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For you city boys, bet you never thought of this. Messing around in grain bins is dangerous.



Man rescued from South Dakota grain bin

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - A man is recovering after getting trapped in a grain bin near Pierre. KCCR Radio reports the man became trapped in the east of Pierre on Friday afternoon. Pierre Fire Chief Ian Paul says firefighters arrived to find local residents already had a rope around the man so he wouldn't sink any further. Firefighters tried to build a wall around the man and scoop out the grain inside the wall and cut holes in the bin to let grain escape. The man suffered non-life threatening injuries. Dakota News - KSFY

He was lucky. Lots of grain bins in my area. I have 13 on one farm. I've known one farmer and one farm hand who have died in grain bins. They can be extremely dangerous. Your pucker factor had better go way up if you have to get inside one with rice, beans, or corn. Serious business.

They always scared the crap out of me when I was a kid. I was always the one that had to go in for some reason. Funny how that worked.

hotsoup;
Good evening to you sir, I hope that this finds you and yours well.

It's interesting to read about rice, beans and corn being dangerous as we didn't raise rice or corn where we were as it was too far north and there wasn't enough heat to grow them. My elder brother is still on the farm and is now growing some soybeans as they've developed a strain that'll grow.

Anyway we had one bin that was 33,000 bushels and then 6 of them in a row that were 11,000 bushels with a leg grain handling system. All that to say I've spent a fair bit of time in bins - after I'd helped build them!

Going off of faulty memory, one never ever went into a flax bin as you just sank to the bottom. Canola was iffy too I want to say, though I don't think that barley, wheat or oats were too, too bad.

Here in the Okanagan where we've made our home since leaving the prairies 3 dozen years ago, the guys have to be careful around the wine tanks since there's no oxygen in them and if one goes in for whatever reason it'll be the last time. Had a winemaker die a decade back and then his friend died trying to get him out after that.

Agriculture has never been a safe occupation somehow regardless of the geography.

Thanks for the information and all the best to you folks as we head into spring.

Dwayne

Apparently you were expendable.

kwg

Dwayne, you are correct.

Flax is a killer.

My granddad would use boards on top of the flax so he could move around some.

It was dangerous.

Yep! It was a fun-filled childhood.

Jesus walked on water...

Jim;
Good evening to you sir, I trust that this finds you and your fine family well - though I recall reading you're somewhat under the weather Jim so hope you're improving.

Thanks kindly for confirming my memory.

Somehow I'm not recalling everything from 3 dozen years ago with the same clarity I once did - or at least I think I once did Jim....

Getting old isn't what it's cracked up to be and all that.

Funny there were so very many things that were dangerous on the farms in the '60's and '70's that it's amazing more of us didn't die. I do recall a few did however.

That said Jim, when I moved out here I started helping a rancher buddy do spring branding as well as some other occasional cow work and I'd now opine that working with stock it's not if one is going to get injured, but when and how badly...

Thanks again sir, get better and all the best as calving season comes on.

Dwayne

I know for a fact that it is hard to tread wheat.

When living in Houston that type of thing happened around the ship channel.

so that folklore about strapping a 2x4 across a guy’s ass ain’t bunk? The idea came from somewhere.

It be like quick sand!

a friends dad died like that.

We played in granaries when we were kids. You could kind of swim in wheat. Just one of the dumb thing kids will do. Digging tunnels, swimming in swift water, trying to use a blanket as a parachute and jumping off the barn. I reckon video games are safer. GD

Farmer down the road here in New Jersey died when his truck filled with corn ran a stop sign,hit another vehicle and flipped over covering him in corn!

All you have to do is put a seed in the ground and you are a farmer. Got this knowledge from a famous idiot. Flax is scary. Ed k

No. You have to cover it with dirt and pee on it!

And then ya get paid and get the girls and the 4 wheel drive

Shoveling silage in the winter when it would freeze in the silo killed a lot of dairy farmers too

I was perusing a grain / feed trade rag last month, and they listed deaths by suffocation in grain bins on farms at about 18 per year. It's not rare.