To hear Brandon’s conclusion to National Grain Bin Safety Week, click here.
NEVADA, Iowa and STORY CITY, Iowa – National Grain Bin Safety Week might make you think of getting trapped in flowing grain, but staying safe starts before that’s even a possibility.
Oftentimes a farmer or worker will enter a grain bin to clear some kind of obstruction, usually caused by grain clumping together, which is itself prompted by out-of-condition grain.
Purdue University has tracked grain engulfment incidents across the country since 1978, and has found that the poor condition of grain crops, like the harvest in 2009, is a likely contributor to increased engulfment incidents in the subsequent year, such as the 40% spike in incidents in 2010.
Key Cooperative Grain Department Co-Manager and Merchandiser Scott Stabbe says the condition of the 2013 harvest wasn’t so far removed from the poor condition of the 2009 harvest, meaning 2014 has many of the same risk factors as 2010.
“That’s going to be the concern this summer,” says Stabbe. “Grain quality is where it all starts, so if you manage your grain quality it shouldn’t be an issue. So many guys just want to put the grain in the bin and leave it, but you need to manage that quality in there, and the best idea is to just take a load out every so often, so you keep the grain moving and you can watch it as you’re taking it out, [to] see if you have a problem.”
There’s also another factor.
“The grain bin size has increased exponentially” since 1980, when Stabbe got into the grain business. “It’s harder to maintain grain quality, so if you have a problem – you can have a problem in one area of the bin and not in another.”
Safety begins long before there’s an accident; farmers and businesses in Story County are taking the proactive approach. They’ve pitched in together to purchase grain rescue tubes for eight rural fire stations, from Collins to Gilbert.
The rescue tubes consist of plates clamped together inside the bin and around a trapped person, then driven down into the grain. It relieves the pressure of the grain around them and lets rescuers dig them out.
Story County Farm Bureau Vice President Nick Hermanson raises turkeys and row crops south of Story City. He says the rescue tubes are just the start.
“They will need additional rescue devices,” he says. “You know, harnesses and ropes and shovels. It’s kind of a beginning step. We’re not done with the project, but we wanted to get the equipment spread out because in rural Iowa, it may be a 20-, 30-, 40-minute drive from one fire department to another if that particular fire department didn’t have the equipment.”
Interestingly, National Grain Bin Safety Week wrapped up with a big victory for small farms: the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) dropped its $132,000 grain storage inspection case against a Nebraska farm.
Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns called the fines an overreach of federal authority, and pointed to a law passed in 1976 that exempted farms with under 10 employees from OSHA regulation.
However in legally pursuing the small farm OSHA pointed to a 2011 memo indicating that small farms lose their exemption from regulation if they dry or fumigate harvested grain prior to marketing it.
Johanns led a Congressional push to inserted language clarifying OSHA’s authority in the omnibus appropriations package earlier this year. Since that time the agency has agreed to clarify and update its guidance on regulating small farms.
