Farmers support grain safety training and equipment

Jul 23, 2024

By Crispin Colvin, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

Safety is important in farming, and many organizations work hard to raise awareness of being safe around farm machinery or when working with livestock. The topic of safety around harvested grain can be overlooked – but with grain harvest now underway in Ontario, it’s also an important one to know about.

In many areas of the province, you’ll see the golden fields of ripe wheat or barley become grain kernels and straw as farmers work on their fields. Harvested grain is hauled away from the field in wagons or tractor trailers, and stored in grain bins on the farm, delivered directly to a local grain elevator or sometimes even taken straight to a port for export.

Regardless of how it is handled and stored, however, it’s important to keep safety top of mind. Trailers and bins of grain can be dangerous when you’re working with them and it’s easy to become trapped inside – an experience often described like quicksand. If help doesn’t come in time, it can lead to suffocation.

That’s why the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA), where I serve as part of the provincial board of directors, is supporting a variety of projects around the province that focus on safety awareness as well as training for first responders who will be the ones called to the rescue – literally – in case of an emergency.

Through these projects, local and regional federations of agriculture are helping to fund grain extraction units and equipment for rural fire departments as well as training on how to use these tools. The goal is to ensure that an emergency call involving someone trapped in a grain bin or trailer will be a successful rescue instead of a recovery mission.

These projects are part of OFA’s Revive Fund, which was launched in 2021 to help communities struggling impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through the fund, our 51 county and regional federations can apply for matching funding from OFA to help plan, develop and launch new projects and initiatives in support of agriculture and their local communities.

So far, about $975,000 has been invested into the program by the OFA, its county and regional federations and other partners since its inception, and new project ideas come forward every year.

Click here to see more...

Video: Not only is corn getting sweatier, it's getting smarter

Over the past several weeks, much of the U.S. Midwest has experienced prolonged episodes of extreme heat, a trend also observed in other major corn-producing regions of North America such as eastern South Dakota, southern Ontario, and parts of Kansas and Missouri. These high-temperature events can place significant physiological stress on maize (Zea mays L.), which is cultivated on approximately 90 million acres across the United States, with leading production in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Like all maize, Bayer’s PRECEON™ Smart Corn System is subject to transpiration-driven water loss under high heat. However, this system incorporates agronomic traits designed to improve standability through enhanced stalk strength, thereby reducing lodging risk during stress conditions. Furthermore, the system supports precision agriculture practices by enabling more targeted fertilizer and crop protection applications. This approach not only helps to optimize input efficiency but also contributes to maintaining or increasing yield potential under variable environmental stresses such as heat waves, which are becoming more frequent in corn belt and fringe production regions.