Editor’s note: All our safety articles are about important and at-times upsetting topics. This column mentions suicidal ideation. If you or anyone you know is struggling, please reach out to a service such as AgTalk (http://domore.ag/agtalk), an app that can connect you with resources. Canadian Crisis lines include the National Farmer Wellness Network at 1-866-327-6701 (1-866-FARMS01). U.S. residents can reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by calling or texting 988.
This is not the first time I have talked or written about safety – and why we don’t seem to do it. After 35 years of advocating for farm safety I would hope someone has listened but here I am writing again because today feels different.
My name is Walter Grose, I am the past president of Husky Farm Equipment Limited, and I am the secretary for the Wellington County Farm and Home Safety Association in Ontario Canada.
Today, I received a phone call from one of my Farm Safety Committee Members – she wanted to know if the funeral home could donate to Farm Safety. “But why?” I asked. “Well, my son died yesterday in a farm accident, and I want the money to go to something useful” she told me. He has been looking after the farm since they retired. They were running a new water line, and he went in the trench to put the pipe in the bottom. The trench collapsed in on her son and he was killed. The paper reads: “62-year-old male died in a farm accident.”
What the headline does not say is the family is in mourning and the neighbors are shocked at the tragedy. I lost a schoolmate the same way 12 years ago. The contractor that was working on the site and had to dig him out has never really recovered from his death; it is always on his mind.
So, this year I created a keychain token, a round “toit” as some might call it, to carry in your pocket, hang from the rearview mirror or attach to the tractor keys – somewhere that is always nearby. Every time you go to the barn, to the field or leave the house in the morning, you see the etching in the tag: “FARM SAFELY. YOUR FAMILY LOVES YOU.” You need that constant reminder that you are not alone in the world, that someone cares.
(Just so you know, I need the same reminder; I have used all my nine lives, and I am not even a cat.)
We get all caught up in how to get the work done fast with long hours and not enough help. But you can do it right. If you die in a farm or work accident you will never get the job done. Doing it right is the safe way, the way that makes sure you will be back at it tomorrow to complete the job. It means that you are around to have supper with the family and kiss the kids as you put them to bed.
I mentioned today was different, not just because of the call I received earlier about the accident, but because today, our son went in for brain surgery to remove a brain tumor. At 27, he should be doing other things. I am sitting at work writing this article and waiting for the call to hear his progress. I can build almost anything you want, and can fix most things, but I can’t fix that; I can’t perform surgery.
I can, however, save lives by teaching you to do things the safe way. Our son has struggled with depression for years, sleeping 14 hours a day, and suicide is constantly on his mind. Safety on the farm does not always mean physical safety. It can mean that when you are trying to accomplish too much, work too long of hours and the money is always short, you can struggle mentally as well. You believe it is just too much; nothing is going your way. That is when you need to know your family, your friends and your co-workers care for you. They are there if you want to talk, or you can pick up the phone and call a help line. Get a message to someone: you need help. Our grandchildren depend on our son to give them hugs and make them cookies. They want him around. We want him around. Someone wants you around.
I was at the booth at a farm show a while back and a man came up, looked at the liquid manure spreader and said, “I was the fourth man in”. He explained: “I was the fourth man in the manure spreader when those three men died in the tank. I got out.”
Years ago, three hired men were spreading manure on a farm in Ontario and one of them went in the tank to get a rock. He died with his first breath. The next two went in to rescue him. They died instantly. The fourth man went in, held his nose and his breath, then tried to lift a 200-pound man with one hand. He could not do it, so he climbed back out. The first employee was a tragedy. The next two died as heroes trying to rescue him. There was new legislation created from this accident. Safety bars on fill holes are mandatory in Ontario, as are pictorial safety signs depicting the presence of dangerous gases (which we now have printed and displayed in three languages). The farmer had to create procedures for working on the farm and with manure. We all have to have procedures if we have employees and farms are no different. Owners or supervisors must read the procedure manual to the employees to ensure they understand it – not just hand them the book to read. Did we learn from our mistakes?
After the summer of 2024 I am not yet sure we are on top of our training yet.
The question I’m wondering about today is why do we still do things so unsafely. It takes two minutes to put on my chain saw pants, so why am I sitting in the hospital getting stitches – because I thought I could save two minutes. We need a culture of working safely. When my grandchildren were born, I changed how I do things: I wear my seatbelt on the tractor (which I have rolled three times now). My grandchildren were at the farm show with me last week and put on the seatbelt on every tractor they sat on. They are used to the culture of putting on a seatbelt – even the dolls buckle up. I don’t put the ladder in the bucket to get higher, and I don’t speed anymore when I’m driving. I am starting a culture of safety around my farm. Our employees follow safe operating procedures. We read them the training manual. We retrain on safety quarterly. We have adopted a culture of safety.
I got the phone call our son came out of surgery just fine. A four-centimeter brain tumor was removed, and now all the testing begins. Progress begins on the road to recovery.
Save someone else’s life, save your own life, start a culture of safety today. •
