[AT] DOL regulations discussion continued

[Cecil R Bearden]

My Dad bought the first farm in 1961, I started driving the tractor at 8 
years old.  I had to stand up to push the clutch, I would slide out of 
the seat to stand up on the clutch or the brake.  It took a couple of 
times of killing the tractor to hit the clutch and brake at once, but I 
learned how.  Teh tractor was a TO-35 Ferguson.  In 1964 it was traded 
in for a 1963 MF 50 diesel.  By that time I could drive almost anything 
that was on wheels.  Never had a riding lawnmower, I learned all my 
driving on a tractor.  I handled hay bales for 16 hours just like the 
old guys during hay season.   When we cut silage, I drove one of the 
tractors that pulled the silage trailer to the trench silo over a mile 
from the field.  We had to hurry as we only had 3 wagons, and the crop 
was heavy...   High gear on a TO-30 with a throttle spring tied short 
will run over 20 mph.  Put a loaded 4 wheel wagon with auto type 
steering behind it and you have a prescription for disaster.  We never 
had an accident or got anyone hurt, because we knew the consequences of 
our actions.  By the time I was 10 yrs old, I knew what would happen if 
your did not follow the directions Dad had given me.  Pain would follow, 
either from his belt or the machinery.

I think this early learning experience kept me from being one of those 
kids who are always getting into trouble tearing something up.  I 
learned how hard it is to build something or get enough money to buy 
something, so there was no way I was going to tear it up!  Young folks 
today have no idea what it takes to earn the toys they have to have.
A young fellow who worked for me earlier came by yesterday evening to 
load up some hay.   I was too tired to go out and load it myself.  He 
was a good operator.  He took the loader tractor that had the post hole 
digger on the back.  If the lift drops a little , the digger point will 
drag.  he backed up and bent the shaft  of the gearbox.   It is a E L 
Caldwell digger, bought in 1963, Crustbuster bought them out in the 
70's, and do not list the shaft.  It was $125 in 1972 when the shaft was 
replaced from a neighbor borrowing it.  The digger was only $100 in 
1963..  I found a Danuser almost new for $750 this morning.

  All these regulations will do is promote more corporate farming.  The 
only money to be made on my small farm is with cattle, and I cannot get 
enough built up to buy some more cows.   I was lucky this year to have 
some hay left over from last year, but I sold it to the renter of our 
original farm, and I could just not bear to ask the going price from 
him....    I had to quit licensing as a salvage yard due to the 
regulations for stormwater runoff last year.  They went to $500 a year 
for the OK DEQ permit and $110 for the salvage permit!!!!!!    When you 
complain about these things, the answer you get it "that's the cost of 
doing business"..

They call this progress!!

Cecil in OKla


On 1/16/2012 4:10 PM, charlie hill wrote:
> Grant.  My dad died when I was 16.   By then I had helped him farm for 7 or
> 8 years.  The next year I tended the whole farm planted in Soybeans by
> myself.   I could have never done that had I not worked with him as a child.
> I went off to college the following year and that was the end of my farming
> career but I know the basics and could go back to it today if I wanted or
> needed to.
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Grant Brians
> Sent: Monday, January 16, 2012 4:28 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: [AT] DOL regulations discussion continued
>
> As an active farmer and having children, I have a keen interest in the new
> proposed regulations restricting minors from most ag occupations. I found
> the best articulation of the basics of the issue in this Western Farm Press
> online article:
>
> http://westernfarmpress.com/government/grange-stands-against-proposed-child-
> labor-regulations
>
> A point which has been generally lost is that if a family farm is
> incorporated or a partnership in LEGAL structure, then by the DOL new
> definitions, it is no longer subject to the family exemption. Another issue
> is that there has become a lack of understanding that if kids are visiting
> their parents in a farm field (say when the family lives on or adjacent to
> the farm) that they are not "working" for the farm.
>
> Another issue which is highlighted well in the Farm Press Grange article, is
> one that would have applied to me as a young teenager. I learned how to move
> irrigation pipe, drive certain tractors, plant vegetables with preceision
> planters (all of which has been extremely useful to me as a farmer both
> during my teens and since) by working for the farmer who initially rented
> the land we moved to. I was 13 and 14 years old, far below the "allowed age"
> in these new regulations, but yet those experiences were really useful and
> very good for me. Our children have friends who are clamoring to do things
> on the farm because they want to learn, but I cannot let them do because the
> regulations we currently have that are looser than the proposed ones
> prohibit me allowing them to do so! There is no economic benefit to me to
> teach these kids, but I would do so because it is the right thing to do!
> Where will the next generation of farmers come from?
>
> Sigh.
>          Grant Brians
>          Hollister,California farmer
>
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