Farmer Focus: Children-in-tractor law needs amending
© Jeff Holmes Apparently, I’m writing this on the last day of summer. I’m not sure when the first one was this year, or any of the others for that matter.
It’s been grim here for the past three weeks – more than 220mm of rain in that time has tested the patience.
We’ve just about managed to keep zero grazing, and grass quality is still decent, though dry matter is variable.
See also: Editor’s View: Don’t let familiarity breed contempt for farm safety
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I was tempted to catch what was running out the back of the wagon one day and market it as grass juice to tap into the vegan market!
Poor ground conditions have meant we’ve not managed to increase grass intakes, so there will be a bit extra going into the clamp with wholecrop spring wheat.
I’m hoping to get it done this week as the forecast looks better.
We got our winter wheat crimped before the worst of the weather. Yields touched 15t/ha, albeit at 25% moisture.
It’s all been crimped and treated with a food-grade preservative for just over two weeks now, so we should be able to start feeding it soon.
We’ll see if we can take advantage of milk price creeping up with yield increases.
We’ve not been able to get any muck spread or ploughing done yet, but I live in hope.
I read an article in these very pages last week about a grandfather being fined for having his grandson in the tractor with him. The world gets more ridiculous every day.
I remember spending hours with my dad when I was younger sitting sideways on the back seat of a Case 884 and recall the excitement of the 995’s padding.
I am an absolute stickler for health and safety on this farm, but my opinion is that a 50-year-old law no longer applies to modern tractors.
The passenger seat in every one of our tractors has a working seat belt and I’d argue that the safest place for a child to be on a family farm is strapped in on that seat.
Our industry should lobby the Health and Safety Executive to have the law amended. Working parents don’t always have weekend time off or the luxury of childcare.
Ultimately, it comes down to availability of labour and poor returns.