Farm Safety Week Observed Sept. 17-23

Sep 20, 2017

By Charles Schwab

Iowa Farm Safety and Health Week is Sept. 17-23, held in conjunction with National Farm Safety and Health Week. This year’s national theme is “Putting Farm Safety Into Practice.”

This is the 74th observance of the National Farm Safety and Health Week. There is a good reason why a special week of observance is still relevant nearly 75 years later. Agriculture still ranks as the most dangerous industry in the United States.

Safety professionals use this week to remind those working within agriculture to be careful. Agriculture has a death rate of 22.8 deaths per 100,000 workers. It is the highest in the nation, surpassing all the other industries including mining, construction and manufacturing. This high death rate is why Iowans must use safe farming practices during harvest and throughout the year.

Working to make farms safer is crucial to a state like Iowa that has over 90 percent of its land used in agriculture and distributes more than $10 billion worth of agricultural products each year, the proclamation notes.

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach encourages Iowans to put farm safety into practice this harvest season and throughout the year. Practice farm safety with these actions:

Use tractors that have rollover protective structures (ROPS).
Say no to extra riders on tractors.
Use extra care when operating an ATV.
Understand the dangers of flowing grain.

Join Iowa State University, the National Safety Council and National Education Center for Agricultural Safety in promoting safety during the 74th annual National Farm Safety and Health Week Sept. 17-23, 2017. During this time please encourage others to put farm safety into practice as Iowa prepares to prevent injuries during this harvest season.

Source: iastate.edu

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Border View Farms is a mid-sized family farm that sits on the Ohio-Michigan border. My name is Nathan. I make and edit all of the videos posted here. I farm with my dad, Mark and uncle, Phil. We also have a part-time employee, Brock. My dad started the farm in 1980. Since then we have grown the operation from just a couple hundred acres to over 3,000. Watch my 500th video for a history of our farm I filmed with my dad.

I started making these videos in the fall of 2019 as a way to help show what I do on a daily basis as a farmer. Agriculture is different from any other industry and I believe the more people that are showing their small piece of agriculture, helps to build our story. We face unique challenges and stressful situations but have some of the most rewarding payoffs in the end. I get to spend everyday doing what I love, raising my kids on the farm, and trying to push our farm to be better every year. I hope that I can address questions or concerns that you might have about farms and agriculture.