It's Dangerous Down On The Farm

by Denny Banister

Farming is in the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the nation. Depending on which internet site you stumble upon, farming may be listed as high as second and as low as sixth, but neither is an enviable achievement. Even the list rating farmers in sixth place made farming more dangerous than jobs held by truck drivers, roofers, miners and power-line workers. The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics measuring fatalities in the workplace shows a total of 5,071 workplace deaths nationwide in 2008, down nearly 600 from the prior year. However, the number of fatal workplace injuries in farming rose six percent in 2008. Fatalities to workers in the crop production sector of farming led the increase, rising 18 percent.

National Farm Safety and Health week is recognized each year during harvest, a time of above average injuries and fatalities to farmers - and yet spring planting is the most dangerous time of the year to be a farmer. To recognize the dangers to farmers during planting season, Farm Bureau's Agricultural Safety Awareness Program (ASAP) recognizes the week of March 7 - 13 as Agricultural Safety Awareness Week.

The goal of ASAP is to increase awareness of the dangers involved in farming, particularly during planting season. Spring may be a wonderful time of year to be outdoors, but farmers are under a great deal of pressure to get their crops planted between rain showers which bring planting to a halt until fields dry.

Tractor rollover is the cause of many fatalities to Missouri farmers. Much of our state is rolling hills, and many tractors have a high center of gravity making them susceptible to rollover. Additionally, many Missouri farmers still use older tractors without rollover protection. The combination is dangerous.

In addition to fatalities, farming is the cause of many serious workplace injuries which are not only painful and maiming, but also very costly to the farm financially. Consider the possibility of being forced to spend spring planting indoors recovering from an injury - it could be the difference of getting a crop in the ground or not, which could be the difference of continuing farming or not.

So here is the advice. You have undoubtedly heard it before, but with farming fatalities on the rise while other dangerous jobs are reporting fewer fatalities, it bears repeating.

*Take your time - you don't have to be the first farmer to get in the field and the first to finish planting.

*Don't take anything for granted when working with machinery - you may have reached into moving machinery thousands of times without injury, but that only makes your odds worse the next time.

*Finally, take plenty of breaks to stretch, eat and drink and rest, and be sure to get a good night's sleep instead of pushing yourself into late night planting. You will be more alert and aware of dangerous situations when you return to the field the next day.

There is more advice where that came from, but you get the idea. Chances are when you are out working in the field this spring, you'll be by yourself. Don't think because no one is watching you can go ahead and take a chance. Should you lose, there may be no one around to help. Be careful during spring planting so you can be around for fall harvest.

(Denny Banister, of Jefferson City, Mo., is the assistant director of public affairs for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state's largest farm organization.)