Read Full Transcript
Mike Howell (00:08):
The Dirt with me, Mike Howell, an eKonomics podcast where I present the down and dirty agronomic science to help grow crops and bottom lines. Inspired by eKonomics.com, farming’s go-to informational resource, I’m here to break down the latest crop nutrition research, news, and issues helping farmers make better business decisions through actionable insights. Let’s dig in.
(00:37):
Well, hello again everyone. Welcome back to The Dirt. I got a really exciting episode in store for us today. We’re not going to be talking about agronomy or soil fertility or even eKonomics or the weather today. We’re going to be talking about farm safety. Now in preparation for this, I called the American Farm Bureau. I knew they would be great at getting me somebody to help talk about farm safety and cover this subject, and the American Farm Bureau told me the best person in the world to help talk about farm safety was located right here in Mississippi, right in my backyard.
(01:07):
We’re honored to have Mr. John Hubbard with Mississippi Farm Bureau with us today. John, thanks for joining us.
John Hubbard (01:12):
I appreciate it. Thanks for the opportunity.
Mike Howell (01:15):
John, if you would, tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and what you do with Mississippi Farm Bureau.
John Hubbard (01:20):
Well, I’m 34 years into a career with Farm Bureau dealing with safety. When I started safety, I was teaching agriculture at a little school in McAdams, Mississippi and got the opportunity to go with Farm Bureau. It’d been a great move where I could go out there and I could talk to people and help them with ideas and things that may save their lives or at least make their lives a little more comfortable in some situations.
(01:45):
I got a lot of training dealing with First Aid. I also did a lot in rescue techniques and all that stuff, which we paid for an individual to come down and teach us at the Fire Academy. It’s been an interesting career.
Mike Howell (02:00):
John, I’m sure you’ve seen a lot over the last 34 years of doing this kind of stuff, and when I think about farm safety, it gets really personal with me really quick. Most people don’t know this, but my grandfather and my uncle were farming and they were working on a disc one day, laying up under that disc and had the tractor idling in front of them and somehow that tractor jumped into gear. That disc came down and ran over both of them. Almost took my granddaddy’s leg off. He had to go through a bunch of different surgeries. They were finally able to save that leg. My uncle had got his arm a lot worse than his leg, but they went the rest of their lives, both of them still suffering from those injuries. That happened back in the early 1970s.
(02:42):
Fast-forward to about the year 2001, 2002, I get a phone call and said my dad had been in a farming accident. I needed to get home as quick as I could. I didn’t know anything about it or what was going on, but finally figured out that he was putting some cattle in the trailer, following the cattle up the chute. Something he had done probably a thousand times, and one of those old cows just turned around. She wasn’t mean or anything, she just turned around and walked over him, and when he fell, he hit his head on the ground. It broke his neck and he was laying there paralyzed. They had to get him to the hospital and he was paralyzed for about a month and finally started recovering, had a few surgeries. Fortunately, he’s back. He can do about anything he wants to do today. Probably still outwork me if it came right down to it.
(03:26):
I’ve also seen the bad side of this. People that don’t get over it and are forced to live with life-changing injuries or worse. I just want to want to take a few minutes this morning and talk about farm safety and some things that we can do to prevent some of these accidents.
(03:41):
John, let’s dig in and get to the dirt about farm safety. Do you have any statistics that you want to share with us, like when do the most farm accidents take place?
John Hubbard (03:51):
There’s two primary, that’s where we see an uptick in the numbers that we have. One is, of course, planting season. That’s where we’re trying to get the seeds in the ground. Everything’s going good and we’re working longer hours, so we see that uptick there. And also, during harvest time where they’re trying to get everything out. Typically, those two right there. Now, we have accidents throughout the year. Those two times are where we see an increase in those accidents because we’re dealing with the equipment and all.
Mike Howell (04:23):
Right, and that’s kind of where I wanted to go today. We’re getting really close to harvest time for most of us here in the South and our listeners in other parts of the country won’t be far behind. Let’s take a few minutes this morning and talk about some safety issues that we see around harvest time, what we can do to prevent some of those. A lot of these guys are trying to get a lot done in a short period of time. The weather may not be cooperating. There’s always a lot of stress.
(04:47):
And one thing I see a lot with any kind of accidents that we deal with is people are always in too big a hurry and trying to get something done. It seems like if we would take just another second or two to make sure we do it the right way, a lot of this could be prevented.
