Above is a picture of our Tye drill – we use this to plant our cover crop in our pheasant and partridge pens. We only use this piece of equipment a few weeks out of each year, the rest of the year it sits in the shed. If anything on this Tye drill breaks, it’s imperative that we get it fixed asap, as when it’s time to plant – we need to be planting.
I want to write today about something that happened this week at our farm that relates to our Tye drill. One of our longtime workers on our farm connected a chain to the tractor hooked up to our Tye drill – to pull start another tractor. Unfortunately the chain was connected in such a way – that when the pulling of the other tractor started, the chain shifted and the chain broke 2 main cast iron components of the drill. The drill was significantly broken, yet it wasn’t obviously broken. The accident occurred at our Noss farm – 7 miles from our main farm. The damage that occurred “could have” happened during normal planting – though unlikely.
What happened next was why I am writing about it today. The employee immediately contacted his supervisor, telling him exactly what happened and taking complete responsibility. No finger pointing, no hiding of the facts – just flat out complete accountability. Wow!
The drill was brought within the hour to the maintenance department. I would think the drill would be down for at least a few days, while the needed parts are tracked down. Adding pressure is the fact that it’s known here that 3 or 4 days of rain is on the horizon – and the pen planting needs to be accomplished before the upcoming rain. But it turned out that the maintenance department had all the needed spare parts in stock. The drill was repaired and the drill is out in the pens being used.
For me, it’s not about what happened, but how what happened was handled. I so much desire to create a culture of accountability here, and what happened this week shows me were on the right track.
