Patent Application
20220304275
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The disclosure relates to bale feeder device and more particularly pertains to a new bale feeder device for positioning a bale receptacle off of the ground while allowing fluid, such as rainwater, to freely flow away from a bale of hay.
The prior art relates to bale feeder devices that are positioned on a ground surface and do not allow for free flow of fluid away from the bale.
An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a base comprising a horizontally orientated tire having a top wall, a bottom wall, and a perimeter wall extending between and being attached to the top and bottom walls. The top and bottom walls each have a centrally positioned opening extending therethrough. The perimeter wall has a height that is greater than 9.0 inches and the base is comprised of an elastomeric material. A feed container is positioned on and extends upwardly from the base. A hay bale is positioned in the feed container to provide feed to livestock.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.
The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:
With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to
As best illustrated in
A feed container 24 is positioned on and extends upwardly from the base 12. The feed container 24 is configured for receiving a hay bale 26, such as a round hay bale 26 which is placed on its side as is shown in
A plurality of bracing members 36 is provided and each has a first end 38 and a second end 40. Each of the first 38 and second 40 ends is attached to the bottom closed loop 28 such that the bracing members 36 traverse an area bound by the bottom closed loop 28. The bracing members 36 may be comprised of same material as a remainder of the feed container 24 and either mechanically fastened or welded to the bottom closed loop 28. The bracing members 36 may intersect an axis of the area bound by the bottom closed loop 28.
A plurality of fasteners 42 is used to secure the feed container 24 to the base 12. The fasteners 42 extend through the feed container 24 and into the base 12. In some embodiments, the fasteners 42 may extend through the bottom closed loop 28 and into the top wall 20. In an embodiment shown in
In use, the assembly 10 is used for receiving a bale such that can be used to feed livestock. The base raises the feed container off of the ground such that bale is not touching the ground and is readily accessible to livestock. The structure and shape of the feed container allows multiple ones of the assemblies 10 to be nested as is shown in
With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.
Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.