John Hubbard (05:01):
Have you ever done something and you come back and you say, “Why did I do that?” Well, that puts you at risk. You knew you had a problem, but you did it that way, and typically, that’s when we get in a hurry. The number one thing is we’re in a hurry, we got to get it done.
(05:18):
Most of the people that are hurt in accidents know they’re doing something that they shouldn’t be. Most of them. We don’t see novice, we don’t see beginners, the ones that’s got a little bit of fear for that equipment. We see the ones that have been on and around it all their lives getting hurt.
Mike Howell (05:34):
That’s right. A lot of bad injuries and that type of stuff and people just get a little bit careless. So hopefully by listening to this, people will think about safety a little more and do some things to help prevent it.
(05:45):
John, one of the things that comes to mind here at harvest season is we’ve got a lot of specialized equipment that we use just at harvest time. Here in the South, cotton is a big player and that cotton picker doesn’t do but one thing its entire life. We may use that for a couple of months out of the year. The rest of the time, it’s sitting in the barn.
(06:01):
Now, a combine is similar, but we can use that in some other crops. It gets a little more activity during the year, but a lot of this harvest equipment, and even if we look at some of our fruit and nut crops, they’re a lot similar to a cotton picker. They only get used for a few months out of the year and the rest of the time they’re sitting up. So a lot of times at the end of harvest last year, we may have put that cotton picker up and didn’t do all the maintenance we needed to. We may have had some hydraulic lines that were starting to wear, a little leak in one of them or something like that.
(06:30):
What should growers look for when they pull a piece of equipment out of the barn and start getting ready for harvest season?
John Hubbard (06:36):
They need to do a real good inspection on their equipment. Back up, take a fresh look at it. Is there anything that stands out? Fix it. The cotton picker that you’re talking about, you start thinking about if you go in that header, it’s not like an automobile accident or anything else like that. We can’t use the jaws of life on it. We have to dismantle it, which means you’re there for a long period of time.
(07:00):
Best thing, prevention is number one. We have to try to prevent those accidents and the way we prevent that is by doing good equipment maintenance and getting out there and find those leaking hydraulic hoses. I did a program one time and the individual was there and he had a little drip coming out of his hydraulic hose on one of his tractors and he turned around and he said, “Man, that’s fine. I’ve been dealing with that for a long time,” and his wife turned around and said, “I wish you’d be quiet. You’re the one sitting on the tractor. I’m the one hooking it up. Listen to what he’s telling you.”
(07:29):
We have to go back, pay attention to what we’re doing. We deal with these things all the time, and a lot of times, we miss little stuff. Well, the little stuff is what gets us.
Mike Howell (07:38):
Yes, sir, and I have the opportunity to visit a lot of farms and see a lot of farming operations, and one of the most common things that I see is… And I’ve been there, I know how it is. You try to go in and grease that Alemite and it’s got a shield over it and you got to remove that shield to get to it or you’re trying to work on a piece of equipment, always have something in the way that you know it really don’t have to be there for this machine to operate it. It’s a safety piece, but a lot of times, those get discarded and don’t get put back on, but they’re there for a reason.
John Hubbard (08:06):
Absolutely. The way you have to look at that, all your safety equipment that’s on this equipment is there for a reason. The reason they put it there was because somebody got hurt, so what they did, they tried to protect us from making a, you hate to say a dumb mistake, but that’s exactly what it is. Most of the people that we deal with, “Man, why did I do that?” They knew better, so they took that out of play.
(08:28):
We take the shields off it, like you said, to grease it, that type stuff. We save a little time and we say, “Well, hey, if we save time this way, if we leave it off, we can save a lot of time.” That’s not the way to look at it. If you want to go home at night, you put it back on.
Mike Howell (08:43):
That’s right. And that’s what our goal is. We want everybody to go home safe every day and be able to keep doing this for a long time down the road.
(08:51):
John, I’m sure you’ve seen a lot over the course of your career and we don’t want to scare anybody, but we do want them to realize what can happen. Are there any particular things that stand out over your career that you want to bring to growers’ attention, something that you see pretty common, a common mistake growers make?
