Road safety during harvest

Aug 21, 2019

Vehicle and equipment operators need to look out for one another, a Sask. farmer said

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Harvest is underway in Saskatchewan, which means farm equipment and regular vehicles will be sharing the road.

About 13 per cent of farm-related fatalities across Canada are traffic related, the Canadian Agricultural Injury Surveillance program says.

Members of the ag industry are reminding motorists to be patient and give farmers the space they need to manoeuvre large machinery.

“Be patient, slow down, wait for your opportunity to pass and do so safely,” Tyler McMurchy, manager of media relations for Saskatchewan Government Insurance, told Northeast Now. “Keep in mind the person driving (the farm equipment) may not be able to see you, so give them plenty of room. They may not be able to signal their intent to slow down, so it’s incumbent on drivers to slow down and anticipate any sudden movements.”

Ensuring everyone who shares the roads gets home safely each night is a joint responsibility.

Farmers and motorists need to work together to create safe driving conditions, said Dan Danielson, a cash crop producer from Eston, Sask.

“Both sides have to look out for one another,” he told Farms.com. “If a piece of farm equipment and a car end up in an accident, everybody in those vehicles could wind up not going home. It’s everybody’s responsibility to make sure we all have safe days on the road.”

Ag for Life has tips for farmers and motorist on how to share the road.

Farmers, for example, could use pilot vehicles and extra reflectors to make machinery more visible, while motorists could stay back at least 50 feet (15 metres) when following behind farm equipment.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.