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Question:

Why is farming so dangerous?

I'm doing an Ag project on why farming is dangerous, but other than having a tractor roll on you, I don't know what's so dangerous about it.

Answer:

Have you ever been on a farm? There are silos that you can fall down in and get suffocated by the silage. There are power take offs on tractors that can grab your coat and spin you around and decapitate you (I know somebody this happened to) or it can grab you and try to rip off your arm, severing several fingers. There are animals that can kick you, there are substances that contain germs that can make you very sick. How about those?
Farming, like any industry, can be dangerous because of several factors. 1) There is quite a few different types of machinery and by the nature of what they do they are at some point open to someone getting caught in the moving parts. Manufacturers do as good as they can to block access to moving parts, but they can only go so far without impairing the function of the machines. When maintenance and repair is needed, it is up to the operator to insure that dangerous moving parts are deactivated. 2) Many of the operations that occur in agriculture need to be accomplished in a short time frame. In many cases, there are only a matter of a few days to plant or harvest a crop. This leads to dangerous haste in some cases and can lead to injuries -- from complacency, fatigue, eyes not on task, rushing, and sometimes poor decisions. 3) Agricultural operations often take place in isolated areas. Often, one person is responsible for a great deal of mechanical operations far from help from other farm workers and/or medical help. Because of the distance and isolation involved, an isolated worker may try to take on repair and maintenance tasks that are difficult or dangerous for a single individual to perform without help. Getting caught in or crushed by equipment is common in this setting. From experience, I know that most farmers and their employees try to be as safe as possible. Like some other industries a certain amount of danger is inherent and unavoidable. Many farmers barely get by economically and so they do not hire any help or well-qualified help and as a result they are often under stress, fatigue, and time constraints that make their working more dangerous than need be if they had sufficient trained help.
there are several good answers and a few dumb ones, real farm people can tell real quick who in this group has true farm experience and who doesn't. Anyway, one other thing that I don't think that I saw which factor into the danger is the fact that the 'family farmer' is a self employed business man, and in order to make a living most farmers work extremely long hours, particularly during planting and harvest, so when you factor in relatively dangerous equipment and an exhausted operator, yes accidents happen. The thing is that in most industries there are rules and regulations for how many hours you can operate equipment, the types of environments that the workers are subject too, not so much so in farming.
Every occupation has its hazards, and some are even more dangerous than farming; I believe mining and logging have higher injury rates than farming. But agriculture/farming is right near the top of this list. All the examples above that others have given certainly give credence to the dangers of farming. However, the reason these injuries occur in agriculture are unique. For the most part, American farmers are independent, family owned businesses. We invest our lives, finances, and our families in the hope of turning a profit each year. The pressure to make a return on our investment every year is very great. Time, weather, economy, and knowledge of the business are crucial to a farmers' success. One poor harvest can wash out 5 years of success. Injuries, and unfortunately, casualties, occur so often because of a myriad of factors. Namely, stress (forgetting about, or ignoring dangers), powerful equipment, and time limitations. There are so many pieces of machinery on a farm, and to be 100% careful all the time is impossible. That is why farming is so dangerous. Whenever human flesh is combined with moving mechanical parts, and when we are competing with and relying on nature, injuries will be part of the equation.
Dairy/crop farming: kicking cows, dangerous bulls, silo gas, silage blowers, pto shafts, chain saws, applying duel tires to large tractors, suffocating in grain bins, handling chemicals, falls. Some slip a foot into a silage blower, loose clothing is a hazzard aroung equipment. Getting hands caught in silo unloaders or augers. Caught my hand in a reach while hooking a wagon to the tractor. Father-in-law was using a hammer punch on haybine, punch tip broke, putting out an eye. A neighbor farmer was paralyzed after cutting down a tree, it fell on him. We still have one tractor which starts with a crank, careful to do it proplerly or break an arm. A large cow stepped back onto the top of my foot, broke some bones. My man went out to the pasture to get the cows, came home with alot of bee stings, walked into a ground nest. My Dad didn't see my brother, ran him down, running over his legs. Had a front tire drop into a bear den while disking cornstalks in the spring. Snagging out a down tree on the hayfield, branches snapped, a large one flying, I couldn't get out of the way, caught me on the side of the face. I thought I was standing far enough away, I wasn't, I was more concerned about the chain breaking. My brother barely rolled away under the fence from a bull which got him down on the ground. My man slid off a pole shed roof while calking the nails. Many things can happen on a farm.

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