Syngenta Thrive - 4Q/2013 - 26

KNOW-HOW

Mission Possible
Awareness, training and clear safety
procedures are key to avoiding
grain bin entrapment.

griculture is one of America’s most dangerous professions. Major contributors to that grim reality are deaths
and injuries in grain bins. Inside a storage bin, ﬂowing grain
can engulf a grown man in just 20 seconds. That fact alone
helps explain why every year, people are hurt—and some
killed—in grain bin accidents. Grain bin parts (the auger, fans
and grain vacuums) can also cause injury and death.
Accidents in grain bins are especially challenging, because
reaching the victim is difﬁcult for rescuers. The average
rescue time is more than three hours.
“When you enter a bin, there are huge potential consequences,” says Wayne Stigge, technical trainer for CHS,
County Operations Division, in Pasco, Wash. An awareness
of the dangers is a ﬁrst important step toward preventing
grain bin accidents.
Understanding Grain
The events of 2010—with 51 grain bin accidents, the
worst year on record—created greater awareness of the
dangers grain bins can pose. Grain condition contributed
to the numbers: It was a wet year, and crops had high
moisture content. Managing grain condition, Stigge says,
can lower the risk of grain bin problems because dry grain
ﬂows better. “If we can control grain quality, that can help
us,” he says.
Understanding grain properties is also important.
“People think they’ll go in, get something loose and then get
back out,” Stigge adds. “But once grain starts ﬂowing, it’s
so hard to get out of the bin.”
An employee at Heartland Co-op in West Des Moines,
Iowa, experienced the danger of ﬂowing grain ﬁrsthand
when he was trapped two years ago, and co-workers had
to rescue him. “A gentleman got into a situation and was
buried to his waist,” says Bill Chizek, Heartland’s director of
safety and compliance. “Fortunately, our people were able
to get him out.”
Chizek trains Heartland’s employees once or twice a
year on grain bin rescue procedures, and they’ve started
grain quality initiatives to minimize potential problems.
Taking Additional Precautions
Heartland has taken other steps, too. “We’ve upgraded
a lot of sweep augers so we don’t have to be in the bins
to get them to work,” Chizek says. “And we have a new
vacuum system that we use to get all the grain out.”

Grain is transferred from a
grain bin to a waiting semi
in Genessee, Idaho.

24 | thrive

>>>> 4Q 2013

PHOTO: DEAN DAVIS

Syngenta Thrive - 4Q/2013

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