Somebody will die this harvest season.

Tuesday, September 28, 1999

Somebody will die this harvest season.

Somebody else will suffer a crippling injury.

Some others will have near misses.

There is no more exciting time of the year in agriculture than harvest and it’s just getting under way all around us.

From dawn until dark and even into the night, farmers will harvest corn, soybeans and other crops from their fields.

The corn and bean fields are ready. The rich golden-brown color of the plants signals it’s time to start up the combine.

Grain wagons will be over-flowing in the fields along side combines and pulled by tractors to storage bins or elevators.

Grain trucks will also park in fields to collect the harvest and take it directly to the Mississippi River and waiting grain barges.

Slow moving vehicle signs will be reflected in headlights after dark, while the bright lights of combines push through fields beneath the harvest moon.

Pickup trucks will race to town for parts when machinery breaks down.

Farmers will eat on the run and return home to sleep long after the children are in bed and awake long before anyone else in the morning.

Farming is the second most dangerous profession, according to the National Safety Council, with a rate of more than 22 deaths per 100,000 workers. Tractor overturns are the most common farming mishap, but danger lurks everywhere in agriculture and it is intensified at harvest when, it seems, everyone is moving at double-time and carelessness threatens to take over for common sense.

The message is simple: Be careful out there, American farmers. We need you. In fact, the world needs you.

Don’t leave an empty space at the dinner table this or any harvest season.