John Hubbard (09:06):
It’s wide-ranging. I mean, we see a lot of different stuff that are going on out there. I guess the thing that really gets me is the families. When you get out there and you’re dealing with these traumatic accidents, the individual that’s in the accident, they’re hurt, but the family is as well. You got to take care of them, your families, they’re a God-given gift to us. Each one of us needs to be blessed, needs to know that we’re blessed when we get those. The way we do that is by taking care of ourselves and when you get out there, you pay attention to your surroundings and your equipment and everything will work out real good for us. You still may have that accident, but it won’t be as bad.
Mike Howell (09:46):
Right, right. Well, John, you mentioned early on in the podcast that growers are working long hours during this time of year, and in the fall, our days kind of get a little shorter. We don’t have as much daylight as we do during the summer months.
(09:58):
You may be familiar with this accident I’m about to mention, but I had a really good friend up around the Aberdeen, Mississippi area. It’s probably been seven or eight, maybe even 10 years ago now. They were harvesting peanuts and he was loading a peanut trailer and they were trying to get that trailer hooked up and get it to the buying plant late that afternoon or early in the night and he jumps out to guide the truck driver back and the truck driver didn’t see him. He ended up getting pinned between the truck and the trailer and tragically, we lost him. I lost a good friend and a good coworker in that situation.
(10:30):
We don’t have a lot of visibility sometimes around this equipment in good lighting conditions, and when it starts getting dark, it gets even worse. Is there anything we can do to help prevent some of this type of stuff?
John Hubbard (10:40):
Yeah, there’s not a whole lot. When you put lighting around, it’s going to be in different… You’re going to have shaded areas or blackout areas that we call it, so you have to know when it’s time to go home and start fresh the next day. It’s not worth somebody getting hurt or killed over. Back up, take a good look at it. We all need rest. That’s the number one thing when we’re talking about fatigue and hurry and all that. Get you some rest and do the best you can the next day.
(11:07):
I have a lot of farmers say, “Well, hey man, you don’t realize that,” yeah, we do. It’s best to wait. Let’s catch that daylight when we can and go ahead and get it done.
Mike Howell (11:17):
Right. John, another issue that I see going up and down the road in traveling as much as I do, a lot of this harvest equipment is wider than one lane of traffic. A lot of times, it takes up the whole road on these two-lane roads, especially some of our back country roads, and it’s always somebody trying to get to work in the morning. They’re in a hurry and this equipment’s trying to get down the road and they just don’t have anywhere to go.
(11:39):
Who has the right of way? What can motorists do to help out in this situation? What can farmers do to be more courteous to the motorists trying to get around and how can we share this road and make it safer for everybody?
John Hubbard (11:51):
Common sense tells us that if it extends out past the center line, we need an escort vehicle in there. You need somebody to let somebody know you’re coming down through there, and all too often, we don’t do that. We need our slow-moving emblem signs on the SMVs to let people know. I work rescue too out here with folks and people are worried about getting there. That’s it. They’re not worried about in between. They don’t slow down for accidents anymore and if you do, if you have somebody slow down, they’re a rubbernecker or they’re looking over their shoulders to see all that.
(12:24):
Folks, we got to pay attention and that’s drivers as well as equipment operators when we get out there. If it extends out past that center line, that puts you at risk, so the best thing to do is have you that escort vehicle in there and get it there safely.
Mike Howell (12:41):
John, we’ve talked an awful lot about some safety issues this morning and I hope everybody’s paying attention to this. I hope we can do something to prevent some of these accidents. Is there anything else that you’ve seen over the years that you want to bring out or something else you want growers to pay attention to this morning?
John Hubbard (12:56):
Yeah, transporting, like we said, we talked about that. Prevention is the key. Number one thing, we have to prevent it. So maintenance of your equipment, knowing the people that’s out there working, don’t override a safety feature. That’s number one thing. Even some things as a riding lawnmower, we got pressure-sensitive seats on it where if you don’t meet the weight limit, the mower won’t run. People override that and they’ll override other safety features that are out there.
(13:24):
Be careful around PTOs. That’s up to irrigation wells that we see. Injuries involved with those. Remember you got other folks out there. It wasn’t in this state, but we had a situation where we had an individual that was literally packed in a module builder and they didn’t find him till the next day. Well, folks, in the end of the day, you got to count your employees, make sure everybody’s okay, they’re off the job.
