Rollover Protective Structures, Worker Safety, and Cost-Effectiveness: New York, 2011–2017
15th October 2018
Tractor overturns are the leading cause of farm fatalities.
That never happens with oxen. Or mules. Sometimes the old ways are best.
15th October 2018
Tractor overturns are the leading cause of farm fatalities.
That never happens with oxen. Or mules. Sometimes the old ways are best.
October 15th, 2018 at 13:02
Knew a guy who got caught in a corn picker. Ripped off his arm and a lot of attached stuff. Ended up paralyzed. Made himself a business dealing used farm equipment. One day a milk truck lost it’s brakes and came down a hill out of control and ran through the guy’s house, killing him in his bed.
Farming is a dangerous business.
As for mules being safer, you can only say that if you’ve never been kicked or bit by one. I saw a guy run over by a mule-drawn hay rake. The mules stepped on a nest of yellow jackets that then swarmed on them. They took off running and the driver got tossed forward when the rake went over a bump. He got beat up pretty bad, but survived. The mules ran half a mile until the rake hit another old piece of farm equipment. They were standing there calmly eating grass when we caught up with them.
I remember talking to a rancher in West Texas about rounding up his sheep with horses. “No,” he told us, “I gave up horses and went to a 4-wheeler.” Why? “The 4-wheeler never bit me, or tossed me off, or decided to leave me and head back to the barn while I was taking a piss.”
It is hard to argue with that logic.