USDA releases two reports on farm safety stats

Jun 03, 2013

USDA releases two reports on farm safety stats

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released two reports on farm safety - “Agricultural Safety: 2009 Injuries to Adults on Farms” and “2011 Farm and Ranch Safety Survey”.

One of the reports found that in 2009 there were 42,000 injuries (work-related) on U.S. farms. Injuries are down 41 per cent compared to 2004. The following are some key findings from the reports:

69 percent of those injured were men.
Tractors are the leading cause of fatalities in agriculture.
84 percent of all work-related farm injuries occurred to adults who were part of a family farm, compared to hired workers.
Animals represented 21 percent of the injuries.
78 percent of the animal-related injuries were with horses or cattle.
Other farm-related injuries predominantly included all-terrain vehicles and storage facilities.
The average age was 52.2 years, which is up from 47.8 years reported in 2001.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.