(13:47):
So just simple things like that, knowing what to do if you have that accident. How many people know general first aid, basic stuff that will buy that individual some time? Hopefully, we don’t have the accident, but what do we do if we do have it? How to control that, just basic bleeding techniques. Number one thing, not to pull things out of a human body. We have something that flies off of a grinder. Basic first aid skills. Have somebody on the farm or around the facility that knows how to take care of injuries. We’ll buy that individual some time. So you’re going to have it from the time you call 911 and help arrives, so that’s your baby. You got to take care of them.
Mike Howell (14:32):
John, that’s some great advice. I hope growers pay attention to that and basic first aid training isn’t that in-depth. We can get that from a lot of different resources here locally. I encourage people to pay attention to that and get some first aid training. It could help save some lives.
(14:46):
John, you just mentioned the module builder and the guy getting caught up in that and it triggered another thought about grain bins. When I was growing up, we didn’t have a whole lot of grain bins, but here in the South, we’ve switched a little more to corn production over the last few years and have a lot more grain bins, and when we get into the Midwest, there’s a lot of on-farm storage up that way. People putting this corn and soybeans in grain bins and moving the product to market a little later.
(15:11):
Can you talk about some of the risks associated with grain bins and what growers should be watching out for?
John Hubbard (15:16):
Absolutely. We teach a grain bin rescue program right now and a farmer program dealing with it, how to prevent it, but we go out and we teach rescuers how. Mississippi Farm Bureau are very fortunate. About four or five years ago, we got a grant from Monsanto that enabled us to build a grain bin entrapment or engulfment simulator. That simulator is in the state of Mississippi. There’s two of those manufactured by the same place that are out there. One’s in Iowa, the other one is here in Mississippi, and we use that in our surrounding states to teach fire rescue personnel how to get individuals out of grain bins.
(15:57):
Since that program came into establishment, which was about four or five years ago, we’ve had 16 lives saved by people that we’ve trained in that program. 16 people are walking today, walking around breathing because the training was there for those individuals and that’s worth it all. One life is worth everything else. You got to remember that. We can’t put a value, a monetary value on that.
(16:22):
But we have people going into grain bins and they’re checking moisture content or they’ve got maintenance issues inside the grain bins. When you go in there, make sure you have a spotter, that spotter knows what to do. You can’t just put him up there and say, “All right, watch me out there,” because if something happens to you, nine times out of 10, you’re going to start hollering. He knows you. His tendency is to jump in there and try to save you. Now I’ve got two in there rather than one and nobody’s calling 911. Knowing what to do in a bad situation is the key.
(16:54):
Also, when you go in there, if you go through that top hatch of that grain bin, make sure you have a harness and a lifeline on. I don’t care if it’s just a step, two foot out on there. Well, you got to look at it. And I had one fella said, “Well, hey, if I know I haven’t taken anything out of that grain bin, is it okay for me to walk out on it to take moisture sample?” And I said, “Are you willing to risk your life on it?” And he said, “Well, what does that mean?” I said, “Well, that’s exactly what you’re doing if you go in that grain bin without that harness and rope on that,” so that is a must.
Mike Howell (17:26):
That is exactly right. I’m glad you mentioned that. You’ve talked about a lot of safety programs and I’m sure that we have some videos and information on your web website. Is there anything you want to mention about that, where growers could go and get some more information about this?
John Hubbard (17:40):
Well, Farm Bureau has dedicated a lot to the safety end of this. We have two safety specialists. I’m one. There’s another safety specialist in South Mississippi. I work North Mississippi and the Delta area. What we do is we are available to go out and teach and we don’t charge anything for most of our program. If we go out of state with the grain bin simulators, there’s a minimum cost to that individual, we can go and put that program on.
(18:06):
Farm Bureau and Farm Bureau members have put a lot of money into trying to help our farmers out there and it’s available to them. All they have to do is get ahold of their local Farm Bureau office and we got some 13 different safety programs that we put on and actually come out and talk to groups such as churches, civic clubs, schools. We do a lot of programs in the schools each year on shop safety, dealing with them, trying to help them out, teaching them about safety glasses, which is a major, major thing. Eye injuries are tough. But get ahold of your local farm bureau office. It takes us a while. We’re usually booked anywhere from three to six months out and we’ll come out and put on safety program for you.
