As long as i might be allowed to muddy the waters further , my speculation about this little item is that it was once part of a manually-operated assembly , designed as a spreader/stopper (used with the large end of the 'cone' pointing downwards) in a bin hopper (with a sim size hole in its' bottom) feeder , used for raising a buncha fish in sizeable 'ponds' (trout/catfish/carp/etc. 'farms') .
I've seen the modern versions of such items (-fish-feeders , that is ... yeah , they're electric now) , in the countrys' oldest fish hatchery , S.W. Missouri .
Another guess would be for feeding chickens in a 'free run' chicken hse (same basic use , manual bin stopper/spreader) .