Aug. 27—JAMESTOWN — It's been a busy first year for Angie Johnson in her new role as farm and ranch safety coordinator for NDSU Extension.

"It's been an exciting adventure, really trying to navigate the waters and figure out, you know, what are the needs out there," she said. "What types of incidences, injuries are happening on our farms and ranches in North Dakota, in the Upper Midwest. And based on what's happening, what is the best way to help with prevention, education and intervention."

Getting a better understanding of what is happening has been her first priority, and Johnson said she's doing research on that.

"Because the true reality is, is that farm-related injuries, incidences and fatalities, there is no federal or national reporting system when those incidences occur," she said.

Johnson said media sources have been the best way for people in her role and others to determine what is happening. A farm accident may result in media coverage, and that coverage is one way university researchers have been trying to keep track. But not all farm and ranch-related incidences, injuries and fatalities make the news.

Last year, at least five farm-related fatalities were reported in North Dakota, according to AgInjuryNews.org, one source for information on fatalities that was created by the National Farm Medicine Center and is based out of the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute.

Three of the five 2021 fatalities occurred in the Jamestown area — near Jamestown, Gackle and Wimbledon. The other two occurred near Huff and Strasburg. This year, at least two farm fatalities have been reported at Devils Lake and Lisbon.

Johnson said she is trying to work with different emergency care services and trauma care services to learn more about what kind of injuries those groups are seeing and the demographics of those being injured. She wants to figure out how to develop programs and training curriculums to hone in on specific types of farm-related incidents.

Johnson said she doesn't have specific numbers on incidences because the research is really early. But she said some trends are emerging.

"... we hear a lot about grain bin entrapment, individuals becoming engulfed inside a grain bin and ultimately worst-case scenario passing away from that type of injury or that type of incident," Johnson said. "But ... grain engulfments are just one piece of the puzzle. We're actually seeing a lot more slips, trips and falls when it comes to grain bin handling equipment and climbing just to go to the top of the grain bin to open the lid. And so that was a really big eye-opener."

Another trend is weather, Johnson said. Purdue University releases an annual report on agricultural injuries within confined spaces and in recent years, North Dakota ranked second in grain bin confined space incidences (fatalities or injuries), she said.

"The trend to that really correlated well to what we saw with our weather pattern that fall and that spring," she said. "Because we were really, really wet. We had a wet harvest. There were grains that were probably getting harvested at a high moisture content and if those grains didn't get dried down properly and were put into storage at a high moisture, that's when you start developing a recipe for disaster within that bin is when that grain becomes out of commission."

They saw more people entering the bin to break up crusting or chunking that may have occurred inside, preventing grain flow.

"It's really trying to find what are the conditions, what are the pieces, those conditions, that lead to those types of incidences and how can we help growers really take time to slow down and put a plan in place," Johnson said.

Johnson travels in her job and says she thinks of road construction and those orange traffic signs in construction zone areas telling traffic to slow down and use caution. Farmers need to do the same, even if they don't have those orange signs to remind them.

Johnson is herself a farmer and notes that there's a lot on farmers' minds.

"There's so much going through your mind that you may not take the time to really see those orange slow-down signs when it comes to farming," she said.

She said some people set unrealistic expectations and may be pushing themselves too hard.

It's important for farmers to give themselves time for breakdowns, to eat healthy and to get adequate sleep, she said.

"That's when accidents really happen is when we don't get enough sleep, we don't take time to eat healthy food, typically we reach for really poor quality, high-calorie, high-sugar foods that don't fill us up really well," she said. "And when we do that, we're tired, and when we're tired and stressed some of our rational thinking kind of gets pushed to the side and again, that's when bad situations can happen."

While a farm/ranch operation with more than 10 employees must comply with OSHA regulations and standards, that isn't the case with an operation with fewer than 10 employees. But Johnson says OSHA standards are not there just for operations of more than 10 people.

"Those safety guidelines that they have, they're for everyone," she said. "At the end of the day, the goal is to keep people safe, provide a safe working environment and really showcase how much those operators care for their employees."

She said implementing some of those practices can prevent a lot of incidences or injuries from occurring at the workplace.

"Safety doesn't have to be complex," she said. " ... There are so many awesome resources out there and that's part of my job, too, is how can I help you prevent injuries."

She said a lot of her work revolves around mental health as well.

"If you're struggling in any way, shape or form, we can help you get access to resources that are going to be able to take a look at what's going on and talk through it," Johnson said. "That's the beauty of NDSU Extension, is producers have resources literally right in their backyard with our county-based extension agents."

She said she talks about farm safety, stress and mental health in terms of resiliency. People sometimes think they are weak if they have to ask for help.

"And I think that's far beyond the true meaning of where we're at with farm stress," she said. "I think of reaching out and having the strength to say 'You know what, I'm just struggling right now.'"

Farming and ranching is "an extremely risky business," she said. "The amount of overhead costs, just look at the cost of inputs this year. We have growers that are taking out multi-million dollar operating loans just to be able to put a crop in the ground. Think about that. And then pretty soon you have a hail storm come through or you have a disease outbreak come through. If you aren't stressed out about that, I would be more worried about you."

Johnson said people handle farm safety and their farm stress in a little bit different way, so it's a matter of focusing on those coping skills.

"What may work well for you may not for others. Same with safety," she said. "If we can help you establish a plan and really get you to slow down, and stop first, think through your plan, then execute, then take action on it. And if we can do that in those three steps, we can really do a better job mitigating our risk."

She said there's no way to eliminate the risk entirely on the farm or ranch and each farm is different.

"I think it takes a blended approach in terms of how do we think about the risks that we take on the farm and what tools we can use to do the best we can," she said.