Mike Howell (18:48):
And John, I just want to put in a plug for the safety programs y’all do. I have seen several of those during the course of my career and it always gets your attention. We actually did a webinar a couple of years ago with your counterpart in the south part of the state. He did one of the safety programs live for us and that opened a lot of people’s eyes as to what could happen and just how quick some of these accidents can happen. So listeners, I really hope that you’ll take advantage of some of these opportunities and see what’s available in your area.
(19:16):
John, we really appreciate you taking time to be with us today. I hope growers have listened to this and I hope maybe that we have prevented just one accident this growing season. Thanks for all you do to help the growers around the country and let us know if we can do anything to assist you in these efforts.
John Hubbard (19:31):
Thank you again for having us out and if we can help any of the listeners or anybody out there, feel free to call on us. That’s what we’re here for.
Mike Howell (19:38):
John, thanks a lot.
John Hubbard (19:40):
Thank you.
Mike Howell (19:41):
It’s August in the South and it’s my favorite season of the year. I’m not talking about the end of summer or moving into fall. I’m talking about football season. It seems like here in the South, we all live for Friday night so we can get to the local high school football game, and it’s no different at my house.
(19:59):
Now, one thing that is a little different at my house is I have seven children that we’re trying to feed and it seems like when we pick them up from school, they’re always starving and we feed them before the ballgame. We’ll go to the ballgame and it seems like they’re always starving again after the ballgame. Well, that kind of gets in dad’s pocketbook a little bit so we decided what we’re going to do this year is do a tailgate.
(20:20):
We have our tailgate and spot all picked out at the football game. We’ve got our tailgate and trailer all set up with different kind of cookers on it. We can cook just about anything we decide we want to cook and we’re just going to pick kids up after school. We’re going to go straight to the tailgate and we’re just going to have a good time waiting on the football game to start. We’ll do a lot of cooking. We’ll have some fun games for the kids. We’ll have things like corn hole and maybe some volleyball, and of course they’ll be playing really aggressive touch football, so this is going to take care of all the kids that aren’t playing football yet.
(20:53):
But when Heath, and Heath is my oldest son, when he found out that we were doing this, he said, “Dad, what about me and all my buddies? We’re not going to be around then. We’re getting ready for the football games.” We decided that we would have to cook extra and have some leftovers leftover for heath and the rest of those big offensive linemen. Now, I know they’ll eat a lot, but we’re going to try to make sure we have enough leftovers so that they can enjoy the tailgate after the ballgame as well.
(21:17):
In this segment of The Dirt, we’re going to start talking about our tailgating, what items are on the menu for each week. We’ll talk a little bit about the football team and how they’re doing. The predominant theme of this, we’ll be talking about our tailgating menu, and then we’re going to pick one commodity each week and dive in a little deeper on that commodity and find out a little bit more about it.
(21:38):
To help us get started with all of this, we wanted to make sure that we were handling our foods safely and we have with us today Natasha Haynes with Mississippi State University Extension Service. Natasha, how are you this morning?
Natasha Haynes (21:50):
Good morning.
Mike Howell (21:51):
Natasha and I go way back. Our mothers used to work together at Hinds Junior College or community college, and we both attended Hinds Community College, and then later on, we both worked for Mississippi State, so we have quite a long history, but Natasha does a lot of work with food safety and teaching consumers how to handle food safely. I thought it would be a good idea if we had her on the show today to help us get through this tailgating situation and figure out how to handle food correctly.
(22:17):
Natasha, before we get into it, what’s your favorite tailgate food?
Natasha Haynes (22:21):
I would say probably meatballs just because they’re easy to eat and you can walk around and talk with them.
Mike Howell (22:28):
Sounds good. One of the first things we’re going to be cooking is hamburgers. We’re going to start off simple, but I’m going to do a little special recipe. We’re not going to spoil it right now, but we’re going to do a little special burger.
(22:40):
I’m feeding Heath and Heath wants all of his buddies to come after the ballgame, and I’ve got six other kids that we’re going to be feeding before the ballgame and I’m sure they’ll be hungry after the ballgame as well, so we need to make sure we do this right, not only for when we’re preparing this food, but make sure we have leftovers that are handled properly and we can heat those back up and have them ready for after the ballgame.
