By Graham Leader
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09 Aug, 2023
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