Speeding giant tractors and huge farm machinery

I walked past it yesterday its about 4ft high and they will come along and harvest the lot the whole plant. It has medium corns on it at the moment a few people round here picked up some stray cobs as they looked quite nice and big but they were horrid apparently! They are not for eating. I never tried one.

Last year was the first year in Herts and the harvesting with the big machines just started up again after a short lull post cereal harvest.
 
indie999 said:
Definitely growing now it is a genetically modified USA strain specially to go into the digester to become electricity for the new feed in tariffs. One local farmer who was completely arable has turned over half his land to grow this(the whole lot goes into the digeseter..to rot)! So the farmer is quids in as he also pushes up the price of his cereal crops which are in short supply anyway. I know this is off topic as well but the point is the harvest season since digesters is twice as long. When I was riding I knew harvesting etc was pretty seasonal and for a few weeks on sunny days!

Big campaign as in other areas to stop it but public cannot do anything at all. Supposedly green?

Hope that makes sense!?!
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LOL, I got the gist.
I know that maize grows in UK, it was just the sweetcorn I wasn't sure about :)
As to energy crops, well, farmer gets his cash and you press a button and a light comes on in your kitchen ;)
 
Well round here, we have to be careful around harvest time but apart from that it's not a problem. Farmers are under a lot of pressure and contractors are working to a budget, not that that is an excuse. As for those going on about lack of lights and indicators. I regularly have to run the gauntlet of the 'Rush Hour Rambo's' whilst driving the stud tractor and trailer, all fully legal with lights etc. Those morons think that overtaking me whilst I am indicating right to turn into the only entrance to our muck heap off a public road (no off road access or believe me I would use that) is fun, and the scary thing is it usually mothers with children in the seat on the side that I would crash into if I did not see them. I indicate, pull into the middle of the road to make my intentions clear and slowly pull into the lane but no some nob with no time to sit behind regularly mounts the grass and tries to crash into me! It's not easy driving a bit rig, as far as I was away we are meant to be mainly concerned with the traffic in front of us and not too worried about those behind (whilst keeping a saftey check on it all).
My horse is great with tractors, my last one couldn't tolerate them coming towards him - simple solution get him off the road if I could or turn him round if I couldn't.
 
martlin said:
Machinery gets bigger and bigger to harvest crops faster and faster - time is money and Joe Public want their food cheap. And NOW.
Lack of escorting vehicles is a concern, I agree.
Do you think that if the drivers were native to UK they would be more considerate, perhaps?
We don't pay road tax for horses.
I don't think I can go into the discussion about farmers not wishing others on their land (sic!) without causing an argument, so I'll skip that. :)
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Yeah someone else said it was the eastern european contractors, I suppose its easy to go into dream mode going back and forwards all day! Yeah horses on land is another thing etc but this is when we are on proper paths round our way we are really strictly controlled by bureaucracy and urban meddlers and wo behold if you deviate! (my relative is a local farmer and hates horses on his money crops). Point taken, not guilty. ha ha.
 
martlin said:
LOL, I got the gist.
I know that maize grows in UK, it was just the sweetcorn I wasn't sure about :)
As to energy crops, well, farmer gets his cash and you press a button and a light comes on in your kitchen ;)
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Yes my green tax bill and his light comes on in his bank account. Farm feeds are going up USA lost a lot of crops this year due to bad weather and there has been criticism as the farmers had been encouraged to grow digester maize(it backfired on them this year in USA)! Green Europe target is hit?? Thats all, so is my wallet. Farmers are not actually growing crops for cheap food now. Shame. I like my small farmers they are real farmers not greedy ones.
 
martlin said:
I'm sorry, you've lost me this time :o
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Dont worry its late and not keen on digesters where crops are chucked in without a harvest etc. Thats all. If only we could turn back the clocks and go back to horse and plough! That could solve this Big vehicle problem altogether. Anyhow its late must go nice talking to the forum, I spend too much time on here lately!
 
A bit off topic I know, but there is quite a bit of talk about 'How Publics' demand for cheap food. I can't help thinking people have got things a bit wrong.
When I started farming we had grain mountains, milk and wine lakes the lot. Not any more.

The only people who really benefit from cheap food are the major retailers.

A friend of mine was getting paid 1p per lettuce, about a pound in Tesco.

The retailer takes advantage of farmers being paid a subsidy to keep the price low for producers. This though is not passed to consumers, who are tax payers. Consequently, 'Joe Public' is subsidizing the retailer more than farmers, then charged over the odds.

The whole system is corrupt.
 
martlin said:
I know very little about arable farming, I admit, and this is also off topic, but:
I didn't think you can grow corn on the cob (as in, crop for the cob ;)) in UK? So all the maize growing involves just combining the lot anyway, be it for silage or for energy crops. I am led to believe that it doesn't get warm enough for long enough at the right time of year for it to be feasible to grow sweetcorn in UK?
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When I was a child we used to follow the trailers that hauled the corn on the cob and pick it up, take it home and our mums used to cook it for tea. This was the Isle of Wight though and they do grow crops that can't be grown elsewhere in the Uk.
 
