“In tractor safety, we learned about the dangers and safety of working with equipment that has PTO shafts,” said Hayden Gibbs, Fox Lake, Trenton Highlights 4-H Club and Waupun FFA. We also learned about grain-bin safety and how to handle equipment around traffic, such as if you have a parade of cars behind you and what you should do.”
“The driving portion of tractor safety was most useful to me, because now I can help my parents with field work on the farm, and when I turn 14, I can get a license to drive a farm vehicle on the road.” The Gibbs family crop farms 1,200 acres. “We grow wheat; corn; soybeans; oats; alfalfa; hay; rye and barley for cover crops; peas, lima beans, and sweet corn for Seneca Foods; and a little bit of forage.”
Gibbs exhibited wheat, corn stalks, and soybeans at the Dodge County Fair. He won a merit award on his bag of wheat. Although he’s happy about that, wheat is not his preferred crop. “My favorite is corn, because I get to drive more often because corn fills up faster due to the size of the kernel,” said Gibbs. “I’m the grain-cart driver. A grain cart is a trailer you hook up to a tractor. It has a pipe with an auger in it to make it more efficient to transfer grain from the combine that harvests the crop to the semi or gravity box that hauls the grain to grain-bin storage.”
Earlier this year, Hayden convinced his Dad they needed a bigger grain cart, because they’re trying to expand and be more efficient. “We went to Ballweg Implement in Waupun on my birthday as a birthday surprise. I got the full run down on what a grain cart would cost, such as what the monthly payments would be with interest. I also got to test drive a John Deere 6R tractor with a J&M 1112 extended-auger grain cart. We ended up buying a J&M 810 extended-auger grain cart, and the first time I got to use it was when we harvested wheat.”
Gibbs also exhibited a 1/64-scale farm scene and beef and dairy steers at the fair.
Written by Dori Lichty — farm wife, 4-H Mom, and full-time communicator
