- [Narrator] Several years ago, "Farming Frontier" audiences saw dramatic engineering test films that brought the subject of farm safety into even sharper focus. Prevention of accidents can result from better equipment such as the roll guard, and from better training of equipment operators who can handle machinery safely in both road and field situations. David Sellin of Norfolk, Nebraska has had this training. He's 14 years old, a licensed and legal operator, product of a tractor school for teens. Where he learned not only how to operate farm machinery, but to appreciate the safety features available and often required. Features such as the slow moving vehicle emblem, flashing amber lights for highway travel, and overturn protection for the tractor operator. Take part in one of these tractor schools as we did at Norfolk, Nebraska, and you find yourself in the midst of 70 or so youngsters, girls as well as boys, who eagerly face three days of intensive study. Some of the three day course goes into book work, information on the basics of tractor operation and maintenance. For these basics, five two-and-a-half hour class periods are handled in a round robin fashion.

- And eventually we'll reach a point where it'll tip over backwards. Want to remember that in hooking a implement such as manure spreader to a tractor, it's always important to hook it to the drawbar, which was provided on the tractor. Never hook it to the three point hitch or to a makeshift hitch on the axle. When hitched to the drawbar in this fashion, this gives us the correct center of pull through the tractor and provide provides a stability for the tractor.

- [Narrator] Roy Stohler, the Dixon County Agent, supervises the Norfolk Tractor School for Teens, one of the largest in the nation.

- The hitch provided.

- [Narrator] Students from 11 surrounding counties attend the course held annually.

- You'll find some questions over the material that we've been covering on page three of this tractor safety quiz. I would like for you to answer the first three questions on that page. Will you pass those down for me please? I'll be here to help you if you have any questions on any of 'em. The training programs are a response to specific sections of the Hazardous Occupation Order in Agriculture of the Fair Labor Standards Act relating to youth wishing to do farm work on other than the home farm. To do so, they must be certified and for that, programs like ours are carried out nationwide through the Cooperative Extension Service and the US Office of Education. These programs prepare and qualify 14 and 15 year olds for work off of the home farm. Most of us who are instructors are county extension agents or vocational agriculture instructors. We follow a standard course of instruction, which is used throughout the United States. We rely not only on the basic manual, which the students purchase, but also many other specialty manuals for additional reference.

- [Narrator] Some of the three day course and possibly the most popular part with students takes place with actual equipment in the field where the young people put to practice what they've learned on a wide range of topics.

- Throughout our training session, we've been talking about the proper hitching of equipment. We have a two-wheeled manure spreader here. Where are we going to hitch this to?

- [Student] The drawbar.

- To the drawbar, okay, Bob. Now would you tell us why it's so important that we do hook this to the drawbar?

- So we pull through the center of pull. If we hitched it to the axle or the three point hitch, the tractor may overturn backwards.

- Okay, Lyle, you ready to get started? Now think. Remember what we talked about in class. What are you doing wrong?

- Oh.

- [Narrator] Roland Schnieder, Farm Safety Specialist at the University of Nebraska, helped pioneer the Teen Tractor Operation Program on both the state and the national level.

- [Roland] This kind of operator education is as important for operating a tractor as driver education is for automobile operators. The goal is not just to teach youngsters how to drive a tractor, but how to operate a tractor safely. As a part of our program, the University of Nebraska Department of Information has prepared three hours of films which are shown on educational television as part of the course. Tapes of these films are also available for in-class use.

- [Narrator] The final field test, following a written examination, is a chance for fledgling farm workers to show their stuff. In a demonstration of maneuvering skill, how many experienced tractor operators could do as well? Here, as elsewhere in the training course, accuracy and safety, not speed, are the prime considerations. Boys and girls completing this tractor course receive a recognition certificate enabling them to do farm work on other than the home farm, under the provisions of certain sections of the Hazardous Occupations Order in Agriculture of the Fair Labor Standards Act. For students who intend to work with other farm equipment, there is an additional 10 hours of instruction in safe farm machinery operation leading to additional certification. The future farm workers are checked out on forage harvesters. Combines. Wind rowers. Disc harrows and various other types of farm equipment. The youngster who comes out of one of these schools has a greater respect for himself and his machinery. He is far less likely to try to take a turn at a speed which would spill him. Far more likely to seek a place to go up an incline where he can do so without overturning the tractor. Far less likely to become a statistic because he is far better trained to think in terms of safety. Have the courses paid off? Here's Howard Pyle, President of the National Safety Council, and his opinion.

- Recording accident statistics is a unavoidable part of our business. It's a grim procedure that is made less so only when built-in safety and safety training reduces the tragic consequences of accidents. So nothing pleases the National Safety Council more than the non-statistics that flow from the fact that out of the 3,500 young people who have been trained and issued certificates in Nebraska alone, not one has had a serious injury that occurred while he was performing an activity for which he had been trained. For this reason and for the obvious serious intent of the young people who take pride in learning how to operate farm machinery safely and well, the program is as popular with parents and with farmers who employ these youth as with the young people themselves. Many who enroll are not interested in working off the home farm. They simply want to be better and safer farm machinery operators. Now, if you'd like to know where the tractor school nearest to you is held and when, I urge you to contact your county extension agent for more information on this very worthwhile training.