Anyone using the roads has a responsibility for the safety of other road users be they pedestrians, cyclists, horse riders, motorcyclists or motorists.
Farmers or farming contractors are no different.
There is absolutely no excuse for them to be driving dangerously, aggresively or without thought for other road users just because they are farmers or it is harvest time.
The vehicles they use are larger than most other vehicles on the roads and are potential killers.
 
If its any consolation, this issue (the lack of training and vehicle tests esp for trailers converted from artic (where there is a proper linkage) to the more flimsy hitch tow for agric use, has been the subject of quite a lot of debate on farming forums in recent days, and many farmer are in full agreement that tractor speeds and weight towing capabilities have moved far beyond the levels envisaged when the exemptions for agric vehicles were put in place. Many of them believe that teenagers with little or no training should not be in charge of towing 17 tons at 50kmph on single track roads!

Hopefully at some point loads over a certain weight or travelling over a low speed (eg 20mph) will be subject to a basic test and the drivers have to be properly trained and perhaps restricted to certain amount of working hours. This would protect the drivers themselves and other drivers and road users. The exemptions could remain for the low risk slow light loads.
 
patterdale said:
You don't know the circumstances though.

If I was carrying bales down a mile and a half of track on a busy day and two pony people were pootling along in front I'd be pretty ticked off if they didn't either move over or trot on.

Like I say - don't know the circumstances.
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there by adding to the amount of horses and ponies on the road that are not good with tractors!

smartly trotting to the nearest place to get out of they way only teaches the horses that they need to run from big machines, train your horse away from the roads most farmers if asked politely would be happy for you to spend time working your horse with the tractors when they are not busy.

as for keeping of the roads horses have the right of way and i think everyone needs to be considerate, saying they are driving fast and badly is ok cos that have to get the work done 'piffle' so if i am late forwork or busy i can drive like a prat too and its justified is it?


we have a 14.2hh at work that was always brilliant with all vehicles until and inconsiderate tractor driver scared the s**t out of her cos he did not slow down, last week this mare let a low loader go past slowly and close enough that i could touch it she was fine until she saw the tractor on the back then freaked!

all large tractors produced in the last couple of years can go over 30mph so yes they can speed. the fasttrack for example has that name for a reason and these tractors are produced for the large farms that means the vehicle has to go on a roads.

i know most of the tractor drivers in my area and nearly all of them are polite and considerate road users and yes i do on occasion drive tractors too and ride a motorbike and i would never use either to intimidate another road user

can you tell this is a pet hate
 
AdorableAlice said:
At harvest time and silaging I think, if at all possible, we should ride our horses very early to stay out of the way of the farmers. They cannot combine and haul corn before the dew is off.
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That's very sensible advice which I shall follow. I've just moved onto a country road where there is a lot of agricultural traffic - considerate drivers - but still no room to get past them on a horse. Early does it in the tractoring season, thanks.
 
jools1234 said:
there by adding to the amount of horses and ponies on the road that are not good with tractors!

smartly trotting to the nearest place to get out of they way only teaches the horses that they need to run from big machines, train your horse away from the roads most farmers if asked politely would be happy for you to spend time working your horse with the tractors when they are not busy.
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Oh it doesn't work though. My horse happily mooches around the farm yard not batting an eyelid at the YOs tractors and trailers, meet one on a lane though and he's much, much less confident. They are intimidating due to their size for the size of the road. I don't worry about tractors because all the ones round our way are fab, always pull to the side, stop and if necessary shut the engine off if they're oncoming, and if they are coming from behind they always wait behind until there is somewhere for the horses to pull in. I'd be scared of hacking if the tractor drivers were like the OP's and I do understand where they're coming from because I do have the same problem mainly with trucks.
 
All our local farmers are very considerate. Perhaps you could go to the local farmers who keep speeding past you and explain to them that your pony is frightened of tractors, would they mind if you brought him over to watch them move around the farm for a couple of mornings (not in the middle of harvest time obviously!). This will strike up a bond with them and hopefully they'll appreciate you trying to tractor proof him and be a bit more considerate in furture - they are animal people after all, just very busy ones!
 
I live on a single width road with a xroad nearby the amount of muckspreaders that leave skid marks of 20 meters plus outside my house knowing there is a xroads there is beyond belief. They also have plastic flags flapping on them supporting England football I guess but terrifying any horse they drive flat out past. Yes there employers have been told yes they still do it.
Farmers are fine their employees are d*******s
 
Well guys - thanks SO much for all your comments. What a lot of interesting comments. You have all certainly confirmed what I already knew, that riding or carriage driving a horse on any road in the UK these days means you stand a strong chance of not coming back to your yard in one piece. I just hope that I may have opened a few eyes and indeed ears and if these comments only save one potentially fatal accident it will have been a job well done.

