James Herrick: It's time for a pto rethink

Farms are dangerous places and one poor decision can lead to life-changing or even fatal consequences.

One of the many things I have to thank my Dad for is the fact that, from a very young age, he has drilled into me many aspects of farm safety – a comprehensive mental list of dos and don’ts that are all designed to keep me, and those around me, safe.

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It includes many things, such as don’t stand between reversing tractors and implements, wear your safety glasses when angle grinding, and don’t fiddle with machinery when the pto is engaged or even with the tractor running.

Only the other day we were greasing up to go silaging and both of us were commenting on that very subject – the pto shaft.

We all too often hear horror stories that involve pto shafts and the catastrophic, yet avoidable, injuries and even deaths that they cause.

Often this is blamed on the negligence of the operator (and in some cases this may be true), but I also have a different take on it.

Since pto shafts were invented, the safety covers have largely remained unchanged.

Yet I have very few on my farm that haven’t lasted long before needing the shaft renewing or repairing due to the poor quality of the cover and its components.

It often starts with a weak safety chain that subsequently snaps and in no time becomes a spinning cover or even worse, completely uncovered.

In a world where you can’t even get off your ride-on lawnmower without the mowing deck disengaging, it is ludicrous that someone can be around a pto shaft that is not fit for purpose.

It all too often seems that the quality of the pto shaft is an afterthought. Given the colossal price of machinery, is it not too much to ask for a manufacturer to come up with something that is fit for purpose and keeps the operators safe?

Meanwhile, if anyone has a great new design for a pto shaft cover, I’m all ears.

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