News

Farm Safety Program Gets Overwhelming Response

Last summer, four members of a Rockingham County farm family and a farm employee died after being exposed to toxic fumes in a manure pit. Farmers, community leaders, and agribusiness representatives in the area were stunned by the tragedy and a steady stream of them began coming into the Extension office with their concerns.

The Extension faculty realized that they had the contacts to get the ball rolling on a response. “We quickly understood that the community needed a way to get accurate information about farm safety and also a way to come together to address their concerns,” says John Ignosh, Extension area specialist for agricultural by-product utilization in the Northwest district, who helped organize the project.

Extension agents Tom Stanley and Brian Jones in Augusta County, and John Welsh, Stephanie Diehl, and Maria Ignosh in Rockingham County worked with local Virginia Farm Bureau representatives, Rockingham County Fire and Rescue, and Rockingham Memorial Hospital to plan the Rockingham County Farm and Family Safety Day.

The group brought together community resources such as a physician, hospital staff, and first responders to speak about farming risks and ways to minimize those risks. The more than 450 farm family members who participated got information about general farm safety, respiratory safety, an equipment rollover and extrication demonstration, and a confined spaces extrication demonstration.

“Sometimes it is difficult to get farmers interested in attending safety programs,” says Welsh. “But this event, planned in response to a community situation, is an example of reaching people with information when they are ready to hear it.”

Event attendees and presenters have both expressed an interest in future programs to keep the topic of safety foremost in the minds of this farming community.