It is definitley a different world than it was 30 years ago.  Equipment is much larger and people on the roads are a bunch of idiots when it comes to farm equipment.  One accident with a child is too many.  A couple of years ago a boy 13, flipped a tractor on its side turning too sharp into the farm drive - you can't take that back.  A friend in middle school - about 11 tried to dislodge stalks and almost lost his arm - one mistake too many. My father in law and his brother started real early around 5 or 6 in 1939 - they ran over there father with a beet truck when he slipped trying to take the truck out of gear. We had a neighbor that lost a child in a beet harvester (the details are just too painful to describe0 - I just can't imagine. 

Don't get me wrong - I think farm kids can do more than most - but they are kids.  They need time to develop.