Youngest grand daughter and her momma at the controls of my 1845C. Video about a year and half ago so she can operate it almost by herself now. This is her first exposure to the tractor:
Her sister familiarizing with one of the mowing tractors before being put to work:
Here is the older one with a bit more experience:
Better than sitting indoors rotting her brain with video games. I'd bet she agrees.
I sent my young son out in a loader for a vehicle recovery. The owner seen him coming and said,,, is he alright in that thing. I said yes, he has all the tools. They came back after the extr4action and the guy said,,,, very highly skilled operator. He has been driving since he was 4, those toys even longer.
My kids are 14, 11, & 8 and they can (and do) drive all sorts of things around the ranch. They are becoming more capable by the day and genuinely starting to contribute to the overall work. The one bit of caution I would throw out there though is just because they can do something, they haven't yet got enough experience to always do it safely. Things can go really wrong really fast on equipment like skid steers, brush hogs, steep inclines, etc. It is a fine balancing act watching them learn and not getting (too) hurt in the process. I've certainly had a lot of close calls in my life. There is just no substitute for time spent operating equipment under the supervision of someone competent.
Yeah, I totally agree we do need to keep safety in mind. Like JBrady said "Things can go wrong really fast". I was brought up on a farm and also worked for some of the other local farmers. I had my butt in a tractor seat as soon as my feet could reach the pedals. Only around 11 years old I remember the days that I had to take loads of corn to the local Co-Op around 10 miles away. 90 Hp AC 7000 tractor pulling two gravity wagons around 10 ton each. You would probably be put in jail these days for allowing a 11 year old kid on the road with that much power and load. Oh the good old days...
Yes, but do they know how and where to work the grease gun, is the question.