Maine Farmcast Episode 18: Tractor Safety with Jason Lilley and Caragh Fitzgerald

On this episode of the Maine Farmcast, Dr. Glenda Pereira, Assistant Extension Professor and State Dairy Specialist for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, has a conversation with UMaine Extension professors and educators Jason Lilley and Caragh Fitzgerald about tractor safety.

Jason Lilley is an Assistant Extension Professor of Maine Sustainable Agriculture and Maple Industry Educator, whose focus is on improving the overall environmental and economic sustainability of commercial farm operations. Caragh Fitzgerald is an Associate Extension Professor of Agriculture working primarily in Kennebec and Oxford Counties in production of vegetables, corn silage, and other forages as well as season extension and soil health.

Episode Resources

Transcript

Glenda Pereira: 00:25

Welcome to The Maine Farmcast. This is your host, Dr. Glenda Pereira, an assistant extension professor within the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, as well as a assistant professor within the School of Food and Agriculture. And on today’s podcast, we have specific topic that’s gonna be, addressing, tractor safety and specifically during, the harvest time. So this episode is being released when farmers are out in the field. They’re harvesting, a specific, you you know, specifically corn silage is is one of the main, crops that are being currently harvested.

Glenda Pereira: 01:05

But this topic applies to, you you know, throughout the entire year, not only, to this certain season, but it’s certainly applicable right now, and and we, can often see injuries occurring during this time. So today, I have my colleagues, Jason Lilly and CaraghFitzgerald, who, run a tractor safety program, and they’re gonna be able to elaborate more on that. So Jason and Caragh, just briefly introduce yourself, and then, let’s get right into the topic.

Jason Lilley: 01:35

Alright. Thanks, Glenda. I am Jason Lilly. I’m a assistant extension professor of sustainable agriculture and maple industry educator. I’m based in the Cumberland County office, supporting farmers in Cumberland, Androscoggin, and Sagadahoc counties, and I am one of the the team chairs of our tractor safety program.

Jason Lilley: 02:00

We’re excited to to be here today. This is a a topic that is very important, to to all of us.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 02:09

And I’m Caragh Fitzgerald. I’m an associate extension professor for sustainable agriculture and extension educator. I’m based, in the Kennebec County Extension office, and I also serve farmers in Oxford County. And as Jason mentioned, I also work with our farm safety team, and I work with vegetable crops and, forage crops as well.

Jason Lilley: 02:30

Been operating equipment since I was 14 years old. And when when I was just learning, my grandfather, essentially sat on an old 1954 International Super M, which has zero safety features, he said, don’t step over that PTO shaft. Good luck. And I drove tractors and operated equipment on farms until I was in my early thirties when I started in this role. So, you know, almost 20 years of operating equipment.

Jason Lilley: 03:07

And when I started to look into what was involved in in the tractor safety course as far as what was the content and curricula to to be taught, I realized I’ve been doing things in a very dangerous way for those 20 years, and and it had many of those things had never even really crossed my mind. So that’s that’s one reason that, you know, it’s it’s very common that we do these things on a day to day basis. We were taught things from, from folks who don’t you know, the the priority to get things done is is oftentimes higher than the priority to do things in a in a, you know, particularly safe way. So that gets passed down generation to generation, and it also creates oftentimes a little bit of a culture of, well, we’ll we’ll just cut these corners because we don’t have the time to to put that safety shield on or whatever it may be. So And I

Glenda Pereira: 04:12

think sometimes too, you know, folks often say, you know, you hear of an accident that happens on a farm, and then it’s like, oh, it’s never gonna happen to to, you know, us. And now that I have a son, it’s like, oh, you know, making sure they’re buckled in correctly is very important for their safety. And then, you know, even if it’s like the trip down to the grocery store, which is, like, a minute away, well, a lot of accidents actually happen right in the vicinity of your neighborhood. So it’s like, oh, it’s not gonna happen to us. And and so until it happens to you Right.

