Important Safety Reminders
Please keep in mind, if you hire part time employees or growers to custom apply anhydrous ammonia on behalf of your business, they are required to complete anhydrous ammonia safety training. IFCA offers a 90-day training certificate that would satisfy the requirement of a competent attendant, at least temporarily. You can access this training by clicking on attached link:
http://nh3.ifca.com/form/
If you are planning customer meetings this winter, consider incorporating anhydrous ammonia safety training into your meetings. IFCA is happy to assist with grower training; our members who have offered farmer safety training in the past received very positive feedback from the growers that attended the training. With many farmers now owning their own tool bars, it's vital they understand that tool bar safety devices need to be properly installed and maintained. Please contact John Rebholz about ammonia safety issues or to inquire about farmer training opportunities.
Last week we issued a cautionary message on the IFCA twitter page that showed a sprayer going down an Illinois Interstate highway. Sometimes it's easy to forget that while the shortest distance between two points is often an Interstate, it is a serious violation of the Illinois Vehicle Code to take implements of husbandry onto the Interstate, even for short distances. This includes floaters, sprayers, nurse tanks, fertilizer buggies, tractors, etc. Unfortunately, we've seen this several times in the past few years. Our industry has a very good working relationship with the IL State Police, who rarely stop our sprayers or floaters during season, so we don't want that to change. Please remind your employees and customers that only state highways and county or township roads are legal when it comes to operating implements of husbandry on a public highway. Thank you!
