Posted on 01/12/2018 7:33:25 AM PST by fishtank
More Hobby Farms Means More Maimed Farmers
The risk of serious injury or death has always been a part of farming.
CONTRIBUTOR: Rick Callahan
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Phil Jacobs was just a teenager when his parents bought a scenic Kentucky farm with hayfields, forests, creeks, trails and a view of the Ohio River. Decades later, he still spent time there, maintaining the property as a second job and using its campsite for family getaways.
The Lawrenceburg, Indiana, anesthesiologist was removing dying ash trees in June 2015 when his tractor overturned as he was pulling a tree up a hill. He died instantly, at age 62. The tractor, which dated to the early 1960s, had no rollover protections.
(Excerpt) Read more at ien.com ...
Also was the front wheels of the tractor “narrow or wide” spaced; i.e. narrow is wheels are not much more than the width of the tractor engine (close to the centerline); while wide is the front wheels are set far out from the centerline to parallel the rear wheels.
The Fordson was known for killing many a farmer.
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What, exactly, can one learn from such an experience? That one should have become a librarian instead - because it is less dangerous?
Regards,
Had a few near-misses on the farm myself. There’s a lot of things that are just waiting to kill you if you give them the chance. Particularly near a cotton-picking machine— rows of fast-moving spinning spindles. They got a few folks.
A lot of farmers in my area, who had a propane tank on wheels for burning weeds along the ditch bank, would use that same tank to air up their tires when they were out in the field. Yes, you read that right! One guy was later doing some welding on his tractor, and the rear tire, filled with the perfect mix of oxygen and propane blew to pieces. One of the big rubber chunks flew off an hit him in the head. He lived, but his eyes were about a quarter inch apart for the rest of his life.
Corn picker - cousin jumped off the tractor to pull something out while the picker was still running and of course got snagged. Lucky, only mangled his hand and arm up to the elbow but he got it out.
Cost him a few months hospital and rehab.
Those big openings in the hayloft have gotten more than one city kid playing.
Thanks a million. Blessed day to you also.
From Wikipedia:
Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown (October 19, 1876 – February 14, 1948), nicknamed Three Finger or Miner, was an American Major League Baseball pitcher and manager during the first two decades of the 20th century (known as the "dead-ball era"). Due to a farm-machinery accident in his youth (April 17, 1888), Brown lost parts of two fingers on his right hand,and in the process gained a colorful nickname.
Great pitcher.
It’s still safer to farm than to live in Chicago.
468 murders in Chicago in 2015.
“In 2015, 401 farmers and farm workers died from a work-related injury, resulting in a fatality rate of 19.2 deaths per 100,000 workers.”
Didn’t cite the links but it’s easily found on google.
Yes, that, too. I remember some footage of an old steam tractor versus a new tractor, they were in a pull-off.
The were hooked together at the hitch location on each, but the steam tractor was so much higher off the ground that it just pulled the load off the back of the diesel unit, leaving it with no weight over the rear wheels to get enough traction to do any good.
We have tractors and other machinery and equipment and big animals which can maim or kill if you don't watch what you are doing.
It can be dangerous living on a farm if you are not careful.
But it can be even more dangerous living in the big city if you ask me.
farmersonly.com
You said something about a tractor?
I recently bought a hobby farm, but I have the advantage of my father’s experience. I know, going in, that there are about a thousand ways to kill yourself on a farm, and you will encounter a good portion of them on any given day.
At the same time, you have a tremendous amount of freedom in how you do your work. You are your own Safety Department. There is nobody to look over your shoulder as you hop down from that running tractor or you lean over that Power Take Off.
The bucolic scenery and the seemingly peaceable environment conceal the fact that death can lurk around any corner. The only person who can keep you safe is yourself.
My dad had a 55 gallon barrel of cement on the front of his tractor. I have an old 1966 CASE tractor and am very careful about how high on a hill I should go when brush hogging.
Situational awareness seems to be missing in some people.
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