09/29/2026
It’s National Farm Safety Week, so I thought I’d use it as a good excuse for another reminder about sharing the road with farm equipment.
For most people, seeing a tractor or a big piece of equipment coming down the road is probably just an inconvenience.
Our fields aren’t all connected. Some may be a mile apart and some may be many miles apart, which means at some point that equipment has to travel the same roads everyone else does.
And yes, we know we’re slow. We can (sometimes) see the line of cars behind us. We promise we aren’t up there completely oblivious to the fact that you have somewhere to be. We do too!
Most farmers will get over and let traffic around when there’s a safe place to do it. But with equipment that can be wider than the lane, getting completely off the road isn’t always possible.
So give us a little room. Slow down when you come up behind us, especially because the difference between 20 mph and highway speed closes that distance a whole lot faster than you think.
And please be patient when passing. A few extra minutes behind a tractor really isn’t worth taking a chance when you can’t see what’s coming.
We spend a lot of time moving equipment from farm to farm, and we want the same thing everyone else on the road wants, to get where we’re going safely.
National Farm Safety Week is a good reminder that farm safety doesn’t stop at the edge of the field.
Sometimes it means all of us sharing the road and looking out for each other.
