Stations during the Miami East-MVCTC FFA Farm Safety Day included grain, tractor, small equipment, animal, roadway, and chemical safety. Leaders of the grain safety station were (L to R) Sydney Brittain, Jayden Gates, and Katelynn Dill.
Provided photo
For the Miami Valley Today
CASSTOWN — Approximately 100 second graders at Miami East Elementary learned the importance of proper farm safety from the members of the Miami East-MVCTC FFA Chapter. On Tuesday, Sept. 28, in the afternoon, the third- and fourth-year students hosted the elementary students to an afternoon of stressing the importance of following good safety on the farm. The day was in awareness of the National Farm Safety and Health Week.
During the day, students in Tami Mumford, Ashley Demmitt, Amanda Riley, and Patty Gentis’s classes learned about four aspects of farm safety. The FFA members taught stations about ATV/ lawn mower and equipment safety, grain safety, chemical safety, animal safety, large farm equipment safety, and hand signals used on the farm.
The FFA members teaching Grain Safety station shared that in less than five seconds a child playing in a hopper wagon, used to move grain, will be swallowed by the corn or soybeans and will be unable to call for help or be removed from the hopper wagon. The high school students then followed it up with having the students remove a wooden disc at the bottom of a rope in a barrel full of 150 pounds of corn. Students were unable to remove the disc. This stressed the fact that the weight of the corn makes it virtually impossible to rescue a person in a wagon or silo that is full of grain.
The FFA would like to thank Miami Valley Feed and Grain for the use of grain, the Miami County Farm Bureau and Miami East Farmers Matthew Osting and Craig Hughes for the use of equipment. The Miami East FFA will now follow up with the day’s events by sponsoring a Farm Safety Poster Contest for all second graders at Miami East.
