As an early harvest begins thanks to dry and warm conditions stretching across both the spring and summer, farmers are firing up their machines to head out to the fields.

But first, for many farmers, that trip includes driving along highways and roads often traveled by much smaller vehicles.

As such, driving past a combine or swather can be somewhat dangerous for drivers - made much more dangerous by impatience caused by most farm machinery's slow speeds.

Troy Adams, a local farmer who's looking to start his harvest of durum and soybeans, says he tries his best to keep highways clear - but that's not always an option.

"We try to stay off the highway the best we can, but obviously there's land along the highway that we have to access, we do try to stay off and stay away during peak hours."

"The biggest safety concern is always traffic. You know, we're 45 feet wide on the headers so we take up the whole highway," said Adams, "We just try to make short little moves that way. Any longer moves we take the headers off and try to get home safer that way. We try to have pilot vehicles and stopping traffic the best we can but it's not always feasible."

Adams says that while he and the people who work with him haven't been in an accident, people in the farm community have been caught in accidents along highways.

"I never have, or none of my guys ever have, thankfully," said Adams, "I do know neighbours that have thought and it's always a scary situation but thankfully we've been safe that way so far.

Adams says the best way for everyone to get home safely is to practice patience when you meet some slow-moving farm equipment.

"The biggest thing is that I just ask people to slow down, maybe follow just a little bit, you know," said Adams, "I think most farmers will pull off to the side. It only adds a minute or two to your trip. But if you just be patient, that'd be a whole lot better for everyone involved.