Skid mounted multiple weaning calf enclosure

Claim 1

A skid mounted multiple weaning animal enclosure, said enclosure including an elongated floor structure having opposite end and front and rear marginal portions, a pair of elongated ground skids supported beneath and extending along said front and rear marginal portions and projecting outwardly beyond said end marginal portions, opposite end walls extending across and projecting upwardly from said end marginal portions and a rear wall extending along and projecting upwardly from said rear marginal portion and joining the rear ends of said end walls, a roof structure extending between and interconnecting the upper marginal portions of said rear and end walls, a plurality of upstanding posts spaced along said front marginal portion and between said end walls and supporting corresponding marginal portions of said roof structure from said front marginal portion, a front-to-rear extending upstanding partition extending between each of said posts and a corresponding portion of said rear wall, horizontally swingable gate means removably closing the forward end of each area disposed between adjacent partitions and each end wall and the adjacent partition each of said areas including a plurality of front-to-rear extending supplemental partitions dividing each area into a plurality of individual animal stalls, whereby each gate means removably closes the forward ends of a plurality of individual animal stalls, said floor structure defining front-to-rear extending slots therein of sufficient width to allow substantial amounts of manure to fall through said slots, at least one set of corresponding ends of said ground skids including means for anchoring one or more tow members thereto preparatory to skidding said enclosure lengthwise over the ground a distance at least equal to the length of said enclosure, and further wherein each of said gate means includes upstanding free-swinging and hinged edge portions, said hinged edge portions being defined by upstanding rod members, adjacent gate means being disposed with the rod members thereof in closely spaced side-by-side relation, each pair of closely spaced rod members being pivotally supported from a corresponding post by staples driven into the post and rotatably receiving the rod members therethrough.