It was the summer between my seventh and eighth grades when I went to Rex’s funeral. Rex was a year older than me, popular at school, athletic and charismatic. He had been helping his father farm when his tractor rolled. It was closed casket.
Two years ago I attended another tractor-incident funeral, this time for a pre-school boy who had been riding the tractor with his dad to feed cows – had done it dozens of times. His first fall from the tractor was his last.
Every three days in this country one of those ag-related funerals for another youth will be held. The Childhood Agricultural Safety Network (CASN) reports that four out of five farm children regularly ride tractors with family members. I did it, as a child. You probably did, too.
First time I remember driving a tractor was at about age 7. I think it was a little Massey 85. My dad put me on it, started it up, said, “Here’s the gas; just shut it off when you get to the barn.” Why didn’t he show me the brake? I’m sure my legs weren’t long enough to reach the brake, let alone strong enough to depress the brake. It was my first 4-mile-an-hour, white-knuckle drive. I think that’s how he “taught” all my siblings to drive. It was tradition.
With 41 percent of accidental farm deaths of children under 15 resulting from tractor incidents, it’s a tradition that should end. Today.
As I see it, the hold up for change has (and always will be), “Well, I did it and it didn’t hurt me.” Which is pretty stupid reasoning. I remember my grandpa telling me when he was a boy he herded cattle and found sticks of dynamite left in the sagebrush from a road construction project. He said he took his younger brother with him and they “lit ‘em up.” He was 11, his brother was 9.
It doesn’t take a genius to see that reasoning like “well, it didn’t hurt grandpa” isn’t a great strategy for future recreation plans. Yet, if it’s something we did as kids, we tend to excuse it. We think somehow it’ll add to the education and life experiences of our kids to loosen the reins a little, walk the line once in awhile. Problem is, the line is really more of a tightrope – an accident waiting to happen.
When are kids ready for farm work? What’s a good way to determine their aptitude and skill level? What age is appropriate for baling hay, for instance? And if one child is ready to pick up hay bales, does that mean he’s also ready to load silage into a silo?
The North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT) website lists questions (in Spanish and English) to help determine whether a child is ready for a variety of agriculture tasks. The list includes everything from pruning trees or catching and holding baby pigs to mowing and baling hay.
Some of the skills required among several tasks include:
- Can the child hitch and unhitch a 3-point implement or hydraulics or connect/disconnect PTO?
- Does the child have good peripheral vision?
- Can the child stay focused on a job up to 50 minutes?
- Can the child react quickly?
- Can the child recognize a hazard and solve the problem without getting upset?
- Does the child usually go with his or her “gut” feeling without thinking too much about what could happen next?
- Is your child responsible? Do you trust your child to do what’s expected without anyone checking?
- Does the child do things that seem dangerous for the thrill of it?
- Has an adult demonstrated this task on site?
- Has the child shown he or she can do the job safely 4-5 times under close supervision?
- Can the child understand and repeat from memory a 10-step process?
- Is the child going through a growth spurt? (Children in periods of rapid growth become less flexible, increasing the chance of muscle strain and injury to back and joints)
As a producer, and as the adult, you also have responsibilities. It’s your responsibility to ensure implements are in good working order with safety features in place, remove hazards from work areas, make sure the child and adult can communicate by cell phone or other method, make sure long hair is tied up, and make sure the child has at least one 10-minute break every hour and drinks a quart of fluids every hour.
In addition, the Secretary of Labor has standardized under the Fair Labor Standards Act (Regulations, 29 CFR Part 570.123, in The Hazardous Occupations Orders for Agricultural Employment) the following occupations as hazardous for minors under 16 years old:
1. Operating a tractor of over 20 power-take-off (PTO) horsepower, or connecting or disconnecting an implement or any of its parts to or from such a tractor.
2. Operating or assisting to operate (including starting, stopping, adjusting, feeding or any other activity involving physical contact associated with the operation) any of the following machines: corn picker, cotton picker, grain combine, hay mower, forage harvester, hay baler, potato digger, mobile pea viner; feed grinder, crop dryer, forage blower, auger conveyer, or the unloading mechanism of a nongravity-type self-unloading wagon or trailer; power post hole diggers, power post driver, or non-walking type rotary tiller.
3. Operating or assisting to operate (including starting, stopping, adjusting, feeding, or any other activity involving physical contact associated with the operation) any of the following machines:
a. trencher or earthmoving equipment
b. forklift
c. potato combine
d. power-driven circular, band, or chain saw
4. Working on a farm in a yard, pen, or stall occupied by:
a. bull, boar, or stud horse maintained for breeding purposes
b. a sow with suckling pigs, or a cow with a newborn calf (with umbilical cord present)
5. Felling, bucking, skidding, loading, or unloading timber with butt diameter of more than 6 inches.
6. Working from a ladder or scaffold (painting, repairing, or building structures, pruning trees, picking fruit, etc.) at a height of more than 20 feet.
7. Driving a bus, truck, or automobile when transporting passengers or riding on a tractor as a passenger or helper.
8. Working inside:
a. a fruit, forage, or grain storage designed to retain an oxygen deficient or toxic atmosphere
b. an upright silo within 2 weeks after silage has been added or when a top unloading device is in operating position
c. a manure pit
d. a horizontal silo while operating a tractor for packing purposes
9. Handling or applying toxic agricultural chemicals (including cleaning or decontaminating equipment, disposal or return of empty containers, or serving as a flagman for aircraft applying such chemicals). Such toxic chemicals are identified by the word “poison,” or “warning,” or are identified by a “skull and crossbones” on the label.
10. Handling or using a blasting agent, including but not limited to, dynamite, black powder, sensitized ammonium nitrate, blasting caps, and primer cord.
11. Transporting, transferring, or applying anhydrous ammonia.
In addition, minors under the age of 16 may not be employed during school hours, unless employed by a parent or “person standing in place of their parent.”
The term school hours is defined as those set by the official calendar of the school district in which a minor is living while employed in agriculture. No exception may be made for the early release of individual children or any class or grade to work in agriculture. Work before or after school hours, during weekends, or on other days that the school does not assemble is considered outside school hours.
The requirement that minors be employed outside the school hours of the public school district in which the minor is living while employed in agriculture applies even if that minor does not attend public school. These hours apply when the minor attends a private or parochial school, is home schooled, or has completed his or her formal education.
Did you know that – the limits for hiring even home-schooled children? Me neither. Not till now, anyway.
Maybe it’s time to reconsider how you’re using children on your operation and develop a documented plan. It beats planning a funeral. FG
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