News

Extension & Farm Bureau spread road safety message

As spring fieldwork picks up, a farm group and extension educators are reaching out to motorists to make roads safer.

Cheryl Skjolaas is the Agricultural Safety and Health Specialist with the University of Wisconsin Extension. Skjolaas tells Brownfield she is working with Wisconsin Farm Bureau, creating a safety video showing some of the dangerous situations that happen with passenger vehicles and farm implements.  “We really want to help people understand the difference between farm equipment operating out on the road and their motor vehicles, and so, since we share that road space, they need to realize what some of their actions may mean to that tractor or that self-propelled implement operator.”

Skolas says most drivers don’t realize how hard it is to stop heavy machinery. “The tractor and the piece of planting equipment that we’re using today is 50 feet in length, and so for that unit to stop, like that semi-truck, it takes time.”

The safety video they are putting together will also show the dangers of passing in a no-passing zone, passing tractors turning into a field, and the importance of proper lighting.

Brickstead Dairy Farm near Greenleaf, Wisconsin and the Brown County Highway Department assisted Skjolaas and Farm Bureau with the demonstrations Wednesday.