Farmer Focus: Driving tractors while on phone must stop
Tim Parton © Richard Stanton Travelling across the UK in an advisory role, from the North to the South, the West to the East, I see tractor drivers concentrating more on their mobile phones, than on the road in front.
Most have at least 30t behind them. This is not only illegal and highly dangerous, but equally foolish, since they seem impervious to the potential outcome of their actions.
See also: Crop nutrition focus saves farmer over £43,000 on costs
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Roads are so busy now with “unconscious driving”, people absorbed in their own pressurised stories, that random driving movements are commonplace. I feel we all need to come together and stamp this out of our industry.
Remember, on public roads our sector’s hardworking agricultural individuals are easy to identify with their large, “slow” and “annoying” vehicles, thus it does not send out a good image if the public observe farm vehicles being driven with mobile in hand.
I challenge anyone who is doing this: are you prepared to look into the eyes of a mother, father, sibling, or child and tell them your phone was more important than their relative being injured or killed?
Life is the most precious gift and one that should not be taken away by somebody on their mobile phone.
Crops have got off to a great start where there is moisture, but with residual nitrogen left over from the dry, growing season I am hearing of aphid attacks, with advisers expecting to apply three to four aphicides.
The reason the aphid is attacking the plant is due to the nitrogen not getting processed into amino acids and then proteins, so the “incomplete” amino acid sits in the plant’s phloem.
Having the correct nutrition is essential for this process to happen and to deter an invitation to the aphids to feed on the plant.
I achieve this by foliar applying the right nutrition. As a society, we tend to treat the symptom rather than the cause.
I have just returned from speaking in the Scilly Isles, which I thoroughly enjoyed, meeting some lovely people.
The recurring world problem exists, with biologically dead soils and ever-increasing chemical use creating cumulative problems. I look forward to working with the Solonian Scilly Isle farmers to turn things around.
