; at the level of the fixing flange. In such a design, the curved withers bars are not firmly connected to each other. That is to say, if a cow, individually installed in its cubicle, pushes on the curved part of the withers bar, it will be able quite easily, thanks to the lever arm defined by the curved portion, to turn it in the flanges and deregulate it, as can be seen in the photo in the following figure.

[0017] In this photo, it is visible depending on the places, the curved portion of the withers bar is not at the same height in comparison with the curved portion of the withers bar of the adjacent cubicles, because the cows have raised them in places.

[0018] To prevent this, the fixing flanges at the height of the side walls may include through-hole locking screws that immobilize the tourniquet bars in rotation. Once the tourniquet bar has been drilled to be passed through by these rotation-locking screws, there is no longer any possibility of adjusting the height of its curved portion, unless the screw is removed, the tourniquet bar is turned to reach the correct height of the curved portion, the flanges are tightened, and the tourniquet bar is re-drilled to allow the rotation-locking screw to pass through again, which has the consequence of locally weakening the tourniquet bar, or even creating oblong holes that no longer ensure real rotational locking of the tourniquet bar in said tightening flanges.

[0019] It is this observation which led the applicant to seek a solution to propose a tourniquet bar which is both curved and adjustable, in accordance with the following figures:

[0020] Thus, the invention relates to a tourniquet bar designed to extend over two half-lodges and comprising two half-hangers extending on either side of a junction portion defined to be fixed to a sidewall by means of a fixing flange identified as a Titan fixing in the drawings.

[0021] A sleeve ensures the connection of two successive tourniquet bars, in accordance with the invention, at the height of their half-arch, one of which ensures the extension of the other at the height of the median plane of a cubicle, that is to say halfway between the side walls delimiting this cubicle on either side.

[0022] Thanks to this sleeve, which can be replaced by a male-female socket as explained above, it is possible to cover several widths of cubicles.

[0023] Most commonly these stalls have a width between 1150 and 1250 mm. A single model of tourniquet bar according to the invention makes it possible to cover all these widths, when the solutions according to the state of the art require several models of different lengths. In this regard, these known curved tourniquet bars are usually offered in lengths distinguished by a step of 50 mm (generally 3 models: 1150, 1200 and 1250 mm).

[0024] This advantage is also valid during assembly. Indeed, it is not uncommon for the cubicles not all to strictly respect the planned width when they are installed (one may be a little narrower than the next, etc.). If the non-adjustable curved withers bars of the state of the art hardly tolerate these variations in cubicle width, the withers bar according to the invention makes it possible to compensate for them without difficulty.

[0025] As already explained above, it is possible to substitute a male-female type fitting for the assembly sleeve of two tourniquet bars. in particular one of the ends of the tourniquet bar, in short at the end of one of the half-archs ending on either side of this tourniquet bar, it is possible to make a constriction so that it can engage in the end of the half-arch of an adjacent tourniquet bar. In short, a tourniquet bar has at one of its ends a constriction and at the other not in a manner similar to [Fig.2].

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