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Agriculture remains a very dangerous occupation

This is National Farm Safety Week, designed to call attention to the dangers of farming, especially during the fall harvest season.

Iowa State University Extension safety specialist Chuck Schwab says agriculture ranks as one of the most dangerous and deadliest occupations, with roughly 2.2 deaths for every 100-thousand workers. That’s the highest rate in the U.S., surpassing mining, construction, manufacturing and transportation.

“It really means that a lot of people leave for the day to go to work and go out there in the fields, and don’t come home,” Schwab says.

Schwab says one reason for the high rate of agricultural injuries and deaths is the wide age demographic of people involved with agriculture, from the young to the old.

“Agriculture doesn’t have that cap where you get to 65 and you stop farming, and so we see a lot of older farmers out there, Schwab says. “With older farmers, you tend to have different reaction times, you have balance issues, hearing issues, sight—and so all these issues play a role in how you make good, safe decisions.”

Schwab says the same is true with the younger generation, those 18 and younger. He says they need more supervision until they gain experience.

The most common accidents involving agriculture include tractor and ATV roll-overs, roadway collisions with farm equipment, grain suffocation, electrocution, and machine entanglement.

Dennis Morrice, KLEM, Le Mars, Iowa contributed to this story.