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CapitalPress.com
Friday, March 5, 2021
Safety: ‘How did you survive that?’
printing presses, and they never miss
the opportunity to share with neigh-
bors and other farmers in the local
community.
Continued from Page 1
ravine. The 4-wheeler, the sprayer
and me went over the edge of the
ravine with the 4-wheeler on top of
me,” he said.
“The real key here is I didn’t
take an extra few seconds to turn
around and survey my surround-
ings and how close I was to the
ravine,” he said.
Now his left leg was pinned
under the 4-wheeler — 7 feet
down in a V-shaped ravine with no
way to escape or roll the ATV.
“I was trapped,” he said.
First he had to find his glasses.
Then he took a mental survey of
his condition. His shoulder and
side had taken the brunt of the fall.
Fortunately, the cell phone he
wore in a pouch on his belt had
survived. But who should he call?
His wife couldn’t help, and it
would take first responders hours
to find him in the remote spot on
his 2,000-acre farm.
He thought of his neighbors and
distant cousin Bob Endorf and his
son Drew. Both are on the local fire
department’s rescue squad.
He directed them to his loca-
tion. It took about 25 minutes.
Bob and Drew were able to lift the
4-wheeler enough to free Endorf.
“They absolutely couldn’t
believe I could walk and wasn’t
hurt. All three of us got in our pick-
ups and went and had a good bar-
becue lunch,” he said.
Endorf is one of the lucky ones.
Fatal injuries among U.S. agricul-
tural workers totaled 183 in 2019.
The number of non-fatal injuries
among agricultural workers is no
longer tracked at the national level.
But in 2015, that number was 167
every day with 5% involving per-
manent impairment.
Experts say many of the acci-
dents could have been avoided if
farmers were more aware of the
dangers they face and how quickly
accidents can happen.
Endorf went home after lunch,
sat his wife, Colleen, down and
told her what happened. They took
the skid loader to the pasture and
pulled the 4-wheeler out of the
ravine.
“When she saw that, she just
burst into tears and said, ‘How did
you survive that?’” he said.
Making it count
Endorf is grateful he survived
and is eager to share his experi-
ence. He wants his fellow farm-
ers to be aware of on-farm dangers
and ATVs in particular.
“If I can save one person from
losing their life or a serious injury
than I feel like it’s worth it to tell
my story,” he said.
His experience is one of many
shared in the Telling The Story
Project, which is spreading the
message of farm safety through
compelling stories of tragic acci-
dents and injuries in the farmers’
words and those of their families.
The project is a joint effort
of the Central States Center for
Agricultural Safety and Health
in Omaha, Neb.; the Great Plains
Center for Agricultural Health in
Iowa City, Iowa; and the Upper
Midwest Agricultural Safety and
Health Center in Minneapolis,
Minn.
It is funded by the National
Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health Agriculture, Forestry
Multifaceted approach
Telling The Story Project
David Endorf
Power of prevention
Stephanie Leonard/Telling the Story
David Endorf’s 4-wheeler at the bottom of a 7-foot ravine. He was
pinned under it until neighbors were able to free him.
David Endorf was spraying
brushy trees in this creek pas-
ture on Aug. 18, 2018, when the
rear wheel of his 4-wheeler went
over the edge of the ravine.
and Fishing Program. The proj-
ect was officially launched in 2018
when the website went live.
The three centers working on
the project all have outreach and
safety programs and saw an oppor-
tunity for telling those compel-
ling stories to raise awareness and
prevent accidents, said Scott Hei-
berger, a health communications
manager at the National Farm
Medicine Center in Marshfield,
Wis., and a member of the out-
reach team at the Upper Midwest
Agricultural Safety and Health
Center.
“We saw an opportunity to con-
nect directly with farmers and farm
families. We just saw this as a way
to meet farmers where they’re at,”
he said.
Statistics are helpful and can
support the message of farm
safety. But personal stories are
more effective than a set of num-
bers, he said.
