The Hardest Stories to Write

I can't tell you how much reporters dread writing stories about tragedies. The recent news of the fatality involving a Lamartine man and a farm implement has inspired me to to take up the pen and soapbox again in an effort to stress the importance of farm safety.

With the onset of planting and harvest, many farmers find themselves burning the candle at both ends with a million things to do and not enough hours to do them. If you've ever found yourself in that position, you know how easy and tempting it is to cut corners. And sadly, safety moves down the list of priorities. Combine time pressures and fatigue and an accident is just waiting to happen.

According to the UW Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, 25 farm-related fatalies were recorded in 2004, down from 37 the year before. Tractors were involved in 28% of the fatalies while animals and farm machinery were a close second at 20 %. The National Safety Council lists agriculture as one of the three most hazardous industries in the US - the only one not governed by OSHA.

So please, if you see a guard missing on a corn grinder or power take-off, take a moment to fix it. If you're tempted to reach in and dislodge some crops in a machine, make sure both the tractor and machine are off. While making the rounds on his job yesterday as news of Michael Haney's death spread, so many farmers told my husband it could just have easily been them - only they had been lucky. But how long until that luck runs out before you lose a finger, your arm or even your life?

While attending a conference on farm safety at the Marshfield Clinic National Farm Medicine Center in 2004, I learned that the single most underlying theme was that nearly all accidents are preventable. While the crops need to be harvested or planted in a timely manner, it's not worth life or limb. So please, slow down and make safety a priority. Your loved ones will thank you for it.