This poster explains how the center of gravity (CG) affects tractor stability, particularly when carrying loads, using three illustrated scenarios: unloaded, rear-loaded, and front-loaded. In the unloaded state, the tractor’s CG is centrally located between the axles, ensuring stability as long as it stays within the wheelbase. When a counterweight is added to the rear, the CG shifts backward, increasing rear stability but reducing side-to-side (lateral) stability. Conversely, carrying a load at the front shifts the CG forward; if it moves beyond the front axle, the tractor becomes dangerously unstable and prone to tipping. The poster emphasizes that maintaining the CG within the wheelbase—regardless of load placement—is essential for safe operation. It warns that front-loaded tractors are more susceptible to tipping and require extra caution. Rear counterweights can help balance loads but may compromise lateral stability. Ultimately, if the CG falls outside the wheelbase in any direction, the tractor is at high risk of rollover.

The poster concludes by promoting safe tractor practices and references a FarmSafe podcast episode on Roll-Over Protective Structures (ROPS) for further education.

How to Use in Class

• Display when conducting tractor operation training
• Use as a refresher before moving loads during a new season

Additional Resources

• FarmSafe podcast episode, Safe Tractor Operation: ROPS, provides more information on preventing tractor roll-overs: https://gpcah.public-health.uiowa.edu/tractor-safety-rops/
• Ag Health 101 unit from which the information in this poster was pulled (Unit 10. Tractor Safety): https://gpcah.public-health.uiowa.edu/aghealth101_tractors/
• Ag Health 101 unit summary pages with additional information on tractor safety (Unit 10. Tractor Safety): https://gpcah.public-health.uiowa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Unit-10_TractorSafety_Jun24.pdf

This poster outlines essential safety procedures for entering grain storage structures, emphasizing thorough preparation, hazard assessment, and continuous oversight. Before entering a grain bin, workers must clearly define the task and consider safer alternatives. Proper preparation includes assembling the required tools, personal protective equipment (PPE), and designating a trained entrant and observer. A completed and signed entry permit or safety checklist is mandatory. Entry is only allowed when all pre-entry steps are followed, the observer stays outside with constant visual and verbal communication with the entrant, and is equipped to call 911 if needed.

To ensure safety, all grain handling equipment and power sources must be completely shut off, locked out, and tagged out. Air quality must be tested before and during entry—oxygen levels must remain between 19.5% and 23.5%, carbon monoxide must not exceed 25 ppm, hydrogen sulfide must be undetectable, and dust levels must allow at least five feet of visibility. Structural safety is also critical; if grain is bridged, uneven, or if walls or the floor slope inward, a body harness properly secured to the structure is required.

The poster concludes by encouraging continued education through the FarmSafe Podcast episode “Grain Bin Safety, Part 1: Motivation and Tips to Prevent Engulfment,” which provides further guidance on precautions and PPE.

How to Use in Class

• Use with resources below to walk through steps to ensure safe operation around/in grain bins

Additional Resources

• FarmSafe podcast episode, Grain Bin Safety, Part 1: Motivation & Tips to Prevent Engulfment, provides information on precautions & PPE needed before entering a bin: https://gpcah.public-health.uiowa.edu/grain-bin-safety-pt-1/
• Ag Health 101 unit from which the information in this poster was pulled (Unit 6. Confined Spaces): https://gpcah.public-health.uiowa.edu/aghealth101_confinedspaces/
• Ag Health 101 unit summary pages with additional information on confined space safety (Unit 6. Confined Spaces): https://gpcah.public-health.uiowa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Unit-6_Confined-Spaces_Sept24.pdf

This poster provides vital safety procedures for entering manure storage structures, emphasizing the importance of thorough risk assessment and strict adherence to safety protocols before entry. Entry is only allowed after the task is clearly defined, all alternative methods are considered, and the system is confirmed to be fully de-energized. This includes shutting down and locking out all machinery and agitation or pumping equipment. The ventilation system must be inspected and functioning to ensure maximum airflow.

Key pre-entry steps include identifying structural and atmospheric hazards, verifying adequate ventilation, establishing clear communication between the entrant and an outside observer, and ensuring the observer is trained, properly equipped, and remains outside the pit at all times. A written entry permit or checklist must be completed to confirm that all safety measures are in place.

The poster stresses the importance of preventing exposure to hazardous gases in manure storage and encourages further learning through additional manure gas safety resources.

