In July, a 55-year-old man working for Premier Cooperative in Sidney, Ill., suffocated and died after becoming trapped in a grain bin filled with corn. His death marked the first grain-bin fatality for Illinois this year, but with expected large crop yields coming, more farmers may be at risk.
The deadliest year for grain-bin workers on record was 2010, when at least 26 workers died throughout the country, according to grain-bin entrapment data from Purdue University. There were more than 50 total incidents that year. The frequency of accidents was so alarming that the Occupational Safety
Each day, more than 200 agriculture workers suffer an injury severe enough to miss work, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Many farm laborers die because of injuries they received while working. Here's a look at 800 fatalities in Illinois between 1986 and 2012.
Encouraged by a strong farm economy and healthy business tax breaks, Farmers are buying new machinery and equipment that can run anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000. And some of the new equipment -- powered by GPS and sensors that can even detect moisture in a crop -- practically run on auto-pilot.
Farm equipment sales are booming, currently running about $20 billion annually. Surprisingly, some of the hottest-selling pieces of machinery aren't new. Used-farm equipment is becoming more desirable to some farmers, who don't want to have to run their machines with laptops.
On Sept. 17, 2013, Danville firefighters spent the day training for grain-bin rescues. Dave Newcomb, the agriculture rescue program manager for the Illinois Fire Service Institute, taught the intensive, eight-hour training course. The course included sessions on using grain-bin rescue tubes, sawing
As harvest season approaches, rescue workers prepare themselves for the possibility of grain-bin entrapments. On Sept. 17, 2013, the Illinois Fire Service Institute and the Danville Fire Department met at a Bunge Milling facility for grain-bin rescue training. Dave Newcomb, agriculture rescue progra
A new report by The Center for Investigative Reporting found that hundreds of female agricultural workers have complained to the federal government about being raped and assaulted, verbally and physically harassed on the job, while law enforcement has done almost nothing to prosecute potential crime
The immigration bill that the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee took up Thursday includes a provision for farmworkers that shortens their waiting period for legal residency.
