The fall harvest has begun in the broadcast area.
Kapil Arora is an Iowa State University Extension Field Agricultural Engineer, and tells RadioOnTheGo News that the motoring public will have to be patient, especially in the coming weeks.
“Some of our farm equipment does not drive very fast. They typically are in that 15 to 20 mile an hour drive range or speed on the road and on the gravel roads. Whereas some of our vehicles may be driving at 55 miles an hour. So caution should always be that you should immediately slow down because you’ll come up at that equipment very, very rapidly since there is such a large speed difference. Be prepared to even get down to if you have to really stop to make sure you have enough clearance to pass the farm equipment that’s moving around.”
Arora says the harvest also means wildlife is being forced to move around.
“That we don’t realize is that as we start harvesting these fields, deer populations that may have been sheltering in some of these fields or living right along the edges, they amplify their activity. And it’s not just activity during nighttime. We have seen amplified activity during the daytime as well.”
Records show from 2017 to June, 2022, there were 30 fatalities in Iowa due to accidents involving farm machinery.
