Reducing Noise in the Cattle Industry: Filling the Gap with Last Mile Integrations

Thomas Wallner editor@grahamleader.com The Graham Economic Investment Corporation and the city of Graham signed off on providing $38,500 to make Graham the home of Smooth Ag Solutions, which will produce automated rovers to aid ranchers with the feeding process, livestock monitoring and data collection. In the Graham City Council meeting Thursday, May 25, the council approved the creation of the project for the GEIC which came with a 60-day waiting period. During that period, the GEIC validated the contract, published a public notice, developed a performance agreement and finally signed off on the project Thursday, Aug. 3. Assistant City Manager Grant Ingram said the city was able to determine a location for the business on Rocky Mountain Road. He said the company will be required under the performance agreement to adhere to certain requirements. “We have located a warehouse with the square footage that they are requesting. We have coordinated that through to them and we’re just excited to essentially alleviate the headache of the initial upfront cost of finding a location in that first year of lease payments,” Ingram said in May. “…We of course cannot just give out free money to a business. There are parameters that they will have to meet in order to not owe us that money back essentially. Part of that is going to be the creation of primary jobs, which is what our Economic Development Corporation is intended for. We’re also going to see significant capital investment. ...This is just a way to help bring a business to Graham that could really be a breakthrough in the AI cattle agricultural industry.” The company will be required to make at least $100,000 in capital improvements as part of the performance agreement. A provision was also made for the creation of jobs in the agreement, according to Ingram during the Aug. 3 GEIC meeting. “That’s going to be a part of that lease reimbursement portion. They’ll be required to create five new jobs within… the first two years,” he said. During the May council meeting, Ingram said the total number of jobs estimated in two-to-five years is 20-30, depending on how quickly they’re able to scale their business. The company is starting with the Ranch Rover, which is an autonomous feed rover for pastureland cattle. Ingram said the device uses state-of-the-art technology to assist ranchers with various tasks. “It’s all artificial intelligence driven. (Where) it senses the fences are it’s going to drop X amount of pounds of your feed throughout the yard, if you will,” he said in the May meeting. “It actually has the technology to count your cattle, find your water sources. It can do body temperatures of the cows to let you know if there’s any sickness that may be going through your herd. The technology is just incredible.” The company has an agreement with Oklahoma State University on sharing the data and working together on the rover. Founder and CEO of the company, River McTasney, said the company will have delivery of their first production model in November or December which will go to OSU. McTasney said OSU has an over 1,000-acre ranch for research which the students will be involved with regarding the device. “We have a computer vision part of this where it looks with a wide angle lens (and) we can see a lot of the cattle that are around. We’re partnered with a big computer vision company called Plainsight. They’re out of San Francisco and the CEO is over in Fort Worth. They own the patents on a lot of that livestock stuff. …The data that OSU can use from this and us is pretty incredible,” he said. The company is working in conjunction with Trip Hopper Range Cattle Feeders of Jermyn and will manufacture the vehicles in Graham to possibly ship across the world. McTasney said in the GEIC meeting that the company has around 35-plus validated customers who have inquired and many wanted to see a test model. “Now it’s just up to us to deliver something that people can get their hands on and see up close and get delivered to them,” he said. “On the funding side, I know that’s the biggest question. That is also the hardest thing out of all of this. We’re getting better and better at making those relationships with investors. ...We’re currently in the process for a $500,000 investment with a VC (venture capital) out of California. The latest update I have on it, there’s been a phone interview, there’s been an in-person interview, both of those went good... so we’ll see how that pans out. ...We have the money to operate through the end of this production unit, and possibly even past that with what we have right now.” The company is in its first year of operation, but Ingram said in May that the opportunity for Graham could be tremendous. “I’m excited about this,” he said. “I think it’s a great opportunity to be able to say that these are manufactured in Graham, America. It is something that we can be proud of and it’s giving somebody a start here in Graham to establish their business and really see what the future holds for them.” https://www.newsbreak.com/graham-tx/3115876637703-city-approves-funding-for-graha  m-headquarters-of-self-driving-ranch-rover