This poster provides a practical guide to preventing falls on farms by identifying common hazards and offering targeted safety strategies. It emphasizes the importance of maintaining clean, stable working surfaces and using proper equipment to reduce the risk of injury.

The poster also recommends listening to the podcast episode “Falls on Ice” for more winter-specific fall prevention advice.

This poster outlines essential guidelines for preventing pesticide drift, a common issue in agricultural spraying that can affect neighboring crops, animals, and the environment.

Applicators are urged to monitor wind speed, temperature, humidity, and buffer distances to ensure effective pesticide use while minimizing unintended exposure to non-target areas. The poster concludes by recommending that users always consult individual pesticide labels for specific instructions and explore additional resources to compare application technologies, such as boom sprayers versus drones.

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While anhydrous ammonia is a common fertilizer, applied to Midwest fields in the late fall after harvest or early spring before planting, it can cause life threatening injuries. If inhaled, it can cause lung irritation, severe respiratory injuries, and can lead to death at higher concentrations.  It is corrosive, and it will burn the eyes and skin on contact and can burn the lungs if inhaled.

The anhydrous form means that it is “without water”.  Anhydrous ammonia aggressively seeks out moisture with anything it contacts.  If it contacts your skin, eyes, or lungs, it will draw water out of tissue, dehydrating and destroying cells. It is extremely important to cover your skin and eyes when handling anhydrous ammonia and to wear respiratory protection during high-risk tasks where it could be inhaled (such as during tank filling, if escaping during a spill). It is also critical to have water to rinse hands and eyes if there is a spill or if it contacts skin:  providing another source of water to both react with the ammonia and to wash it off your skin is critical.

It is important to understand how much an “average” farming injury costs.  The study team examined data from workers’ compensation claims that were filed by farmers who were injured on the job.  Specifically, they looked at both medical costs and costs associated with lost time at work.  Our poster focuses on how much it will cost for the medical bills for a farmer who is injured on the job.  We present both the average cost across all injures, but also present the range of costs that cover 95% of the costs (there are a small percent that are above and below the range given).  These were organized by both what body part was injured (torso is the most expensive) and by what caused the injury (animals cause most expensive injuries).  These are provided to communicate real costs of injuries.  Be advised that one third of all farmer injuries result in lost work time, which is not included in this information.

How to Use in Class

• Incorporate data from poster when discussing different production operations (by cause)
• Show when needing to motivate safe work practices throughout the program

Additional Resources

• The surveillance study from which these data were extracted is: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4309/htm (see table 4)
• Surveillance of Agricultural Injuries and Fatalities web page: http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/gpcah/center-projects/surveillance-of-agricultural-injuries-and-fatalities/
• Trends in non-fatal agricultural injuries requiring trauma care: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4669366/
• Characteristics of Fatal Agricultural Injuries by Production Type: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27024994
• Surveillance Project, including injury maps and reports: http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/gpcah/center-projects/surveillance-of-agricultural-injuries-and-fatalities/
• Characteristics of Work- and Non-work-Related Farm Injuries: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jrh.12121/full

There are some operations on the farm that generate hazardous gases in high concentrations, and some of these exposures have caused farmers and family members to die.  Simple, low-cost gas monitors are available to identify these unknown hazards and save a life.  This poster highlights how to select, maintain, and use these monitors and summarizes what the concentrations mean.

How to Use in Class

• Incorporate into livestock operation discussions
• Incorporate into discussions on grain bin storage
• Show when discussing emergency planning and response

Additional Resources

• Manure gas safety resources are compiled at: https://gpcah.public-health.uiowa.edu/outreach-2/topics/2-0/
• Study on performance of low-cost sensors (full access to all) is at: https://anthony.lab.uiowa.edu/research-projects/other-projects

Many farming operations generate concentrations of dusts (“particles”) or gases that indicate respiratory protection should be worn.  Any time you put on a respirator, you want to make sure it is sealed – otherwise, it is not preventing hazardous gases and particles from entering your lungs.  The best way to make sure the respirator is sealed is to perform a seal check EVERY TIME you put a respirator on.  This poster identifies the simple procedure to follow every time you put on a respirator.  It shows how to do this with the filtering facepiece respirator (the “N95”) and with an elastomeric respirator.