Glenda Pereira: 04:45

Then it might become a priority. So I think what you were mentioning, you you know, it’s it’s kind of maybe that mindset.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 04:52

And I think people sometimes assume that, if they have a lot of experience on tractors, and know even, like, the the safe ways to conduct themselves on the farm, that that’s that, like, insulates them from injury or accidents. And it really doesn’t, you know, as when you look at farm accidents, often it is people who are experienced, but they’re distracted or they’re in a rush. So just very difficult to keep, keep your attention on all the things that you need to, And sometimes all it takes is one small thing to happen to cause a really significant injury. Yep. Yeah.

Jason Lilley: 05:29

Yep. My, my grandfather has been operating equipment for 70 some years, and he has been extremely lucky to have walked away from 3 rolled pieces of equipment, including just 5 or so years ago. So, it is one of those things that that hits very close to home for me, and and I, you know, see some of the the laws that are in place, and and how, you know, in agriculture, when we compare agriculture to other industries, we’re we’re a bit of the wild west, and and there’s good reason for that. I mean, we we are where our food for our society is coming from, so we need to you know, there there’s reason why the regulations are more lenient for agriculture, but that doesn’t mean that the safety risks aren’t there and that we can ignore, safety precautions just because the regulations don’t, ignore, safety precautions just because the regulations don’t, say that we have to.

Glenda Pereira: 06:29

Yeah. And another thing too is when we talk about sustainability. Piece of sustainability for a farm and a business is that you will be able to be here to operate that business and that farm. So having an injury, having an accident, is it it can prevent you from having that long term sustainability, which, all farmers, encompass.

Jason Lilley: 06:54

And and the data that has been collected around these accidents, particularly serious accidents. So if there’s been, a lifelong injury or a death that occurs on a farm, there’s a very high percentage percentage of the time that that farm actually ends up closing because of the stress and the depression oftentimes that comes out of of those events for everyone involved in the operation. There’s guilt involved. This is, again, one of those things where we’re not just talking about avoiding injury. We’re we’re talking about maintaining the business, maintaining the the mental health and vitality of the whole operation and the whole family.

Glenda Pereira: 07:39

So do you wanna give us oh, go ahead, Caragh. Sorry.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 07:42

Well, I was just gonna say, Jason, you mentioned, like your grandfather and rollover accidents. One of the things that I see, you know, all the time driving around, it might be someone on a lawn tractor or, with a small farm, and they have a small tractor with a rollover protection structure, but one that folds down. And they fold it down so they can get it in their barn or garage, and they don’t fold it back up when they bring it when they bring it out. So something like that is just an easy thing to do and, can bring a really tremendous level of safety to, to the operator.

Jason Lilley: 08:18

Absolutely. Maybe at this point, I can, give a little overview of the course that we offer. At UMaine Extension in the springtime, there’s a there’s a team of us that pull together a tractor safety course. This past year, we were in 3 different locations, and we’re hoping to get that up to 5 locations across the state. And this is a 20 hour course that’s recognized by the US Department of Labor.

Jason Lilley: 08:49

Just a little bit about the the regulations around youth working on farms. There’s a youth that is a family member of the farm owners, so immediate family member. There’s no age restrictions on when that youth can legally operate equipment on the farm. That doesn’t mean that the safety, you know, risk of, you know, a 7 year old operating equipment on a farm are not there. They absolutely are.

Jason Lilley: 09:20

It just means that the there’s no regulations to to prevent that from happening. But if there’s a a kid that wants to work for their neighbors or a non family member, the US Department of Labor says that they have to be 16 years old in order to operate equipment to operate or to to work around certain types of livestock and to, you know, work off of ladders. There’s there’s certain tasks that these kids are not allowed to do. If a youth, a 14 or 15 year old, completes our 20 hour tractor safety training, then that means then that gives them the the privilege to perform those tasks on a non family farm. So that’s one of the major draws, and we get a lot of these 14 15 year olds into our courses because they’re excited about not only working on a neighbor’s farm, but also being able to operate equipment and to to, you know, be more confident and to have the right to do that.

