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Ag group teaches new drivers to share the road with machinery  

A county farm bureau is teaching new drivers to be aware of ag equipment on the roads.

Galva, Illinois farmer Kate Huffman chairs the Henry County Farm Bureau Health and Safety Committee. She tells Brownfield every year they host “Share the Road” assemblies for local high schools where they introduce students to equipment like a semi and combine.

“The students get in and really see what it looks like, and see things we have to look out for that cars normally don’t such as reflector posts, telephone poles, guard rails, all of that.”

She says a local cooperative also sponsors a sprayer simulator where students try driving a sprayer through town.

“It really opens the eyes of our students because while I am from a very rural area, a lot of these kids have never seen a tractor up close.”

Huffman says by increasing awareness, they hope to limit traffic accidents involving farm equipment.