This May, we’ve been talking with pilot grant recipients about their projects to support farmers’ mental health.  For today’s episode, I sat down and spoke with Yanni Liang about her 2020 pilot grant, "Examining the role of agricultural cooperatives in protecting farmers’ mental health".  Yanni said the goal of her project was to understand what resources are available that already exist in communities that can potentially help farmers mitigate stress.  Academic pilot grants are awarded to students, staff, and faculty at academic institutions to create new agricultural safety and health knowledge or assess best safety and health practices to prevent illness and injury resulting from agricultural work exposures.  We have compiled mental health resources for our listeners.  If you, your friends, family, neighbors, or customers are experiencing stress, check out the links provided in the episode resources section of our website.  These links provide farmer-specific and state-specific mental health and crisis resources.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and today we are joined by Meg Moynihan from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and Don Wick, host of the Transfarmation podcast, to talk about their project called Airing Out Farm Stress.  They received a pilot grant from the Great Plains Center for their project, which aimed to tackle the silence around how the stresses inherent in agricultural production can affect the mental, physical, and emotional well-being of agricultural workers. What started out as 60-second radio segments turned into a successful podcast, Transfarmation, which covers in-depth mental health topics by sharing farmers’ stories.  “Here, you are hearing stories of people like you, other farmers who are talking about really difficult situations that they had to go through, but they came out the other side.”  Episode resources can be found on our website: https://gpcah.public-health.uiowa.edu/farmsafe/

The Great Plains Center funds pilot projects that promote innovative outreach and research efforts to prevent agricultural injury and illness.  In this episode we talk with Dr. David Brown, the behavioral health state specialist at Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, about his pilot project that provided suicide prevention trainings for over 4300 producers and landowners in Iowa.  This is the first episode where we talk to pilot grant recipients about their projects, what they did, and how they got the ideas for them.  "We knew that farmers and producers had a lot higher rate of suicide than the general population.  We also knew that they had a lot higher rate of depression and anxiety than the general population, and so we felt it was important to get out and to start the conversation about suicide prevention in the agricultural community."  Episode resources are available on the GPCAH FarmSafe page.  Information about pilot grant opportunities can be found on the GPCAH Pilot Grant page. 

In this episode  we are talking about Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), also known as “bird flu”.  It is a highly contagious disease that is currently circulating in the United States among birds.  As of April 5, 2022, there have been no reported human cases.  According to the CDC, these avian flu viruses spread naturally among wild aquatic birds and can infect domestic poultry.  It is highly contagious among birds and is often fatal to chickens and turkeys.  We talk with Renee Anthony and Matt Nonnenmann from the University of Iowa about what poultry farmers can do to protect themselves from the virus and other hazards they might be exposed to while culling flocks or decontaminating farms and vehicles.  "I think we need to look at the whole continuum of exposures that operators may have during this outbreak."  Resources including links to the PPE Guide for Avian Influenza can be found on the GPCAH website.

This episode is part of our "Research Spotlight" series, where we talk about recent research in the field of agricultural safety and health.  Research can help identify hazards, understand outcomes, and determine if interventions are helpful in reducing injuries and illnesses.  In this episode, we hear from Matt McFalls and Dr. Marizen Ramirez from the University of Minnesota, who recently published a paper titled “Farm vehicle crashes on public roads: Analysis of farm-level factors”.  We discuss their study examining risk factors for rural roadway crashes and why research is important to gather information we can use to develop prevention programs.  A link to the paper is included in the episode resources of our website.  

In this episode we talk to Dan Neenan, director of the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety about anhydrous ammonia.  Dan has worked as a firefighter and paramedic responding to anhydrous ammonia releases.  "I've been a paramedic coming up on 30 years now and I don't think I've seen anybody in more pain than a gentleman that I had that was sprayed in the face and in the eyes with anhydrous ammonia." Dan describes anhydrous ammonia and the PPE you need to wear when working with it.  He also talks about the increased presence of anhydrous tanks on the roads this time of year.  Episode resources are available on our website: https://gpcah.public-health.uiowa.edu/farmsafe/

In this episode we talk about grain engulfment and entrapment.  The speed and force of flowing or shifting grain can have deadly consequences for workers who enter grain bins or walk on outdoor grain piles.  We will be hearing stories from three guests today: a woman whose brother was rescued from a grain bin, an emergency responder who has been called for grain bin rescues, and a researcher who has been studying grain bin engulfment and will provide recommendations for keeping safe when working with grain. Episode resources are available at https://gpcah.public-health.uiowa.edu/farmsafe/

In this episode we wrap up our series on winter hazards and talk about things to include in cold weather safety trainings.  Our guest is Dr. Maristela Rovai, a veterinarian, assistant professor, and extension dairy specialist at South Dakota State University.  Dr. Rovai develops extension programs and assists dairy producers in training dairy workers.  Winter can be challenging for anyone who has to work in cold temperatures and it can be especially challenging for immigrant workers new to the Midwest climate.  Dr. Rovai shares tips on how to communicate winter hazards in cold weather trainings to protect workers at work and at home.  Resource links available at https://gpcah.public-health.uiowa.edu/farmsafe/

We continue our winter series by talking about falls on ice, a common hazard on the farm in the winter.  In this episode, an Iowa rancher shares a story about falling on ice and hitting her head and lists the things she always does now to try and prevent it from happening again.  We also talk to Kathy Lee, RN, MSN, who works for the trauma program at the University of Iowa Hospitals about health outcomes associated with falls and strategies for preventing falls on ice.   Episode resources are available at https://gpcah.public-health.uiowa.edu/farmsafe/

We kick off our winter series by talking about cold weather gear.  Agricultural workers have to work outside in the winter and here in the Midwest, staying safe and warm in the winter can be challenging.  Having the right kind of clothing and accessories for working outside in the winter can help prevent cold temperature-related health problems like frostbite and hypothermia.   In this episode, we talk about how to build a clothing system based on layering and what materials are best and worst for keeping you warm and dry.  Episode resources available at https://gpcah.public-health.uiowa.edu/farmsafe/