I hope you and yours were able to have a nice Thanksgiving break. Many people aren’t afforded that luxury because of work or other circumstances, so thoughts go out to them during the holidays. Due to an incident that recently happened on a local turkey farm near Waverly, the loved ones of Mr. Joaquin Danilo Mina Munoz are grieving his death. Sympathies are definitely extended to his loved ones.

Although original reports of being “sucked into grain while working with a running auger” were incorrect, Mr. Munoz did apparently die “when his clothing got tangled on the auger blade shaft” of a grain truck, according to the tragic story.

That incident got me to thinking about safety in agriculture. Now that the corn and soybean harvests are done, some folks breathe a big sigh of relief, but they shouldn’t be lax when it comes to safety.

Unfortunately, farming is one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet. And, as firm partner Todd Bennett wrote in a previous blog post, workers’ compensation is complicated in Nebraska when it comes to ag and farming operations. In fact, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) only covers a part of the nation’s grain-handling facilities, according to a recent in-depth story in the Lincoln Journal Star. That is why safety in grain handling and in agriculture in general is so important.

In addition, OSHA recently cited Double Dutch Dairy in Shelby, Neb., for four serious violations and proposed fines of $22,500 for an incident on June 17 where a worker was “fatally injured by a front-end loader,” according to the news release in the link. The Wisconsin-based dairy was cited “after an inspection found that the driver’s view was obstructed,” when the driver struck the worker.

Now that the busy harvest season is done and the busy-in-a-different-way holiday season is upon us, I urge all workers, but especially those in agriculture, to review their safety practices and take care so all can have the luxury of spending a little bit of time with their loved ones over the upcoming holidays.