As I write this from SW Iowa, I can’t help but say FARM SAFETY WEEK must/should be taken seriously every day of the year.
- AgriSafe is hosting safety seminars. I urge you to make time to take one. The life you save may be your own.
Only a few miles from where I sit to write this is the family farm that my family and I farmed for 17 years. Our children own most of it now, but memories of the dangers remain.
- A few examples of the dangers we experienced in the 17 years I lived there: My father-in-law slipped into an open auger on our farm and lost his legs; I dropped the tongue of an anhydrous tank on my foot and broke it; a hog ran “smack” into my leg and left me with a blood clot on the bone — I was lucky the bone didn’t break; a small tractor flipped over and killed my father.
These stories aren’t pretty, but people living in rural areas work in one of the most dangerous industries. Agriculture, forest, fishing, and hunting have a fatal injury rate of 18.6 per 100,000 people. But in agriculture, we never think these things will happen to us.
Cami Koons, Iowa Capital Dispatch: National Farm Safety and Health Week focuses on preventing accidents.