Tractors and tractor drivers

[ColinJ]

Back in the 80's UK farms had a terrible safety record. Horrible injuries from power take offs and dodgy electrics in the barns.
I guess elf and safety has improved matters.

I remember seeing a one-armed farmer interviewed on TV. He had managed to get his arm caught in some agricultural machinery. The way he talked about the incident was incredible. Basically - "My arm was mangled and I knew that if I stayed there I would die before anybody found me. There wasn't anybody within half a mile of the farm. So, I took my penknife out of my pocket and cut my arm off, then I walked to the nearest road..."

 

[Deleted member 26715]

Was there not a dispensation for younger tractor drivers, they could drive the tractor on their own farm (private land) then they could also on the road between fields as long as that journey was under a certain distance, I used to hang around with a young lad in the early 70's hew would have only been 12 & he drove the tractor from the farm along the road to the field & back, but they were simpler times then, maybe folks just looked the other way.

 

[MichaelW2]

I remember seeing a one-armed farmer interviewed on TV. He had managed to get his arm caught in some agricultural machinery. The way he talked about the incident was incredible. Basically - "My arm was mangled and I knew that if I stayed there I would die before anybody found me. There wasn't anybody within half a mile of the farm. So, I took my penknife out of my pocket and cut my arm off, then I walked to the nearest road..."

OMG. He was carrying a knife! Someone could gave been killed.

 

[ColinJ]

OMG. He was carrying a knife! Someone could gave been killed.

I assume that it is illegal to even carry a penknife these days?

PS Oh, apparently NOT!

It is an offence to carry any sharp or bladed instrument in a public place, with the exception of a folding pocket knife, which has a blade that is 7.62 cm (3 inches) or less.

 

[Cycleops]

I wonder which is considered more dangerous, a farmer's tractor or a 'chelsea' tractor?

 

[Drago]

Or a Chelsea tractor driven by a farmer, or a tractor driven by a Chelsea player?

 

[Cycleops]

The latter is infinitely more dangerous.

 

[mudsticks]

Just an observation from a non farmer.
The speed of these newer tractors seems far too fast.
They're truly massive and have difficulty getting through our village. They seem better suited to large prairies than small farms.
For a lot of these farmers it's a very isolated working life.
France was a nation of small farmers but most employed someone else.
Today many of these farms have been bought up and mechanisation taken the place of co workers. Luckily we've got mobile phones so they can chat to their mates.
Our nearest farmer puts in hours that are staggering. We've known him cut fields all day and carry on all night under headlights.
Back in the 80's UK farms had a terrible safety record. Horrible injuries from power take offs and dodgy electrics in the barns.
I guess elf and safety has improved matters.
Much as I love the countryside I'd never want to be a farmer even if it was financially rewarding.

Elf and safety has improved a bit - at least in theory - there are fewer on farm deaths - but still too many.

Modern tractors often have in cab 'entertainment' in the form of screens - yes thats a scarey thought too.

Yes the number of people working on farms has decreased owing to mechanisation and technology - at a time when more not less employment opportunities are needed - in rural areas .

Automated everything has put a lot of people out of work - but has also put those remaining in a lot of debt - and isolated them further.

Farmers are independent proud sorts - often too proud to admit they're in debt - or struggling.

So suicide rates are not good - we don't know for sure even how many 'accidents' are anything but.

https://www.farminghelp.co.uk/

Help is available.

IMO we need more people working in farming, food production, and ancillary trades so that the countryside doesn't just become, dormitory towns, factory farms - and something pretty (ish) to cycle through between towns.

I've deliberately set up my farm to require more people to run it - generally less mechanisation - apart from for preliminary cultivations - it means i can grow a far greater diversity of crops which is also good for ecosystems - i don't need to use any pesticides.

The way i make it pay is by direct sales - but that doesn't suit everyone's temperament or production scale.

Unless farmers at all scales are supported - somehow - not nailed to the floor on price by supermarket and commodity buyers - whilst also being demonised for 'despoiling' the countryside this unbalanced situation will continue.

Brexit will likely make all this worse - a lot of farmers are living on their area (EU) payments, whilst barely breaking even on the grain or milk or other commodity they may be producing - they won't let on about that though ( see above)

Once that support is removed we will be likely get consolidation of landholdings to make even larger farms to compete (if they can) with lower production standard imports from outside the EU - with a few smaller scaled agroecological type of farms - supported by people who care about how, and by whom their food is produced.

