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FFA group gives safety lesson to Kuperus
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The largest used equipment inventory in the Mid-Atlantic is only a click away. Visit our website by clicking here or visit us at one of our 11 locations throughout MD, DE, VA and PA.
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4.01.2007
By CHARLES WEBSTER
AFP Correspondent
Mansfield Township — New Jersey Agriculture Secretary Charles Kuperus got a lesson in tractor safety from none other than 2006 State FFA Safe Tractor Driving champion Adam Wainwright on his recent visit to the agriculture education classes in the Northern Burlington Regional School district.
“Farm accident deaths among teenagers and children are highly preventable,” Kuperus said. “As farmers of all ages prepare for the beginning of another growing season, it is important to remember that farm safety training and awareness will prevent injuries and may save lives.”
To highlight the importance of tractor safety, Kuperus pointed to the December 2006 death of a 16-year-old Warren County boy who died after his tractor overturned while he worked to pull out a tree stump. The boy was pinned under the tractor after it flipped on top of him. He was taken to a nearby hospital, but died the following day from his injuries.
Each year, there are about 600 farm-related fatalities and more than 200,000 farm-related injuries reported — most of those deaths and injuries are from tractor accidents, and about one-fifth involve people 20 years old and younger.
Wainwright was on hand to give the agriculture secretary a demonstration of tractor safety, but not before Kuperus quizzed the champion tractor driver about general tractor safety, pre-trip inspections and maintenance.
After the classroom quiz, Kuperus was escorted outside where Wainwright demonstrated his expert knowledge of tractor safety, before he took a group that included Kuperus on a hayride of the facilities at Northern Burlington Regional High School.
Kuperus spent most of his day at the NBRHS facility, where he toured the classrooms, labs, mechanic shops and greenhouses at the school.
“It really is important to equip the next generation of farmers and others who will expand on our agricultural tradition here in New Jersey with the knowledge and understanding they’ll need in the years to come,” Kuperus said.
On the tour, Kuperus got a taste of the various components that make up the 47-year-old agriculture program at NBRHS.
The tour, led by FFA chapter President Annalese Gancarz, started with the floral shop before heading out to the greenhouses.
Inside the greenhouses, Kuperus picked what he called the first symbolic tomato of the 2007 growing season.
A highlight on the tour was the school’s new aquaculture system acquired with a Perkins grant last year. NBRHS students are currently are raising 50 Tilapia that were purchased as two-inch fingerlings in September 2006. They anticipate their first harvest later this month.
“This will be our first harvest and we intend to work cooperatively with the foods classes to prepare the Tilapia,” explained Keith Danucci, an agriscience instructor at NBRHS. “We chose Tilapia because of their fast growth rate and their ability to adapt to the extreme conditions occurring in our greenhouse.”
The depth of the program is what is important, explained many of the students.
Classes that focus on animal care, greenhousing, aquaculture and mechanics is just part of the everyday experience at the school. But it is their common bond in the FFA program that brings all the students together at the end of the day.
“FFA really helps to round out the students so that they can survive in the future,” explained Michael Hlubik, chairman of the agriculture education department at NBRHS. “The program gives these kids an edge.”
Hlubik said plans are in the works to expand the program to include a class that will focus on the ever-increasing need for greenskeepers.
A putting green will most likely be installed by the class in September 2007, and will be part of a class program in the future.
The agriculture class already plants and maintains 16 acres of land adjacent to the school, as well as the three greenhouses and a small pen of animals.
Kuperus praised the agriculture education the students were getting at NBRHS.
“You’re amazing,” Kuperus told the students. “Someday you’ll look back and admire your teachers for all this.”
“We admire them already,” many of the students answered in unison.