I grew up on a dairy in Wisconsin before there were slow-moving signs on the hay wagon or fenders on the John Deere, and I am still alive. It makes one ponder about all the close calls, but I believe the Lord looked after us. Significant progress has been made with making farm machinery safer.

In your April 17 Hoard's Dairyman Intel “Well-deserved and unwanted attention,” you discuss child injuries on-farm, but one-third of the injuries listed are really not limited to agriculture. The same results could happen in the country where there is one cow and five acres. ATVs that go 80 mph are in the same category as autos that go 160-plus mph. That is our choice. Several changes that made dairy farming much safer I recall include covered PTO shafts, cabs on tractors, and A.I. The bull in the liquid nitrogen tank no longer worries me.

— Barry Steevens, Columbia, Mo.

To comment, email your remarks to intel@hoards.com.
(c) Hoard's Dairyman Intel 2017
April 24, 2017