Safety: Work Zone Awareness
Every Load, Every Move
Attention to Equipment, Cargo & Conditions Reduces Risk
By Bethany Salisbury
There’ s a version of farming people tend to picture, the quiet fields, birds in the hedgerow, maybe the hum of a tractor in the distance. Then there’ s the real version we actually live in, equipment on narrow roads, trailers loaded down a little heavier than we’ d prefer and a constant awareness that we are sharing space with people who are not expecting us.
Work zone awareness isn’ t just a highway department, construction site or warehouse issue. Out here, our farms are work zones, and at our farm, whether we’ re running our antique equipment, hauling livestock or just trying to get from the home farm to the acreage down the road, the risks are real and close.
Yesterday’ s Equipment on Today’ s Road
A lot of you, like us, are still running older equipment, and for good reason. It’ s reliable, fixable and paid for, but it wasn’ t designed with modern traffic in mind. That old tractor might top out at 12 to 18 miles per hour on a good day. The power steering might be, hopefully, optimistic at best. Lighting is minimal, and even when upgraded, it’ s still not comparable to what drivers are used to seeing on other vehicles or even modern farm equipment.
From the seat, you feel exposed. You know how long it takes to get up to speed. You know how much room you need to turn, and you know that if something goes wrong, you don’ t have a lot of margin for error. That means we have to operate with intention.
Hug the shoulder when it’ s safe, but don’ t put yourself in a ditch trying to be polite. Use your slow-moving vehicle( SMV) signs and keep them clean and visible, add lights and flashers where you can, even on older rigs, and assume no one understands how slow you actually are, because the truth is, they really don’ t.
April 2026 | www. FarmersHotLine. com | 15