REGION Officials: Keep eye out for farm gear

Weather delays mean farm equipment may be traveling roads after dark.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- Varied yields of corn and soybeans and falling market prices should add up to an average harvest for area farmers, agriculture experts say.
Ernie Oelker, Ohio State University Extension agriculture agent in Columbiana County, said corn and soybean yields are good but market prices for the crops aren't so good. The result will be an average harvest, but one better than last year, he said.
Farmers had difficulty planting crops in the spring because of frequent heavy rains. Now a wet fall is making it difficult for farmers to get into fields to harvest crops, said Bill Chess, Penn State University farm management extension agent for Lawrence County.
He said hay yields were hurt by the damp weather. Lawrence County farmers have most of the corn crop harvested and are working on the soybean fields.
He said conditions are about the same in most of western Pennsylvania, but some farmers in Mercer County fared better with crops than those in Lawrence County.
Steve Hudkins, agriculture agent for Trumbull County, reported conditions much the same for farmers there.
The cold, wet season has farmers behind on harvest, and hay crops in particular suffered because the hay could not dry much after it was cut.
Working day and night
The agents said farmers in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys are using every bit of dry weather to take corn and soybean crops off fields. That means farmers will be making hay not only while the sun shines, as the old saying goes, but after the sun goes down, as well.
Farmers will be on area highways with large, slowly moving equipment. Farmers need to practice safe operation of equipment and have appropriate lights, reflectors, slow-moving-vehicle signs or reflector tape placed appropriately, he said.
Chess said one problem farmers should watch for is that the reflector devices and lights, even though working and placed properly, become obscured if the equipment becomes covered with dust or mud in the fields.
In Columbiana County last week, a 24-year-old Sebring man died after his car struck a tractor hauling a silage wagon. The crash occurred after dark.
Taking precautions
Chess said that in Lawrence County motorists must be aware of farm equipment on the highways and take the same precautions as watching for members of the area's Amish community on the highways with slowly moving buggies or wagons.
Hudkins said the farmers are on the highways with the field equipment because most farm several fields in separate areas. They have to drive equipment on highways to go from one field to another, he said.
He said motorists and farmers need to respect one another and drive cautiously.
Oelker said residents of more-urban areas might not be used to the farm equipment, but should be aware when traveling rural highways that the farm machinery will be on the roads, and that the farmers will be out after dark.
He said reflector tape and slow-moving-vehicle signs can look strange after dark. Since the vehicles are large and moving slowly, it's often difficult to identify the equipment, how big it is or whether it is moving toward or away from the driver, he said.
tullis@vindy.com