Jason Lilley: 10:35

That said, our courses are not only available for 14 to 15 year olds. We get, you know, recent retirees. We get folks in their seventies that just went out and bought a piece of equipment. We have, you know, recent college graduates who are gonna go work on a farm, and they they want these skills so that they can do more, do more at the farm and to be and to feel confident with it. So in the courses, we go through maintenance, you know, general areas where accidents most commonly happen and how to prevent those, and we have a lot of hands on driving time.

Jason Lilley: 11:13

So folks get, experience with starting and putting tractors into gear, selecting the appropriate gear and appropriate speed, backing up trailers, all these types of things. So we have seen you know, this is a course that’s been going on for over 30 years through UMaine Extension, and we now have folks who went through the program and now their kids are taking the program. So it’s been something that’s been very highly regarded and and we, you know, our communities, the farmers we work with, and us with an extension really put a high value to, the continuation of this program.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 11:54

I was just gonna say in my in the program I offer in Kennebec, I have some former volunteers, who are essential for operating, for making that program happen. And some of them who are now instructors went through the tractor safety program, you know, with extension or farm bureau when it happened years ago. And yeah. And their kids are going through it now. So it’s it’s really it’s super helpful.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 12:17

And like Jason said, for 14 15 year olds, if they’re operating larger tractors over, I believe it’s 20, 20 horsepower, or using, powered equipment. So it might be something like a baler or a potato digger potato digger or something like that. Then they do need to have this certification, in order to do those tasks.

Glenda Pereira: 12:40

And I was gonna say that these that this training, sounds really, like, gonna even be a refresher course on you know, we sometimes get complacent in doing our everyday activities. You know, it’s kind of a routine. And then just checking, you know, hey. Am I doing this appropriately, you you know, based on the best guidelines? So it might even benefit folks who’ve been doing this for such a long time, but could use a refresher on, a a few different skills and and just brushing those up.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 13:13

I would agree. And we do sometimes have parents who come, with their teenage students, and go through the course or folks who maybe have small farms and have started them as a second career and have learned as they went, but haven’t had any specific sort of structured training. And it’s it is just very helpful because everybody gets busy, and so you you don’t necessarily recognize the hazards, in the moment. So I think the course is really helpful in that way too.

Glenda Pereira: 13:45

Yeah. And you kind of, helped lead us into the transition of our talk here. As I mentioned in the beginning, we’re gonna be talking specifically about, tractor safety and specifically around when we are working around more machinery, harvest time. There’s a lot of equipment moving on the farm. So, Caragh, could you kind of, walk us through some of, common, maybe injuries or areas on the farm, specifically dealing with equipment, where we might need to, generate more awareness, in our surroundings.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 14:19

Sure. And especially, you know, focusing at this time of year. So we’re at harvest time for all of our operations, and everybody is really busy, thinking about, like silage chopping coming up right now. It’s not uncommon for there to, you know, be a clog in the chopper head. And, folks will tell you it’s easier to unclog equipment if it’s running.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 14:43

So as you start to loosen things up, it feeds stocks through. That’s also very dangerous and people have been severely injured, because we think our reaction time is very quick, but actually, it’s not. And, these pieces of equipment are very large and they don’t care if it’s cornstalks or if it’s an arm or a body that’s going through. So, making sure that you’ve got the the chopper head powered down before you start to pull those stocks out would be something really that, would be really critical. I also think about how busy it is around the farmstead and around the silos with unloading and trying to pack the silo and keeping track of where the different equipment is and keeping eye on whoever’s on top of that pile, packing that silo.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 15:31

You know, most farms, it’s gonna be somebody really experienced who’s doing that, but just checking in and making sure that they are doing okay, that there’s no overturns or anything like that. And that, if you are the person who’s unloading the truck, that you’re unloading it the way that person wants and in the location that they want so that they can pack safely. So those are a couple of things. I think this year, we’re lucky in that it’s been a good season. We haven’t been really pressed for time with a lot of our harvests.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 16:03

