I see several problems here, and without knowing what the antenna style is its back to blue sky dreaming.
The larger the antenna loop the greater the dead spot hole in the center is, this becomes a problem with close range readings.
Then a smaller antenna loop the lesser the range it has, so there will always be a trade off.
The next problem is the orientation of the antenna to best suit the tag orientation, yet another trade off, as suitable mounting locations are limited.
In many ways the best location for the coils would be in the trough itself, this could be done with a fiberglass insert and the coils embedded or attached to the underside of the insert.
The idea would be to keep the read range to a minimum and aim for reads when the animal bobs it head down to eat, while its day dreaming as many are in the photo they may be just outside the read range.
The quantity of steel reinforcement in the concrete needs to be considered too, as this will add to detuning the antennas regardless of their location.
Can you give a antenna size and the read range expected from it, so we have a mental image of size constraints to active read distance.
This entire project starts with the antennas, the rest is just down line handling from there on.
Get the antenna part wrong and its a fast slippery down hill slide from there on too.
The larger the antenna loop the greater the dead spot hole in the center is, this becomes a problem with close range readings.
Then a smaller antenna loop the lesser the range it has, so there will always be a trade off.
The next problem is the orientation of the antenna to best suit the tag orientation, yet another trade off, as suitable mounting locations are limited.
In many ways the best location for the coils would be in the trough itself, this could be done with a fiberglass insert and the coils embedded or attached to the underside of the insert.
The idea would be to keep the read range to a minimum and aim for reads when the animal bobs it head down to eat, while its day dreaming as many are in the photo they may be just outside the read range.
The quantity of steel reinforcement in the concrete needs to be considered too, as this will add to detuning the antennas regardless of their location.
Can you give a antenna size and the read range expected from it, so we have a mental image of size constraints to active read distance.
This entire project starts with the antennas, the rest is just down line handling from there on.
Get the antenna part wrong and its a fast slippery down hill slide from there on too.