I have customers who should not be operating farm equipment. They’re older gentlemen who, because of age, no longer have the physical or mental capabilities to safely operate large machinery. But they are farmers, and they can’t stand the thought of not being able to do what they love. Equally difficult is the challenge to family members who must either compensate for the older operator, or even worse, eventually force them to stop operating machinery.
There comes a time when personal safety, the safety of others and the cost of repairs requires that SOMEbody step up and make a decision. I’ve seen expensive damage done repeatedly to combines, tractors and other equipment by aged operators. I’ve narrowly escaped serious injury while working near machinery with elderly operators. Perhaps worst of all, I was involved with arranging the decision of my own father to step away from operating the farm machinery he loved to run.
That’s why I deeply, deeply respect, admire and sympathize with those individuals who make on their own the wrenching decision to stop operating heavy equipment. One neighbor just slowly phased himself from full-time tractor operation to running smaller tractors to eventually not running tractors and equipment at all, without explaining why. Another guy I know got done with harvest one year and firmly declared that was the end of his tractor driving, and after that limited himself to the lawn mower. Sadly, I know of another farmer who made life hell for his family by insisting to operate equipment even though he left a trail of damaged machines, buildings, trees and fences wherever he went, until they literally hid the keys of all motorized equipment on the farm.
I hope when I reach a point in my life when I am no longer able to safely operate equipment or drive vehicles, that I have the insight to recognize it, and the courage to admit it.