The countryside is now a SERIOUS money generating arena where everyone is just intent on making a living. There is no longer a tight small community where most farmers had horse sense as they normally followed the hunt or bred a few point-to-pointers etc. but rather an area where machinery and financial targets are now king.

I remember hacking the lanes quite safely as a child and often being asked to deliver a basket of plums or some eggs on my pony to the cottage up the road or, tying my pony up outside the local pub while a kindly local farmer bought me a lemonade. Every country person would slow down for horses and often pull over for a chat - it was just an accepted part of country life in those days. Ambling past colourful cottage gardens, sitting on the verges on hot afternoons while your horse grazed the hedgerows and often riding bareback in a headcollar to turn ponies out in a field down the road was normal - it was what everyone did. How lucky I was to experience those halcyon golden days when hacking was thing of absolute joy, not the terror it has turned into in today's aggressive, hurried world.

One last point, the farmers on this thread are bleating that you should train your horse to get used to the machinery but not one person has made the point that even the most sensible of horses can shy in the path of an oncoming tractor if a pheasant does a vertical take off under their feet or have no where to go if a large piece of farm machinery hogs the road
- horses are flight animals or don't they learn that when doing their so called road safety training.

Modern farmers should realise they DON'T own the road, only the land either side, they need to remember that and stop being so B.... arrogant to other road users. I can count on more than two hands a number of fatal or serious accidents involving horses and selfish road users and that is really quite shocking!!
 
Patchworkpony said:
The countryside is now a SERIOUS money generating arena where everyone is just intent on making a living. There is no longer a tight small community where most farmers had horse sense as they normally followed the hunt or bred a few point-to-pointers etc. but rather an area where machinery and financial targets are now king.


Modern farmers should realise they DON'T own the road, only the land either side, they need to remember that and stop being so B.... arrogant to other road users. I can count on more than two hands a number of fatal or serious accidents involving horses and selfish road users and that is really quite shocking!!
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I Disagree strongly re this and to be honest and offended by this statement. I think you will find that mostly it’s the contractors as has been stated here. If you can’t control your horse then you shouldn’t be on the road. Its attitude’s like this that cause the issues in the countryside.
 
If it wasn't for all the speeding tractors rushing a hay crop a few weeks back, you'd be complaining about lack of winter feed.

I've never had a problem with ours, but then I wouldn't have a horse on a road if they couldn't cope with a tractor :confused:
 
No comment to add on the speeding tractors - never had a problem myself and we are on narrow Somerset lanes - I always trot on into a gateway or field. But I did make sure, when I got my new horse, that before taking him on the road i took him into a local farmers yard so that he could watch and hear large tractors moving around him. Have a thought for my friend who lives near Salisbury plain and has met Tanks coming along the roads! Her horse is so used to them it doesn't bother at all.

And in defense of young tractor drivers - my friends son is 16 and drives a tractor on the roads (as working between the two farms they own) and he is very sensible when he meets a horse. His father, however, is not so patient!

However, I feel i do have to comment on the "corn on the cob" discussion. There may be some farmers who grow and harvest it for energy digesters, but round here it is grown and harvested for maize silage for cattle feed. It is chopped up in the field by a type of silager and then stored and fed to the cattle when they are in over the winter. It looks a bit like chunky shavings and smells great. The cows love it :) They are cutting it in the field next to my horse this week - which is great as it gets him used to the noise and look of the tractors.
 
Wow patchwork pony, fair enough you are entitled to your opinion but I find it kinda offensive - as a farming family we have to work bloody hard to pay the rent - 20 hour days some weeks. Times have changed sadly.
 
It is certainly alright for those that buy older ready made horses but some of us are the ones that school the youngsters to be relaxed with vehicles of all shapes & sizes. The only place they can get familiar with traffic &inconsiderate ignorant drivers is on the public roads.
as most of you will know horses can go beautifully at home in an arena but react differently out & about at shows, hunting, pony club, roads, etc.
so please none of that claptrap nonsense that horses should not be on the road if they are not bombproof as there is no such horse.
 
Nannon - agree totally with this post.

Patchwork pony - did you grow up living in an Enid Blyton novel? I grew up on a farm and it was always hard work - animals and crops came first - because that is what made the money to allow us to live on a farm. Maybe in your idyllic childhood farmers all grew money trees so didn't have to work at all and spent their days delivering lemonade to young girls on ponies!

