Software analyst becomes agricultural inventor

  • Published
  • By Danette Duncan
  • Arnold Engineering Development Center Public Affairs
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. (AFPN) --  Farming and a little laziness combined to earn a software analyst here a patent for a self-opening gate that operates with no electricity, batteries, solar panels or remote controls.

Possibly revolutionizing life for cattle farmers, Dan Hix's gate, according to a patent search, is like no other. It opens and closes from both directions via a series of springs and two trip mechanisms -- one on each side of the gate.

"It's not a 'bump gate,'" Hix said. "The only thing that touches any part of the gate mechanism is the tire of the approaching vehicle."

"I have friends that tease me about being lazy, too lazy to get out and open a gate," said Hix who owns and operates a 300-acre family farm in middle Tennessee with 60 head of cattle. "There's some truth to that. Think about when you move bales of hay. We use a tractor to spear them, pick them up and move the bale to a new spot. You have this big round bale on one side of the fence and your cattle on the other side."

Hix said his problem arises when trying to get the hay through the fence gate, while keeping the cattle away until he is ready to feed them.

"You pull up to the gate, get off the tractor, open the gate, run the cows back, run back to the tractor and get on, drive through the gate, stop and get off, run the cows back and close the gate, get back on the tractor and continue on," he said. "You do that every time you have to go through the gate, it's a big hassle. That was the problem I was trying to solve."

And with that problem fixed in his mind, Hix's automatic gate was born. He said he discounted remote controls because farmers would need one for every truck or tractor he or she owned.

"Most tractors are open and aren't weather-proofed for remote controls, and they'd get wet or possibly dropped in the mud," he said.

Although Hix said the automatic gate makes some of his daily tasks easier, developing it did not happen overnight.

"I had to go through about six generations of designs and prototypes before I had success," he said. "But I have to say, it's been rewarding. It's been the most exciting thing that I've ever done outside of getting married and having a family."

Hix said he has talked with several major farm hardware equipment companies and one is currently considering marketing the automatic gate across the United States and in Canada. (Courtesy of Air Force Materiel Command News Service)