Baled Kid!!

[mjarrels]

Add a groundhog hole or rock and... Yea, we all did dumb things as kids. We use to take in a "fresh air kid" from NY city for a couple weeks each summer. Talk about not knowing anything about farm equipment. To this day... that kid probably still thinks that a rear tractor tire is a seat!

mark

[KeithInSpace]

It probably isn't so much that the kid is there, but that the guy's attention is 100% NOT on the kid.

I've ridden in a loader down the street out of necessity...actually seemed like the safest place to be vs. the crowded operator's platform or standing on the 3PH. I've held my 1 year old in my lap while taking the tractor to the end of the driveway.

The difference is probably that no other function was being performed and no attention was diverted from the 'other person' that isn't normally there. For my part, I didn't go over 1 MPH (treadle halfway down with engine at idle) and had no worry other than holding my boy.

Would I carry my toddlers in the bucket? No way, no how. Would I carry my 17 year old boy in the bucket driving down a paved road from the mulch pile to the house? Sure. He knows how to sit down and hold on.

Some things sound bad out of context, but in reality, there are so many dangers out there, you just need to stay away from the obvious ones to have a pretty good chance at living.

[schmism]

the wife rides on the left leg/lap, she usually stears and i run the HST peddle. usually only when we are tooling around or going down for mail or something....

never when doing any "real" tractoring....

[dtd24]

I have given a few rides, but never when actually doing something. That looks a bit too much for me.

[Oleozz]

If you're brought up on a farm you really don't think much about what the boy on the tractor is doing but that's not to say it's safe or the right thing to do.
Our local FFA chapters go to the different elementary schools and put on plays and skits to promote farm safety. There are also farm safety day camps that teach kids how to work and play safe on the farm.

[thcri]

Originally Posted by Oleozz

Our local FFA chapters go to the different elementary schools and put on plays and skits to promote farm safety. There are also farm safety day camps that teach kids how to work and play safe on the farm.

I remember them as a kid. The good old FFA Tractor Safety Series. In order to pass you had to be able to back up both single axle and double axle trailers. It was tough as a kid but I did it.


murph

[N80]

Well, I seen one local farmer haul his kid around on the back of the tractor when he is moving hay. She jumps down and unhitches the hay wagons. Then he takes the tractor and loads up the wagons with hay. Then he backs up and she hooks the wagons back on and off they go. Repeat process when they unload the hay and again for the next batch. This saves him a tremendous amount of time when feeding the cows. Wouldn't it be safer for her to ride on the hay wagons? Not on those hay wagons!

I guess she could follow him around in the jeep (she's been driving since she was 10) or a horse. But that would still be a huge PITA.

But, I've never seen the kids anywhere close to him when baling, raking, tetting, cutting or mowing. Nor have I ever seen the kids riding passenger just for fun.

Like I said, I think farm life is a different world. Totally unregulated. More calculated risks than what most of us are used to, some out of necissity, some out of tradition. And I'm not sure any of that is a bad thing. I think in many cases, they grow a better sort of kid on the farm.

And this guy and his kids have all been injured on the farm. Nothing life threatening, but some requiring hospital stays or ER visits. Was it from machinery? No. The cows? No. Horses every time. Kicks and falls. I think his kids are safer around the machinery than their own horses.

[indianaEPH]

I hate to see kids on farm equipment. Yes, I did it many times when I was a kid but I have read and have heard about to many cases of kids being horribly injured or killed from farm machinary. It's just not worth it.

My kids have asked me "When do we get to ride on the tractor". My reply: I'm sorry but you will never be able to ride on the tractor. When you're 16 I can show you how to use it.

I won't take a chance with the kids.

[N80]

Originally Posted by indianaEPH

I hate to see kids on farm equipment.

Well, the kids I'm talking about have all been operating the farm equipment since they were twelve or so. They don't run the baler, the hay mower or the big bushhogs, but they rake, tet, haul and load hay, etc etc. So it isn't like they aren't familiar with the equipment.

[Birdman253]

I have to chime in. I grew up on a ranch, and learned to drive a tractor around 7 or 8, by sitting on my grandfather's lap while he let me drive. After some lessons, I was allowed to drive myself, with him on the tractor with me. By the summer I was 9, I was doing all the plowing and discing to prepare ground for winter oats for cattle.

At 10, I was raking hay, and by the summer I was 11, I would cut hay in the morning, rake and bale in the afternoon (the hay that I cut the day before), and then drive the tractor so dad and grandpa could load the bales to go to the barn after they got home from town jobs.

Was it perfectly safe? No, it wasn't. But I had grown up around machinery, had seen injuries (at 8, I drove my grandfather to the emergency room in town while he held pressure on a bad cut on his hand, which he received when a cow caught the hand between a horn and a fence post). Was this safe? Some would say no, but as my grandfather told the doctor at the hospital, I got him there, and since there was no ambulance service available, I was the only option.

Now, before someone chimes in as to why there was no ambulance service, the only ambulance in town was operated by the local funeral home. They had a funeral with a burial about 40 miles away, and they were all tied up with that. Times were certainly different back then.

I am starting to ramble, but, yes the kid on the tractor is a dangerous situation, but he is on the right side. A square baler like this is operated at low ground speed, and since you look back on the right side to watch the pickup, if he should fall off, the operator will more than likely see the movement with his peripheral vision in time to stop. It is dangerous, but probably less dangerous than even letting him ride a skateboard.

I know that the some are already lighting the flamethrowers, so fire away.