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How it Works
Goals
Eliminate spills from splashing, dunk overflow and miscellaneous
playing
Maximize drinking comfort and water flow to encourage
maximum water consumption
Minimize maintenance requirements.
Zero Spill
A simple common sense solution: Dont stop the Splashing, Just
stop the Spilling.
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The Kendu Zero Spill
waterbowl does not try to stop the splashing. Splashing is only
a problem if the water makes it out of the bowl. The KZS simply
stops the splashes from leaving the waterbowl.
A cow splashes because she
is bored and the only toy she has to play with is her waterbowl.
Changing a cows natural behavior is difficult if not impossible.
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Some methods
currently used involve spring coils or inward bent rims.
These are ineffective and make drinking uncomfortable.
Cows are still able to fill the water level up to the
rim and lap it out or dunk their muzzles in to overflow
it. |
The Kendu Zero Spill is
radically different than the conventional shallow rigid
waterbowl. Water is contained in an extremely deep bucket made
from a flexible rubber compound. A high flow tube valve is
located inside the deep bucket. The animal activates the valve
by pushing it in any direction. The water level is maintained at
about 2 inches in the bottom of the bucket. An animal cannot
raise the water level above this unless they submerge their
nostrils to access the valve.
The distance from the
water surface to the rim of the bucket is at least 10 inches.
The water volume is similar to standard waterbowls, however the
remaining volume of the bucket is intended only to keep splashes
contained. When an animal splashes, there is no chance of the
water escaping straight up over 10 inches to spill out.
Comfortable Access
A traditional rigid waterbowl must be shallow to fit within the
dividers of
most tie stalls, and still allow enough
room above the bowl (24) for a cow to access her water. The
flexible bucket of the Zero Spill allows her access to the water
in a different way. It flexes sideways towards the cow when she
puts her face into it so that the stall divider is no longer in
the way and she essentially has her own private waterbowl. The
distance between the rim and the divider should still be
maximized for the cows comfort but even with 3 of space a cow
can still reach her water.
See picture at left.
High Flow Valve
An
additional goal of the design is to increase the water
consumption of high
producing cows. Cows can drink a large
amount of water very quickly if it is available. If the water
flow is too high in a traditional waterbowl it is likely to
splash out of the shallow bowl, so valves must be restricted to
reduce the flow rate. Cows are sometimes impatient with the slow
flow and stop drinking. In the deep bowl of the Zero Spill, the
valve can be unrestricted to allow maximum flow. The SF2002
valve has a restrictor that can be removed to allow up to 25
litres per minute at 50 psi. Cows can now fill up quickly and
comfortably. Milk production will not be limited by the lack of
water consumption.
Self Cleaning
The high rim of the bucket reduces the chance of a cow lifting
feed into the
bucket. The high flow valve scours the
bottom of the bowl to keep it clean. The high flow also keeps
small particles of feed suspended in the water so that they are
swallowed by the cow.
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