“People do remember a story,
that’s the bottom line. They get
their attention and foster farm-
er-to-farmer discussions. And
research shows farmers trust each
other more than anyone else,” he
said.
The Telling The Story Project
is facilitating those discussions by
letting farmers tell their personal
The injuries range from machin-
ery entanglement and falls to expo-
sure to poisonous hydrogen sulfide
gas and explosions.
For some it meant the fight
of their life and a long stay in the
Intensive Care Unit. For many, it
meant surgeries, skin grafts, pros-
thetics and ongoing physical, respi-
ratory or occupational therapy. For
others, it meant an untimely and
tragic death.
Their cautionary tales, as told
through Telling The Story, carry
similar laments:
• They were working alone.
• They didn’t tell anyone where
they were.
• They were in a hurry.
• They didn’t have their mind
fully on the task.
• They weren’t aware of their
surroundings.
• They didn’t take precautions.
• They did something they knew
they shouldn’t.
For all of the storytellers —
the survivors and the families of
those less fortunate — it’s brought
new awareness of on-farm dan-
gers, changes to their operations
and hard-won advocacy for farm
safety.
The farmers take their messages
to local events and national confer-
ences, over the airwaves and onto
Courtesy of David Endorf
stories, he said.
Farmers might be inclined to
shrug off national statistics, think-
ing the chance of an accident hap-
pening to them is pretty low. But
if another farmer is telling them
it happened to him and they can
see themselves in that story, mak-
ing the same decisions and tak-
ing the same shortcuts, it helps,
he said.
They can see that the everyday,
mundane things they’ve done a
hundred times can still go bad, he
said.
“Everyone knows safety is
important, but it makes it real,” he
said.
Storytelling is a really good
way to influence change. Lectures
on farm safety aren’t particularly
effective, but a neighbor taking
extra steps to prevent accidents is,
he said.
“The credibility of the storytell-
ers is so important,” he said.
Safety first
“It all happened so fast,” is a
recurring theme in the farmers’
narratives.
Their stories include everyday
chores that ended in injury or death
due to distraction, hurried action,
corner-cutting, missteps, lack of
safety gear or lack of awareness.
China: Soybean demand in
China is going to be important
Continued from Page 1
result of China and every-
thing else going on I think is
something that we all have
to wrap our head around,”
he said.
China has the potential
to import 30 million tons
of corn from the world, but
pork prices in China are fall-
ing and corn in China is $11
a bushel, he said.
“I can’t tell you whether
China is going to import
5 million tons of corn or
30 million tons of corn.
We all have to keep this in
mind, this is not going to be
smooth,” he said.
Soybean demand in
China is going to be import-
ant. It dropped from 94 mil-
lion tons to 82.5 million
tons, and two years later
it increased to 100 million
tons. There will be contin-
ued volatility going forward,
he said.
Meat and poultry imports
The Telling The Story Proj-
ect takes a multifaceted approach
to spreading the message and has
had more than 22,000 visitors to
its website.
Project organizers encourage
media outlets and other organiza-
tions to use the stories to promote
safety awareness. The project also
offers discussion guides for teach-
ers, 4-H and FFA leaders, farm
managers and others looking for
ways to start a conversation about
safety.
The effort has focused on the
Midwest, but other organizations
are emulating it with their own sto-
rytelling projects. Inspired by the
project, the National Children’s
Center for Rural and Agricultural
Health and Safety has started its
own storytelling campaign.
Getty Images
China has the potential to import 30 million tons of
corn from the world.
by China are another area to
watch. Those imports went
from $11 billion two years
ago to $28 billion in 2020.
China’s total agricultural
imports from around the
world went from $136 bil-
lion two years ago to an esti-
mated $170 billion in 2020.
“That trend is obviously
something we need to keep
in mind,” he said.
He thinks that increase is
more in consumer-finished
product, a meat discussion
more than a bulk soybean
and grain conversation, he
said.
