There's nothing like the sound of screeching brakes and the smell of burning rubber to get a farmer's heart pounding when a car is coming up behind his tractor at 60 mph.
Often, the farmer can't get out of the way as someone comes within a split second of crashing into the back end of a huge, slow-moving machine.
It's a scene that repeats itself all too often, and it's bound to get worse in coming weeks as farmers begin the fall harvest and take equipment onto the roads so they can reach fields that are miles apart.
From 2005 through 2012, there were nearly 1,400 collisions involving farm machinery, including 708 injuries and 25 fatalities, according to the state Department of Transportation.
Recently, a Ford Mustang convertible slammed into the rear end of a trailer of liquid manure that was being pulled by a tractor on Highway 151 near Platteville.
The driver of the rental car had been texting and talking on his cellphone when he looked up just as he hit the manure trailer, according to the Grant County Sheriff's Department.
Hundreds of gallons of manure spilled onto the highway and the trailer was wrecked. The driver of the Mustang received minor injuries and was cited for inattentive driving and texting while driving. The tractor driver was shaken up but refused medical treatment, an accident report noted.
As farms have gotten bigger, and farmers travel farther between fields, the risk of collisions has increased, especially in areas where agriculture and the suburbs overlap.
Ross Bishop, a dairy farmer in Washington County, sometimes has to travel 13 miles on his tractor to reach his crops. It's a risky trip early in the morning and late afternoon, when a lot of commuters are on the road.
Some people get impatient or downright angry while they wait to pass the farmer's slow-moving machinery on a two-lane road.
"I get the 'one finger salute' sometimes. But I usually just smile and wave," Bishop said. He's seen people pass in oncoming traffic, forcing him to take the left shoulder of the road to avoid getting hit.
Wear and tear on roads
To address the issues, including damage to roads and bridges from farm machinery that's become much bigger and heavier in recent years, the Department of Transportation and Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection have initiated a study group to recommend changes in the law to the Legislature.
The group includes farmers, road officials and equipment makers.
The damage to roads and bridges is no small matter, considering that some of the infrastructure is more than 50 years old and wasn't designed to handle farm machinery that weighs nearly double the legal limit.
The newer farm machinery was designed to increase productivity in fields, but the designs didn't necessarily take public roads into consideration, said David Vieth, director of the Department of Transportation's Bureau of Highway Maintenance.
"You can do a significant amount of damage to a roadway," Vieth said.
The width of some equipment, which can take up more than half of the road, also is being addressed by the group.
Machines that are too wide for a single lane on a two-lane road are worrisome for both farmers and other road users.
"When we see a large number of cars backed up behind us, like on Highway 57, we pull off onto another roadway and let people pass. We aren't trying to cause a bottleneck on the roads," said Mike Gerrits, an owner of Country Aire Farms, a large dairy operation in Brown County.
A clash of lifestyles
The potential for conflicts has increased as more people with nonfarm backgrounds have moved into rural areas and share the roads with big, slow-moving machines and tanker trucks hauling liquid manure.
"And there are a lot more people living in the country now," said Jeff Lyon, deputy secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.
Farmers often rent acreage miles from their farmstead. They're working longer hours, sometimes through the night, to run larger operations and feed a growing world population.
"People say that grandpa never farmed in the middle of the night or on Sunday. But we are out there at those times because we have to be," said Jim Ostrom, a partner in Milk Source, the owner of Rosendale Dairy, one of Wisconsin's largest dairy farms.
If the laws governing farm machinery on the road become too restrictive, it could shut down food production, Ostrom said.
"What we need is more patience and understanding from both sides," he said.
Size and weight limits
Two challenging issues for the study group are establishing maximum size and weight limits for farm machines on public roads for the Legislature's consideration.
One recommendation, thus far, would expand the weight allowance for farm machines to 15 ercent over the limits established by a federal bridge formula, except where posted or during spring thaw.
Equipment up to 17' wide could be operated on roads without written authorization if it met safety requirements that allow safe passage by other road users.
Farmers say if the rules become too restrictive, they would have to appeal to state or local authorities for exemptions that would allow them to move the biggest equipment on the roads.
"We have quite an issue on our hands," said Karen Gefvert, Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation government relations director.
"There's a mismatch between what our roads can handle and what farmers need in order to be efficient and productive. The real process will begin when we see what's included in any legislation," Gefvert said.
