Ranch Rover, Ranch Rover, send feed rations on over.
Tech company Smooth Ag is creating a butler for cattle of sorts. The company has developed V1 Ranch Rover, a fully autonomous feeder, aimed to help with higher input costs and decreased labor availability.
The Ranch Rover is powered by a 24.9 horsepower Honda engine and can haul up to a ton of feed. It can even traverse rugged pastures with its four-wheel drive. It’ll stay in bounds with a geo-fence set up by the “driver” and can avoid obstacles.
“It’s going to be the first-ever pastureland autonomous cattle feeding rover,” says Hunter Allemand, co-founder of Smooth Ag. “Think about your flatbed truck with your trip hopper or whatever you use on the ranch to supplement pasture feeding. This is just an autonomous version.”
Data-driven: When the rover moves around its pasture, it can collect data and notify the owner when it runs out of feed. Future designs are expected to have the unit return to the feed collection point and get more.
The rovers are in development now and are taking pre-orders on their website.
