Solar Powered, Autonomous Chicken Tractor Drive

Solar Powered, Autonomous Chicken Tractor Drive No more getting up early to push or pull your chicken tractor around the pasture. The ClusterCluck Drive will do it for you. The programmable, solar-powered, autonomous drive unit can be mounted on any chicken tractor or pasture coop with a towing weight under 600 lbs. The ClusterCluck Drive is the latest innovation from Zack Smith, an Iowa farmer and entrepreneur (Vol. 45, No. 6).  “After more than 7 years developing larger (ClusterCluck Pico) and smaller (ClusterCluck Nano) autonomous chicken tractors, we’re focused on providing an autonomous drive unit that anyone can use,” says Smith. “A lot of people have small, movable pens of chickens or pigs, but you have to be physically capable and present to move them. Our drive unit eliminates those concerns.” A year ago, Smith was considering giving up on his goal of personalized protein production. After posting about his situation on X and Facebook, he received a call. A venture capitalist and investor in multiple startups was on his way to Singapore when he saw the post. “He told me that he wanted to be a part of our effort,” recalls Smith. “He described his mother, in her mid-70s, facing difficulties moving her chicken tractor. He thought our drive unit would be the solution she needed.” Smith decided to focus on the drive unit he’d introduced at several field days the previous year. By fall, he’d secured an engineer to do the necessary work and a company to fabricate the drive. “We put a lot of effort into a simple and functional design,” says Smith. The result was a compact, bolt-on, two-wheel electric drive unit with a battery and a solar panel for power. Units ship 95% assembled and can be easily mounted to pens or coops using basic tools and video support from Stock Cropper. The operator can use a Bluetooth key fob to make on-demand moves and turn the unit around at the end of a run. For hands-free, autonomous operation, the drive can connect to the Stock Cropper web-based application over Wi-Fi. “Just point it in the direction you want to go, and it moves in a straight path at the time and distance you choose, every day,” says Smith. “The only hands-on is when you manually start a new line.” This spring, he had 15 prototypes ready for beta testing. By June, half were running, and the other half were being set up.  “With what we learn, we plan to have production units ready to sell in 2027,” says Smith. “We’re already receiving $100 deposits from our future customers.” The deposit ensures the current target price of $2,500. How the units will be used is up to the buyer, notes Smith. Whether for rolling shelters for poultry, pigs, lambs or young calves, the only limitation is the 600-lb tow capacity. “Growing your own protein for family and friends is no longer a fringe idea; it’s a movement,” says Smith. “Our drive unit makes it easier for the owner, ensures fresh grazing for the animals, and improves the soil as it goes.” Eventually, Smith hopes to continue working with the larger systems, which have more complex designs and higher costs. Prototypes of the ClusterCluck Pico have proven themselves in multiple locations. “In 2024, we were invited to have it vetted at the Precision Technology Institute farm in Pontiac, Ill.,” says Smith. Results were better than merely positive. That year, the Stock Cropper system (alternating strips of corn and forage for grazing) set the site’s all-time corn production record — 434.9 bushels per acre. In 2025, it recorded the second-highest yield and the highest farm profitability of any comparable practice on the 500-acre farm. “The concept works,” says Smith. “The data proves it.” He had more than 200 reservations for the ClusterCluck Pico, priced at $10,000, when he set it aside. Smith plans to reintroduce it in 2028. In the meantime, he’s excited about the ClusterCluck Drive. “We started with a big vision — change the system, feed the world,” he says. “The deeper we got, the clearer it became that reforming industrial meat production wasn’t something that we could do. With the ClusterCluck Drive, we’re giving people the tools to feed themselves first.” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, The Stock Cropper, 45982 180th Ave., Lake Mills, Iowa 50450 (ph 641-512-0379; thestockcropper@gmail.com; www.thestockcropper.com; Facebook: The Stock Cropper).

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