Baled Kid!!

[N80]

I see where you are coming from and I was making the same point above, but also have to admit that in the picture in the original post, it doesn't look like the kid is on the tractor for any reason other than a joy ride.

Taking risks to get the job done on the family farm is one thing, taking risks to goof off is another.

 

[Glowplug]

That photo just makes me cringe. My secretary, who grew up on a farm, asked me if I had given my little girls a ride on my tractor yet. When I said I wouldn't do that she was really surprised. Sure, chances are nothing would happen. There is a 99.99% chance that things will be just fine. But if something DOES happen it would be disastrous. It would make me sick to think that I critically or mortally wounded my child just for a little joy ride. I suppose I'm looking at this through the eyes of a surgeon. I have seen tons of trauma. Usually it's a "It happened so fast" or "I never do that" story. I remember some nasty tractor and PTO accidents. I remember one mother who had her child on her lap driving her vehicle. They were just going down to the end of their driveway/rode to check the mail. Not really any traffic at all. She said I never have done that before in my life. But the one time she thought, "that's not going to happen to me" and "oh, it'll be alright this one time" a car hit them. That child was nearly killed and was definately critically injured. I don't know how long it took to get the child back to "normal" if ever. So I just don't tempt fate. Odds are that things will be okay but the payoff is not great and the loss could be tremendous. That's not a gamble I'm willing to take.

 

[Brad_Blazer]

I'm sure he is just glancing back in the picture. You can't drive by looking where you've been. I think the tractor tire is the bigger danger - no time to react, even though the boy is in contact with the driver.

Obviously the guy doesn't know what he is doing. The boy (and some bigger friends) should be on a wagon behind the baler stacking bales on a flat field like that. The only time you drop in the field is when all of the wagons are full and it's going to rain! Ya gotta make hay when da sun shines doncha know!

I remember learning about momentum when I was a tyke. I thought it would be cool to take a pee off the back of the full wagon when the tractor stopped. When it started moving I didn't. Knocked the wind out of me landing in alfalfa stubble!

The 4th grader I tutored when I was in HS could barely read. His favorite chore was cleaning out the barn yard with the loader tractor.

I never witnessed a serious farm accident growing up in WI and they were rare in my community. Some farmers were missing digits. One young man lost both hands and a leg playing with dynamite. A neighbor died falling through the hay hole. My cousin's 2 year old was run over by the milk truck and killed. Years earlier that same cousin had her jaw crushed from falling off the tractor and being run over by the rear tire. Those are the ones I remember and It seemed like half the population farmed.

The statistic in the Hercules ad on this page is 250 crush deaths per year. Compare that to 43,000 dead on the highways. FOURTY-THREE THOUSAND! Every year. 56% were not wearing seat belts.

I have rambled and not made a point. They are all just numbers until it hits close to home. 3000 soldiers dead in Iraq seems small compared to the highway deaths. Saturday I cried at the funeral of my neighbor's son killed in Iraq.

Brad

 

[Tractors4u]

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.

I am 37 years old, to give you an idea of the era I am talking about. I learned to drive my grandfather's C Farmall when I was 10 or 11. We didn't live on a farm, just out in the country. Sometimes my dad would cut firework a mile or so from our house and we would haul the wood on a trailer behind the Farmall. My brother an I would ride standing on the axle housing and holding on to the seat going down the road. My oldest daughter is 10 years old today. She has driven a tiny little Ford 1100, a Bolens G152, and my John Deere 4310 (32hp). I put her out in the field, select a gear and tell her when she is ready to go let out on the clutch. When she is finished she knows to clutch it. She is surpervised. I don't see why one would wait until they are 16 to learn. In probably another year she will be mowing the lawn. I started using the riding mower when I was 8, but I was a boy after all. I have told both my daughters that I will not put age stipulations on them. It is when they think they are ready and when I think they are ready at the same time. The 10 year old drives the Polaris Ranger all over our place. She knows to keep it in Low range. Now that she has another year under her belt and more experience we might experiment with High. It is actually kind of handy. She can fetch tools and ice water for me now. My point is, different people, different abilities. I see people here on TBN ask about some of the most obvious things. No some of them shouldn't have their kids within a hundred yards of a tractor, some shouldn't be on a tractor themselves. With others it is second nature.

 

[Soundguy]

Yep.. it's the experience issue. I can remember when we were kids.. we lived on a dirt road that joined up to a slag road. On the weekends all the familly came over for a cookout / bbq.. and all the kids played around in the pasture. If we kids wanted some candy from the 'corner' store, one of the adults would pull out a couple bucks ( 2$ worth of candy back then fed alot of kids! ) and then tell us to take the tractor to the store. About 4 or 5 of us would pile on the tractor.. setting on fenders and what not.

