Animal food consumption monitor

摘要

A system for determining and registering the amount of food consumed in a given period of time by each of a plurality of animals, such as cattle, comprising a feed station which the animals can enter individually and separately for feeding purposes. The feed station includes a food hopper mounted on a load sensing means whose output changes as the amount of food in the hopper changes. Means, such as a photo-electric sensing device, are provided to determine the presence of an animal at the feed hopper. The actuation of the photo-electric sensing means will energize a scale weight measuring means which sends a series of pulses corresponding to the weight of food in the hopper to a consumption measuring means. Actuation of the photo-electric sensing means will also energize an interrogation coil which repeatedly sends electromagnetic pulses to the animal to actuate an identification tag attached to the animal. The tag includes a small R.F. transmitter capable of transmitting an R.F. pulse while the interrogation coil is activated. Each tag has its own source of power which will be momentarily engaged during the period of time that the interrogation coil is transmitting. One or more magnetic reed switches in the tag will be momentarily actuated by the electromagnetic pulse from the electromagnetic interrogation coil. The overall apparatus is provided with an R.F. receiver which will receive the pulses from the tag transmitter. The receiver will determine the identity of the animal by the frequency being transmitted by the tag. The receiver will sample the frequency during several time periods to eliminate an incorrect identification resulting from outside R.F. interference. The receiver will then "latch" an identification control means with the identity corresponding to the frequency transmitted by the tag. When the animal leaves the feed station, the weight of food in the hopper will be measured again and subtracted from the weight measured immediately after the animal entered the feed station. The difference between those weights is the amount consumed by the animal. With the identity provided by the identification control means, the information as to the total amount of food consumed by that given animal previous to the feeding period which just ended will be "loaded" into an "additive" means from the memory cells corresponding to that given animal. The cumulation of the amount of food consumed during the feeding period which just ended and the total "loaded" from the memory cells will be determined and "written" into the memory cells corresponding to that given animal by the additive means.