Unless some kind of 'good farming' support and market protection is put in place.

 

[Drago]

From tractors to Brexit in a couple of sentences. Remarkable!

 

[T4tomo]

Was there not a dispensation for younger tractor drivers, they could drive the tractor on their own farm (private land) then they could also on the road between fields as long as that journey was under a certain distance, I used to hang around with a young lad in the early 70's hew would have only been 12 & he drove the tractor from the farm along the road to the field & back, but they were simpler times then, maybe folks just looked the other way.

Yes, I think you had to be 13 to legally drive the tractor in the field (thou a good number of us farmers sons (and daughters) started a bit earlier. if the only route between the field and the farmyard involved a public road, then you had dispensation to drive on it. Our farm was like that so I frequently drove on the same 50 yards of road from aged 13. I wasn't allowed to drive down to the village shops in it though .
I remember the luxury of when we got a tractor with a cab!

 

[mudsticks]

From tractors to Brexit in a couple of sentences. Remarkable!

Turns out its all interconnected innit ??

And given that one of the main aims of the European Community post War, was to protect against the risk of future food shortages as experienced during WW11- Hardly surprising really ..

 

[gbb]

I've deliberately set up my farm to require more people to run it - generally less mechanisation - apart from for preliminary cultivations - it means i can grow a far greater diversity of crops which is also good for ecosystems - i don't need to use any pesticides.

The way i make it pay is by direct sales - but that doesn't suit everyone's temperament or production scale.

I suspect you listen to the Food show ? on R4 ?
There was a really interesting program a few weeks ago and one smallholder talked of how he took on his fathers farm. When his father owned it, he took the route, as many do, of applying pesticides, fertilisers etc etc to increase yield, it seemed you had to to keep up with everyone else.
One local farmer known to his father took the route of lower yields, less intensive farming, less or no fertilisers etc, did his own thing but still made a living. His father was truly shocked when an agromomist ? took samples of the farms soils in the area...and the best soil by far was on the farm where no or little fertiliser was used.

I buy my potatoes from a smallholder, he only generally grows potatoes and some grain, wheat or sililar. He sells direct to the public, has done for 10 years, makes a good living. His potatoes go for around £4 per 10 Kg...if he sold to the marketing board, he gets an awful awful lot less.
He doesnt irrigate...it swells the crop, better yield, poorer potatoes for the customer. Its finding a niche for some farmers it seems, he has found his and loves it.

 

[Archie_tect]

It's the middle men and the supermarkets who need regulating... my daughter told me about a man who appeared every week for about a year, at their local 'farmer's market' in Fox Vally Sheffield, who went into a nearby Aldi, bought up all their veg then opened up his stall and sold it on as 'organic' home grown without any packaging. He made a living out of it because people bought it thinking it was a premium product. With the callous mark-up on retail and callous wholesale purchasing power driving prices down, farmers can't hope to make a living.

 

[oldworld]

Unless farmers at all scales are supported - somehow - not nailed to the floor on price by supermarket and commodity buyers - whilst also being demonised for 'despoiling' the countryside this unbalanced situation will continue.

Brexit will likely make all this worse - a lot of farmers are living on their area (EU) payments, whilst barely breaking even on the grain or milk or other commodity they may be producing - they won't let on about that though ( see above)

Once that support is removed we will be likely get consolidation of landholdings to make even larger farms to compete (if they can) with lower production standard imports from outside the EU - with a few smaller scaled agroecological type of farms - supported by people who care about how, and by whom their food is produced.

Unless some kind of 'good farming' support and market protection is put in place.
[/QUOTE]
I have a friend here who ran a farm for Riverford Foods. They set up here so products would be ready about 3 weeks earlier than the UK.
She has now retired and the farm is being sold.
I asked the owner of Riverford why they were selling the farm? His response was because of Brexit. My friend said he was 'incandescent' about it.
Real shame she's retired as we had a ready supply of really nice veg.
In the summer their work force would increase by 40. Mostly east Europeans but some French.
As I said earlier, farming wouldn't be something I'd want to do just glad someone does.

 

[Dirk]

I wonder which is considered more dangerous, a farmer's tractor or a 'chelsea' tractor?

Definitely the latter during holiday season.
Big John Deere's are known as Devon GTs* round here.


*Girt Tractors