1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cattle stanchions with at least two parallel bars, one of which is pivotally mounted to admit and restrain the head of an animal, but more particularly, this invention relates to sets of cattle stanchions connected in an essentially straight line whereby two or more heads of cattle may be simultaneously locked or released by an attendant by movement of a single element.
2. Prior Art
A cattle stanchion is basically a frame that surrounds the head of an animal. A variety of such stanchions are commonly used today in the feeding of cattle, especially where numerous cattle are fed at one time so that each animal may be presented with an allocated amount of food and restrained in the feeding position while other animals may be individually released and segregated from the herd without the need to chase and isolate them by horse and lasso as was done in bygone years. This is particularly true in modern dairy operations where proper feeding of cattle is not only economically important, but are also milking operations and routine veterinary maintenance which requires that the animals be restrained.
A variety of cattle stanchions have emerged as prior art which disclose an essentially coplanar frame of vertical and horizontal bars in combination with automatically locking devices to admit, restrain or manually release the heads of cattle. The animal is enticed to place its head through the frame in order to reach the food which is usually placed in a trough on the other side. As the animal lowers its head to reach the food, the neck generally comes into contact with a movable stanchion bar and thereby causing it to lock into a vertical position. The head and neck of the animal is then free to move up and down, but not backwards or sideways, resulting in the animal's confinement.
However, virtually all known locking mechanisms of prior art stanchions that utilize couplers, pulleys or sliding rails in combination with springs, clips, pegs or pins cause excessive wear to these components and even an occasional injury to attendants or cattle. For example, the stanchions that use locking devices of springs and clips against a peg or pin are subjected to constant wear as the animal lowers and raises its head to feed. The tremendous force of the animal's neck exerted on the locking vertical stanchion bar is pulsated to these components and causes a chiseling effect which often severs a peg or pin. Even stanchions that use sliding rails and couplers have the same problems. Their latching devices become worn resulting in dangerous defects that need constant maintenance and repair.
Then, too, there is the problem with stanchion safety. Some locking devices actually require an attendant to place his fingers inside a pulley housing to release a spring clip from a peg. If an animal should violently move at that instant, the force of the animal's neck upon the vertical stanchion bar can result in the pulley being thrust laterally against the attendant's fingers causing a serious injury. The same is true with the stanchions that use a coupler in combination with a sliding rail. Where an attendant is required to manually release a coupling mechanism mounted directly on a rail, it can be forcefully thrown to the side by the animal, causing serious injury to the attendant.
Cattle have also been killed by stanchions. They are not the smartest animals and sometimes incorrectly position their heads between the wrong bars of poorly designed stanchions. Some animals will attempt to lie down while in the stanchion, resulting in oblique positioning of their necks and resulting in strangulation.
Accordingly, it is the general object of the present invention to provide a self-locking and manually unlocking cattle stanchion with a simplified locking device that requires minimal maintenance and repair, yet is strong enough to restrain full grown cattle and resist wear.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a cattle stanchion whereby cattle may be fed when the stanchion is either locked or unlocked without injury by incorrectly positioning their heads or lying or falling down.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a cattle stanchion where individual animals may lock themselves into the stanchion when a locking mechanism is in a locked position, but may not lock themselves into the stanchion when the locking mechanism is in an unlocked position.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a locking mechanism for a cattle stanchion whereby all animals may be simultaneously released or individual animals may be safely released by an attendant without injury to the attendant.
The present invention achieves these objectives.