STUDENT DRIVERS
Tractor-driving course opens doors for future farmers
EASTON, N.Y. >> Meredith Howard shifted the shiny new tractor into gear and let out the clutch, sending the machine forward a few feet.
Then she learned how to connect and disconnect a PTO shaft behind the vehicle, which drives a large mowing machine.
It’s not the way most teenage girls spend a week off from school, but Howard’s goals are more far-reaching than many kids her age.
“It’s all to help me eventually work on a farm because I might want to own a farm some day,” the Schaghticoke resident said. “I like the idea of sustaining yourself by growing crops and raising animals.”
She’s among the two dozen 14and 15-year-olds from seven area counties who completed a threeday tractor certification course Wednesday, which allows them to operate machinery on farms other than their own families’.
For kids who don’t live on a farm, the certification opens doors to part-time or summer jobs, which may lead to lifelong careers in agriculture.
The course is offered by Cornell Cooperative Extension and began Monday with a visit to Kinderhook Creek Farm, in Stephentown, and Becker Farm’s, a nursery and gardening business in East Greenbush. At both sites, students learned the many ways equipment is used in daily operations.
On Tuesday, the program shifted to Washington County Fairgrounds where kids got hands-on instruction from Tim Havens, owner of Falls Farm & Garden Equipment in Hudson Falls, plus “do’s and don’ts” from extension agents including Leland Bunting, of Rensselaer County.
“We teach them to recognize hazards, how to operate controls and how to hook up the PTO shaft correctly,” Bunting said.
The fast-spinning PTO shaft, which connects tractors to the equipment they pull, is one of the many pieces of farm apparatus that can be quite dangerous if handled improperly.
“We want kids to learn how to operate machinery safely within their own abilities,” Bunting said. “This is no place for show-offs.”
Will Ogden, 14, a freshman at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School, took the course so he could help out around his parents’ large property this summer. “My father has a small tractor,” he said. “I wanted to get an idea how to drive it safely. There’s a lot of mowing and grounds work that needs doing.”
Twin brothers Philip and Luke Schrom live at Morning Star Farm, near Rotterdam.
“I’m taking this course to prove to my parents that I can drive a tractor safely,” Philip said.
Kids also learned how to operate other types of farm machinery and tools including a skid steer, all-terrain vehicle and chain saw -- anything that might prove helpful in the course of daily chores.
Chrys Nestle, a Washington County extension agent, said the course was developed by Penn State and is endorsed by the New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health.
“So it’s got some pretty high standards these kids have to meet,” she said.
To obtain certification, students had to pass both written and skills tests on Wednesday, at the fairgrounds.
Kids from Saratoga, Washington, Rensselaer, Schenectady, Albany, Columbia and Greene counties took part.
“We try to give them as many hands-on experiences as possible,” Nestle said.