safety

Look for Healthy Outlets When Winter Stress Builds

The snow is piling up. The temperature is going down. There is no starting your car and there is no stop in shoveling the snow. Your pulse is racing and your blood pressure is up.

Stress is taking its toll.

Stress becomes more severe as one stressful episode after another occurs, such as when winter snowstorms hit one after another then adding cold temperatures, cabin fever, stalled cars, farming difficulties, financial woes and other winter-relate concerns and stress can build at a rapid rate.

During fall harvest season reminding farmers and their hired hands to be aware of overhead power lines and underground utilities, whether working near grain bins, in the farm yard or out in the field all are very important.

Harvest Safety

When it’s harvest time, the pressure is on! Good weather and daylight hours always seem to be at a premium when trying to gather nature’s bounty in top condition. Planned maintenance and skilled equipment operator can minimize downtime and reduce potential for mishaps during harvest.

The most severe farm accidents often involve machinery. Missing guards and shields,
failure to recognize hazards, and careless operators are common factors in the majority of farm equipment related injuries.

Farmers Should Dress Safely When Doing Their Ag Chores.

You know when spring is here and fieldwork has picked up, so does the potential for farm accidents.

Approximately 5% of the accidents on the farm are livestock related, 19% come from machinery and about 36% involve tractors. Agriculture has the highest death rate of any industry in the United States. Approximately 1,600 deaths and 1,600,000 injuries occur each year due to farm work accidents. Do not blame the farm machinery or structures since the human element is usually the underlying cause of a farm accident.

Fire! Probably no word generates more fear.

That’s especially true in forage fields, where a spark can quickly wipe out a crop, as well as any equipment that may be in he field. Field fires cause more the $30 million in equipment losses each year, not counting crop losses resulting from downtime and personal injury.

Several times each year you hear the sad news of an accident involving a tractor and a car. It’s not that we have never been cautioned that cars and tractors don’t mix, it generally happens to someone else until it’s you in the news. So as a reminder we will use this opportunity to refresh everyone to keep safety in mind as you share the roadways. Remember antique tractors require more attention than a late model tractor when it comes to sharing the road.