By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Tractor farm safety courses will soon be offered by area K-State Extension district offices.
The courses, commonly known as HOSTA, or Hazardous Occupation Safety Training for Agriculture, are a federal requirement for 14- and 15-year-old kids who plan to work on a farm that is not family owned and operated, according to Stacy Campbell, Cottonwood Extension District agent.
Area courses include a session on April 22 in Hill City beginning at 8 a.m., with pre-registration recommended before April 18 by contacting the local Extension office.
The cost of the program is $15.
“We do that every year, usually that last weekend in April,” Campbell said. “I will be going and helping teach so I can always take kids from here in Ellis County and could even pick some kids up from Trego County on the way.”
“We go over some machinery maintenance and how to check different things. So it's a full day …intense course, but we give them breaks in and we kind of recap everything, and they take a test at the end of the day,” he said.
Campbell emphasized the importance of safety in agriculture, as it is one of the most hazardous occupations out there.
“It can be tragic,” he said. “Oftentimes, if they would just shut the machinery off when they're doing something, that would probably alleviate a lot of things. So, you know, we talk about those types of things and just try to kind of bring it home to those kids to be safe.”
“We even have somebody in there coming in again this year, talking about losing their son in a farm accident,” he said. “Just kind of driving that point home to these kids that they they're not bulletproof. Nobody is, and accidents do happen.”
The course also includes instruction on how to operate farm machinery safely, with follow-up with employers after the student has practical time working with the equipment with supervision.
That training highlights an ongoing focus on safety in the industry.
“People get complacent," Campbell said. "We know, unfortunately, in agriculture, quite a few have a fair amount of the injuries or deaths. ... We talk about those types of things and just try to kind of bring it home to those kids to be safe because agriculture is, and will unfortunately, probably remain, one of the most hazardous occupations out there."