BEAUFORT COUNTY - It's planting season and in a heavily agricultural state, that means tractors on the roads. Rod Gurganus, Beaufort County extension agent, is urging both farmers and non-farmers to be safe if they encounter one another on the roads.

"The problem comes in when passenger cars come up behind a piece of farm equipment and they're impatient, they're in a hurry, they need to get where they need to go," Gurganus says. "We try to emphasize to them that that farmer wants to be where he needs to be as well."

Gurganus says if drivers are behind tractors, they should not tailgate or dart in front of them.

"They are hard to stop on a dime," Gurganus says. "Even though they don't move as fast as a truck or a car, it still takes a lot of break to slow that tractor down or stop it."

When a driver is behind a tractor, Gurganus says the farmer will look for a place to turn in so they do not damage or turn over their expensive equipment.

"As soon as they get to a point where they can pull over and let the traffic by, they will do so. In almost all cases," he says. "It's just a matter of finding the safest way to do that."

In the end, Gurganus says it is about non-farmers understanding what farmers are doing.

"They're trying to get their work done and they have to operate within a certain window of time," he says. "And to do that in the most efficient way, they have to be on the highway."