Farm Safety
Like many workplaces, farms require the use of specialized equipment. However, the close proximity of most producers’ homes to their farms can lull both adults and children into such familiarity with processes and tools they forget to exercise caution. MSU Extension specialists and agents focus on farm safety in several ways, including grain bin safety, proper storage and use of chemicals, ATV safety, and educational events for children.
The most common farm tractor and machinery related accidents result in approximately 20 fatalities annually in Mississippi. These include tractor rollover, improper use of a front loader, backwards flip of the tractor from hitching to something other than the stationary drawbar, operators and extra riders being run over, and roadway collisions.
These video clips represent a composite summary of real situations that have occurred most frequently during the past 20 years, determined by analyzing death certificates from accidents. Drowning in a farm pond is also a leading cause of farm related deaths in the state.
The following public service announcements are presented to emphasize the dangers associated with these hazards and suggest safer ways to accomplish the task at hand:
- Avoid Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
- Danger! Farm Machinery On Roads
- If You Smell Propane Gas
- Lighting Gas Grills
- Never Store Pesticides In Unlabeled Containers
- Tractor Safety: Avoid Rollovers
- Tractor Safety: Falling Objects
- Tractor Safety: Front Loaders
- Tractor Safety: Lifting Heavy Loads
- Tractor Safety: No Extra Rider
- Tractor Safety: Proper Hitching
- Tractor Safety: Rollover Protective Structures
- Tractor Safety: Safe Turns
- Transporting Propane Cylinders
- Water Safety
Publications
News
Planting season is underway and with it comes the transportation of heavy equipment along Mississippi’s roadways.
Drivers can help support local agricultural producers and their $7.4 billion contribution to the state’s economy by staying alert while sharing the road with planters, tillers and tractor-mounted sprayer
Fall brings a surge in the number of farm machines travelling on the state’s roads, and drivers everywhere need to be cautious when near them.
Between her job and her home, Tracey Porter has not had a break from dealing with flooding in the last six months.
Porter is the deputy director of the Warren County Emergency Management Agency, and her husband, Rodney, farms in the southern Mississippi Delta. Excessive rain last winter and spring kept 250,000 acres of farmland out of production this year. During the time when he would normally prepare for planting season, Rodney Porter was building sandbag levees to protect flood waters from invading their home. She helped him when she was not on the clock assisting other affected people in her community.
The Alliance of Sustainable Farms will host a field day at the Truck Crops Branch Experiment Station July 19.
Success Stories
Producer teaches about food and farming practices
Rowell Farms is doing much more than supplying cooks with fresh, local foods. The Heidelberg truck-crop farm is growing into an educational outlet for the Clarke and Jasper County communities it serves.
They met in 2010 because of a tragic rough-terrain forklift fatality. Tredrick Johnson was the safety manager at the Cleveland branch of Quality Steel Corporation, and Billy Chandler was the local safety-compliance officer for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, better known as OSHA.
