The future of ranching might rumble across Wyoming’s sagebrush on tank tracks, equipped with cameras and sensors instead of spurs and lassos.
At Mississippi State University, researcher Marcus McGee has been testing a 4-foot-by-4-foot robotic platform called the Warthog that can herd cattle with surprising effectiveness.
The results from his trials at the university’s Bearden Dairy Research Center suggest that autonomous herding technology could soon supplement traditional cowboys and sheepherders.
“This is not replacing the human aspect of livestock agriculture,” McGee told Cowboy State Daily. “This is purely utilized as a workforce multiplier.”
But the assistant clinical professor in the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences acknowledged the broader implications of his work.
“Everything comes down to trying to make it think more like a cowboy,” he said.
The Warthog, manufactured by Clearpath Robotics, serves as a platform for an array of sensors and computing power that can collect continuous data while moving animals. McGee’s 2023 research showed that cattle responded remarkably well to the robotic herder.
“To our surprise, the animals were calm around the Warthog and behaved the same way they would around a person on horseback or driving a four-wheeler,” McGee reported. “Young calves don’t have the strong herd instinct that mature animals do,