Rock Robot

Rock Robot

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
A rock picking robot from Idaho made it to the final four in the American Farm Bureau’s seventh Annual Ag Innovation Challenge.

The virtual competition highlighted the start-up Grangeville company:

'Our four Ag Innovation challenge teams are: Idaho Farm Bureau member TerraClear incorporated: Team lead Trevor Thompson!"

The way Terra Clear sees rock picking as a problem no one ever solved. Till now. The robot, TerraClear is the brain child of Grangeville farmers Brent and Mark Frei.

"Only when you've actually picked by hand you realize how bad it is and you don't want to do it," said Mark Frei.

"We were spending days picking rock, I can remember him saying, 'you know

with all the automation in the world we ought to come up with something better than hand-picking," said Ron Frei.

"There's so much automation in agriculture right now, so many things, so many beneficial things are automated. Rock picking isn't one of those things that had evaded that," said Brent Frei.

Previous Report9-16 IAT Ace Black Ranch 3
Next ReportF.B. Resolutions