Take precautions to ensure farm safety
Written by Jonathan Eisenthal
Walking far around power take-off shafts and augers, allowing several body-lengths of space, is more than safety sense for Harold Wolle, Jr., who’s been farming in St. James, Minnesota, for more than four decades. It’s instinct. Still, he and his son Matthew work hard at safety, reminding each other and employees how to be safe on the farm. They know the toll taken by accidents.
“Farms are dangerous places, and I just hate farm accidents,” Wolle said.
As the 2024 harvest nears, Minnesota Corn reminds farmers of resources available to help stay safe on the farm. Minnesota Corn points farmers to online safety resources from University of Minnesota Extension, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, and the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center, at the University of Minnesota. MDA also has mental health resources available to help farmers cope with stress during the fall season.
UMASH highlights farm safety resources and practices during National Farm Safety & Health Week from Sept. 15-21. Monday is Equipment & Rural Roadway Safety Day, recognizing that roadway crashes are a leading cause of injuries and death in agriculture.
For the Wolles, as with many farmers, buddying up is essential. They make it a rule when working with grain bins: “When grain is flowing there is a risk of entrapment,” Harold said. But other tasks like fertilizing also merit having two people on hand. Harold had a friend who lost an arm to a grain auger, and he was lucky that his brother was right there to help him. With the number of tasks to attend at harvest time, often spread miles apart in distance, putting two people to a chore can drain vital manpower. But it’s a practice that’sworth it, Wolle said. When solo work is inevitable, cell phones are the indispensable lifeline. It’s simple, but the Wolles make sure theirs are powered up, ringer on, and most of the time wear headsets, to make sure they can reach each other, and know where everyone is.
The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration reminds farmers of best practices for safe grain handling on its website. So does University of Minnesota Extension.
Technological advances are saving lives
“We in agriculture have made tremendous strides in farm safety,” Wolle said. “Our equipment manufacturers have built shields that come off. The combine and tractor seats have sensors in them, so if the operator leaves the seat in the combine, the complete machine shuts off. With the tractor, the power take-off will disengage when the operator is out of the seat, so when the operator is out of the tractor, he doesn’t have the chance of getting entangled in the spinning machinery.”
Still, there are dangers when operating tractors and large field equipment on the farm. University of Minnesota Extension and others encourage farmers to take proper precautions before operating these pieces of equipment. University of Minnesota Extension highlights best practices for operating tractors and other large farm equipment here.
Wolle has got a considerable store of wisdom gained through more than forty seasons of planting and tending and harvesting crops and animals. One of his chief points: “Don’t do stupid things.”
“One time, I twisted a power take-off shaft and thought, ‘well, I can get that apart. I’ll tie one end to a tree and one end to a tractor with a chain and I’ll give it a running start and it will pop right apart.’ Well, no it didn’t. The chain broke and the chain came flying toward the tractor. We need to use our big brains and not do stupid things in the fall, or any other time we are working on the farm.”
The Wolles also stress that everyone on the farm needs to be tuned in to safety. A thorough safety briefing for all employees is a must, but also, for folks with children on the farm, safety awareness is paramount. A great resource from NASD for kids is an entertaining series of informational worksheets featuring the character Captain Overalls.
Operating on no sleep and other disasters waiting to happen
If you go long enough without sleep, you will start to hallucinate. Ask any long-haul trucker. According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, if you are awake for 17 hours, your attention and reflexes are impaired to the same level as blowing a .05 on a breathalyzer, and 24-hours without sleep is equivalent to a 10 percent blood alcohol concentration.
“During harvest time we work long hours on the farm,” Wolle said. “Some folks work too long, I think. It’s possible to work a very long shift if you know that you are going to finish the field, or rain is coming, and you are going to have a break. But when you are in the good weather time of fall, and you know that you are going to have to be working day after day, reasonable work hours and good night’s sleep are essential for dealing with stress.”
One thing that leads to accidents: stress
UMASH offers a suite of stress, suicide, and mental health resources that can help farmers and farm families cope and find ways to return to health.
When the weather is fine, Wolle can be found bicycling around the beautiful country in Watonwan County, with its rolling hills, streams, and St. James Park Lake in the center of town. Exercise is a great way to manage stress, and Wolle admits this is a year when stress is ever-present.
“There are a whole lot of factors that can be stressful in farming,” Wolle said. “When there are conditions that we can’t control, that tends to stress us. In this year, in southern Minnesota, it’s going to be that we couldn’t control the excess amount of rain, and that’s going to contribute to a below average corn harvest. Also, we can’t control the price of grain. There have been significant declines in the prices of both corn and soybeans over the last two years. There is a time when you agonize over it. But then comes a time when you accept the reality of where you are, and move forward. You can ask, ‘what else can we do, when we are dealing with stress?’ I think the answer is to try to be healthy. Eat good meals, get enough rest.”
The Wolles also have a solution to stress that’s recreation, verging on ritual, that helps to take the pressure off and put things in perspective.
“Every year before harvest and after harvest, we go hunting,” Wolle said.
Harold Wolle, Jr. is president of the National Corn Growers Association, and past president of the Minnesota Corn Growers Association.
