Bright Coop Inc has built and delivered 27 of its rough-terrain forklifts to poultry handlers and haulers since a July 2004 product launch.

Jimmie Menefee, a longtime Bright Coop customer service provider, designed the improved forklift package with significant poultry industry input from others over many years.

Three models, marketed under the new Bright Bullet brand, are "built off the principle of simplicity and designed for the poultry industry," said Sam Chancellor, a salesman for Bright Coop.

The design relies on basic hydraulic and mechanical systems more than advanced electronics.

A model measuring 91 inches (2.3 metres) to the top of the enclosed cab targets operations at a processing plant’s back dock. The base price: USD52,500.

Minus the enclosed cab, two field models cost USD51,900 for an 81-inch (2.1 metres) high version and USD52,515 for one that is 77 inches (2.0 metres) high.

The rough-terrain design accounts for farm conditions where uneven land, bumps entering or leaving a chicken house, inclement weather and high-ammonia-content litter can stress a machine.

A typical lift of cages and chickens weighs 2,400lbs (1080 kg).

Engines Inc, of Weiner, Arkansas, added a pump drive and electronic components to an 80-horsepower four-cylinder John Deere PowerTech naturally aspirated diesel engine for the Bright Bullet forklifts.

Bright Coop employs 125 people, of whom 17 are assigned to assembling forklifts at the company’s site in Nacogdoches.

The forklifts complement its line of galvanized metal cages for chickens and turkeys.

Bright Coop was formed in 1951 to make wooden chicken coops but because of business competition in the 1970s, originated the concept of galvanized metal coops and the use of forklifts built by other manufacturers.

Later, the firm added specialised trailers and forklifts.

Until January 21, Bright Coop was a United States poultry-industry distributor for the North American operation of forklift manufacturer Manitou BF SA, of Ancenis Cedex, France.

Manitou makes forklifts in Waco, Texas, and used Bright Coop as a regional dealer beginning in 1980 and a national distributor starting in 1985.