Patent ID: 8166917

Claim:
An animal-activated feeding system for dispensing a liquid feed to a vessel, the feeding system comprising: a self-sealing valve assembly adapted to deliver a flow of the liquid feed and further adapted to be selectively configured between at least a sealed configuration and a dispensing configuration, wherein the valve assembly is biased to the sealed configuration and comprises: a valve body defining a feed flow path including an outlet flow path, wherein the valve body comprises an outlet defining the outlet flow path and configured to dispense the feed into the vessel; a valve member configured to selectively obstruct the feed flow path; and a feed-flow activation member coupled to the valve member, upwardly extending generally away from the valve body, and configured to be selectively positioned between a sealed position and a range of activated positions, wherein in the sealed configuration of the valve assembly, the activation member is positioned in the sealed position to prevent the flow of liquid feed from passing the valve member, wherein in the dispensing configuration of the valve assembly, the activation member is positioned within the range of activated positions to permit the flow of liquid feed to pass the valve member, and further wherein the feed-flow activation member has a central axis; and wherein the outlet flow path has a central axis within a plane generally perpendicular to the central axis of the activation member when the activation member is in the sealed position, and further wherein the outlet is adapted to dispense the feed in a discrete stream into the vessel.