03-04-2025
In Muscatine, kids learn to avoid fire, animal, chemical dangers on farms
Sixth graders in Muscatine got an opportunity to learn about agricultural safety on Wednesday. Kids split into groups and went through several stations where they learned about chemical safety, fire safety, hand safety, electrical safety, animal safety, and more. This was the 11th annual Ag Safety Day at the Muscatine Ag Learning Center and around 400 kids attended.
According to the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, agriculture is one of the most dangerous professions in the United States. Proper safety training can help farmers to avoid serious or fatal accidents and use chemical pesticides and fertilizers safely for themselves and others.
Between 2021 and 2022 there were 21,020 injuries in agricultural production requiring those injured to take days away from work. Fatal injury rates of agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting industry were 18.6 deaths per 100,000 full time workers according to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC.) The leading cause of death for the farmers was transportation incidents. Others leading causes of fatalities were violence by a person or animal and contact with objects and equipment.
Students learned about safe practices when handling different animals such as cows, horses, goats, and sheep.
Many of the stations went beyond the farm and taught kids about handling situations that may come up in everyday life. The fire safety lessons are something that kids will be able to take with them wherever they go.
Students got to practice using a fire extinguisher on a real fire so that they have experience in case of an emergency.
They also ran a fire safety drill in a mobile simulator so that they can be prepared to escape through a window in case of fire.
Vehicle safety was also highlighted with a car crash simulation. Students also practiced pulling a rope out of a grain bin.
Roger Gibson, the Muscatine site manager at Bayer, which helped to put on the event, told Our Quad Cities News that learning early can help prevent a lot of accidents.
'Learn about safety young because it's easy on a farm to be taking shortcuts and if you don't have that message of safety then it's easy to go down the wrong path and get hurt,' he said. 'Safety can easily be overlooked. I grew up on a farm and knew a lot of farmers who got injured over the years, and a lot of our other employees grew up on farms. So emphasizing the importance of safety is something we can do for the farming community.'
The Muscatine Ag Learning Center is a facility that allows kids to participate in farm related activities. The facility helps Muscatine's FFA chapter to thrive.
Muscatine Future Farmers of America (FFA) Chapter President Elsie Lewis says the safety lessons go beyond the farm.
'Safety is very important. Even just being in the house you don't have to be operating large equipment,' she said. 'Students will learn that certain gases can be dangerous to their house and can catch on fire. Our fire house is very important in case of emergency for a fire, you never know when one may spark up, so students learn how to exit a window safely and properly.'
About Bayer and its products
Bayer is a German pharmaceutical and biomedical company that produces agricultural chemicals and seeds. It produces fungicides, herbicides, and insecticides to help with the growth of crops. Among these is Roundup, for which the company is currently under scrutiny in Iowa after legislation was introduced that some say could shield the company from lawsuits related to the cancer risk of the product.
To learn about agriculture safety from the
CDC, click here.
NIFA, click here.
To learn about the Muscatine Ag Learning Center, click here.
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