Atchison County

Annual event teaches Missouri children importance of farm safety

Story and photos by August Kryger, MU Extension Publications

Jim Crawford started the tractor, and the man behind it was ripped to pieces. Luckily for everyone involved, the man was made of straw. The graphic demonstration was part of the Safety Acres Day Camp held in St. Joseph on May 13, 2009.

Crawford, an agriculture and natural resources engineer with MU Extension in Atchison County, spent the day tying the hay-filled humanoids to a power takeoff (PTO) shaft to show children in attendance just how dangerous a tractor can be.

“Many youths are not familiar with the dangers associated with agricultural operations,” Crawford says. “Tractors, four-wheelers, wagons of grain and electrical wires are all potential hazards if caution is not used around them.”

Farmer Dennis Schmitz joined the group to share a real-world example. One day when he was out farming, a nightmare came true. A piece of his clothing got caught in the PTO shaft of his tractor and pulled him toward it.

“It smashed nearly every bone in my body,” Schmitz says. “It just kept banging me against it over and over.”

Schmitz came out lucky, escaping with his life. After several reconstructive surgeries and pins and plates throughout his body, he now helps give a face to the potential dangers of farming.

But the day was about more than straw men and scary stories. Robotic dogs were involved, too. Patches the Safety Dog scooted around the parking lot of the Missouri National Guard Armory talking to children about fire safety. He covered topics such as fire extinguisher use and dialing 911 in an emergency. Though he chased a few children around, all cats steered clear of Patches’ bright red car.

More than 300 children from eight Missouri schools participated in the two-day camp. On the far end of the armory building, several children were drawn to what looked like a strange version of tug-of-war. It was in fact such a game — but with serious undertones.

They came one-by-one to pull against a grain bin simulator. The machine recreates the intense force that grain can exert on someone trapped inside a bin. Some could pull about 70 pounds — a few could lift slightly more. None of them came close to the effort needed to pull someone out.

Children participating in the power takeoff (PTO) safety demonstration at the Safety Acres Day Camp in St. Joseph react to a graphic example of what dangers lie near a PTO shaft. MU Extension was one of the sponsors of the event.  See more photos

According to Iowa State University Extension, “The force required to remove someone buried in grain can easily exceed 2,000 pounds, which is about the same as lifting a small car.”

MU Extension’s Robert Kelly ran the booth to show how the battle of man vs. machine can be a losing one.

“As the grain piles up, it just gets harder to get someone out,” he says. “Even if you hooked a rope to a tractor to pull someone out, it might rip their arm right off.”

Zaps, pops and cracks could be heard across the room from the grain simulator. Representatives from Kansas City Power and Light were running a metal squirrel across a simulated power line. Beneath was a tractor with a metal wire coming off of it. When a doll next to the tractor touched the machine, she suffered the same fate as the squirrel. While the lights and sounds of the demonstration delighted the spectators, the message was clear: Power lines and electricity do not play well with people.

Crawford says the event helps turn safety rhetoric into real-world perspective.

“Safety Acres provides a hands-on learning opportunity for youth to get a better understanding of some of these dangers and how to avoid them,” he says. “If we can prevent one accident from the event, then it was more than worth the time and effort.”

View photos of the event:  page 1 | page 2 | page 3

Related: MU Extension Rural Safety and Health Program

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		University of Missouri Extension Atchison County atchisonco@missouri.edu  Site maintained by: Jim Crawford, crawfordj@missouri.edu Updated 09/11/2006