For top competitors, handling a tractor is all in a day's work
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Ryan Harnack, 14, from Janesville, backs a tractor and trailer into an imaginary barn while competing in the tractor operator contest at the 2008 Rock County 4-H Fair.
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Michael Petersen, center, of Harmony 4-H, identifies the parts of a tractor as event co-superintendent Jim Stute looks on. Peterson was competing in the tractor operator contest at the 2008 Rock County 4-H Fair.
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Evan Marchant, 14, of the Newark Pioneers 4-H club, takes a test on tractor operation, the first leg of the tractor operator contest at the 2008 Rock County 4-H Fair.
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JANESVILLE — Ryan Harnack and Tyler Stork just about grew up on tractors.
It showed Saturday morning at the Rock County 4-H Fair, where Harnack, 14, Porter 4-H Club, won the senior division of the tractor operator competition and Stork, 12, Lima 4-H Club, took the junior honors.
The classes break by age: 11 through 13 for juniors, 14 and older for seniors. Only nine youngsters competed, but the skill, knowledge and experience of Harnack and Stork were evident.
Harnack, son of Frank and Sandy Harnack, rural Janesville, might have been the only operator to back a large four-wheel-drive tractor and wagon into a marked lane—the equivalent width of a farm shed door—in one pass.
In his third year of tractor competition, Harnack said he drives a tractor around the farm a lot—three to four hours a day.
Being on one of the machines is second nature to him, he said.
Harnack found that the safety inspection—naming 10 components and finding five hazards—was the competition’s most difficult aspect.
Other parts of the contest including a written, multiple-choice exam and driving a two-wheel-drive tractor forward and backward through serpentine course. Goof up and you knock a golf ball off the top of one of the marking posts.
The driving parts of the competition were timed.
UW Extension agent Jim Stute teaches the tractor safety course and was one of the judges Saturday.
“The goal is to show their aptitude. A prerequisite is that they’ve all been through the tractor safety course so they are all certified,” Stute said. “This is to show their proficiency and speed, to balance safety and speed, like you have to do in farming.”
Stork, son of Al Stork of Lima Center and Carla Stork of Janesville, talks tractors like a farmer 50 years his senior.
“I’ve been driving since I was 6,” he said. “I learned a lot of safety (in the course) compared to home. He (dad Al) does things the old-school way. I try to tell him what to do.
“My grandpa (Jerry Stork) and I would spend hours and hours cutting hay,” the younger Stork said.
“He’d start about 7—after chores—and we’d be out until it got dark sometimes.”
Jul 28, 2008 at 7:19 a.m.
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"Tractor Operator Competition" Now that is funny stuff.
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