So I think for a lot of people, they’re going to be able to get their grass harvest and their hay harvest done without feeling super pressured when they start, chopping. And so I think that’s going to be really helpful, and hopefully our weather is gonna hold so folks aren’t under a lot of time pressure. We always recommend that if you have to get off the tractor, you know, if you’ve been running a powered implement, that you shut that PTO off. Don’t step over it even if it’s not running. It’s just a good practice.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 16:35

And, you know, I’ve heard from some experienced producers where they are, like, ready to do something like to step over that PTO and they’re like, wait a minute. What am I doing? I know better than to do this. And, just being aware of those safety issues. Yeah. So

Jason Lilley: 16:55

And just Yeah.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 16:56

Go ahead, Jason.

Jason Lilley: 16:57

On that, you know, there’s a lot of these best practices that essentially never get implemented on farms. So seat belts is is one, you know, where we know that if, if an accident happens and, someone has a rollover bar up, they’re gonna avoid, injury 75% of the time with that rollover bar. But if they had their seat belt on with the rollover bar on, or rollover bar up, they would avoid accident or serious injury, like, 97% of of the time with those types of rollovers. Another area that really never gets implemented is setting the practice that every time you get off the tractor that you shut it off. And there’s there’s various reasons around this, which I understand.

Jason Lilley: 17:49

But, just 5 or 6 years ago, there was a farmer, in central Maine, and he was gonna get off the equipment to check on the baler. And in the process, I’m assuming he had a an older like, a International or something with the shifting levers kind of between your legs. And as he went to get off that tractor, his knee, hit the the shifting lever, pushed the tractor into gear. He lost balance, and that tractor drove over his legs out in the middle of the field and and really caused some significant injuries. So there’s those types of things that we, you know, we just we’re dealing with, mechanics.

Jason Lilley: 18:30

We don’t know, you know, what might accidentally get implemented, and and it’s something that just, again, taking those extra levels of precaution, slowing down, and thinking through things is is extra important.

Glenda Pereira: 18:44

And I think you hit on something really important there that I’d like to maybe just elaborate on is the buddy system. So, maybe not, you know, having somebody out there, but texting somebody and saying, hey. I’m gonna be out in the field from 2 to 4 PM. Can you maybe just, you you know, call me or check-in on me if I don’t answer? You know?

Glenda Pereira: 19:05

Because I don’t know for that farmer situation. But if they were alone, like, when did they get, help out there? You you know, they they were probably immobile if they had their, like, ran over. So so when were they, you you know, assisted with care? So so telling somebody, hey.

Glenda Pereira: 19:24

I’m gonna be here or or having somebody come with you to do something like you know, if you’re ever around a a manure pit or a lagoon or any type of thing thing like that, having a a buddy implementing a buddy system can certainly be beneficial.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 19:41

And I think technology can help us some with that, although, you know, we certainly have plenty of farms and fields where, phone, reception is not great. But, you know, whether it’s, you know, sharing your location with a friend who can kinda keep an eye on you, make sure that you keep moving. You know, Apple Watches can the newer models have fall detection. So, if you’re in a situation where that might be a concern or if you have a family member who’s still working on the farm, maybe whose balance is not that great, that can be really helpful. But what I hear is that it also will alert people if you’re, like, on the ground to fix your equipment to it.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 20:20

You can’t tell the difference between being on the ground to because you fell or being on the ground to do some work. But looking into those sorts of technological aids to help us because labor is such a problem on farms now, so it’s everybody’s working and everybody’s in different places, so how can we keep an eye on each other and make sure we’re safe?

Jason Lilley: 20:43

Absolutely. So, in the same vein as letting people know where you’re going to be working and how long you expect to be out there and and maybe, you know, how long before if you don’t see me, just come give me a call or come check-in. There’s also the communication with, your emergency first responders. So making sure that there’s some way that, that, an EMT or the, you know, the the ambulance crews could come and find you. So this is particularly important in the maple world.

