Tractor safety courses are an important part of the summer for youth and adults who will be operating any machinery whether it’s on the farm or in the yard. It’s also an important lesson for teens that will soon be getting their driver’s licenses and sharing the road with implements.
These are all points emphasized by Steve Okonek, the Extension agent for Jackson and Trempealeau counties.
“We have so many tractors on roads now. Farms are bigger, they’re more spread-out, they’re covering more geography, so farmers are spending more miles on the road in their equipment,” he says. “It’s important that not only the farmers and the operators are aware of the safety around equipment, but the general public and automobile drivers are aware of that also.”
Okonek will be teaching one of the tractor safety courses happening around the state this summer. His course will be at Black River Falls High School in late June. You can find a list of tractor safety courses near you this summer at the UW-Madison Division of Extension’s website: https://farms.extension.wisc.edu/programs/youth-tractor-safety/
In addition to road safety, tractor safety covers: hitching and unhitching equipment; safety around moving/rotating elements, such as a Power Take-Off or PTO shaft; hooking and unhooking hydraulics — oil under pressure for raising and lowering implements; driving test; skid steers; and livestock handling.
He says as technology has increased, tractor safety has had to incorporate new lessons, like limiting distractions. While some elements of technology have increased safety (seat sensors that turn off a combine, for example), the computers and touch screens in new tractors can be a distraction. Okonek compares it to playing on your phone while driving.
“Our technology has helped us and made tractors and farming in general safer, but at the same time, there’s other things we need to be aware of, and farming is still one of the top three most dangerous professions that we have in this country,” he says.
He reminds listeners that you don’t have to be a teenager to take the course. If you’re in your 30s or 40s and just bought your first tractor, consider taking the course. You do have to be at least 12 years old. At age 12, with the tractor safety certification, you can operate a tractor on your parents’ or guardians’ farm. Once you’re 14, you can operate a tractor on someone else’s farm for hire.
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