If i had been pootling along on our lanes bareback with a basket of plums for the dear old lady up the road, and holding up my dad on his tractor - I know what kind of reception i would have got later at home!!
 
partypremier said:
It is certainly alright for those that buy older ready made horses but some of us are the ones that school the youngsters to be relaxed with vehicles of all shapes & sizes. The only place they can get familiar with traffic &inconsiderate ignorant drivers is on the public roads.
as most of you will know horses can go beautifully at home in an arena but react differently out & about at shows, hunting, pony club, roads, etc.
so please none of that claptrap nonsense that horses should not be on the road if they are not bombproof as there is no such horse.
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I didnt say your horse shouldnt be on the road if its not bombproof i said that if yoyu cant control your horse then you shouldnt be on the road it's a completly different thing. I have 5YO gelding who i can hack out on the road but i expect to come across machinary and other road users ansd yes i expect my horse to spook but he is controlled and i always trot on to the next gateway common courtesy works both ways!!
 
Patchworkpony said:
Well guys - thanks SO much for all your comments. What a lot of interesting comments. You have all certainly confirmed what I already knew, that riding or carriage driving a horse on any road in the UK these days means you stand a strong chance of not coming back to your yard in one piece. I just hope that I may have opened a few eyes and indeed ears and if these comments only save one potentially fatal accident it will have been a job well done.

The countryside is now a SERIOUS money generating arena where everyone is just intent on making a living. There is no longer a tight small community where most farmers had horse sense as they normally followed the hunt or bred a few point-to-pointers etc. but rather an area where machinery and financial targets are now king.

I remember hacking the lanes quite safely as a child and often being asked to deliver a basket of plums or some eggs on my pony to the cottage up the road or, tying my pony up outside the local pub while a kindly local farmer bought me a lemonade. Every country person would slow down for horses and often pull over for a chat - it was just an accepted part of country life in those days. Ambling past colourful cottage gardens, sitting on the verges on hot afternoons while your horse grazed the hedgerows and often riding bareback in a headcollar to turn ponies out in a field down the road was normal - it was what everyone did. How lucky I was to experience those halcyon golden days when hacking was thing of absolute joy, not the terror it has turned into in today's aggressive, hurried world.

One last point, the farmers on this thread are bleating that you should train your horse to get used to the machinery but not one person has made the point that even the most sensible of horses can shy in the path of an oncoming tractor if a pheasant does a vertical take off under their feet or have no where to go if a large piece of farm machinery hogs the road
- horses are flight animals or don't they learn that when doing their so called road safety training.

Modern farmers should realise they DON'T own the road, only the land either side, they need to remember that and stop being so B.... arrogant to other road users. I can count on more than two hands a number of fatal or serious accidents involving horses and selfish road users and that is really quite shocking!!
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I have found your posts throughout to be very ignorant and ill informed, either you are new to the countryside or just one of these equine related nutters that think everyone owes them a hand.

Riding on the road is dangerous. A country lane at harvest/silage time is about as dangerous as riding on anA road, if it has taken you this long to work that out im guessing you are new to country living.

Farmers derive their living from the land, and as a result running machinery up the road. Most horsey people around me ride on the road for pleasure, of which they pay no tax.

most "modern farmers" around here still ride, ourselves included, and have realised as a result our horses must all understand big pieces of machinery, we have had no problems with this.

I take issue with riders who feel they own the road, and as a result put everyone at risk by riding dangerously out in the road and being rude.

As far as your taxes paying our subsidies- pipe down. You want to produce food for the nation against the supermarket regime i suggest you show us all how it is done. Until that time i suggest you read up on your ELS/HLS and SFP before making such special comments.
 
I have to say most of the farmers I meet when out and about driving are very considerate. However, I was going through Holyport in Berkshire the other day and there are winding and narrow sections and one guy in a tractor with a huge trailer was flying along - 25mph may be ok on a straight section, but not on a corner when you have hardly any chance of getting out of the way of his huge balloon wheels on your side of the road. I was not impressed.
 
Have to be honest, I've never had a problem with speeding tractors or farm machinery generally. Even on my little mare who was far from bomb proof on the roads.

Ride with skill and forethought, and usually there's never a problem.
 
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Nannon said:
Wow patchwork pony, fair enough you are entitled to your opinion but I find it kinda offensive - as a farming family we have to work bloody hard to pay the rent - 20 hour days some weeks. Times have changed sadly.
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Agree with This

LIZ66 said:
Nannon - agree totally with this post.

Patchwork pony - did you grow up living in an Enid Blyton novel? I grew up on a farm and it was always hard work - animals and crops came first - because that is what made the money to allow us to live on a farm. Maybe in your idyllic childhood farmers all grew money trees so didn't have to work at all and spent their days delivering lemonade to young girls on ponies!

If i had been pootling along on our lanes bareback with a basket of plums for the dear old lady up the road, and holding up my dad on his tractor - I know what kind of reception i would have got later at home!!
Click to expand...

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