Agriculture is known as one of the most dangerous industries in America. Every day, about 100 agricultural workers suffer a lost-time work injury. The agriculture industry is consistently at the highest risk for occupational injuries and fatalities, with the equivalent of 23.1 deaths per 100,000 workers.
Keith Bryan, technical service specialist at Chr. Hansen, shares more on the work they do to prepare farmers for harvest safety and the SILOSOLVE® SAFE program.
Chr. Hansen focuses on safety with respect to silage inoculants going into products and therefore being integral in the harvest process. They have the SILOSOLVE® SAFE program which focuses on safety of employees, use of products, and overall safety during harvest.
“We’ll come out and do pre-harvest meetings with harvesting crews and talk about the need for fluorescent bright colored hats and vests, operating equipment and the interplay with people on the ground throughout the harvest process and making silage, bunkers and piles,” says Bryan. “We’ll focus on maintaining safe water quality and keeping those microbial based products alive and viable throughout the harvest process.”
Protecting the future is on an immediate basis making sure that every employee that comes to work on any particular day returns home safely at the end of their work day. That becomes even more important when we think about the hustle and bustle surrounding harvest. Making sure that children aren’t too close to where harvest is taking place and are educated on being safe is essential.
SILOSOLVE® SAFE program helps with that and is as follows:
S- Silage inoculant – safety using silage inoculants in terms of making sure that the water is of sufficient quality and temperature to ensure that those microorganisms are beneficial bacteria and oculus remain viable to do the job that they’re intended to do.
A- Application -safe application of those inoculants would include maintaining cool water temperatures in the applicator or the tank that has the hydrated inoculants in it on the chopper as the crop is chopped and the inoculant is applied.
F- Feed – putting that harvested forage into a bag, pile or pit to allow it to ferment, but also the safe removal of that feed from that pile bunker or pit into a TMR wagon.
E -Employees -making sure that everybody understands what their roles, responsibilities and expectations are for the tasks at hand during harvest, storage and or feed out. Making sure that they’re aware of their surroundings and the comings and goings of other people, as well as equipment.
“It’s important for us all to keep safety top of mind, whether it’s the SILOSOLVE® SAFE program or other vital resources related to harvest safety,” says Bryan.
There are also eight areas of silage safety awareness. These include; fatigue, complacence, truck or tractor rollover, fall from height, equipment entanglement, avalanche or silage collapse, silage gas and then drug and alcohol abuse.
Many farmers end up having extremely long and tiring days during the harvest season. A lot of times those days could be 12 or 16 hours and there’s a lot of activity that happens from harvesting the crop to transporting it from the field to the silo structure. Making sure that people have sufficient rest throughout the day is key.
Rollovers are more common than some may think. Farmers need to make sure they are using the proper reflective signs and lights on the roadways. Other drivers need to also stay aware of their surroundings and the laws when it comes to passing farming equipment.
Many side walls on a bunker can be twelve to fifteen feet tall. Therefore the peak of the silage in those bunkers could be eighteen to twenty feet. It is important to make sure people are staying away from edges that present a safety risk in terms of falls. Additionally, maintaining appropriately fitting clothing, not loose dangling type sleeves or pant legs, will reduce the likelihood of becoming entangled in equipment.
Silage can produce some noxious gasses that are nitrogen or sulfur. Breathing those gasses could be extremely toxic or fatal. Farmers need to be aware that these yellow or orange gasses produced by silage can be extremely dangerous.
There’s plenty of things to focus on when it comes to safety and sometimes it becomes a burden because it’s all encompassing. However, in order to effectively and efficiently go through the daily process surrounding harvest, farmers need to avoid accidents and injuries on a regular basis so that everyone gets home safely.
“We need to keep safety and making sure everyone returns home safely at the end of the day a priority as we get into the haphazard and crazy harvest season that occurs this time of year in North America,” adds Bryan.”
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