How dangerous is farm work?
It is dangerous in several ways. It involves machinery and is sometimes worked by younger family members without formal training for safe use. Several different gases and combinations thereof form in silos. That alone results in lung injuries, suffocation, and death. Farm hazards are exacerbated by the distance from EMT responders.
Extremely! I think it ranks as one of the top most dangerous occupations, right up there with mining. It has gotten somewhat safer in recent years, with most equipment having guards and covers over working parts, most gears having smaller teeth and newer tractor having rollbars or roll cages or cabs and seatbelts. If you look at some of the photos of older equipment or video clips on youtube, you can see how much of the early equipment had no covers over gears with finger sized teeth, no guards over blades, engines that jumped and kicked backwards when you started them by turning their flywheels backwards. Modern equipment is much safer. However, there is still unpredictable livestock to deal with, much time spent out in the middle of fields where you are an easy target for lightening, grain bins and augers… I can’t remember how many stories I’ve read of people getting caught up in grain augers and roll balers. It is just a dangerous occupation.