Was common.. nobody thought anything of it... no one took notice even..

Today that would be a capitol crime I think..

Soundguy

I do agree with you. As a kid or even on just about every farm that is a common circumstance. The problem we are starting to see is we now have people moving from the city to the rural areas and getting into the hobby farms. We have adults running tractors now with only 3 or 4 years of experience. Heck that kid in the picture on a farm in our area would not be riding but actually running the tractor. I remember many times on the farm I worked on I was on the wagon stacking the bales and the farmers son at 6 or 7 running the tractor. I remember one time the farmer sent his youngest kid out to rake. The kid got out there got half way down the field and there was a Y in the windrow. The kid didn't know what to do so he sat there with his foot on the clutch for over two hours waiting for someone to come along. So I always caution when I see pics like that.


murph

 

[Soundguy]

Yep..

I can remember going out to a farmers hay field to help a family member load up some squares that were laying inthe field to take to his cows. He had an old flatbed truck.. not sure what it was.. but it wasn't a passanger truck like a f100 .. it was more like an industrial . old delivery truck. ( split shifter.. etc. ) Anyway. I can remember driving the truck thru the field in 1/low while he walked along and tossed squares on the back.. then he'd hop on when a section was done and point to the next place to go to.. had to upshift for that one.. I can remember being small enough that i had to stand onthe floor board to see over the dash.. and had to brace myself to use the clutch.. not sure how old I was.. but do remember it pretty clearly.

Soundguy

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.

 

[Soundguy]

I think 'in the old days' we all learned to drive seting on a lap.. or on a back road. My first driving exp in a car was in a chrysler valarie (spelling? ) what a beast for a kid to lear to drive on back/dirt roads.. No power steering either! Can't remember what type of shifter it had...

Soundguy

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.
.

 

[AlanB]

Am I going to be devestated if my kids get hurt operating the tractor or the backhoe, yes. (son 10 and daughter 16)

Am I going to second guess why they were doing it, and should I have let them? absolutely.

But am I going to stop them from doing it? Nope.

I will not stop them motorycle riding, nor unicycling, nor trying to horseback ride at a freinds house or (most) anything else. Will they go Kayaking with my dad, and parachuting with my stepmom's boss? Yep, will I be nervous as all get out, yep..... I will also send them to Germany again this summer, put them on a plane and kiss them goodby and know they will be driving tractors in the field, and riding on all sorts of tractors and equipment (matter of fact, all the tractors I know of there have jump seats) and will I be nervous, Yep......

Was that kid joyriding? looks like it too me, but is that really the point? Do we do everything only when "needed" I would venture to say far more kids end up hurt and hospitalized (certainly in my town) by bicycle vs. Car accidents, but I still let my kids ride their bike on the street. (and 5' unicycle for that matter)

I guess there is no point in my dissertation here, other then we all have to judge for ourselves if something is "too" risky to do.

Then again, I am the guy who felt the tug on my leg of the backhoe tire, while I was standing in the door showing my 10 year old how to operate it. Would have been a bad memory for him if he had drove over his dad (and his dad would not have been so keen on the thought either to be honest)

 

[tuolumne]

Kids are suprisingly cool in a crises. My four year old was returning to the wood cutting site on an old 110 with a small trailer. They only ever use the creeper gear which can be almost imperceptable motion at low throttle. When he needs to stop he turns off the key. In a panic stop, I instructed him to turn off the key, then depress the clutch/brake...this involves partially leaving the seat. Well he was coming down a hill and knocked the shifter out of gear. The tractor naturally began to accelerate. He shut it off...when he continued to accelerate he moved to the brake...the tractor broke traction...did he panic? No, he didn't run over me or the chainsaw or the felled log across the path...he steared between a few trees and into a brush pile. I was very proud of the boy, and thoroughly ashamed of myself for allowing him to be in such a situation. Just when I though all situations were covered, a child found a loophole. I still feel he can safely operate a garden tractor to haul wood, but it will be years before he can safely operate a bigger machine or a machine with any implements attached.

 

[scott_vt]

Afternoon KB,
I have to agree that I would not put any young child in that position running a PTO driven implement or even a 3PT implement !

Have I given some rides to youngsters, yes, but with tractor running slow and me straddling my arms around them so they cant go anywhere ! And Im sure even that would be frowned upon by the safety police ! But Im comfortable enough with it that I dont have a problem with it !