Farm safety message felt locally
Farming can be a dangerous profession. Although safety features on today’s farms and equipment have provided more protection than ever before, the constantly increasing size of farm equipment and the demand to produce more poses ongoing risks to the safety of both the farmer and those around them.
Those risks have had consequences for farmers here in Ellsworth County:
• The weekend of September 9, Ellsworth County farmer Brandon Westerman sustained a broken back while working cattle. A spokesman at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita said Westerman is in fair condition at the hospital following surgery.
• A month ago, Ellsworth County farmer Bob Nienke was hospitalized for 10 days after being injured in a farming accident involving a working and a cow. Nienke was preconditioning new calves out in a pasture when one calf turned and pinned him between the working chute and a fence. Nienke’s injuries included eight broken ribs, four of which are broken in more than one spot, along with a punctured lung, cuts and bruises.
Nienke’s wife, Julie, said he is at home and will have a lot of obstacles to face in the coming days, weeks and months.
• Towards the end of 2016, Corey Hill was injured when he became caught in a 12-inch, operating grain bin auger at the Ellsworth Coop.
In the end the auger claimed his leg. Hill said that he could not comment further due to an open investigation into the accident.
According to the 2017 Farm Incidents and Fatalities in Kansas report by Kansas Farm Bureau there has been nine fatal and six nonfatal agriculture related incidents reported so far this year. That does not include the accidents in Ellsworth County.
These accidents raise several questions. Are they simply because we are such a rural farming community and state implementations are being ignored? Or is it because there is not enough training and information available?
The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration along with local and State agencies have many policies in place to prevent these type of accidents, but Kansas continues to see a rise in accidents.
Jamie Rathbun, family and consumer sciences agent for the Midway Extension District, said there are several ways to get informed. The Extension District offers free farm safety information, ranging from poison control and handling, to farm equipment operations.
The office also provided website links for free online farm safety courses that are offered by Kansas State University’s Agricultural Safety and Health Program. There you will find free online videos and demonstrations. The website is www.bae.ksu.edu/extension, just click on the farm safety link.
Another useful website is articles.extension.org where you can find research-based information from America’s landgrant universities. At the bottom of the home page the website has videos and pages of information which can help prevent farm related accidents and deaths.