Building robots and feeding cows is exactly what the founders of Smooth Ag Solutions, River McTasney and Hunter Allemand, are known for. This Texas-based agricultural company launched the V1 Ranch Rover, an autonomous feeder with rangeland capabilities. McTasney, a Haskell County Farm Bureau member, came up with the idea while he was feeding his cows. “Growing up in agriculture, I don’t think a lot of people outside of ranching understand that agriculture forces you to be a problem solver,” McTasney said. “You work on your own stuff. You build your own stuff. You have to fix your own stuff. The margins don’t allow for you to outsource outside help and pushes you to solve things on your own.” A large time commitment for ranchers is feeding cattle, and ranchers know time equals money. The Ranch Rover was designed with the rancher in mind to be efficient and labor-saving. Smooth Ag Solutions developed a way to augment the task of feeding cattle to save time for ranchers to work on other tasks. The robot is powered by an internal combustion engine and equipped with a trip hopper that can hold up to one ton of feed. With GPS communications, the Ranch Rover runs off real-time kinematic positioning, allowing the rancher to build geo-fence parameters and set feed times through the GPS. Ranchers can program the robot to go on “missions” that are scheduled routes for the Ranch Rover to feed cattle on certain routes at certain times. The independent front suspension robot with four-wheel drive can even navigate rough terrain to feed cattle. The Ranch Rover saves cattle ranchers 15 to 20 hours a week, if not more, from time spent driving around the ranch and calling up cattle, McTasney said. This time saved allows ranchers to work on higher value tasks or spend quality time with their families. “Ranching is a traditional industry. The Ranch Rover creates an opportunity for ranchers to focus on what really matters, and at the end of the day, it’s the cheapest ranch hand you’ll find,” Allemand said. “Just like we’re traditional in how we work and operate, we view our families in the same way, and that time is really valuable.” Bringing robotics to more mundane tasks like pasture feeding offers new ways to maximize ranchers’ time and workflow. The Ranch Rover can also collect data on cattle and rangelands to help make management decisions. Cattle must be fed no matter the weather conditions—rain, sweltering heat or freezing temperatures. The Ranch Rover faces those conditions for ranchers, too. Labor shortages have plagued agriculture, but Smooth Ag Solutions has embraced those challenges and created solutions through technology. “When we look at the difference between a ranch and a farm, technology is lacking on the ranch side,” Allemand said. “Most of the investments are in animal health and animal science, not so much tools for ranchers to use. Not everyone can afford to pay someone to feed cattle. We’re giving ranchers another tool to have in their toolbox.” Smooth Ag Solutions is applying modern technology to traditional ranch practices through the Ranch Rover and paving the way to bridge the gap between traditional agricultural methods and new, modern technology. “At the end of the day, what we’re doing is taking a bunch of things that already exist and packaging them together to make a new solution tailored specifically to agriculture,” McTasney said. “The biggest challenge is helping ranchers understand how this tool can be integrated on their operation. This tool isn’t replacing the human aspect of ranching and tradition but finding solutions to make ranching better.” The Ranch Rover isn’t the Mars Rover, but it has piqued the interest of ranchers in the U.S. and those as far as Argentina and Paraguay. And maybe one day soon you’ll see a large white cattle feeder driving itself in a pasture near you and know that it was developed by a young Texas rancher. https://texasfarmbureau.org/  young-texas-ranchers-develop-ranch-rover/

Last time on AI in Plainsight, I spoke to Smooth Ag’s CEO, River McTasney, and Head of Corporate Development, Hunter Allemand about the origins of their business, the capabilities of their autonomous Ranch Rover, and computer vision’s power to drive additional AgTech innovation. In the conclusion to our discussion, we dig deeper into computer vision’s growing role in transforming the lives of ranchers and farmers.

Computer vision is cultivating transformative growth across the agricultural space by helping ranchers and farmers generate predictive insights, automate key processes, and more. Cutting-edge solutions are improving crop yields, enabling a higher quality of care for livestock animals, and refining timeworn practices for a new era. SmoothAg is one enterprise leveraging real-time video analytics to augment the capabilities of the agricultural workforce and drive AI-powered innovation. Their new Ranch Rover not only navigates terrain to autonomously make feed deliveries, but also collects visual data with the help of computer vision. In a new two-part podcast conversation, I’m joined by SmoothAg CEO, River McTasney, and Head of Corporate Development, Hunter Allemand. Part 1 of the discussion focuses on the expertise Allemand and McTasney bring to SmoothAg, the origins of their business, the impressive capabilities of their autonomous Ranch Rover, and more of the exciting changes enabled by emerging tech like computer vision.

How Does AI Play a Role in Ranching?

The idea for a robotic machine to feed livestock came from Texas rancher River McTasney, who claims he’s been riding around in a feed truck his entire life. He went looking for a way to automate the monotonous chore and the result is the V1 Ranch Rover. After McTasney launched his prototype, it came to the attention of investor and consultant Hunter Allemand. The pair soon joined forces and became co-owners and founders of the specialized vehicle. “It’s essentially a pickup truck without the cab,” says Allemand. “It’s made completely from steel with a feeding bin and platform. It has all-wheel drive that uses a hydraulic propulsion system taking mechanical energy from a Honda gas motor and turning it into hydraulic wheel power. It’s great in mud and on hills. In our demos, we take it to different geographies and weather systems to show how robust it is.” Allemand says sensors and cameras guide the vehicle and the GPS tracker helps it arrive at the proper destination. Routes are preprogrammed as part of the company’s onboarding setup. “It’s smart enough for object avoidance too,” Allemand says. “If something like a small calf is in the route, it will wait for it to move, or try to drive around it. It would never run over it. It even has a horn along with a siren to call the cattle to feed.” The Ranch Rover comes equipped with a computer and phone app to run and schedule missions. While it’s currently focused on feeding livestock, they’re hoping to add machine learning and adapt the software to be intuitive enough to count and eventually identify sick animals. A companion drone to act as eyes for the Rover, helping to check fences and water sources and locate missing cattle, is also in the works. “We’re ready for customers now but as a special opportunity,” Allemand says. “We’re not trying to force the market but want to improve our quality and add reliable features. It’s pretty bulletproof, but not completely right now.” The company, Smooth Ag. Solutions, has decided to use a leasing option as a way for all ranchers to get in on a flat monthly payment and receive both service and maintenance. A purchase opportunity will also be available with the cost of the unit roughly mirroring the price of a new pickup truck. https://www.farmshow.com/a_article.php?aid=38148

Ranch Rover, Ranch Rover, send feed rations on over.