HAMILTON, Ohio – After being postponed due to the recent rains, Butler County Farm Bureau finally had beautiful weather for its Farm Safety Day at the Butler County Sportsman’s Club.

The free event had members from the Milford Township and Reilly Volunteer Fire Departments giving demonstrations on grain bin and large animal rescues. There were safety insights from Apple Farm Service, Zimmer Tractor and Koenig, and skin cancer imaging and a Versiti Blood Drive with Ohio State University Extension.

Jackie Wesselman, a Butler County Farm Bureau board member and a volunteer with Reily Volunteer Fire Department, worked on putting the event together with her dad, Roy Wesselman, a past farm bureau board member and now retired from the Reily Fire Department.

“With our history of farming, and then with him being retired from the fire department, and me actively running with the fire department, we have seen all sides of it,” Jackie said. “It is something that came from our hearts. The trainings we have been involved in, the accidents we have seen. We want to bring awareness.”

There is an increasing number of hobby farms, Wesselman said. People get some property and buy equipment. They don’t necessarily know how to operate it properly and safely.

“Our biggest thing is awareness,” Wesselman said. “Just be aware of your surroundings, especially when working with anything agricultural. So many accidents happen when you are just standing around talking; you slip, you hit something, and it goes south. We want to make sure people are aware of what they’re doing and also of the resources available.”

In a demonstration of a grain bin rescue, Logan Goins played the victim while Kyle Goins and Logan Bretz installed metal panels around him. In a real-life situation, they would then auger the corn away from the victim and lift him or her out. People questioned why they were prodding in the grain with poles.

“They are prodding with poles to see where his legs are,” said Shawn Gallagher, a captain with Milford Township. “In a true situation, they would be putting the metal circle all the way around him, but they wouldn’t want to put the metal in and force it down and hit his legs.”

In 2004, volunteers with the Reily Township Fire Department who are farmers saw the need for a large animal rescue unit. They held fundraisers and also received several grants to purchase specialized equipment for animal rescue, which they were demonstrating with a model horse attached to their tripod rescue system.

They have the only large animal rescue unit in Butler County and provide mutual aid to the entire county, said David Moore, a Reily volunteer. They answer calls within 25 miles of the township.

“This is our large animal rescue tripod system that we use to get large animals that are down in fields or if they’re sick and they need some assistance getting up,” he explained. “This machine can lift roughly 10,000 pounds.

“We answer roughly 20 calls a year,” Moore said. “We’ve had cows in ponds, cows that just fall in a ditch; we’ve had horses that find sinkholes on farms. Every time we go out is different.”

The large animal rescue truck is supported by donations, said Jack Dwiggins, also a Reily volunteer.

“There is no billing for rescue calls,” he said. “If people want to, they can make a donation to the fire department. Everything has been donated, or we have made it. We made our own air spikes to use if cows are stuck in the mud.”

Barbie Casey-Booth, farm bureau president, demonstrated toy-sized grain bins, a silo, and a semi-truck with miniature people inside.

“This is so you can see what it looks like if someone crawled into the top of the grain bin. We also have a silo and a semi-truck so that folks can visually see what is going to happen if you crawl into something filled with grain.”

The display was developed by Russ Beckner when he was on farm bureau’s board, Casey-Booth said. It won a national award for farm safety.

Visitors, many with kids in tow, leisurely visited the other booths, including OSU Extension’s exhibit, where JT Benitez, OSU educator for agriculture and natural resources, answered questions about tractor safety, farm safety in general, and about the new species of ticks tormenting Butler and other counties.