Natasha Haynes (23:03):
That’s a very good point because one, you need to make sure you have a hand washing station somewhere because you know everybody’s going to be touching raw meat and then you’re touching cooked meat. And of course, if they’ve been to the game, you just need a hand washing station, and that’s real easy to make. All you need really is just a water cooler that has a spout to it and then a basket to catch that water, some antibacterial soap and paper towels and a trash can. You could just make a table somewhere and kind of designate the area to wash your hands so that everybody can cut down on spreading germs. That would be great to start off with.
Mike Howell (23:38):
That’s a great piece of advice. We’ll make sure we have that hand washing station set up. And all of our food, we’re going to have it in an ice chest packed down in ice when we bring it, and most of that’s going to go straight onto the grill or stay in ice until it’s time to serve it. Is there any tips we need to know around that?
Natasha Haynes (23:54):
So I always tell people to think about probably having several coolers, so one cooler, just make it just for your drinks because that’s going to be the cooler everybody’s going to go in and out of, so don’t put the food over in that cooler. That way, you can keep the cooler that has the food in it, the cold food, if you don’t put the drinks in it, you can keep it cooler longer because you’re not constantly opening it up.
Mike Howell (24:14):
As many people will be coming by, it’s not going to be hard to have a separate cooler just for drinks. We’ll make sure we do that.
(24:21):
One thing that I’ve always heard, and I think it’s changed over the last few years, mayonnaise is a big thing that’s going to be part of this. We’ll have mayonnaise as an ingredient in things like potato salad and then we’ll want to put it on our burgers. And years ago, everybody said you can’t take mayonnaise to a cookout. It’ll go bad and everybody will get sick off the mayonnaise, but is that actually true or can we use mayonnaise products?
Natasha Haynes (24:45):
I would suggest you buy packets for your hamburgers, and then as far as like potato salad, make sure you keep it cold and when you’re serving it, make a ice bath. And so that’s more or less putting the food inside of a bowl that has ice and you’re going to serve it on ice. That way, you’re going to keep that potato salad as cold as possible.
Mike Howell (25:06):
Okay, sounds like a plan. What about handling leftovers? What’s the best way to handle these leftovers and have them ready for after the game?
Natasha Haynes (25:15):
You don’t want to leave food out past two hours, and of course right now in Mississippi, it’s over 90 degrees so you don’t want to leave it out past one hour. I would say serve it and cool it and then put it back on the grill and warm it up later, but you got to cool it down. You can’t just let it hang out.
Mike Howell (25:32):
Okay. So if we get through eating and we package everything back up, put it back on ice, and then take it back out after the game, everything should be good to go?
Natasha Haynes (25:41):
You just don’t want to leave it out past that two hours or that one hour when it’s over 90 degrees.
Mike Howell (25:46):
I’m hoping we’re going to get a break from some of this heat before very long, but it is August in Mississippi and it’s subject to get even hotter.
Natasha Haynes (25:54):
Right. It’ll probably be, what, December before we may get some cool weather?
Mike Howell (25:57):
It very well could be, but we’re hoping we’re still playing football in December too, so we’ll see how the season goes.
(26:03):
Natasha, is there anything else you want to make sure we mention today?
Natasha Haynes (26:07):
Well, I would like to encourage everyone to go to my Facebook and Instagram page. I am the host of a show called The Food Factor and we give out recipe tips as well as different nutrition and food safety tips every week. So please go out and look for it. It is @TheFoodFactorMS on all of your local social media pages.
Mike Howell (26:27):
That sounds great. We’ll have to check that out. Maybe pick up a recipe or two.
Natasha Haynes (26:31):
Yeah, right now, I want to say the one that’s out there now is how to make a homemade sports drink.
Mike Howell (26:36):
Well, that would definitely be good. As many bottles of Gatorade and Powerade as I go through this time of year, I want to have stock in Powerade this time of year, but we will definitely check that out.
(26:49):
Listeners, we sure appreciate you tuning in this week. Want to invite you to tune in again next week when we have Dr. John Beasley with the University of Auburn. We’re going to be talking about boron and how to get boron into your plants. One plant specifically we think about with boron is peanuts, and I’ll go ahead and tell you next week, we’re going to talk about boiling peanuts, so that’s going to be a staple at every tailgate party we go to.
(27:13):
Until next time, this has been Mike Howell with The Dirt.
