No Substitute for Safety

Each and everyday farm families put their lives on the line in order to help do their part to not only make their operations flow and prosper but to make sure they do their part to help feed the world. People see cattle in pastures and crop being hauled to town, but what they don’t always see what flies into the day to day operations.

I pray every night for the health, happiness and safety of my husband and children. On average 33,000 children are injured in agriculture related accidents each year and about 113 are fatal. I do not want my children {or yours} to be a statistic. The number one thing we preach is safety. Our kids start working on our operation at a very young age, they learn to run ATVs, tractors, skid steers, vehicles; they ride horses and are in barns and pens with cows and calves; they use all sorts of tools and have more responsibilities than most. Regardless of what job they have, both Bill and I teach them how to do it safely. It takes time and patience to teach them to do things safely, it’s riding with them, it’s showing them hand over hand many times how to figure out things so they know how to eventually do it themselves.

But, even with all the preaching and teaching accidents can and will happen, we also teach them to be prepared and what to do if things happen. Our kids have phones with GPS, I know too many they seem young, but when you send a 9 year old to a pasture 9 miles away on a 4 wheeler you understand why they need one. When your husband is crawling up grain bins, you worry, when it’s blizzarding and your kids and husband are out keeping calves alive you worry, I would be lying if I said every time my kids leave the house I don’t worry, but I have to trust in God and what we’ve taught them to be as safe as they can be every time they are helping in the operation!  

Stay safe~

-Darci-