Dear Sir,

It is now the time that the Tardis is needed out in the fields – harvest is in full swing and time becomes an important issue.

Ever harvester's common phrase is “Move, move”, with no time to fix or repair – tie, stick, weld, but keep the machines moving!

But there is a downside. Risk it, take a chance, and all know the reward if things go wrong – a coffin!

It now the time when all is busy, in a rush, when the pesky salesman come calling. I had one last week, the stories these guys tell, he told me about a farmer that was demonstrating a hard Brexit to his son, and he had to hotfoot it to the nearest A and E, because he should have worn steel toe capped boots.

We all work in this sector of agriculture but we never take precautions to save our lives or someone else. There must be a sound reason. If one takes construction as a comparison, the machines used there have more safety devices than agriculture tractors. Why?

Tractors made in the Fifties have the same backend and the same way of hitching an implement, by three pins, yet the implements in the Fifties were lighter and the people were stronger, not like today.

In construction you cannot work under High voltage, streamers must be put on the wire, yet this does not apply to harvesting machines, and we read about deaths caused by machines hitting wires, especially if a tractor hits a pole stay, pulls the pole to a slant, thus lowering the wires.

Operators should have all pole numbers recorded in their cabs in case so that the electricity company will know in an instant where the wires were hit and turn off the power

There are many safety issues that have been forgotten through the lack of education. Even in my younger days we were told when fetching the milk cow home "take a stick". Shepherds are never seen without a stick but one sees herdsmen without?

All should wear a cap, protect your brain, make it work. Like all electrical gadgets, if it is too hot or cold it doesn't function, yet in times gone by all wore headgear, and now their brains are numb.

Remember the Peter Principle: "Never work harder, work smarter."

Angus A Macdonald,

Balivanich,

Benbecula