In the meantime, Endorf, the
Nebraska farmer, has made sev-
eral changes to the way he oper-
ates. He also has some advice for
other farmers.
“I make it a habit to let my wife
know where I am,” he said.
Farmers often work alone and
in secluded locations. Even if
someone were 20 feet away from
the scene of his accident, they
never would have seen him.
“Let someone know where
you’re going to be and what you’re
doing,” he said.
He’s also more cognizant than
he used to be every time he gets on
a 4-wheeler and advises others to
do the same.
They’re a very handy tool — all
farmers have them, he said.
“We get complacent. We take
them for granted, you just hop on
them and go. Take a few extra sec-
onds for safety, slow down and
think about what can happen,” he
said.
His accident was caused by dis-
traction — thinking about that bar-
becue lunch.
“Keep your mind focused on
what you’re doing, on the task at
hand,” he said.
He’s also adamant about mak-
ing sure his cell phone is on his hip
and not left in the pickup or on the
seat of the tractor — and he makes
sure it’s charged.
“When you’re pinned under-
neath something and can’t move
much, you realize pretty fast you
need help. It’s important to keep
a charged cell phone on you,” he
said.
He keeps a photo on his cell
phone of his upside down 4-wheeler
at the bottom of the ravine. It’s a
stark image of the seriousness of
the situation and what can happen.
People who see it wonder how he
survived.
“A guardian angel was looking
over me that day,” he said.
He knows he could have easily
lost his life.
“Safety is important every day,
not only on farms but in our gen-
eral livelihood,” he said, adding he
just returned from a 40-mile trip
hauling hay to auction.
“You just have to have safety
in the back of your mind all the
way around,” he said.
Permit: Hammonds originally lost permission to
graze the allotments near Diamond, Ore., in 2014
Continued from Page 1
grazing permit, the Interior
Department cited the Ham-
mond family’s historic use
and proximity to the federal
property.
Steven Hammond, who
operates the ranch, and his
father, Dwight, originally
lost permission to graze the
allotments near Diamond,
Ore., in 2014 when the gov-
ernment refused to renew
their permit after they were
criminally charged with set-
ting fires to rangelands.
The Hammonds were
convicted and completed
their initial prison terms,
then ordered back behind
bars after the 9th U.S. Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals ruled
they had to serve five-year
mandatory minimum sen-
tences for arson.
Their return to prison
in early 2016 sparked pro-
tests that culminated in a
monthlong stand-off with
federal agents at the Mal-
heur National Wildlife that
attracted national attention.
The ranchers were
released early in 2018 after
receiving a full pardon
from former President Don-
ald Trump, which prompted
the Interior Department to
renew their grazing permit
the following year due to
“changed circumstances.”
However, environmental
groups convinced a federal
judge to reverse that deci-
sion in 2019 because the
grazing permit was renewed
contrary to regulations.
The Interior Department
then opened up the graz-
ing allotments to applica-
tions from other ranchers
but ultimately decided to
issue a new permit to the
Hammond family earlier
this year.
The Western Watersheds
Project, Oregon Natural
Desert Association, Wil-
dearth Guardians and Cen-
ter for Biological Diver-
sity filed another lawsuit
seeking to rescind the graz-
ing permit’s most recent
approval.
The
environmental
plaintiffs argued the fed-
eral government’s decision
involved “rushed, opaque,
and highly unusual pub-
lic processes” that were
“tainted by political influ-
ence and are not the prod-
uct of reasoned, lawful
decision-making,” the com-
plaint said.
According to the com-
plaint, the federal gov-
ernment approved the
grazing permit “without
opportunities for public
participation required by
law” and wrongly deter-
mined the Hammonds were
more qualified than other
applicants.
The decision also didn’t
comply with land use pro-
tections for the sage grouse
and with a statute aimed at
conserving the “long term
ecological integrity” of
Steens Mountain in Eastern
Oregon, the complaint said.
Steven Hammond and
Alan Schroeder, an attor-
ney for the family, were not
available for comment as of
press time.