Jason Lilley: 21:23

You know? I’m in the sugar bush. Wow. That’s not gonna be but if you just do some simple labeling, you know, here’s mainline a, mainline b, mainline c, and I’m out on the the west branch of of c or, you know, labeling your farm roads or doing something where you’re sharing information with those emergency first responders ahead of time, that can make a huge difference when it comes to, responding to these types of emergencies.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 21:52

I didn’t really think about that. You know, we talk about that that, with tractor safety, with our students about, like, being clear what town you’re in, what road you’re on, having somebody come out from the field road to the main road to, flag down the first responders. But, yeah, if you’re out in the woods, it’s going to be so much more difficult, than even we can imagine, on on the farm.

Jason Lilley: 22:16

Yep. Yep. Maybe 2 more factors I wanted to make sure we hit on is, you know, weather and tiredness. You know, this this time of year, it is go go go, and it doesn’t matter if you’re, you know, putting the silage up or, you know, harvesting the vegetables or the apples or whatever it is. Like, this is the time to to get it done, and that often means late nights and early mornings.

Jason Lilley: 22:50

And that that, lack of sleep and tiredness, that’s when, corners get cut. You know? That decision making and critical thinking about what you’re doing, that that’s when that, you know, doesn’t always get implemented as fully as it as it could and should. So, just really making sure that you try to get as much rest as possible, which we know is, not not always possible. And then just being aware of it can often go a long ways.

Jason Lilley: 23:23

Just, communicating with other folks, trying to share the load and and, delegate responsibilities, but really just doing everything you can to step back and say, you know, I is this thing that I’m doing right now that’s gonna save me 45 seconds? Is that worth the type of injury that could come from these corners that I’m cutting?

Caragh Fitzgerald: 23:47

And reminding yourself that just because you’ve done it before and didn’t get hurt, doesn’t mean that you won’t get hurt this time. Right. A lot of times, there’s that little voice in our heads that says, this isn’t really a very good idea. And whenever you hear that voice, you should listen to it.

Glenda Pereira: 24:03

Yeah. Kind of like your gut instinct, may maybe, telling you that that whatever is about to happen, it is is probably a higher risk than benefit depending on what it is that you’re doing. Right? You know, unfortunately for farmers, their income, comes from what they produce. So so that’s, you know, trying to maximize your yields is always a priority because that is important for the profitability on the farm.

Glenda Pereira: 24:36

But, again, like we mentioned, you know, the fact that this farmer can stay operating is is obviously more important than than the specific yields, for 1 season. So thinking about those things is is crucial. And if we don’t mind, can we reiterate some of the points that you both, Caragh and Jason, had mentioned

Jason Lilley: 25:01

We had discussed that, you know, harvest time is a really busy time of year, and, and that, you know, the different pieces of equipment that we’re that we’re working around, that that it’s critically important to just really slow down and think through, you know, what are the ways that, you know, we can implement different approaches to do this to make sure that we’re avoiding those accidents and serious injuries.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 25:30

Yeah. And some of the key ones I think that cut across all industries are, like, if your ROPS is up, make sure you’ve got your seat belt on. Always power off the PTO and don’t step over it. Power off. Turn shut your tractor off if you’re getting off that tractor as well.

Glenda Pereira: 25:48

Yeah. And I think appropriate clothing and footwear. So we talked about weather, but we talked about getting on and off the tractor. You know, sandals, bare feet, don’t have good traction. So, wearing the or investing in some good footwear to keep you safe, because it can certainly lead to having you off balance.

Glenda Pereira: 26:12

And and so having those, clothing items, can certainly be be helpful.