While we may have safely extracted vehicles stuck in the mud before, there is a chance that the next time you might not be as “lucky”.  Some best practices include: making sure the tow vehicle is anticipating what would happen if things go wrong, selecting the right tow vehicle, ensuring chains/cables/straps and connectors (hooks, clips) are appropriately rated and connected securely.  When extracting, anticipate what would happen if things go wrong, and use information on this poster to guide you through steps and where to stand when connections are no longer slack.

Once the risk of hearing loss is understood, people need to understand when to protect their hearing.  When exposed to noise louder than 90 dB, hearing protection is needed.  This poster identifies typical sound levels of a variety of equipment and indicates the “Safe Time” that you can be in that noise for a given day.  Note that this presumes no noise exposures the rest of the workday.  Since this is not likely to happen, protection can help reduce personal exposures to noise.  This includes easily available hearing muffs and earplugs.

Farm workers suffer from impaired communication, reduced self-esteem, and disrupted intimacy, a result of noise-induced hearing loss. Most also experience tinnitus, a constant ringing or buzzing in the ears. Farm workers are exposed to excessive noise from: tractors, dryers, silage blowers, mowers, livestock, and chain saws, to name a few.  Exact numbers are hard to pin down, but studies in 2000 estimate that 72% of farmers have hearing loss. Since hearing loss gradually develops over a working lifetime, early prevention will have great payoffs later in life.  This poster explains how future hearing loss may affect common activities.  The right side uses disappearing words to visually illustrate how changing of hearing loss affects the ability to communicate as the disease progresses.

As you know, there are many ways to get hurt on the farm.  While you probably have stories about friends and family who have been injured, we have been looking across the Great Plains region to identify the big picture of farmer injuries.

Data from emergency room records and farmer fatality cases have been used to understand risk factors:  How do farmers get hurt?

Farmers work outdoors and, by default, are at risk of developing skin cancer from ultraviolet light. Understanding the risk is important to motivate farmers to take simple precautionary actions. 

To protect farmers, discussions on how to prevent injuries on tractors is needed.  The top five types of injuries identified as significant when evaluating databases of fatal and non-fatal injuries are identified.  Specific recommendations to prevent falls, collisions, and entanglement in machines are identified.  Specific recommendations to both prevent rollovers and to reduce the injuries if a rollover occurs are included.

Crashes between farm and public vehicles on roadways pose a serious danger to farmers.  This poster is intended to serve as reminders for those driving tractors on roadways but is also useful to have a conversation with other drivers during planting and harvesting seasons.

How to Use in Class

• Review when discussing tractor operation and safety
• Review prior to planting and harvesting seasons

Additional Resources

• Lighting and marking study: http://oem.bmj.com/content/73/9/621
• Surveillance of agricultural injuries: http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/gpcah/center-projects/surveillance-of-agricultural-injuries-and-fatalities/
• Lighting and marking recommendations are summarized in this press release: https://now.uiowa.edu/2016/10/more-stringent-state-policies-lighting-could-reduce-farm-vehicle-traffic-accidents-more-half
• See a round up of media articles on vehicle crashes with tractors: http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/news-items/ui-study-more-lighting-on-farm-vehicles-would-reduce-number-of-crashes/

More Midwest farmers are injured on tractors than by any other hazard on the farm.  Tractor rollovers cause 33% of all farmer fatalities, highlighting the importance of using rollover protection.  However, we recommend understanding that many other types of non-fatal injuries occur when working on and around tractors.

Farmers report musculoskeletal pain, even more so than other industries.  Farmers report pain in the back, shoulder, arm, hand, and legs throughout their working years.  A significant risk factor to back pain is exposure to whole body vibration (WBV).  This poster identifies what WBV is, known health effects, and prevention recommendations. Exposures to WBV can exceed 8-hour recommended limits in as short as 2 hours, depending on the type and age of vehicle being driven.  Vibration is lower when pulling a combine, which is heavy and reduces vibration.  Farmers operating small vehicles (skid steer loaders) and older vehicles have increased risk of developing back pain.  We have also identified that while new tractors have improved vibration control seats, running these at faster speeds may result in the same vibration exposures as running older tractors at slower speeds.  How you operate your equipment affects your risk of exposure to WBV and your risk of developing back pain.

How to Use in Class

• Discuss how maintaining equipment helps not only good farming but can lead to improved health
• In driving instruction classes, talk about the trade-off of speed and whole body vibration

Additional Resources

• Musculoskeletal pain among Midwest farmers and associations with agricultural activities: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25345841
• Information on the study:  http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/gpcah/center-projects/musculoskeletal-symptoms-among-farmers/