By William Harshman
The growth of USDA’s New and Beginning Farmer efforts have led to growth and flourishing of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and incubator farms.
The growth of USDA’s New and Beginning Farmer efforts have led to growth and flourishing of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and incubator farms.With this come the use of walk behind equipment and some use of compact tractors with attached equipment. Bush hogs, rotary tillage, and trailers and carts are common pieces of equipment. A question often asked is how to get the helpers trained to safely operate the tractor and equipment.
“Organizing and Conducting a Safe Tractor Operation Workshop” is a concise informational outline of what is necessary to train apprentices, interns, volunteers, and inexperienced new employees in safe tractor driving skills.
Instructors must be experienced, knowledgeable about safety, and have good communication skills. Most importantly, instructors must set a good example, meaning they should use the 3-pt method for getting on and off tractors, buckle their seat belt before starting the tractor, check that controls are in neutral, etc. Even though farm safety specialists are in short supply, there are likely to be several others in local communities who can teach the technical aspects of safe tractor operation. Consider these resource candidates: machinery dealer/salespersons; secondary agricultural educator (HS Ag teacher); extension educators; area farm organization leaders or experienced farmers; or even college age students learning to be agricultural teachers.
Other key points for workshops include using small to medium sized tractors (40-70 hp recommended) to facilitate communications with trainees while they are on the tractor. Tractors should have: a wide front-end, 2-post ROPS, seat belt, easily adjustable seat, lockable, working brakes or a park selection, PTO master shield, hitch pin with safety lock/clip/pin/key, and a clean, properly colored and mounted SMV emblem.
It is possible to use any open area such as a field or parking lot for the tractor driving. Other bits of advice for your driving course layout should include a minimum distance of 50 ft. between tractor/machinery training stations, traffic cones, stakes, straw bales, etc. as course markers, and twine or rope to form a line or artificial barrier in the course.
Visit Ag Safety and click on the link on the left-hand side to access this document. Several other references you may find of use are also located here.Additionally, searching YouTube for specific tractor practices can be useful. For instance a YouTube search for hitching to a 3-pt hitch implement will result in short film clips showing the process.
Source:psu.edu