Jason Lilley: 26:19

So just before we wrap up here, I just would I know that this safety, is the not the most exciting topic to to bring up, and that oftentimes it gets just fully avoided. But I would strongly encourage every farmer to sit down with your your family, and this is a perfect time of year to do it, and to pick a type of accident and to think down through what would happen if I just broke my broke my leg here this time of year. What would have to happen for the farm to continue on? What would that mean for medical expenses? What would that mean for how, you know, how our our markets are maintained and all these types of things

Jason Lilley: 27:12

What are the trickle effects of doing that? And then what are the ways that we could avoid those types of accidents happening? And are there keyholes that we see in the safety, components of our farm right now that would be relatively easy to fix?

Glenda Pereira: 27:30

Yep. We made plans for everything. Right? We have our nutrient management plan. We for livestock farmers, we have a biosecurity plan. I think you just mentioned that we also need to have a farm safety plan. I mean, thinking through that, specifically, you know, maybe we don’t have a first aid kit in the tractor. Maybe we don’t have a a fire extinguisher in the tractor. And hey. You know?

Glenda Pereira: 27:55

Those are two things we probably need to, prioritize right now because the you you know, you can get, cut, you can get hurt, and you can easily access that if you’re by yourself. Fires happen, so, being able to extinguish before, you know, some first responders can get out to you. So certainly do creating and writing down a farm safety plan, is just as important as your other plans on farms.

Jason Lilley: 28:24

Absolutely. And we have some tools. We’ll make sure that they’re linked to the the podcast notes. But there are some great tools out there to assist with that planning, and, you know, it helps internally. And it also they’re they’re in a format where you can easily share those with first responders as well.

Glenda Pereira: 28:45

Well, great. Is there any last, things that we didn’t cover that you both would like to mention with our listeners?

Caragh Fitzgerald: 28:54

I think

Jason Lilley: 28:55

just that we, we do maintain an interest list for our tractor safety program, so you can fill that out at any point in the year, and you’ll be notified, as soon as that registration opens, usually, in March, and the classes are April through May. So and we also have several resources online, related to tractor safety and what are some of the most common areas where how accidents happen on on farm. So, the the purpose of creating those initially was so if you were gonna hire a new tractor operator, it could almost be used as a training program. I think it’s 5, 8 minute videos on different topics. So, so, anyway, we have we have those types of resources available, and we’re always happy to to have conversations with folks and to and to talk more about what these safety plans might look like, and to to come out and visit farms with that kinda outsider, perspective of what, you know, where are the holes and how could the safety components be tightened up.

Glenda Pereira: 30:07

Where can folks find out more about these programs? So if you don’t mind just sharing your both your contact information, and I I know there’s also a newsletter, where a lot of this information is disseminated.

Jason Lilley: 30:23

So we have the, the Maine Farm News and that, you know, we we kinda regularly try to have, a topic as one of the articles that’s related to farm safety. So if you don’t already get the Maine Farm News through UMaine Extension, make sure to sign up for that. And then we as I said, we have our UMaine Extension tractor Safety home page with some of the these resources on it. I’ll you can also feel free to

Caragh Fitzgerald: 30:52

I was just gonna say, I think the easiest way to get to that is to just do a search for, tractor safety course, UMaine Extension, and it should show up there. And we can put a link in the show notes as well specifically for that.

Jason Lilley: 31:06

And you can always feel free to reach out directly to us. My direct line is 207.581.8368, and my email is jason.lilley@maine.edu.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 31:25

Yep. And best way to reach me is, my work cell phone. So 207-949-5427 or email first initial, last name, c Fitzgerald. So, cfitzgerald@maine.edu. And with that, thank you

Glenda Pereira: 31:44

so much, Jason and Caragh, for coming on the Maine Farmcast and sharing a bit of your expertise, related to farm, safety, tractor safety and farm safety as well.

Jason Lilley: 31:58

Yeah. Thanks for having us.

Caragh Fitzgerald: 32:00

Yes. Thank you, Glenda. We appreciate it.

Colt Knight: 32:12

Howdy folks. Dr. Knight here. The Maine Farmcast wants to hear from you. Please send us your questions, comments, or suggested episodes to extension.farmcast@maine.edu. Again, that is extension.farmcast@maine.edu.

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