A LACK of action to address restrictive agricultural machinery movement laws could slow farmers during harvest or force them to run the gauntlet with police.
A project titled A Modern Transport System for Agriculture: A New Partnership Approach was released by the state government and Primary Producers SA more than 12 months ago, and identified key agriculture machinery movement issues that needed to be rectified.
Ungarra farmer and Eyre Peninsula Agriculture Bureau of SA representative Karen Baines said most changes from the project benefited the trucking industry, with agriculture left in the lurch.
“It’s just not good enough. We’re a stable industry and a stable contributor to the state, and we’re just getting ignored,” she said.
The report, which was compiled after a PPSA farmer survey, set response timelines of 3-6 months for night travel and width, height and length restriction issues.
Mrs Baines said despite a trove of information – sourced voluntarily – being supplied to the Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, “they still sit on their hands”.
PPSA chairman Rob Kerin said night travel was the biggest problem – grape harvesters and windrowers being the only oversize machinery able to travel on public roads at night.
PPSA previously requested the night travel exemption be extended to all agriculture machinery and combinations, a must during seeding and harvest time.
“We’re working with the department. Night movement’s the big one, we’re waiting for the department to sign off on their response to that,” Mr Kerin said.
“If you can't move machinery at night it has an effect on seeding and harvest time.”
Mrs Baines said rules were out of date and size restrictions had not kept in touch with modern agriculture.
“It became painfully obvious to me 12 months ago how ingrained the city-country disconnect was when I asked DPTI to look at changes to the registration requirements of front-end loaders when used for agricultural tasks,” she said.
“They came back with 'the committee doesn’t understand why a farmer would need a front-end loader?”
Mrs Baines said farmers would have to break the law to do their job during seeding and harvest, and the government's slow action on rules was a stark contrast to farming practises.
“With no-till practises we bought a seeder that’s really heavy but we bought it because it's a disc, it's all about soil conservation,” she said.
“We’re trying to look after our soils and choose the right machines, and what we can afford, but none of these road rules are keeping up.”
The government report identified that farmers wanted width, height and length limits increased in the Oversize Vehicle Agricultural Code of Practice.
Mr Kerin said PPSA would continue to work closely with DPTI to make changes. DPTI were contacted but did not provide comment before deadline.