Rising Grain Entrapments Amid Record Corn Storage

Feb 17, 2026
By Farms.com

Nationwide highlights rising grain entrapments amid record corn harvest

Grain bin entrapments remain a danger for farmers and farm workers across the U.S., especially as corn production reached a record 17 billion bushels in 2025/26. Increased stockpiles have raised the risk of accidents, highlighting the need for safe storage and management of grain.

“With significantly more corn in storage, we’re already seeing a concerning rise in grain bin entrapments across the country this year,” said Brad Liggett, president of Agribusiness at Nationwide.

“Nationwide remains committed to preventing these tragedies by equipping local first responders with the life-saving rescue tools and training they need. While we’re incredibly proud that these resources have helped save 16 lives since 2014, including a recent rescue earlier this month in Missouri, we know there is still more work to be done,” said Ligget.

Nationwide’s Grain Bin Safety Week, February 15–21, 2026, focuses on prevention through education and safety promotion. A key initiative is the annual Nominate Your Fire Department Contest, which supplies rural fire departments with rescue equipment and training. Over $2 million in rescue tubes have been provided across 35 states since 2014.

Safety statistics remain startling. In 2024, 34 grain entrapments were documented—a 25% increase from 2023—with many additional cases going unreported. Adults can become fully engulfed in flowing grain in just 20 seconds, yet 100% of these incidents are preventable. Nationwide partners with the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety (NECAS) to deliver training and equipment to first responders.

“Rural fire departments are often the only line of defense when an entrapment occurs,” said Dan Neenan, director at NECAS. “It’s critically important to ensure these first responders not only have the specialized rescue equipment, but also the training needed to respond effectively. NECAS is proud to join Nationwide and its partners to make a difference.”

Farmers, families, and communities are encouraged to raise awareness and participate in the contest. Nominations are open until April 30, 2026. Additional details are available at www.GrainBinSafetyWeek.com, along with sponsorship opportunities for rescue tubes.

Grain Bin Safety Week is made possible with generous support from industry partners, including CHS, Growmark, Syngenta, and state farm bureaus, reinforcing the shared commitment to safe agricultural practices.

Photo Credit: gettyimages-dszc

Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.